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A Project-Based Learning Activity That Can Work in Any Classroom – A.J. JULIANI

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A Project-Based Learning Activity That Can Work in Any Classroom – A.J. JULIANI

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In our last post, we dove into a three-step system to get students to do the talking. Getting them to open up and do the majority of talking (and learning) is not as easy as some make it out to be.

In fact, for me, it was incredibly difficult.

The three-step system scaffolded a way for students to take on more and more of the discussion responsibilities until they were ready to take over. Here are the three steps in a nutshell:

Now that I had students talking in my classes, I also wanted to get them creating, making and designing.

But, I had the same problem with project-based learning that I did with getting students to own the discussion and do the talking (instead of me doing all the talking).

I was really bad at scaffolding PBL opportunities for my students to own that process as well. Too often my scaffolding was me "telling them" what to do.

Most of the "project-based learning" I had my students do, looked something like this:

1. Teach the students about a concept or particular content.

2. Have them demonstrate their learning in various ways.

3. Give them an end of the unit project.

4. Provide detailed steps to complete the project in a handout.

5. Provide detailed unit to assess the project in a handout.

6. Give students a detailed timeline on when things should be done for the project.

7. Help students navigate project.

8. Collect student projects.

9. Notice that all of their projects look eerily similar, almost like they were following a recipe 😉

10. Grade the projects and hand them back with feedback.

11. Repeat.

The problem with these projects was the recipe-like nature that happened when students began handing things in.

My students were still just trying to follow the rules, instead of actually creating something on their own that they could be proud about.

During one of these projects (when students had inevitably gone through the motions) I had to ask my students the question:

What was the last project or school assignment you did that left you with a feeling of accomplishment?

The responses all fell into two categories:

1. Students were accomplished when they received a grade higher than what they expected to receive and/or if the class was known as difficult and challenging.

2. Projects where they had choice in what they were creating and solving (there weren't that many with this response). Most of them said this happened outside of school.

I wondered how I could do project-based learning in my class where students would be challenged, engaged, and also inspired to do great work they would be proud of (instead of only work that would get them a grade)...

How My View Changed On Project Based Learning

You ever have one of those moments where you wonder what you are doing with your life? I mean, at the very least, you are like me and have had times where something catches you off guard and makes you rethink your purpose and impact on the world.

This happened when Patrick Larkin shared a video of students in his school district who created a PSA (Public Service Announcement) that went viral online. In the video (shared below) the students use paper and their phone to record a silent PSA to end the use of the "R-word" in our schools and in our daily lives. It really spoke to me seeing how much of an impact these students could have on their world while still in school (7th grade).

The project itself was so simple.

First, choose a problem in your school that is also impacting the world.

Then, figure out how to solve this problem and share your solution with your classmates, school, and world.

They didn't need to use fancy technology. They only used printed out paper with text (could have wrote it by hand) and a phone to video their PSA.

The key was the final piece. Share their PSA project with the world. This authentic audience kept the students engaged and empowered them to create something that mattered more than fridge art.

I realized that this type of short project is exactly how you can scaffold PBL for students of any age.

How to Scaffold PBL So Students Are Ready

Before jumping into Design Challenges, Maker Projects, and Genius Hour, I would always do an activity that followed the simple process shared above. This PSA project can be done in any subject and in any grade level (with modifications of course).

I'll break down the example PSA Project that I use all of the time in workshops to show how this is possible. The key elements are that you choose content that you want the students to learn, but give them a choice in which content they choose.

After that, the project is simple.
Research what the world needs to know about ____, and what they can do about _____.
Then create a PSA to demonstrate that information and understanding.

For my example, I want my students to learn about the United Nations 2030 Goals. So it would look like this:
Research what the world needs to know about one of the UN 2030 GOALS, and what they can do about _____.
Here is the step-by-step process for scaffolding PBL with a PSA Project:

Step #1: Present the Content that Students Are Going to Learn (then give choice on which area they learn more about)
Note: Some students will have background knowledge, others may not have much background knowledge and that is ok.
For this example, I give learners the topic of the UN 2030 Goals. The content they are going to learn is about these UN 2030 Goals (which works well because most folks don't have a deep understanding or much knowledge about the goals).

Second, I ask them to get into small groups (2-3 people) and choose a goal that resonates with them personally. This is key because the more meaningful and relevant the activity becomes, the more effort and commitment the team will have towards the project.

It's also important to note that I do not give a lot of time for this activity. Thirty minutes max amount of time. It should be a one-class activity in school where time and resources may be limited.

Step #2: Have Students Research the Content (What Does the World Need to Know About it and What Can They Do About It)

Once the goal (content) has been chosen it's time to research! The key here is to research quickly and efficiently.

If you have younger kids, provide stations that have bits and pieces of the research ready to consume. Things like videos, articles, pictures, graphs are key to giving young students a head-start on the research.

If you have older students (or adult learners) feel free to point them towards a couple websites or directions to research online. For the UN 2030 Goals I always choose GlobalGoals.org as a starting place.

The other important piece to remember during this research step is that you must give a specific time of how long (or else they'll get stuck in more and more research). You have to also give very specific things they are looking for (such as what the world needs to know about the 2030 goal and what they can do about it to help out).

Step #3: Create a PSA

Here is where we climb up the Bloom's taxonomy and get students making and creating. When you use this activity with a specific piece of content (2030 Goals, Periodic Table of Elements, historical figures, scenes from a play, author study etc) the project becomes about demonstrating your understanding of this content through creating the PSA.

You can give the option of creating a PSA much like the one shared above (The R-Word) or learners can create it with video, with a slideshow, a skit, or any other type of way to spread their knowledge and understanding.

We are scaffolding PBL here so a key point to remember during the creation stage is that many times students will want to mimic or copy what they saw as the example (or exemplar) given to the whole class.

This is something to keep an eye on, but also a teaching moment. I always share Austin Kleon's good vs bad copying chart to get my students thinking about personalizing their PSA's and projects:

Once students are finished creating, the project is not yet done! Two key pieces remain. First, they have to share this with a bigger audience than just themselves and their classmates.

Sharing it with the world gives the students an authentic audience. As a teacher, I'd try to find various audiences for my students to share their work with, but sometimes throwing it up on Youtube and social media is enough to get the positive peer pressure working!

Finally, you'll want to have the students reflect on what they learned, what they created, and what they would do differently.

This reflection continues the learning well after the "project" has been completed.

The final product should never be the end of a learning experience, only the beginning of the next learning experience.

Don't Just Teach What You Know, Teach What You Are Learning

When starting students on a journey with Project-Based Learning we can think of it as a journey where the travel is just as important as the destination.

Learning happens during the project work and as a result of the work, just as taking a hike up a mountain is as important as getting to the final destination of that view over the valley.

The mark of many great projects is that the learners teach what they know and understand through the project.

But, you don't need to be an expert in order to teach.

The goal here is for students to be documenting, sharing, creating, and teaching while they are learning.

This process enables a constant reflection and dialogue to take place between the learning, the collaborator, the mentor, the teacher, and the audience.

That is what makes true PBL so authentic. It is the connections we can make throughout the learning process that do not happen when sitting in a seat listening to a lecture, or sitting in a seat answering multiple choice questions.

I'd love to hear how you scaffold PBL in your classroom or school. How do you get students started down the PBL path? What activities do you begin with? How do students reflect and share what they have made? Share out in the comments below!

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A Project-Based Learning Activity That Can Work in Any Classroom

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In our last post, we dove into a three-step system to get students to do the talking. Getting them to open up and do the majority of talking (and learning) is not as easy as some make it out to be. In fact, for me, it was incredibly difficult.

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The Launch Cycle – Bring Out the Maker in Every Student

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The Launch Cycle – Bring Out the Maker in Every Student

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The LAUNCH Cycle provides a creative process that can be incorporated into every class at every grade level ... even if you don't consider yourself a "creative teacher." And if you dare to innovate and view creativity as an essential skill, you will empower your students to change the world-starting right now

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The Launch Cycle - Bring Out the Maker in Every Student

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The LAUNCH Cycle provides a creative process that can be incorporated into every class at every grade level ... even if you don't consider yourself a "creative teacher."

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podcasts - Mount Vernon Institute for Innovation

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podcasts - Mount Vernon Institute for Innovation

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MVIFI currently offers two podcasts that invite listeners into empowering discussions of leadership, industry cross-pollination, and vulnerability for continuous improvement.

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podcasts - Mount Vernon Institute for Innovation

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MVIFI currently offers two podcasts that invite listeners into empowering discussions of leadership, industry cross-pollination, and vulnerability for continuous improvement.

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Design Thinking - Mount Vernon Institute for Innovation

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Design Thinking - Mount Vernon Institute for Innovation

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Fulton County Schools

In 2020, a team of MV Ventures senior consultants worked with two new Fulton County STEM schools for a year-long consulting partnership. With design thinking at the core of both programs, MVV consultants utilized a hybrid of virtual and in-person sessions to engage with teams of teacher leaders from both schools for comprehensive design thinking training and curriculum design, supporting both administration and faculty during the 2020-2021 school year.

The first half of the partnership involved a deep-dive into the design thinking methodology, allowing participants to become both users and designers. Team members got a clear understanding of what design thinking is, why it's such a powerful framework for problem-solving, and what it looks like in the classroom. The second half of the parnership supported the teams to infuse design thinking into the curriculum design including unit plans and design challenges throughout each of the different pathways offered to students.

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In 2020, a team of MV Ventures senior consultants worked with two new Fulton County STEM schools for a year-long consulting partnership. With design thinking at the core of both programs, MVV consultants utilized a hybrid of virtual and in-person sessions to engage with teams of teacher leaders from both schools for comprehensive design thinking training and curriculum design, supporting both administration and faculty during the 2020-2021 school year.

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Design Thinking - Mount Vernon Institute for Innovation

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Design Thinking - Mount Vernon Institute for Innovation

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Fulton County Schools

In 2020, a team of MV Ventures senior consultants worked with two new Fulton County STEM schools for a year-long consulting partnership. With design thinking at the core of both programs, MVV consultants utilized a hybrid of virtual and in-person sessions to engage with teams of teacher leaders from both schools for comprehensive design thinking training and curriculum design, supporting both administration and faculty during the 2020-2021 school year.

The first half of the partnership involved a deep-dive into the design thinking methodology, allowing participants to become both users and designers. Team members got a clear understanding of what design thinking is, why it's such a powerful framework for problem-solving, and what it looks like in the classroom. The second half of the parnership supported the teams to infuse design thinking into the curriculum design including unit plans and design challenges throughout each of the different pathways offered to students.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In 2020, a team of MV Ventures senior consultants worked with two new Fulton County STEM schools for a year-long consulting partnership. With design thinking at the core of both programs, MVV consultants utilized a hybrid of virtual and in-person sessions to engage with teams of teacher leaders from both schools for comprehensive design thinking training and curriculum design, supporting both administration and faculty during the 2020-2021 school year.

