Tag: Education

Ideas for Making and Tinkering at Home

This week we’re investigating maker education, tinkering, and coding in our educational technology courses. Translating all the hands-on experiences from our face-to-face class meetings into the online learning environment has been a fun challenge. Thankfully, we actually began preparing this module for the online environment in Summer 2019, so it has been a work in progress. A special thanks to colleague and EdTech Team member, Melissa Marshall, for helping develop the module.

I thought I’d share some of the resources that I put together. Perhaps these will give families ideas to spice up their days of quarantine. Please share your ideas and recommended resources in the comments, so that our preservice and in-service teachers can learn from you, too.

Slideshow of Examples

Browse through this slideshow to view examples that might spark inspiration for your next maker or tinkering project.

Possible Materials

Feel free to bookmark, save, or print the following document.

EVENT: Educating for the Future (University of Memphis)

The FedEx Institute of Technology at the University of Memphis and the International Council for Educational Media (ICEM) are co-hosting an event called Educating for the Future on Thursday, September 19 from 8:00am – 12:00pm. 

The presenters for this event are Mark West, Project Officer for UNESCO, and Hall Davidson, Senior Director of Global Learning Initiatives for Discovery Educational Media. Mark West will present guidelines for digital inclusion and share information regarding UNESCO’s new Future of Education Initiatives. Hall Davidson will discuss Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and Mixed Reality in the context of educational classrooms. 

Registration for this event is $20 and seating is limited. You can register by clicking here and you can view more information about this event by clicking here. 

@hollandkaylah

Tech Buddies: Building Technology Skills through Peer Teaching

Take a look at this innovative practice used at John Barry Elementary School in Meriden, CT.

Explore more of this district’s useful resources.

Benefits in Explaining One’s Math Thinking


"It’s hard to get kids in the habit of talking about how they are thinking about a problem when they’ve had many years of instruction that focused on getting the 'right answer.' That’s why educators are now trying to get students in the habit of explaining their thinking at a young age." — Source: Mind/Shift

Continue reading the full post for examples, tips, and classroom video footage.

Image Source: EdTechTeacher

Making Micro-Credentials Matter

Here’s another post about micro-credentials that I enjoyed reading. Here are a few highlights.

“Badges, certifications, skill identifiers–you’ve probably seen micro-credentials in one digital form or another. But how do we know whether they actually matter in the real world?” How can we “get micro-credentials to the point where they’re valued as evidence of what adults have learned and can do.”

Here are a few of their suggestions.

  1. Keep time and autonomy sacred
  2. Badging platforms need to talk to one another
  3. Micro-credentialing should target the process, not just the end

I recommend reading the full post as it tackles many of the tougher issues around micro-credentialing.

Source: EdSurge

21st Century Skills: It’s More Than Just Technology


“Given the growing ubiquity of [technology] in schools, as well as the increasing numbers of educators advocating for their use, it can seem as though education may have reached a tipping point when it comes to improving students’ 21st-century skills. According to the Partnership for 21st Century skills, these can be categorized as the 4Cs: Creativity, Critical Thinking, Communication, and Collaboration.” — Beth Holland

Beth goes on to share that she has started to worry about the growing presence of what she calls the Fake Cs.

Source: EdWeek

7 Characteristics of Teachers Who Effectively Use Technology

“…Using technology in the classroom – and using it effectively – might require some slight adjustments on the part of the teacher to sustain the effort, creative problem-solving, and innovation required to actually improve learning through the use of technology. This occurs at the belief level–what teachers believe about technology, education, and their own abilities to manage technology.

“Looking at the characteristics of teachers that effectively use technology in the classroom, then, can be useful to create an “edtech” mindset–one that believes in purpose, adaptation, change, and meaningful planning.” — TeachThought

Click here to view the infographic of these seven characteristics.