Tag: Learning

Waze for Smart Phones: The Wisdom of the Crowd for Driving

Waze provides “real-time maps and traffic information based on the wisdom of the crowd.”

Here are a few items of note from the Waze website. (Source)

  • At waze, our vision is to work in cooperation with drivers worldwide to create the world’s first live driving map, providing users with the real-time road intelligence they need for better everyday driving.
  • Waze is a social mobile application providing free turn-by-turn navigation based on the live conditions of the road. 100% powered by users, the more you drive, the better it gets. Join the community of drivers in your area today!
  • Waze is a social mobile application that enables drivers to build and use real-time road intelligence. The service includes constantly-updated road maps, alerts on traffic and accidents, and data providing users with the fastest route to get to wherever they need to go.

(Hat Tip to Wes Fryer for bringing Waze to my attention.)

Educational Uses

Waze could be integrated with geography, driver’s education, and social studies.

Data generated by Waze (collected from the live maps) could be used in math and science classrooms.

Please share additional educational uses in the comments.

Related Articles

Talking Ed.: Intro. to K-12 Online Learning

Talking Ed.: K-12 Online Learning

Talking Ed. with Dr. Michael Barbour

Episode 002 (View entire series)

Dr. Michael K. Barbour, Assistant Professor in Instructional Technology at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, provides a primer in virtual schooling and online learning. Much of his research focuses on rural K-12 students learning in virtual school environments, specifically how these virtual opportunities can be designed and delivered to be accessible to students with a range of abilities.

{ Video not available }

Connect with Michael

Suggested Reading: Clickers in Education

More Professors Give Out Hand-Held Devices to Monitor Students and Engage Them – The New York Times

Simple Technology, Profound Results – Cyberpop!

Using Clickers in the Classroom — Writing Effective Questions – Connexions

Designing Clicker Questions that Promote Classroom Discussion – Northern Arizona University e-Learning Center


Image Source: Dallas News.com

Education at the 2010 Creativity World Forum #cwf2010

I enjoyed the opening session, Creativity Fueling the 21st Century Global Economy. It was a conversation among Daniel Pink, Sir Ken Robinson, & David Pogue. These thought leaders shared their insights on the importance of creativity and innovation in driving both our individual and societal growth.

Event Tag: #cwf2010

At the Creativity World Forum

“The World’s leaders know the future is all about creation and innovation. We must work to transform our world through creative initiatives which lead to a more entrepreneurial and vibrant economy along with a better quality of life for its citizens. Through all these efforts we can: Work to prepare students for jobs that don’t yet exist…encourage innovation for technologies that haven’t been invented yet…in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet.” (Source)

“Anyone who wants to gather with innovate minds from around the world to gather and share ideas and best practices on commerce, culture, and education. Creativity isn’t just for “creatives” anymore. It’s the driving force behind our greatest ideas, our most comprehensive solutions and our most profitable enterprises.” (Source)
Conference Resources

Event Tag: #cwf2010

Lego Star Wars Mini-Movie: An Exercise in Retelling

This fun video would be an engaging way to kick-off a challenge to students in which they demonstrate their understanding of a book, play, poem, etc. Rather than simply summarizing the major events from their reading, they could be given the opportunity to retell the story from an original point of view. The following is a humorous retelling of Star Wars from Gungan the janitor’s point of view.

BarCamp Memphis

BarCamp Memphis, November 13, 2010

“BarCamp isn’t just a Web 2.0 conference. It’s an unconference.cWhat does that mean, exactly? Well… that’s up to you. The entire event will be crafted by attendees (you), so you can learn about the specific technologies, trends, gadgets you really want to learn about – and hear from the people you find interesting. We’ll be voting first thing in the morning to determine the day’s sessions. Totally crowd-sourced!” (Source)

Register here.

BarCamp Memphis 2010 will be at Emerge Memphis downtown. Located at 516 Tennessee Street in the historic South Main Street district of downtown Memphis, EmergeMemphis sits at the corner of Tennessee and G.E. Patterson (formerly Calhoun) Streets. The site is only two blocks west of the main Memphis train station and adjacent to the main gated entrance to the well-known South Bluffs residential area.

Emerge Memphis
516 Tennessee St
Memphis, TN 38103-4717
View Map

Event Tag: #bcmem

Shhh!!! The Students Are Learning: Being an Effective Classroom Facilitator

This my presentation for the 2010 K-12 Online Conference.

Description

Be a facilitator of learning rather than a deliverer of information. Develop strategies for managing a classroom where students can have a leadership role and the teacher becomes the classroom coach. Strategies for designing and practical tips for implementing units will be shared.

Discussion

  • Please share your experiences with designing and implementing facilitated learning activities and units.
  • What worked well and what would you do differently next time?
  • What advice can you share with teachers preparing to facilitate learning?

Additional Notes and Resources

Please visit the related page on my wiki, Learning Telecollaboratively. I invite you to add your suggested resources related to this topic over there.

Our Family’s Favorite App

I decided to share AudioBoo during my presentation at TeacheMeet Memphis. Our kids and I have a lot of fun with this service. AudioBoo makes podcasting and audio blogging a snap and can positively impact your classroom (See previous posts 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5). Here are my notes as well as the Ustream archive from my session. My full presentation notes are also available on my wiki, Learning Telecollaboratively.

Tutorials
Publishing to AudioBoo from a Web Browser
Creating an AudioBoo from iPhone

Teacher-Created Examples
2 Announcements
AudioBoo in the Classroom
More Examples

Student-Created Examples

First Day of Preschool


Kids Get Creative


Dear Mrs. Estep…

Let’s Connect
Clif’s AudioBoo Profile

Professional Development Meme 2010

I’m a big fan of goal setting. It can provide a road map for the short or long-term and can be an effective motivational strategy. I have set a few professional development goals for this summer and have challenged a few of my friends/colleagues to do the same thing. In 2008 I realized that I could set this up as a blog meme and hopefully encourage some of my online friends to achieve a few items from their To Do Lists. There are a myriad of ways to approach this, but I’ve opted to take the short-term, easy-to-assess approach, but I’ll leave some wiggle room for you to customize it to meet your needs. The official information is below.

Directions

Summer can be a great time for professional development. It is an opportunity to learn more about a topic, read a particular work or the works of a particular author, beef up an existing unit of instruction, advance one’s technical skills, work on that advanced degree or certification, pick up a new hobby, and finish many of the other items on our ever-growing To Do Lists. Let’s make Summer 2010 a time when we actually get to accomplish a few of those things and enjoy the thrill of marking them off our lists.

The Rules

NOTE: You do NOT have to wait to be tagged to participate in this meme.

  1. Pick 1-3 professional development goals and commit to achieving them this summer.
  2. For the purposes of this activity the end of summer will be Labor Day (09/06/2010).
  3. Post the above directions along with your 1-3 goals on your blog.
  4. Link back/trackback to https://www.clifmims.com/blog/archives/3669.
  5. Use the following tag/ keyword/ category on your post: pdmeme2010.
  6. Tag 5 or more bloggers to participate in the meme.
  7. Achieve your goals and “develop professionally.”
  8. Commit to sharing your results on your blog during early or mid-September.

My Goals

  1. Read at least 2 of the books on my book wish list.
  2. Implement idea for new blog feature.
  3. Submit at least 1 of the articles currently in progress for review.

I Tag…