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การที่จะเล่นฟุตบอลแทงบอลให้เกิดประสิทธิภาพผู้เล่นจะต้องเรียนรู้ทักษะต่างๆ และพื้นฐานหลายด้าน เพื่อที่จะช่วยให้เราเป็นมืออาชีพในวันข้างหน้าเช่น การเคลื่อนไหวเบื้องต้น การทำความคุ้นเคยกับลูกฟุตบอล ...

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Teaching Tools | Resources for Teachers from Scholastic

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Your Students can be “Makers”: 16 Projects Invented by Teachers

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Your Students can be “Makers”: 16 Projects Invented by Teachers

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(This post was edited on 6/30/2015 to add a 17th project previously omitted. Be sure to scroll down to see that project!)
New York City, The Big Apple, a global hub for innovation and invention from the Otis elevator through the MakerBot 3D printer... The perfect location for teachers to flex their own innovation and invention muscles at Design, Do, Discover 2015.

In June 2014, I attended the second Design Do Discover conference at Castilleja School in Palo Alto, CA. This June, the third DDD was held at Marymount School in New York City. Both times, the amazing Angi Chau from Castilleja and Jaymes Dec from Marymount were the fantastic organizers, and both times I was honored to have been asked to participate as a coach to support teams of participant teachers.

The first year was a wonderful learning experience for everyone - coaches and participants alike. But this year blew it out of the water. Hit it out of the park. Nailed it on the head.

The premise is simple: start with a quick tour of the facility and very brief show-and-tell of the tools (less than 30 minutes!), follow with a group brainstorming session around project ideas (less than 30 minutes!), then form groups to jump into projects. Even before lunch on the first day, groups were already sketching and tinkering with Hummingbird Robotics kits, MaKeyMaKeys, cardboard and MakeDo's, and more. For two days, I jumped in to help groups, learned new tools myself ( LittleBits!), fetched tools and supplies as needed ( copper tape! wire strippers!), recommended resources and suppliers ( Sparkfun! DigiKey!), and acted as cheerleader for teachers pushing themselves to learn incredible new skills and create amazing artifacts of their learning.

The final projects blew ALL of us coaches away! The absolute best part, from my perspective, is that every single project was immediately applicable back in the participant's classroom. Most of them are generally applicable in any learning environment! Serious high school science content, literature and history, elementary grades, even social/emotional learning... This was absolutely the most excellent collection of practical and academically-oriented maker projects I've seen!

1. The MopBot

This project was created by a team from my own school in Seattle... They were pursuing an idea of presenting the whole school with the same project prompt: solve a problem related to water. Our kindergarten teacher on the team identified a classic kindergarten water problem - water spills on the floor at the sink and water fountain! The group decided to build a Lego Mindstorms robot to automatically clean up those spills. The robot included a motion sensor to activate, and incorporated laser cutting for the adorable turtle form and 3D printing for the optional handle for manual clean-up.

Lego MindStorms, Laser cutting (Adobe Illustrator), 3D printing (Tinkercad).

2. The Salmon Story Puzzle

Because my colleagues are overachievers, they also completed a second project! They wanted another opportunity to play with laser cutting, plus an opportunity to learn MaKeyMaKey and Scratch, so over dinner Thursday night we brainstormed a big new idea: a puzzle-like manipulative that alerts the player when they have the correct solution. Since our 5th graders study the salmon lifecycle extensively, we decided to make a salmon lifecycle puzzle. When the stages of the lifecycle are in order, the MaKeyMaKey circuit is complete and the quick Scratch program declares "Congratulations! You have completed the salmon lifecycle!"

Laser cutting (Adobe Illustrator), MaKeyMaKey, Scratch programming, (some might say "excessive") ambition.

3. The DDD group-interactive kinetic sculpture

This group went all-out to try to use every single tool available. They also endeavored to create a sculpture that would encourage collaboration - in order to activate all of the "D"s, multiple people must work together to activate all of the sensors!

Vinyl cutter, 3D printer, laser cutter, MaKeyMaKey, Hummingbird Robotics kit, LittleBits, mechanical gears!

4. The "Midsummer Night's Dream" Donkey Head

This group had an interesting brainstorming process that ended up far from their original plans... they were interested in incorporating learning about animals and habitats, they really wanted to incorporate Hummingbird Robotics kits, they wanted something immediately applicable back at their schools, AND they were interested in wearables. Although I was present for their brainstorming session, I'm still not sure how they got to "Nick Bottom's Donkey Head," but the final product was amazing and left me nearly in tears laughing!

The mouth and ears are controlled by Hummingbird servos, the eyes are Hummingbird LEDs, and they used the Snap programming system to direct the motion sensor to activate the whole system. Other than that, the whole head is cardboard, felt, and MakeDo connectors!

Hummingbird Robotics, MakeDo, cardboard and killer craftsmanship.

5. The History/Geography Map (Cradle of Civilization, Seattle Immigration)

I worked quite a bit with this group of humanities teachers, most of whom felt very non-techy. They killed it! They used the laser cutter to etch their maps, but then really didn't know what they wanted to do next... With some brainstorming, they decided to use LEDs to illuminate different critical locations on their maps, and ALSO to use the MaKeyMaKey to give viewers of their maps more information about each of those locations. When a viewer presses one of the buttons, the corresponding location is illuminated and an informational screen pops up via Scratch to teach about that location!

Laser cutting, basic circuitry, MaKeyMaKey and Scratch programming, bravery and perseverance.

6. The 3 Little Bears

This group was interested in the intersection between technology and storytelling. They developed an digital interactive Snap version of Goldilocks and the Three Little Bears, and a hilarious physical interactive display of the bears themselves. Using the Hummingbird Robotics kit and three light sensors (one for each bear's bowl of porridge), a viewer can activate each bear to move in a different way.

Hummingbird Robotics, extensive Snap programming, Laser cutting, hot glue!

7. The Compliment Bot

This was a deceptively simple little project with some very complex innards... These two teachers programmed an Arduino to take input from two sonar-based distance sensors to send a random compliment (from a set of text strings the group developed) to offer viewers a compliment when they approached the box. The participants who made the Compliment Bot were pretty funny... they kept insisting that the distance sensors actually conducted a retinal scan, the Arduino analyzed the viewers personality, and then the screen printed a compliment specially selected for that viewer. I was almost convinced when the Compliment Bot praised my strength in The Force.

Arduino, Laser cutting, a hilarious sense of humor.

8. Dancing Aliens interactive

I didn't get to chat much with this group, so don't know many of the details of the project. However, what's not to love about two aliens who dance with you when you approach?

Lego Mindstorms, Laser cutting.

9. Structures for Literary Structures

I also didn't get to chat much with this group, nor did I get many pictures of their projects. The concept was brilliant - the language arts teachers challenged themselves to create physical structures that demonstrate literary structures. The project in the photo is low-tech but brilliant - it uses a lever and fulcrum (Hello, I'm a science teacher...) to demonstrate the balance between two sides of a quote. At the end of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr's "Letter From a Birmingham Jail," he says:
If I have said anything in this letter that overstates the truth and indicates an unreasonable impatience, I beg you to forgive me. If I have said anything that understates the truth and indicates my having a patience that allows me to settle for anything less than brotherhood, I beg God to forgive me.
When placed on the two sides of the scale, the viewer can see the heavier weight of the second sentence of the quote, demonstrating the heavier weight of its meaning. A truly beautiful metaphor.

Sticks and paperclips, creativity and craftsmanship.

10. Monster Stamps

This primary art teacher does a class monster-drawing activity with her students regularly, in which each student receives a piece of paper folded into thirds. The student draws the head of a monster on the first third, then passes it to a second student. The second student draws the body of a monster on the second third without seeing the head drawn by the first student! (See where this is going?) The third student draws the legs, then everyone opens the folded paper to see the hilarious mixed-up monsters at the end.

She scanned in several of her students' drawings and converted them to laser-cuttable files with the intent of making the segments even more reconfigurable as stamps! In the picture, you can see the acrylic, heavy cardstock, and MDF trial cuts she ran. Ultimately, she found that etching produced better stamp-ability than cutting.

Laser cutting.

11. Lucky

This teacher produced a beautiful and simple work of art using laser cutting and an LED string from a LittleBits kit.

Laser cutting, LittleBits.

12. Bacterial Plasmid Transformation

If you've wondered how to incorporate "making" into high school biology, this teacher had a brilliant idea. She used the laser cutter to created a hinged bacteria chromosome and set it to represent primer sequences to open the chromosome and insert a new gene. Since her classes do transformation with green flourescent protein (GFP), she used copper tape, an LED, and a coin cell battery to illuminate the gene when properly inserted into the plasmid!

Laser cutter, basic circuitry.

13. Hacking Furniture

This group was consistently very focused on design... Their intent was to design and prototype hacks that could be implemented on nearly any standard classroom furniture to improve the flexibility, storage, and usability in a "maker" context. In the pictures below, you can see the "open" and "closed" configurations of the different items: a locking table-extension that reveals tool storage when opened, benches that contain storage compartments, and (my favorite) a bench that opens to reveal project trays, so students can move and store their projects flat without needing to sweep everything into a bin.

Laser cutter, vinyl cutter, design thinking!

14. Tiny Classroom Spaces - Hacking Architecture

This group was very interested in the idea of creating spaces-within-a-space, or small architectural hacks to offer smaller experiences within the classroom. They brainstormed a wide variety of amazing implementations, like a small domed cave for making cave paintings. The two spaces pictured included the "emotional regulation cubby" (where students can retreat when overstimulated or in need of soothing) and the "private art-viewing booth" (where viewers can view art individually even within a crowded space).

MaKeyMaKey, cardboard and glue guns.

15. Personal Sound Booth

This teacher identified a problem in her school - iPad implementation was going well, but learning spaces were all too loud for students to make decent voice recordings for their range of video and audio projects! She prototyped a great personal sound booth that folds up neatly for storage, holds the user's iPad easily, includes a curtain to close off additional sound from behind the user and quiet fan to keep the inside from becoming stifling. The photo and video really do not do the piece justice.

Foam and ingenuity, LittleBits, basic circuitry.

