Educational Technology

• GeoGebra is free mathematics software for learning and teaching for all levels. This award-winning software supports geometry, algebra, tables, graphing, statistics and calculus.
• While the topic of OER (Open Educational Resources) is new for some and not for others, it is moving into mainstream education technology conversations. Achieve.org has some useful tools for evaluating the OERs you might find at OER Commons. If you are interested in learning a little more about this topic, check out the recent article in THE Journal.
• David Thornburg is an interesting guy to listen to in person. My first exposure was listening to him talk about Campfires in Cyber Space oh so many years ago. It seems like he was talking learner centered education before many. This recent article in THE Journal finds him talking about “disruptive technology.” (See Disrupting Class by Christensen, Horn & Johnson.)
• Yet another perspective on the Khan Academy and its role in educational reform. My wonder is how do you see Khan Academy relating to TPACK (Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge)?

 

 

Ideas, algebra and downloads

Want to take an insider’s look at creativity at IDEO? IDEO is an “award-winning global design firm that takes a human-centered, design-based approach to helping organizations in the public and private sectors innovate and grow.” This short video shows the redesign of the shopping cart. At about 5:12 in the video, there is a statement about “enlightened trial and error.” How does that relate to our classrooms? Our lives? You might also want to check out this project learning article on Edutopia.

Even the title sounds great – Algebra Nation – a joint effort from the University of Florida and Study Edge to help Florida’s students prepare for the end-of-course Algebra 1 exam. From the sample videos I perused, it doesn’t seem like you have to be a student in Florida to benefit. This will be an app for students to use 24/7.

For those of you working with video, this link came this week and I wanted to make sure you could take advantage of the free downloads – 20 clips a day for 7 no 6 days – video clips, sound effects, looping backgrounds, music tracks, AE templates.