Robot Heart Stories is the first in a trilogy of experiential learning projects from award winning storytelling visionary and experience designer Lance Weiler and creative producer Janine Saunders. Each project will inspire young and old alike to co-create and share. The goal is to reboot how we think about learning in an effort to unleash a collaborative journey into the future of education. The trilogy focuses on air, land and sea in three unique participatory storytelling initiatives designed to develop creativity, digital literacy and collaborative problem solving skills.
In part one of the trilogy a robot has crash landed in Montreal and now must make her way to LA in order to find her space craft and return home. Two class rooms in underprivileged neighborhoods, one in Montreal (French speaking) and the other in LA (English speaking) engage in an experiential learning project that utilizes math, science, history, geography and creative writing to place education directly in the hands of students. By using collaborative problem solving and creative writing the students help the Robot make her way across North America. The project concludes with an actual space launch!
That’s right, the robot, along with copies of the students stories and artwork, will board a commercial rocket that is headed to the space station later this fall. To learn more and support the project, visit here.
You're viewing all posts tagged with education
In the Digital Age, Is Teaching Cursive Relevant?
Reading and writing are fundamental to learning. But as more kids read and write via some sort of computing device — laptop, tablet, cell phone — how we teach those skills is changing, and one significant change is the decision to teach cursive. When it comes to equipping students with “21st century skills,” typing is in, cursive is out.
» via MediaShift
So kids in the future won’t be able to read original docs like the Declaration of Independence & Am History majors will have to learn it as adults?
I wonder if we’d lose anything (cognitive/creative ability) should writing go away entirely…
From the desert to the web: bringing the Dead Sea Scrolls online
It’s taken 24 centuries, the work of archaeologists, scholars and historians, and the advent of the Internet to make the Dead Sea Scrolls accessible to anyone in the world. Today, as the new year approaches on the Hebrew calendar, we’re celebrating the launch of the Dead Sea Scrolls online; a project of The Israel Museum, Jerusalem powered by Google technology.
» via Google Blog
Faith in the universal power of higher learning is at the heart of modernity. From enhancing our basic humanity to preserving culture, economic and technological development to social equality, and redressing ills from global warming to AIDS, there are very few needs for which more education has not been prescribed.
Warranted or not, this belief is the closest thing we have to a world religion. And it is winning converts at unprecedented speed. People around the world are demanding more education as a human right and as a pathway out of poverty. In 1900 about half a million people worldwide were enrolled in colleges. A century later the number was 100 million. According to a 2009 report by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization,150 million students are now enrolled in some kind of education beyond high school, a 53 percent increase in less than a decade.
Meanwhile, here in America, the birthplace of mass higher education, our faith is no longer moving mountains. Since the 1970s, our educational attainment has stalled while the rest of the world is roaring ahead. Keep reading …
http://tmblr.co/Zmb3by8z9UFr
A groundbreaking change has struck academia, and its reverberations may be felt for years to come. One of Stanford’s first full courses to ever be openly made available online has gone viral. In a matter of weeks it has signed up more than 100,000 students from around the world! Even as I wrote this article, another 5000 joined! As news of the course continues to spread, the ultimate size of the class could reach greater epic proportions – we could easily see interest skyrocket to 200,000 or even 300,000 or more. Classes of 1 million or tens of millions may be in our future. If Stanford can succeed in teaching classes of 100k+ students at a time, what will it mean for education in general?
http://tmblr.co/Zmb3by8XaF4D
New Web Site Lists Free Online Textbooks
A new Web site, Open Educational Resources Center for California, brings together information on free and open textbooks and course materials in one location. Though the Web site was designed for California’s community-college faculty members, it could be a useful resource for anyone trying to find learning materials in the public domain.
California Assembly Bill 2261, which was signed into law in the fall of 2008, authorized the center as a statewide pilot program for California’s 112 community colleges “to provide faculty and staff from community-college districts around the state with the information, methods, and instructional materials to establish open education resource centers.” The center is managed by Foothill College, in Los Altos Hills, Calif.