16. Disaster Preparedness

This team from the Philippines was very interested in examining their school's disaster preparedness plan, as well as learning as many of the tools as they could. They designed and laser-cut the front facade of their school, and 3D designed and printed a side-building, then sought me out for help with their electronics idea: they wanted to create a feature that would illuminate the pathway to first aid and disaster stations when activated by a user walking by. With little time left, I didn't think we'd be able to achieve that with a Hummingbird Robotics kit or certainly not with Arduino! However, I'd *just* learned about LittleBits and was confident that system could be used to achieve their goal! As you can see in the picture, they were successful.

Laser cutting, 3D printing, LittleBits.

17. H2OMG!

This group's premise was to devise a project template that would incorporate multiple subject areas and focus on using sustainable materials with as few "consumables" as possible. With this in mind, they started by creating a blank template - which they're sharing here! - that could be used for any lesson/unit design.

The example project they built out was a unit around water conservation, demonstrating their proposed format for a fully-integrated unit. In each content area (they chose Math, Social Studies, Science, and English), lessons would be taught with the subject of water being a theme. Math would look at volume, English at poetry, Social Studies at the economics of water control, and Science at actual conservation. As students showed mastery in each subject, they would be asked to build a "button" using a metal bottle cap (water bottle) and other sustainable or recyclable materials. The button must to show the subject area they learned about (ie. Math has a 3D printed "V" for volume). Once the students had made their four buttons, their task in the maker space would be to create a video game around the theme of water conservation in Scratch and use a MaKey MaKey to create a controller for that video game using the buttons!

This team's goal was to create something that could continue to add meaning to making and help teachers to create lessons that would incorporate responsible making in their classrooms, teams, and schools - a goal thoroughly met!

MaKey MaKey, Scratch programming, 3D design and printing, with a little Lego and laser cutting for pizzazz.

This conference really shows just how innovative teachers can be when presented with challenges, tools, and a collaborative and supportive atmosphere. Participants ranged in their self-identified experience-levels with the tools from utter novices to experts, but all showed deep expertise in student learning needs and connections to their respective content. This is the sort of learning we should be consistently striving for, both for our students in our own schools but also in our professional development. The learning and growth experienced with this kind of critical thinking, tinkering, and connection-making is what is going to enable us and our students to solve the huge problems that our world is moving towards: poverty, climate change, lost habitat diversity, social injustice, and more. I'm sure it sounds hyperbolic, but the great resilience, collaboration, creativity, empathy, and other skills afforded by "maker education" are precisely the skills needed to change the world.

For more blogs by Lindsey, check out:

Lindsey Own teaches science at The Evergreen School in Shoreline, WA. Follow Lindsey on Twitter, @LindseyOwn.

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Your Students can be "Makers": 16 Projects Invented by Teachers

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(This post was edited on 6/30/2015 to add a 17th project previously omitted. Be sure to scroll down to see that project!) New York City, The Big Apple, a global hub for innovation and invention from the Otis elevator through the MakerBot 3D printer...

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Design Thinking, Reading, Writing and Inquiry Cycle 

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Design Thinking, Reading, Writing and Inquiry Cycle 

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Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.

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All the performance of Final Cut Pro. For iPad.

Final Cut Pro for iPad lets you record, edit, finish, and deliver professional video right on iPad. It's everything you need to create vlogs, social content, music videos, shorts, and more - anywhere you go.

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Clips is an iOS app for making and sharing fun videos with text, effects, graphics, and more.

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1001 Story Ideas | Writepop - Science fiction stories, humor, and writing about writing

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1001 Story Ideas | Writepop - Science fiction stories, humor, and writing about writing

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1001 Story Ideas | Writepop - Science fiction stories, humor, and writing about writing

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Filed under: 1001 Story Ideas, Science Fiction Story Ideas, writing by Writepop 18 Comments "

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Cute CUT - Full Featured Video Editor on the App Store

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Cute CUT - Full Featured Video Editor on the App Store

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Cute CUT - Full Featured Video Editor on the App Store

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Read reviews, compare customer ratings, see screenshots, and learn more about Cute CUT - Full Featured Video Editor. Download Cute CUT - Full Featured Video Editor and enjoy it on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

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Idea Bank for Maker Projects from Edgerton MIT Collaboration

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Idea Bank for Maker Projects from Edgerton MIT Collaboration

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a game card set to introduce design thinking and prompt story writing

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English

© 2022 Instagram from Meta

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Storybird Studio – literacy and writing tools for teachers, librarians, educators and classrooms

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Storybird Studio – literacy and writing tools for teachers, librarians, educators and classrooms

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Storybird - Read, write, discover, and share the books you'll always remember.

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Become a better writer with Storybird's creativity tools. Online courses, challenges, and reader feedback will help you improve your writing.

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Culture Street is a one-stop destination to introduce young people to contemporary artists, writers, curators and performers and their amazing work.

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‎Read reviews, compare customer ratings, see screenshots, and learn more about Trading Cards. Download Trading Cards and enjoy it on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

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Read reviews, compare customer ratings, see screenshots, and learn more about Ideament. Download Ideament and enjoy it on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

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an interesting collection of examples of how to use the process of design thinking in an English Classroom, from a high school English teacher

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. . we forget that we can be playful and try wild ideas in the pursuit of academic learning . . .

Empathy-fueled, human-centered problem solving is picking up tremendous traction as of late, thanks in no small part to fantastic introductions to design thinking's educational value from Thomas Riddle and Susie Wise on Edutopia.

Three years and counting into my journey with design thinking, Mary Cantwell's DEEPdt process serves as my springboard, Twitter community #dtk12chat, my comrades in ideating arms, and the Mount Vernon Institute for Innovation's FUSE experience as resonating reminder, I'm in a constant state of vision and revision with integrating DT into my teaching. Rather than seeing this cycle as a reason for frustration - as one might think after three years of deep investment (pun fully intended) - design thinking continues to infuse me (the puns keep coming) with hope and enthusiasm.

DEEPdt plays well with content area teaching because it so well mirrors Bloom's Taxonomy and guides students toward higher order thinking. (Other design thinking frameworks do as well - I borrow tools, protocols, and ideas from others all the time - DEEPdt just happens to be the one that suits my brain and my users best.)

DISCOVER. Here students delve into the content knowledge. What do we need to know about ________ in order to solve ___________?

What do we need to know about George and Lennie in order to design a homestead that will meet their needs? What do we need to know about their character traits? What do we need to know about argument in order to craft editorials that compel readers to take action? What do we need to know about commas and indicators for pause in order to craft speeches that achieve a particular tone?

And still there are other questions that invite inquiry and discovery into our problem solving. What might we need to know about writing structures and formats? What might they need to know about literary devices? What might they need to know about the current vocabulary or the grammatical devices at play? What might they need to know about the character or plot in a given text? What might they need to know about the symbolism or metaphors employed?

EMPATHIZE. And here we identify the point of view of the users involved. Those users might be readers of essays and stories or the audience of speeches, presentation and debates. They might also be the characters in a novel or the speaker of a poem.

Writing as an act of problem-solving begins with the basic premise that a writer is a designer, so long as one considers the act of writing an audience-centered experience rather than an author-centered one. When we write for ourselves, we our meeting our own needs. Whenever we write for others, there is audience and thus, user. Sometimes those users are the teachers, sometimes peers and community, sometimes a less defined, yet far more public readership.

Reading as an act of problem solving begins with the basic premise that the subject of the text - whether protagonist or antagonist, fictional or non - has been placed in those circumstances, on that page, with intention on the part of the author. Understanding that subject's motivations in light of the conflicts present, his or her character traits and extent of development, the structure of the plot may yield tremendous insight into the themes of the text. The uncovering of the author's intentions and application of that author's techniques and ideas in unique ways, particular those that solve problems raised in the text, opens all sorts of possibilities for ways to demonstrate understanding.

How might we design a sanctuary for Melinda of Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak, an alternative closing argument for Harper Lee's Atticus, a collateral-damage-proof plot for Hamlet's revenge?

How might we stage Romeo & Juliet in a way that casts them as the villains and the rest of the cast as their victims? How might we use Fitzgerald's language as commentary on 2016 celebrity culture? How might we transform the words of Ellison and Hughes into lyrics for socially conscious hip-hop?

EXPERIMENT. Self explanatory yet sometimes we forget that we can be playful and try wild ideas in the pursuit of academic learning. Here we might substitute "how might we . . .?" with "what if . . .?"

What if students write three intentionally terrible introductions, share them with their classmates, and identify the trends across them that let us know they are terrible? What if they organize those trends and create cheat sheets to help them. How might the guides they create become tools for their peers in the future?

What if students crafted twenty memes in twenty minutes as pre-cursor to a close reading, text-based discussion? What if those memes became the jumping on points for discussion and points of critical discourse?

What if students employed LEGO constructs as a means of demonstrating the rhetorical structure of a poem and used more elaborate constructs to represent entire collections of verse?

PRODUCE. Rather than looking at production as an end point and a point for grading, design thinking emphasizes feedback, the opportunity for revision and new iterations. It plays along gloriously well with the writing process and one might argue even enhances that process as the goal is reaching an audience through intention, rather than simply going through the motions of a process.

How might we provide meaningful feedback that balances critique with encouragement? How might we inspire new ideas and possibilities with our feedback? How might documenting our writing process help us to identify our intentions with each revision? How might we link our revisions to particular feedback in order to assess the value of both the change and the feedback given? How might effective citations help us learn where one another's ideas came from and help us to be better critics of one another's ideas?

The above are just a few ways to tackle English language arts curriculum through the lens of design. Some have been robust explorations I've done with students, others one day sprints, and yet others notions and fancies that I've just yet to find the time to put into practice.

And they all started with, "How might we . . .?" each representing an opportunity for inquiry and possibility, solution and iteration.

Dan Ryder is an educator, improviser and design thinker from the foothills of western Maine who spends every day trying to make the world a little more interesting than he found it. A moderator of #dtk12chat and #edchatme, follow him @wickeddecent on If you like what you've read, be sure to hit recommend below, to pass the story along to your followers! As always, consider following The Synapse for more authentic voices in Education! , I, and . Keep tabs on his efforts to walk the talk on his classroom blog at flight307.blogspot.com and with his co-conspirators Jeff Bailey and Matt Drewette-Card at Wicked Decent Learning.

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How Might We the Content?: Applying Design Thinking in a High School English Classroom

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we forget that we can be playful and try wild ideas in the pursuit of academic learning . . . Empathy-fueled, human-centered problem solving is picking up tremendous traction as of late, thanks in no small part to fantastic introductions to design thinking's educational value from Thomas Riddle and Susie Wise on Edutopia.

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Animate your life! Download today!

Tellagami is a mobile app that lets you create and share a quick animated video called a Gami.

