Kids demand next-generation learning [VIDEO]

by | Jul 25, 2012 | Learning and Teaching, Our Changing World, Tech Integration, Videos | 7 comments

There’s a grand tradition of using students in videos to advocate for changes in learning, teaching, and educational technology. See, for example, A Vision of Students Today and No Future Left Behind and I Need My Teachers to Learn and You Can’t Be My Teacher. Continuing the trend, here’s a video from Pearson called A Serious Talk: Kids Demand Next-Generation Learning. Happy viewing!

Aurasma: What could you do with augmented reality in your school? [VIDEO]

by | Jul 19, 2012 | Our Changing World, Tech Integration, Tech Tools, Videos | 5 comments

Last fall I demonstrated a couple of augmented reality (AR) apps to some of my workshop participants at the NESA Leadership Conference in Athens, Greece (yes, we were there during the riots). One of those apps was Aurasma, which allows you to connect digital content with real-world objects. No company-provided cardboard squares to lose, no special paper to print, no what-the-heck-are-these QR codes – just the ordinary objects around you. For example, imagine that you point your iPhone at a picture of a platypus and the Wikipedia platypus page pops up on your screen. Or imagine your students pointing their iPads at a drawing of a DNA helix on the walls of your science classroom and the Crazy Plant Shop genetics game launches. Or imagine a mother at your school’s Parent Night pointing her Android phone at her kid’s 3D clay sculpture and a video pops up of her daughter discussing her art. Or imagine a diabetic student pointing his smartphone at his school lunch and the nutrition menu appears, complete with carbohydrate counts. Or …

I think the ability to connect virtual content with real-world objects holds a lot of learning potential, particularly if we teach kids how to create their own real-world AR objects (and the background content to which those objects link). What ideas do you have for how AR – particularly AR linked to real-world objects – might be used for learning and informational purposes?

Oh, and for your viewing pleasure, here’s Matt Mills explaining in his TED talk how Aurasma works. Happy viewing!

Want students to be more creative and innovative? Give them the gift of time. [VIDEO]

by | Jul 12, 2012 | 21st Century Skills, Leadership and Vision, Learning and Teaching, Videos | 3 comments

I love this 2-minute video. Watch it and you will too!

If we want students and graduates who are more creative, innovative thinkers, we must find better ways to free them from the constraint of time. 

At the end, the video states Creativity is not inspired by the pressure of time but by the freedom, the playfulness, and the fun. Does that describe most secondary classrooms you know? I know many that fit that description, but not anywhere near enough. Too many pressures regarding content coverage and/or accountability…

Hat tip: George Couros

Nurture your kids’ passions, even if they’re making Pokemon game walkthrough videos

by | May 5, 2012 | Learning and Teaching, Videos, Youth and Media | 4 comments

I had a conversation with an Iowa parent the other day. In middle school her son started making voice-narrated Pokemon game walkthrough videos and posting them on YouTube. That’s exactly the kind of thing that most adults would look at and consider ‘a complete waste of time.’ He’s now 18 and has 70,000+ subscribers to his YouTube channel. His videos have been viewed nearly 54 million times. Some company’s now paying him enough money to make videos for it that he’s already pushing a six figure salary, which will easily pay for his upcoming college experience and then some.

All of this really speaks to nurturing kids’ passions, whatever they may be. You never know how they’ll turn out! Go Wooper!