» via The Chronicle of Higher Education (Subscription may be required for some content)
2010 Lemelson-MIT Invention Index Reveals Ways to Enhance Teens' Interest in STEM
STEM= Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics
Cambridge, Mass., January 28, 2010 – The nation is hoping for a bright future. Many believe the key to strengthening the U.S. economy and competing globally lies in fostering an innovative culture and educating America’s youth in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). According to this year’s Lemelson-MIT Invention Index1, an annual survey that gauges Americans’ perceptions about invention and innovation, teens are enthusiastic about these subjects, with 77 percent interested in pursuing a STEM career.
Good news!~
Scratch: A Programming Language For Kids - PSFK
The MIT Media Lab has developed a programming language simple enough for children to use.
With the goal of teaching kids to understand how technology works, Scratch allows users to program through visual elements.
The National Science Foundation explains:
In Scratch, coding is done with graphical blocks, not with syntax and those semicolons. A student writes code by snapping together blocks, much like LEGO bricks or pieces of a puzzle. Additionally, the blocks are designed to fit only in ways that make syntactic sense. This eliminates the dreaded syntax errors that often frustrate and discourage young computer programmers. To create a program, students drag-and-drop the blocks to create procedures.
Cool! One of the things on my to do / research list, work with NFTE to create NYC start-up outreach to underserved schools. This may be an excellent tool to facilitate learning!
home cookin’
a bit dismal.
anyone remember the adbusters fake ad about the gates foundation providing funds for every u.s. high school student to study abroad? i got taken in & was flying high on cloud-nine happiness & inspiration until i learned it was a faker. i can still hope tho’ =)
http://tmblr.co/Zmb3byL2A9m
Congress Finances Program to Use Technology in Education
More than a decade ago, Lawrence K. Grossman, former president of both NBC News and PBS, and Newton N. Minow, the former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, were asked by several foundations to explore how nonprofits like schools, libraries and museums could tap into emerging digital technologies.
Their bold recommendation in 2001 was to set up a multibillion dollar trust that would act as a “venture capital fund” to research learning technology.
After a tortuous journey — “It’s been one ‘starting all over again’ after another after another after another,” Mr. Minow said — their organization, what is now being called the National Center for Research in Advanced Information and Digital Technologies, finally has Congressional appropriation through the Education Department and will be introduced Monday. It could be handing out grants by fall.
“It’s time that education had the equivalent of what the National Science Foundation does for science, Darpa does for the national defense and what N.I.H. does for health,” Mr. Grossman said in an interview. He and Mr. Minow, senior counsel at the law firm Sidley Austin, will be the co-chairmen of the nonprofit organization, along with Anne G. Murphy, former director of the American Arts Alliance.
» via The New York Times
Single-sex schools help boys to enjoy arts, says study
Boys’ schools are the perfect place to teach young men to express their emotions and are more likely to get involved in activities such as art, dance and music, according to research released today.
Far from the traditional image of a culture of aggressive masculinity in which students either sink or swim, the absence of girls gives boys the chance to develop without pressure to conform to a stereotype, the US study says.
…
[T]eachers are able to tailor lessons to boys’ learning style, letting them move around the classroom and getting them to compete in teams to prevent boredom, wrote the study’s author, education expert Abigail James, of the University of Virginia.
(via @RyanNewYork)
What Makes a Great Teacher?
For years, the secrets to great teaching have seemed more like alchemy than science, a mix of motivational mumbo jumbo and misty-eyed tales of inspiration and dedication. But for more than a decade, one organization has been tracking hundreds of thousands of kids, and looking at why some teachers can move them three grade levels ahead in a year and others can’t. Now, as the Obama administration offers states more than $4 billion to identify and cultivate effective teachers, Teach for America is ready to release its data.
Can student performance improve with the environment? Studies have shown that the educational environment can enable students to perform up to two grades better. Mark Miller, founder of Project FROG is constructing buildings that feature healthier educational environments; ones that better utilize natural daylight, manage glare and acoustics, and circulate fresh air.