A Gami can be an exciting tweet or status update. It can be a fun way to tell a story. It can be a thank you message or a vacation postcard. It can be a birthday greeting, party invite or cool way to share photos. The possibilities are endless!

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Create a Gami in 3 easy steps:
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FEATURES
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MOBILE-FIRST
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WAYS PEOPLE ARE USING A GAMI
* Greetings & Invites - Tell a story, liven up a blog, introduce someone
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Educators: Download the Tellagami Edu app! Tellagami Edu is a paid version of the Tellagami app loaded with features that allows classrooms to use the app without in-app purchases. Learn more at https://tellagami.com/edu

Version 1.4.6

Added workaround for minority of devices having issues with voice recording on iOS 8. Voice recording is working again on all devices. Thanks for your patience!

NOTE: Tellagami apps aren't compatible with iOS 11. Stayed tuned for updated info.

Cool App!

I like this app a lot, it makes giving video demonstrations for class a lot easier because you can choose the way your avatar looks, and you can record your own voice, or type in words and there is an automated voice. I personally love this app because I can use an avatar on the screen instead of myself. For a free app I think it is great, but without the extra features it does make it very hard to make a personalized project or video. I would definitely recommend paying for the full version.

Disappointed

This app used to be one of our favorites in school. Many of our teachers used it last year with students and were very pleased with it. It WAS great. Now it is useless!!! I agree with the disappointment from many users. I understand you want to make money, but the changes to features that were once offered in the free version to In-App Purchases make you look greedy. That's what I have told many of our teachers. In the future, don't offer something for free and then take it away. You should have left the app features as they are in the free version and would have received more In-App purchases from current users. I will not use or promote this app now. This app does not deserve the 1star due to poor customer relation.

Ehh

No like this app but i think it should have better features. Such as text. I think you should be able to write the text and then pick your voice. Also, I think the happy should seem a little more.... HAPPY! Other than that I really like this app. One more thing. I think you should be able to get to pick the size of your brush because what if your trying to do something small, you can't because the darn thing doesn't let you!!!!!

Information

Seller

Tellagami Labs Inc.

Compatibility

Requires iOS 6.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

Copyright

© Tellagami Labs Inc.

In-App Purchases

1. Text-To-Speech Pack (4 male voices, 4 female voices) $1.99

2. Character Customization Pack (hair, tops, bottoms, shoes for male/female) $1.99

3. 90-Second Gami Pack $0.99
more

Family Sharing

With Family Sharing set up, up to six family members can use this app.

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‎Animate your life! Download today! Tellagami is a mobile app that lets you create and share a quick animated video called a Gami. A Gami can be an exciting tweet or status update. It can be a fun way to tell a story. It can be a thank you message or a vacation postcard.

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Kahoot! | Learning games | Make learning awesome!

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Kahoot! is a game-based learning platform that brings engagement and fun to 1+ billion players every year at school, at work, and at home.

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comiXology - Comics & Manga on the App Store

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comiXology - Comics & Manga on the App Store

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comiXology - Comics & Manga on the App Store

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Read reviews, compare customer ratings, see screenshots, and learn more about comiXology - Comics & Manga. Download comiXology - Comics & Manga and enjoy it on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

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Language Arts project to connect literature, design thinking and engineering/making - from Tufts

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Students use existing classroom literature - stories, novels, and expository texts - as the basis for engineering design challenges that help them identify problems, design realistic solutions, and engage in the Engineering Design Process while reinforcing their literacy skills.

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Storybird - Read, write, discover, and share the books you'll always remember.

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Become a better writer with Storybird's creativity tools. Online courses, challenges, and reader feedback will help you improve your writing.

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Comic Maker & Creator | Comic Book & Strip Online | Graphic Novels

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Comic Maker & Creator | Comic Book & Strip Online | Graphic Novels

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Comic Maker & Creator | Comic Book & Strip Online | Graphic Novels

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Create comics online using our comic maker & creator. Find comic book or strip ideas for education, your office or business & for fun; great for best graphic novels

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Storyboard Creator | Comic Strip Maker | Graphic Organizer

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Storyboard Creator | Comic Strip Maker | Graphic Organizer

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Storyboard That: Free Online Storyboard Creator

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Storyboard That: Create free storyboards online with ease. Design visuals, comics, and graphic organizers. Try it now and start creating!

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Create word clouds with character Tagul is an online word cloud generator that enables you to create amazing and unique word cloud art...

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Snapchatting “The Odyssey”: An Epic Success | School Library Journal

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Snapchatting “The Odyssey”: An Epic Success | School Library Journal

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By Amanda Lawrence on

Lots of articles have been written about great ways to use Snapchat to brand and promote your library or classroom. This is something different: a glimpse into what happened after a high school librarian and an English teacher learned enough about the app to experiment with it in school.

The Project

The freshmen of Dartmouth (MA) High School, where I am a library media specialist, were studying mythology and folklore when English teacher Jessica Brittingham approached me with a "crazy idea." The district's English Language Arts (ELA) curriculum was requiring her three inclusion classes, with students with varied abilities and interests, read selections from The Odyssey, Homer's epic poem with demanding text. By using the Snapchat app, Jessica hoped to alleviate challenges and increase student engagement. We joined forces and quickly organized a plan to put this zany idea into action.

The students were divided into small groups and assigned a book from The Odyssey to read and annotate together. This acted as the anchor text for their "snap stories." Next, they were required to plot out a storyboard by sketching a minimum of 10 10-second snaps that represented Odysseus's journey. My storyboard handouts replicated the Snapchat capture screen to optimize their creativity. Once their storyboards were approved, students began the snapping portion of the project.

The Trials and Tribulations

Neither of us could predict how this assignment would pan out. It seemed simple enough; students would curate a Snapchat story that relayed the different parts of Odysseus's journey. However, Jessica and I were still new to the app, and student excitement over The Odyssey did not exist. What we did know was that our students loved Snapchat, and we wanted to meet them where they were. However, we both agreed that students should not access their personal accounts at all. Instead, we set up "safe" Snapchat accounts for each group. with Jessica serving as the administrator and password holder. Establishing these accounts turned out to be an incredibly tedious process; we had to create each one separately because Snapchat does not yet support the use of multiple accounts under a single user.

With the project's "behind the scenes" preparation completed, we felt fairly confident- until we rolled it out to the classes. Students either groaned about working in groups or having to log out of their personal accounts, and they did not embrace the idea of using Snapchat to do school work. Although we felt dispirited, we were not defeated. We asked students to pick unique usernames that directly related to their group's section of the poem, and we highlighted all of the fun aspects of Snapchat. We encouraged them to create original images and videos, to doodle and add text, and to experiment with the different filters available. We had students follow our school accounts and even started snapping with them! That got things going.

And, Action!

Excitement filled the library as our formerly reluctant students brought their storyboards to life. Emojis created characters; Filters allowed students to design backgrounds; and the face swap feature cleverly turned one student into a cyclops. Students truly took advantage of Snapchat's features, and it was awesome! We knew these projects had to be shared, so Jessica and I constructed a gallery walk. Group Snap codes were downloaded, labeled, and printed for display around the library. Anyone who visited within the 24-hour period had an opportunity to add each group and watch the prized creations. Everyone loved this part.

Tips and Tricks Learned the Hard Way

Use more than one email to set up accounts. Try having one student per group set up the account; they can share their login credentials with the project administrator.

Make sure everyone's account settings allow for all of the participants to access each story. Your students will, most likely, be able to do this with their eyes closed.

Remember, there is only a 24-hour window for Snapchat stories. Plan to have each group save their final products in "memories" or to their camera roll. Otherwise, the content may be lost forever.

When in doubt, ask a student. We learned so much about the app from them.

Reflections

From start to finish, this experimental project lasted five and a half 86-minute blocks. Although there were some discouraging moments, it provided us a fresh opportunity to teach project and time-management skills to reluctant learners. The heavily scaffolded requirements and built-in reminders kept students on task, deterring procrastination. As a result, students were able to understand and modernize this classic, while we got a crash course on Snapchat! Ultimately, Jessica's crazy idea turned out to be a fun, engaging, and successful assignment that (mostly) everyone enjoyed.

If you're interested in learning more about Snapchat, I suggest checking out Matt Miller's Snapchat 101 for teachers- what you need to know or just downloading the app and asking a student to give you a quick tutorial. Meet them where they are. You'll both be glad you did.
Amanda Lawrence (@LibrarianMsL) is a first year library media specialist at Dartmouth High School in South Dartmouth, MA. Follow her social media adventures on Snapchat and Instagram @dhs_lmc​.

This article was featured in our free SLJTeen enewsletter.
Subscribe today to have more articles like this delivered to you twice a month.

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Snapchatting "The Odyssey": An Epic Success

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By Amanda Lawrence on Lots of articles have been written about great ways to use Snapchat to brand and promote your library or classroom. This is something different: a glimpse into what happened after a high school librarian and an English teacher learned enough about the app to experiment with it in school.

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With the Poetry Foundation's POETRY mobile app, you can now take hundreds of poems by classic and contemporary poets with you wherever you go.

From William Shakespeare to César Vallejo to Heather McHugh, the Poetry Foundation's app turns your phone into a mobile poetry library:

Search for old favorites with memorable lines.

Give your phone a shake to discover new poems to fit any mood.

Save your favorite poems to read and share later-through Facebook, Twitter, or e-mail.

Read poems by T. S. Eliot, Pablo Neruda, Lucille Clifton, Emily Dickinson, and many others.

Download the POETRY mobile app now for free!

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With the Poetry Foundation's POETRY mobile app, you can now take hundreds of poems by classic and contemporary poets with you wherever you go. From William Shakespeare to César Vallejo to Heather McHugh, the Poetry Foundation's app turns your phone into a mobile poetry library: Search for old favorites with memorable lines.

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an online collaboration tool

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Stop spending hours transcribing notes after a brainstorm. When you download the free Post-it® App, you can instantly capture and share notes with the team without recaps or delays.

Meet your simple, real-time brainstorm app. With Brainstorm Session, you can simply brainstorm ideas, capture notes from the group and organize on a shared board in real-time. Where you work and how you work.

Whether you're working or learning remotely, the Post-it® App is the perfect way to capture and share ideas, keep track of assignments, or create colorful calendars with your friends.

Share across multiple platforms including Dropbox, Trello®, Miro, PowerPoint®, or synced across your devices.

Post-it® Notes come in all shapes and sizes - not just squares. Now your team can create, capture and collaborate with more than just square notes in the Post-it® App!

During distance learning, Kanban boards can be a useful tool to keep learning on track, share answers with teachers, and keep your assignments in order. Learn how to begin here.

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Stop spending hours transcribing notes after a brainstorm. When you download the free Post-it® App, you can instantly capture and share notes with the team without recaps or delays. Meet your simple, real-time brainstorm app. With Brainstorm Session, you can simply brainstorm ideas, capture notes from the group and organize on a shared board in real-time.

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wordle Is a website that combines vocabulary for all types of clouds in both Thai and Thai languages

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HOME - wordle Is a website that combines vocabulary for all types of clouds in both Thai and Thai languages

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Wordle is a wizard. "word cloud" from text as typed by the user The prominence of the cloud depends on the words that appear frequently in the original text. which can customize the characters according to the desired style, such as fonts, layout styles and font color Images created through Wordle can be used in...

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Platforms

Ages of Learners

Categories

Do you want to create movies such as Wallace and Gromit or those groovy Lego shorts on YouTube? Create beautiful stop motion animated movies anywhere instantly on your device. Everything you need at your fingertips. No computer needed. It's simple to use, it's deceptively powerful, and it's tremendous fun. Create fantastic movies your friends will enjoy or share it with the world on Youtube, Facebook and Co. Add cool themes, titles and sound effects right on your device.

Stop Motion Studio helps you to create fantastic movies with several unique features:
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Customize your creative process with optional features.
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Do you want to create movies such as Wallace and Gromit or those groovy Lego shorts on YouTube? Create beautiful stop motion animated movies anywhere instantly on your device. Everything you need at your fingertips. No computer needed. It's simple to use, it's deceptively powerful, and it's tremendous fun.

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Create a visually and editorially engaging full-screen scrolling experience for your audience blending narrative text, maps, 3D scenes, images, videos, etc. Sections containing text and in-line media can be interspersed with "immersive" sections that fill the screen, including map animations and transition effects.

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A series of maps and recorded oral histories that focus in detail on four Syrian refugees' narratives of displacement

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ThingLink: Create unique experiences with interactive images, videos & 360° media

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Easily create interactive and immersive visual experiences for online communication and learning. Start a free trial!

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StoryTelling continues to gain popularity as an educational experience creating MORE "sticking power" for concepts a la brain science as well as developing essential communication skills for a media-rich world vying for attention. StoryTelling stimulates deep thinking, creativity and basic literacies; it also enhances and enriches the learning experience for student voices.

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Poster Templates & Social Media Graphics

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Customizable flyers, posters, social media graphics and videos for your every need. Choose from thousands of professionaly designed templates and customize in minutes. Web quality graphics for FREE! Anyone can do it, no design skills needed! Prices start from only $2.99!

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Splice - Video Editor + Movie Maker by GoPro on the App Store

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Splice - Video Editor + Movie Maker by GoPro on the App Store

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Splice - Video Editor + Movie Maker by GoPro on the App Store

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Read reviews, compare customer ratings, see screenshots, and learn more about Splice - Video Editor + Movie Maker by GoPro. Download Splice - Video Editor + Movie Maker by GoPro and enjoy it on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

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WeVideo | Online Video Editor for Web, Mobile, Windows & OSX

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WeVideo | Online Video Editor for Web, Mobile, Windows & OSX

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Free Online Video Editor | Interactive Video | WeVideo

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The #1 video editor for schools, businesses, and solopreneurs. Create professional-looking multimedia projects with powerful, easy-to-use tools. Try free today!

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To Tweet Or Not to Tweet? Shakespeare Plays Retold, Twitter-Style | HuffPost

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To Tweet Or Not to Tweet? Shakespeare Plays Retold, Twitter-Style | HuffPost

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Once we (my co-author Kim Askew and I) started yanking Shakespeare's plays into the 21st century for our YA series Twisted Lit, we just couldn't stop. Ooops, here we go again. We're such Shakespeare nerds (#humblebrag), we've gone and summarized the legendary playwright's works into "twitter speak" of 140 characters or less. Brevity is, after all, the soul of wit!

Kim and I would love to hear your reactions! Tweet us @KimAskew and @AmyHelmes

Kim and I would love to hear your reactions, your favorites, or your own versions! Tweet us @KimAskew and @AmyHelmes

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To Tweet Or Not to Tweet? Shakespeare Plays Retold, Twitter-Style

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Once we (my co-author Kim Askew and I) started yanking Shakespeare's plays into the 21st century for our YA series Twisted Lit , we just couldn't stop. Ooops, here we go again. We're such Shakespeare nerds (#humblebrag), we've gone and summarized the legendary playwright's works into "twitter speak" of 140 characters or less.

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Visual Thinking Tools for Design Thinking

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Visual Thinking Tools for Design Thinking

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"Finding the Journal of Odysseus" is an ARG inspired pervasive game designed to pair with my reading of Homer's Odyssey in 7th grade English. It uses ARG style puzzles and narrative to engage students in their reading of the Odyssey as well as to emphasize critical thinking, collaboration, technological and creative skill sets within a game-based learning context.

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How to Transform The Odyssey into an Epic Game in Alternate Reality | MindShift | KQED News

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How to Transform The Odyssey into an Epic Game in Alternate Reality | MindShift | KQED News

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How would Homer have told the story of as a game? What would participatory learning look like in ancient times? Learning about the lessons raised in classics like The Odyssey is getting a fresh perspective thanks to several educators who have started experimenting with how alternate reality games (ARGs) can be used as an immersive learning system that combines rich narrative, digital technology, and real-world game play.

John Fallon, a Fairfield Country Day School teacher and game enthusiast, brings game-based learning to The Odyssey with a game he designed called Dolus: Finding the Journal of Odysseus. Many educators today struggle to keep the classics relevant for a generation reared in the fast paced world of Internet and video games, and Fallon's game bridges the classical past with the digital future for his seventh grade English students. Rather than merely reading about the adventures of Odysseus in English class, students can walk a mile in his shoes by channeling the skillset of the Greek hero who masterminded the Trojan Horse and outwitted the Cyclops. Students must exercise critical thinking, resilience, and creative problem solving to succeed in an ARG.

The idea came to Fallon while playing The Secret World, a video game that incorporates real-world browser searches to help solve puzzles. "It all hit me at once," remembered Fallon. "The portability of cross-media ARG puzzles, the use of real world information in a fictional game world, and the ancient Siren-song of puzzle solving. Immediately, the game about the crafty thief who stole the journal of Odysseus was born."

Fallon drew his students into the game's narrative with a bogus BBC News story about the theft of recently discovered ancient Greek manuscripts. A riddle concealed within the article led players to master-thief Dolus, who challenged them to follow his trail of clues and re-assemble the lost journal of Odysseus. Clues and puzzles were distributed across QR codes, password protected videos, PDF files, and a variety of web 2.0 tools. He also enlisted his school's IT department and fellow teachers to help deliver hints in a variety of unexpected ways. One puzzle required finding a Freemason symbol, which a few perceptive players discovered pinned to the lapel of their History teacher, a practicing Mason. Once they gave him the correct password and passed a quick test on Masonic iconography, they received a key to help them unscramble a cipher that unlocked the next step.

Sticking to the "this is not a game" ethos common to ARGs, Fallon feigned ignorance and never admitted to know anything about the month-long caper. "Students had to identify, research, and master a variety of different codes and ciphers. They had to parse difficult riddles - with no guidance from me - and solve multiple phase problems and then synthesize their findings to succeed," said Fallon.

ARGs are not for everybody, but Fallon noted that students who were not typically motivated in his class kicked into high gear, some laboring into the wee hours at home to untangle a conundrum.

This type of elaborate puzzle solving is standard fare for mainstream ARGs. Originating in the early 1990s, ARGs are designed and run by development teams called "puppet masters" who combine the digital and the real to deliver intricate narratives that blur the line between reality and fiction. Players enjoy a great deal of agency as they solve elaborate puzzles while they negotiate a world of phony websites and documents, midnight phone calls, and park bench envelope exchanges, to name a few of the tactics that can make these games indistinguishable from everyday life.

Educational versions tend to be scaled down to accommodate specific learning objectives and operate safely within a school setting. Fallon's model shows that any motivated teacher can design and run their own ARG without programming skills, specialized technical knowledge or a big budget. This is assisted by the availability of free or inexpensive user-friendly, web-based tools, and digital software. The modular nature of ARGs also lets educators decide how simple or complex they want to make their game, and allows them to choose elements that best suit their unique circumstances.
Alternate Reality's Impact on Real Life
While they can be played from elementary school to college, most existing educational examples are found in middle schools. "It's a developmental period of transition where kids begin to build and exercise critical thinking skills," said Dr. Tanner Higgin, who helped produce the United Colonies ARG. "They are still relatively untainted by the social pressures and inhibitions that set in with growing older and they are also less entrenched/acclimated to the traditional school model."

Despite the paucity of studies specific to educational ARGs, this new learning system combines three ingredients whose benefits are supported by a growing body of research: game-based learning, embodied learning and the use of transmedia in education. Jane McGonigal, author of Reality is Broken, draws one distinction between video games and ARGs:

Historically, in fact, most ARGs, like most computer and video games, have been designed simply to be fun and emotionally satisfying. But my research shows that because ARGs are played in real-world contexts, instead of in virtual spaces, they almost always have at least the side effect of improving our real lives.

ARGs are not for everybody, but Fallon noted that students who were not typically motivated in his class kicked into high gear, some laboring into the wee hours at home to untangle a conundrum. To succeed in Dolus, students had to inhere the very qualities that helped the cunning Odysseus to prevail on his journey. "Odysseus is mortal and without superpowers but, above all, he's a tenacious problem solver," explained Fallon. "He is put into seemingly impossible situations and, through sheer human ingenuity and persistence, he finds a way out."

Students wrote their own creative adaptations of The Odyssey to conclude the unit. Fallon noticed a substantial improvement in the quality of the work over past more traditional deliveries of the lesson. "They did a better job of making their individual versions of Odysseus more clever and better problem solvers rather than just a cardboard cutout hero who bashes his way through problems. This likely stems from having experienced some difficult problem solving of their own in similar circumstances."
Empathy for Injustice
The multidisciplinary potential for these games ranges far beyond English class, as their narrative and content can be tailored to accommodate a broad rang of subjects and learning outcomes.

"Any situated learning experience can most definitely promote learning better than traditional pedagogical strategies and there's some good research to support the benefits," said Randall Fujimoto, an instructional designer and former video game developer who founded GameTrain Learning, a not-for-profit that helps schools implement game-based learning initiatives. Inspired by The Beast, a sci-fi whodunit ARG designed to promote the film A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Fujimoto felt that the dynamic and embodied gameplay could make a potent learning tool.

Fujimoto was so enthralled with the idea that he decided to focus on how ARGs could be used in the classroom for his masters thesis, ultimately developing a game focused on the Japanese experience of internment camps during World War II. In Arising from Injustice, students are contacted to investigate why Dr. Alice Sasaki had been found unconscious in her lab. To wake her from her coma, players must access her high-tech Memory History Cognition device and reconstruct her memories as a Japanese American in the 1940s. In ARG parlance, this is known as the rabbit hole - the initial event or clue that pulls players into the game world.

The modular, web-based narrative relays the story of the Japanese Americans with eclectic historical documents and media, including pictures, letters, journals, videos and audio. In classic ARG style, players progress from Pearl Harbor to post-war resettlement by solving puzzles, following clues, and carrying out assignments and sharing their findings on a group discussion board. The game was designed to service a wide range of age groups and was trialed by eighth graders at Tomodachi Gakko, a summer camp whose focus on Japanese American heritage fit well with the game's theme.

Arising from Injustice embeds clear learning objectives within the narrative. Players evaluate and analyze primary documents to determine the social conditions that precipitated prejudice and discrimination against Japanese Americans. They also hone their media literacy skills by synthesizing their learning in collaborative media projects where they support their research with primary sources. All of these fit with Common Core standards, and post-game surveys indicated that players were not only engaged, but that the intended learning outcomes were achieved.

But perhaps the most important lesson learned was one of empathy.

"The game puts players in a situated learning environment where they must interact and empathize with various characters in order to succeed," said Fujimoto. While playing Arising from Injustice, students experienced the hardships and discriminations suffered by Japanese Americans through the eyes of the victim. One player reported that "you could really put yourself in Alice's shoes," highlighting the game's capacity to emotionally connect players to their subject. Dr. Mary Flanagan and Jonathan Belman's research supports that games can be designed to foster empathy, a quality that not only produces better human beings, but also better learners.
The Anytime, Anywhere World of United Colonies
One fall morning, sixth grade students from the PlayMaker School in Santa Monica were surprised to find a mysterious note labeled "UV got a message" in their lockers. A few students eventually connected it to an ultraviolet bulb that had appeared in their classroom and, when the note was placed under the UV light, a secret set of instructions was revealed.

For the rest of the school year, the United Colonies ARG led players along an elaborate trail of clues that included books with hidden compartments, alien codes, meteors inscribed with cuneiforms, and even a bacon puzzle. Not tied to any one class or subject, but drawing from many, the game added an extracurricular layer that extended beyond the classroom. "The ARG made school an anytime, anywhere experience, a thread running between and within classes and carrying through to home," said designer Mike Minadeo, the game's creator.

Participation in the game was entirely voluntary and outcomes were not attached to grades or points. "Students self-selected to be involved and were driven purely by interest, curiosity, and excitement of the unknown to figure things out together," said Higgin, who was lead researcher at GameDesk when he worked with Minadeo to develop United Colonies.

Any object in their midst might be a code, a message or the start of a puzzle, so their learning environment was transformed into a spatial text that was alive with possibilities. The school's neglected online discussion board was reinvigorated as game-related updates and information were actively exchanged. Students crafted their own riddles, and even started a club for designing ARGs, an important shift from students consuming games to creating them.

Students were clearly engaged, but what did they learn?

"The United Colonies ARG explored how learning opportunities could be presented through a transmedia platform that inspired associative learning, gritty persistence, cross-disciplinary thinking, and critical analysis," Minadeo said. The creators found academic support in Dr. Angela Lee Duckworth's work on grit and a scholarly article from MIT press that identifies seven core literacies delivered by ARGs: gather, make sense, manage, solve, create, respect and collaborate. In an effort to make the project available to teachers, the game designers posted a detailed lesson plan to GameDesk's Educade site, outlining how the game fulfills specific learning outcomes and Common Core standards.
A Rethinking of Roles
Some educators are convinced that alternate reality games have huge potential to invigorate learning environments, but they face some implementation challenges. Administrators operating in a risk-averse climate of national standards and testing want to see clearly defined learning outcomes and assessment strategies to accompany any new teaching strategy. ARGs also take time to plan and ask that teachers think differently about how they delivery their instructional material.

Good ARGs are often custom crafted to specific classrooms and schools, making them difficult to transfer into new environments, Fallon said. Further study, experimentation, dedicated technology and user-friendly ARG designs will not only help overcome hurdles, but also open the door for other dynamic, immersive games that combine digital media and reality. ARGs may also occasion a rethinking of the roles of teachers and schools.

United Colonies is a product of the collaboration between educators and game designers; a model espoused by schools like Quest to Learn in New York City and CICS ChicagoQuest in Chicago. These charters might be forecasting a future where game and learning environment designers become standard personnel who work in conjunction with teachers in schools and districts, making initiatives like ARGs more feasible.

Alternately, John Fallon is a model of the autonomous teacher-designer, who relies more on holistic creativity and resourcefulness than specialized knowledge. Teachers may welcome the opportunity to engage their students and invigorate their practice with a unique creative outlet. Perhaps they need only take a page from Odysseus's book and, like their students, push the creative boundaries, problem solve and overcome adversity with resilience.

How to Transform The Odyssey into an Epic Game in Alternate Reality

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How to Transform The Odyssey into an Epic Game in Alternate Reality

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How would Homer have told the story of as a game? What would participatory learning look like in ancient times? Learning about the lessons raised in classics like The Odyssey is getting a fresh perspective thanks to several educators who have started experimenting with how alternate reality games (ARGs) can be used as an immersive learning system that combines rich narrative, digital technology, and real-world game play.

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fun story writing prompts to headstart and practice creativity

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Apprendre à jouer à Rory's Story Cubes

Partager avec la communauté

Nous contacter !

Vous souhaitez nous laisser un mot doux ou nous poser une question ?

Nous écrire

POZNAJ INNE GRY Z NASZEJ OFERTY

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Apprendre à jouer à Rory's Story Cubes Partager avec la communauté Vous souhaitez nous laisser un mot doux ou nous poser une question ? Nous écrire POZNAJ INNE GRY Z NASZEJ OFERTY

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Online Character Count Tool

A while back I needed to count the amount of letters that a piece of text in an email template had (to avoid passing any character limits). Unfortunately, I could not think of a quick way to do so on my macbook and I therefore turned to the Internet.

There were a couple of tools out there, but none of them met my standards and since I am a web designer I thought: why not do it myself and help others along the way? And... here is the result, hope it helps out!

What is this?

Character Count Online is a free online character and word counting tool.
All results are immediately shown and it is ridiculously easy to use and of course, the service is completely free.

How is it used?

You can copy and paste your text with the characters to count in the text area above, or you can type your characters and words into the text area. The counter will be updated instantly, displaying the amount of characters, words, sentences, paragraphs and whitespace in your text, not to mention that the keyword density (which you can configure from the options menu) is also displayed.

Which devices does the counter work on?

Character Count Online works on absolutely any device.

No matter if you have a mobile phone, computer, console or tablet the counter will work perfectly!

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A while back I needed to count the amount of letters that a piece of text in an email template had (to avoid passing any character limits). Unfortunately, I could not think of a quick way to do so on my macbook and I therefore turned to the Internet.

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Copy of VCCL - L1 - Visualizing Themes - Google Docs

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Copy of VCCL - L1 - Visualizing Themes - Google Docs

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Maker Challenge: Invent an Underground Civilization - YouTube

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Maker Challenge: Invent an Underground Civilization - YouTube

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Maker Challenge: Invent an Underground Civilization

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Receive a free maker challenge each Thursday by signing up at http://www.spencerauthor.com/challenge/ Transcript: Invent a civilization that exists entirely underground. 1. What is the culture like? What type of food do they eat? What is their music like? What type of art do they create? What are their beliefs and how do they communicate them?

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Spoken Walls Design Thinking Project - an example

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Spoken Walls Design Thinking Project - an example

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A presentation deck for introducing educators to the Project MASH design thinking process during a 90-minute peer workshop.

A presentation deck for training educators on the design thinking process during a half-day workshop.

A presentation deck for training educators on the design thinking process during a full day workshop.

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A presentation deck for introducing educators to the Project MASH design thinking process during a 90-minute peer workshop. A presentation deck for training educators on the design thinking process during a half-day workshop. A presentation deck for training educators on the design thinking process during a full day workshop.

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Crowdsourced Collaborative Creativity space for those who seek to foster creativity on a a daily basis

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It's 2150

There are all sorts of Aliens living throughout space.
Johnny is a Space Delivery Man who travels to different planets to deliver packages.
Johnny is lazy and his only desire is to sleep in his autopilot spaceship.
when the spaceship arrives at the destination, all he has to do is simply deliver the box.
However, it never goes as planned. Johnny encounters strange and bizarre planets 
and always seems to cause trouble on his delivery route.
 
Will he be able to finish his mission without trouble?

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How Might We the Content?: Applying Design Thinking in a High School English Classroom

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How Might We the Content?: Applying Design Thinking in a High School English Classroom

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. . we forget that we can be playful and try wild ideas in the pursuit of academic learning . . .

Empathy-fueled, human-centered problem solving is picking up tremendous traction as of late, thanks in no small part to fantastic introductions to design thinking's educational value from Thomas Riddle and Susie Wise on Edutopia.

Three years and counting into my journey with design thinking, Mary Cantwell's DEEPdt process serves as my springboard, Twitter community #dtk12chat, my comrades in ideating arms, and the Mount Vernon Institute for Innovation's FUSE experience as resonating reminder, I'm in a constant state of vision and revision with integrating DT into my teaching. Rather than seeing this cycle as a reason for frustration - as one might think after three years of deep investment (pun fully intended) - design thinking continues to infuse me (the puns keep coming) with hope and enthusiasm.

DEEPdt plays well with content area teaching because it so well mirrors Bloom's Taxonomy and guides students toward higher order thinking. (Other design thinking frameworks do as well - I borrow tools, protocols, and ideas from others all the time - DEEPdt just happens to be the one that suits my brain and my users best.)

DISCOVER. Here students delve into the content knowledge. What do we need to know about ________ in order to solve ___________?

What do we need to know about George and Lennie in order to design a homestead that will meet their needs? What do we need to know about their character traits? What do we need to know about argument in order to craft editorials that compel readers to take action? What do we need to know about commas and indicators for pause in order to craft speeches that achieve a particular tone?

And still there are other questions that invite inquiry and discovery into our problem solving. What might we need to know about writing structures and formats? What might they need to know about literary devices? What might they need to know about the current vocabulary or the grammatical devices at play? What might they need to know about the character or plot in a given text? What might they need to know about the symbolism or metaphors employed?

EMPATHIZE. And here we identify the point of view of the users involved. Those users might be readers of essays and stories or the audience of speeches, presentation and debates. They might also be the characters in a novel or the speaker of a poem.

Writing as an act of problem-solving begins with the basic premise that a writer is a designer, so long as one considers the act of writing an audience-centered experience rather than an author-centered one. When we write for ourselves, we our meeting our own needs. Whenever we write for others, there is audience and thus, user. Sometimes those users are the teachers, sometimes peers and community, sometimes a less defined, yet far more public readership.

Reading as an act of problem solving begins with the basic premise that the subject of the text - whether protagonist or antagonist, fictional or non - has been placed in those circumstances, on that page, with intention on the part of the author. Understanding that subject's motivations in light of the conflicts present, his or her character traits and extent of development, the structure of the plot may yield tremendous insight into the themes of the text. The uncovering of the author's intentions and application of that author's techniques and ideas in unique ways, particular those that solve problems raised in the text, opens all sorts of possibilities for ways to demonstrate understanding.

How might we design a sanctuary for Melinda of Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak, an alternative closing argument for Harper Lee's Atticus, a collateral-damage-proof plot for Hamlet's revenge?

How might we stage Romeo & Juliet in a way that casts them as the villains and the rest of the cast as their victims? How might we use Fitzgerald's language as commentary on 2016 celebrity culture? How might we transform the words of Ellison and Hughes into lyrics for socially conscious hip-hop?

EXPERIMENT. Self explanatory yet sometimes we forget that we can be playful and try wild ideas in the pursuit of academic learning. Here we might substitute "how might we . . .?" with "what if . . .?"

What if students write three intentionally terrible introductions, share them with their classmates, and identify the trends across them that let us know they are terrible? What if they organize those trends and create cheat sheets to help them. How might the guides they create become tools for their peers in the future?

What if students crafted twenty memes in twenty minutes as pre-cursor to a close reading, text-based discussion? What if those memes became the jumping on points for discussion and points of critical discourse?

What if students employed LEGO constructs as a means of demonstrating the rhetorical structure of a poem and used more elaborate constructs to represent entire collections of verse?

PRODUCE. Rather than looking at production as an end point and a point for grading, design thinking emphasizes feedback, the opportunity for revision and new iterations. It plays along gloriously well with the writing process and one might argue even enhances that process as the goal is reaching an audience through intention, rather than simply going through the motions of a process.

How might we provide meaningful feedback that balances critique with encouragement? How might we inspire new ideas and possibilities with our feedback? How might documenting our writing process help us to identify our intentions with each revision? How might we link our revisions to particular feedback in order to assess the value of both the change and the feedback given? How might effective citations help us learn where one another's ideas came from and help us to be better critics of one another's ideas?

The above are just a few ways to tackle English language arts curriculum through the lens of design. Some have been robust explorations I've done with students, others one day sprints, and yet others notions and fancies that I've just yet to find the time to put into practice.

And they all started with, "How might we . . .?" each representing an opportunity for inquiry and possibility, solution and iteration.

Dan Ryder is an educator, improviser and design thinker from the foothills of western Maine who spends every day trying to make the world a little more interesting than he found it. A moderator of #dtk12chat and #edchatme, follow him @wickeddecent on If you like what you've read, be sure to hit recommend below, to pass the story along to your followers! As always, consider following The Synapse for more authentic voices in Education! , I, and . Keep tabs on his efforts to walk the talk on his classroom blog at flight307.blogspot.com and with his co-conspirators Jeff Bailey and Matt Drewette-Card at Wicked Decent Learning.

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How Might We the Content?: Applying Design Thinking in a High School English Classroom

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we forget that we can be playful and try wild ideas in the pursuit of academic learning . . . Empathy-fueled, human-centered problem solving is picking up tremendous traction as of late, thanks in no small part to fantastic introductions to design thinking's educational value from Thomas Riddle and Susie Wise on Edutopia.

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Mematic - Make your own Memes! The Meme Maker for iPhone, iPad and Android

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Mematic - Make your own Memes! The Meme Maker for iPhone, iPad and Android

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Make your own meme

Add funny captions to popular images or your own photos.

Choose your own style

You can choose either the famous Demotivational style or you can choose the popular Advice Animal.
With a few taps you can add captions to any picture and share them with your friends.

Share your creations

Share all your creations with your friends, directly from Mematic: Upload to Facebook and Twitter or send your memes by mail, iMessage and Whatsapp - it's super easy!

Download Mematic now, it's free!

Make your own memes with Mematic, the Meme Generator.
Mematic is available for iPhone, iPad and Android.

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Mematic for iPhone and iPad - Make your own memes!

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Add funny captions to popular images or your own photos. You can choose either the famous Demotivational style or you can choose the popular Advice Animal. With a few taps you can add captions to any picture and share them with your friends.

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storyboarding or story inspiration game

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Storyboard That: The World's Best Free Online Storyboard Creator

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Storyboard That: The World's Best Free Online Storyboard Creator

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Rostering

Compatible with popular learning management systems such as Google Classroom, Clever, Canvas, ClassLink, and Schoology, Storyboard That makes organizing your students, classes, and assignments a breeze. In addition, sharing assignments with students and keeping track of their progress is as easy as clicking a button.

Real Time Collaboration

Knowing how to work together is an important part of a child's education. Students will love working in pairs and in small groups on the same storyboard!

Want your students to add writing to their storyboards? We've got tons of options for speech and text.

The storyboard creator free trial for teachers allows you to try out all of the premium features for two weeks. Thousands of copyable activities, worksheets, and posters are yours to use and keep in your storyboard library. Educators love Storyboard That because it helps students process and understand the information in a deep, meaningful way. When students storyboard, they are actively engaged in the learning process and can make connections between the text and their own lives.

Storyboards also promote higher-level thinking by encouraging students to synthesize information and think critically about what they have read. Finally, storyboards are a great way to assess student understanding because they provide a visual representation of student learning.

Storyboard That is the perfect tool for novel lesson plans and activities because it's so easy to use and extremely versatile. With Storyboard That, you can create a wide variety of storyboards such as the story from the main character's perspective, or any other character's point of view.

By combining the storyboard maker with your lesson plans, you can adhere to the curriculum and required standards, while ensuring that your students will be engaged and excited to learn. Another added bonus is that our premade lesson plans are aligned with the Common Core!

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Free Storyboarding Software - Online Storyboard Creator | StoryboardThat

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Create storyboards with our free storyboard software! ⚡ Try 1 month for $1 ✩ Filmmakers, teachers, students, & businesses all love using ❰Storyboard That❱ for storyboarding & comics online!

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HaikuJAM: write poems together on the App Store

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HaikuJAM: write poems together on the App Store

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HaikuJAM: write poems together on the App Store

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Read reviews, compare customer ratings, see screenshots and learn more about HaikuJAM: write poems together. Download HaikuJAM: write poems together and enjoy it on your iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

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Storify Update

Thank you for being a Storify customer and for submitting stories that have enriched our community over the years. As of May 16, 2018 Storify is no longer available. Please read the FAQ for more information.

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Storify - Create stories using social media

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Thank you for being a Storify customer and for submitting stories that have enriched our community over the years. As of May 16, 2018 Storify is no longer available. Please read the FAQ for more information.

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Toolsuite for visualizing and exploring passages of text.

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Read reviews, compare customer ratings, see screenshots, and learn more about We Read Too. Download We Read Too and enjoy it on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

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Literary Analysis Guide on the App Store

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Literary Analysis Guide on the App Store

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Literary Analysis Guide on the App Store

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Read reviews, compare customer ratings, see screenshots, and learn more about Literary Analysis Guide. Download Literary Analysis Guide and enjoy it on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

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Reading List : keep track of your books on the App Store

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Reading List : keep track of your books on the App Store

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Reading List : keep track of your books on the App Store

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Read reviews, compare customer ratings, see screenshots, and learn more about Reading List : keep track of your books. Download Reading List : keep track of your books and enjoy it on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

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Exploring Shakespeare | Shakespeare for Kids | Globe Education / Shakespeare's Globe

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Exploring Shakespeare | Shakespeare for Kids | Globe Education / Shakespeare's Globe

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Sparking the curiosity to learn and have fun

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CultureStreet - Workshops

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CultureStreet - Workshops

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BiblioNasium is a free, protected social network for children ages 6-13 designed to engage, encourage and excite young people about reading.

Packed with tools - and the power of peer and parental support - BiblioNasium functions as your Literacy partner, helping you quickly and easily build and drive an effective, challenging independent reading program.

With BiblioNasium you can:
Tailor reading programs to students' individual needs
Monitor student reading logs, create reading challenges, help students expand genre choices and tailor reading lists - all online and un-lose-able! Build and administer programs by group, class, grade and by individual student, regardless of reading level.
Track valuable data
Track and get BiblioNasium reports on what each student is reading and at what level, using Lexile® measures provided onsite for thousands of books. Track progress of individual students, groups, classes or grades as a whole.
Keep kids' organized in their independent reading
BiblioNasium's virtual bookshelves help kids keep track of what they've read, what they like, and what they plan to read.
Foster peer-to-peer support
Kids are encouraged to share book recommendations and share books, building conversation and connections around reading.
Supplement your "team"
BiblioNasium mascot and reading coach Chip Manzee motivates and entertains kids, challenging them and rewarding good reading behavior. Our virtual reading rewards and recognition complement your in-class acknowledgement of a job well done.

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BiblioNasium is a free, protected social network for children ages 6-13 designed to engage, encourage and excite young people about reading. Packed with tools - and the power of peer and parental support - BiblioNasium functions as your Literacy partner, helping you quickly and easily build and drive an effective, challenging independent reading program.

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Opinion, news, and lists from the book people at Booklist, Book Links, and Booklist Online

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Stacks – A Modern Reading List on the App Store

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Stacks – A Modern Reading List on the App Store

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Stacks - A Modern Reading List on the App Store

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Read reviews, compare customer ratings, see screenshots, and learn more about Stacks - A Modern Reading List. Download Stacks - A Modern Reading List and enjoy it on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

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Diversity Book Lists & Activities for Teachers and Parents - Multicultural Children's Book Day

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Diversity Book Lists & Activities for Teachers and Parents - Multicultural Children's Book Day

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But respecting and understanding all the different cultures that we live with? That's the next step. Articles about Diversity in Children's Literature
Diversity Book Lists and Activities for Teachers and Parents

This is List of Lists so you can find the books you need. Every blue title is a link to more book lists on that topic.

But First...Some More FREE Stuff!

View our FREE Classroom Poverty Kit and Physical and Developmental Challenges Classroom Kit HERE.
Classroom Kindness Kit: Diverse book list, activities and posters. Classroom Empathy Kit: Diverse book list covering immigration and refugee experience, activities, posters, and discussion guide.
Diversity Book Lists & Activities for Teachers and Parents

It's also broken out by country/geographic area:

It's also broken out by holiday and/or religion.

Seeing Yourself in Children's Books

Diversity Books By Genre

Find more diversity, multicultural, and inclusive books on our Multicultural Children's Book Day Pinterest Board. Follow on Pinterest to get daily updates.

Follow PragmaticMom's board Multicultural Books for Kids on Pinterest.

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Diversity Book Lists & Activities for Teachers and Parents - Multicultural Children's Book Day

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Our goal? Tolerance is one thing. But respecting and understanding all the different cultures that we live with? That's the next step. Articles about Diversity in Children's Literature Diversity Book Lists and Activities for Teachers and Parents This is List of Lists so you can find the books you need.

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Home - Windows and Mirrors - LibGuides at The Fenn School

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Home - Windows and Mirrors - LibGuides at The Fenn School

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Edelweiss+, by Above the Treeline, is the book industry's platform to sell, discover, and order new titles. Work better, read more.

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Libby, by OverDrive - an app for library ebooks and audiobooks

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Libby, by OverDrive - an app for library ebooks and audiobooks

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Download the Libby App: ebooks & audiobooks FREE from your library

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All you need is a library card to access ebooks, audiobooks and more for free! Read & listen to books with just a tap in our award-winning app! Need a library card? Libby may be able to help!

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OverDrive (Rakuten OverDrive): eBooks, audiobooks and videos for libraries · OverDrive (Rakuten OverDrive): eBooks, audiobooks and videos for libraries

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OverDrive (Rakuten OverDrive): eBooks, audiobooks and videos for libraries · OverDrive (Rakuten OverDrive): eBooks, audiobooks and videos for libraries

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Search and borrow from OverDrive's huge catalogue of eBooks, audiobooks and videos

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Borrow eBooks, audiobooks and videos from thousands of public libraries worldwide.

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Bookopolis is a safe online community for young readers to share their favorite books and discover new ones

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Grade 6 - Cradle of Humankind by Anthony Egbers

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Grade 6 - Cradle of Humankind by Anthony Egbers

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example of how to create your own text book/templates for students to complete

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Read this free ebook by Anthony Egbers. Find thousands of free educational ebooks for classroom use at read.bookcreator.com

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Waiting for the Biblioburro by Monica Brown, illustrated by John Parra

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Waiting for the Biblioburro by Monica Brown, illustrated by John Parra

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Example of how to use padlet to expand background knowledge for a book

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Story Elements HyperDoc (4th. Unit 1. #14) - Google Slides

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Story Elements HyperDoc (4th. Unit 1. #14) - Google Slides

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Example of how to use padlet as a way to have students think about different charcters

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Graph visualization of: DebateGraph has over 25,000 maps now, and you can explore some of the leading examples here. You can use the Search tab to find maps on other topics - and also create a personal gallery of your own featured maps using DebateGraphs Poster feature.

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JEOPARODY - The Best Jeopardy Style Powerpoint Template on the Internet

Description:

Designed in 2016, this is the best free customizable Jeopardy style powerpoint template game on the internet. It has sound effects, updated graphics, smooth animation, and Final Jeoparody. The categories come blank, so you can add in your own custom categories and questions for use for your ministry, class room, reunion, training meeting, etc. It is simple to edit, and sure to be a big hit. ( View the Youtube TUTORIAL below)

Note: This game template is not endorsed by, or affiliated in any way with the TV game show, "Jeopardy!". It is a parody game.

More details

On the game board, there are 6 categories with 5 questions each. This means there are 30 questions and answers in all that you will need to create.

There is a score board version available at the bottom as well.

If you want people to be able to BUZZ IN, here are some simple game buzzers , and here is a super cool high tech wireless set if you've got the resources to get them 🙂

Please let me know if you find any glitches. Thanks -Reid

Jeopardy Powerpoint Template Features:

Download Size: 13mb

Format: Powerpoint

Word of advice: Test this out thoroughly before you use it.

These Holiday versions are also available with pre-filled questions and answers:

Price: Donate if you want to 🙂

● The Jeoparody Powerpoint is free, but you can donate to the site to keep us going.Just fill out the box below and donate something if you want to. If not, just put a $0 in the box.
● It also helps us get back to you sooner if you have a question.
●
● Click "Get Download Link" once the box is filled out, and you will instantly be emailed a link. (we will never email you again - we hate spam...)

Thanks!

Download the Standard Version (MAC & PC):

Download the Scoreboard Version (PC ONLY):

Note: This game template is not endorsed by, or affiliated in any way with the TV game show, "Jeopardy!".

You can check out Jeopardy's official website here.

Editing the Jeoparody Powerpoint Template - Tutorial:

Take a minute to watch a video I made about bringing clean water to Africa.
Categories: Games, Tags: jeopardy, jeopardy powerpoint, jeopardy powerpoint game template, powerpoint games Home Page, powerpoint games, Powerpoint Games Feautured

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Jeopardy Powerpoint Game Template - Youth Downloads

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Designed in 2016, this is the best free customizable Jeopardy style powerpoint template game on the internet. It has sound effects, updated graphics, smooth animation, and Final Jeoparody. The categories come blank, so you can add in your own custom categories and questions for use for your ministry, class room, reunion, training meeting, etc.

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Story Elements HyperDoc (4th. Unit 1. #14) - Google Slides

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Story Elements HyperDoc (4th. Unit 1. #14) - Google Slides

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Flipgrid - Video for student engagement and formative assessment

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Flipgrid - Video for student engagement and formative assessment

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We express ourselves in different ways. On Flip, you can use our simple and fun built-in camera to record your thoughts, add effects and share within your Flip group as video, audio only or text in your web browser or mobile app.

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Flip is a video discussion and sharing app, free from Microsoft.

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Flip (formerly Flipgrid) is a video discussion and video sharing app, free from Microsoft, built for classrooms and beyond. Learn more.

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You Need to Update Your Browser

SmartDraw is the best way to make diagrams like flowcharts, org charts, floor plans, and more. You will need a modern, standards compliant browser to run SmartDraw.

It looks like you're using an older browser that is not compatible.

We recommend you update your browser to the most recent version:

If you think you're seeing this page in error, please don't hesitate to submit a request with our support team.

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SmartDraw is the Best Way to Make a Diagram

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SmartDraw is the best way to make diagrams like flowcharts, org charts, floor plans, and more. SmartDraw offers a way for teams to use diagrams to capture and share information and collaborate on projects and initiatives of all sizes.

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Gamestar Mechanic
uses fun, game-based quests and courses to help you learn game design and make your own video games!

Want more info?

Privacy policy

With Gamestar Mechanic, you can

Play and Learn

Go on Quests that power up your game design skills and let you earn items you can use to make your own games

Take Courses

Take game design courses with professional instructors and get feedback on your designs from game industry pros

Make Your Own Games

Make original games with a powerful, easy-to-use design tool and a library of hundreds of sprites

Join the Community

Publish your games and connect with a community of over 250,000 designers whose games have been played over 5 million times

Awards and Accolades

KAPi Award for Innovation in Children's Media 2011

IndieCade Finalist 2011

5 stars from CommonSense Media

American Association of School Librarians Best Website for Teaching & Learning 2012

2011 International SeriousPlay Awards Gold Medal Winner

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Gamestar Mechanicuses fun, game-based quests and courses to help you learn game design and make your own video games!

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Last Fall, Synth was shut down

Thank you for believing in the power of audio, from podcasting in the classroom to building relationships asynchronously.

We've turned our attention to Focusable, a new tool for students, teachers, and those seeking to improve their ability to focus.

If you need help getting access to your content please reach out by June 14th, 2023 at support@gosynth.com

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Last Fall, Synth was shut down Thank you for believing in the power of audio, from podcasting in the classroom to building relationships asynchronously. We've turned our attention to Focusable, a new tool for students, teachers, and those seeking to improve their ability to focus.

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PowToon for education online animated presentation software

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PowToon for education online animated presentation software

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PowToon - Brings Awesomeness to your presentations

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PowToon is a brand new presentation tool that allows you to create animated presentations and cartoon style videos just by dragging and dropping.

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Intention: Critical Creativity in the Classroom 

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Intention: Critical Creativity in the Classroom 

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this book has MANY lesson plans to use in an english class, allowing students to make while also practice literature skills.

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intention: critical creativity in the classroom

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education / teaching methods & materials / arts & humanities

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education/teaching methods & materials - language arts

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Intention: Critical Creativity in the Classroom

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Includes foreword by Howard Rheingold, a Creativity Credo and tips for "Crushing it with Creativity"...How might we choreograph a short story, remix a political party, sketchnote an equation, costume a scientific phenomenon, or hashtag a nutrition plan? Veteran classroom educators, Amy ...

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an exercise to help students learn more about characters in a novel - what they say, do, think, and feel - and collect evidence from text

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Why use an empathy Map

Good design is grounded in a deep understanding of the person for whom you are designing. Designers have many techniques for developing this sort of empathy. An Empathy Map is one tool to help us synthesize our observations and draw out unexpected insights.

We teach it as a synthesis tool to help quickly uncover latent user needs. By introducing this synthesis tool and others, students are provided with tools to help them quickly go through their notes from needfinding in the field to distill down to what are the golden nuggets of opportunity.

How to use an Empathy Map

UNPACK: Create a four quadrant layout on paper or a whiteboard. Populate the map by taking note of the following four traits of your user as you review your notes, audio, and video from your fieldwork:
SAY: What are some quotes and defining words your user said?
DO: What actions and behaviors did you notice?
THINK: What might your user be thinking?What does this tell you about his or her beliefs?
FEEL: What emotions might your subject be feeling?

Note that thoughts/beliefs and feelings/emotions cannot be observed directly. They must be inferred by paying careful attention to various clues. Pay attention to body language, tone, and choice of words.

IDENTIFY NEEDS: "Needs" are human emotional or physical necessities and desires. Needs help define your design challenge.Remember: Needs are verbs (activities and desires with which your user could use help), not nouns (solutions). Identify needs directly out of the user traits you noted, or from contradictions between two traits - such as a disconnect between what she says and what she does. Write down needs on the side of your Empathy Map.

IDENTIFY INSIGHTS: An "Insight" is a remarkable realization that you could leverage to better respond to a design challenge.Insights often grow from contradictions between two user attributes (either within a quadrant or from two different quadrants) or from asking yourself "Why?" when you notice strange behavior. Write down potential insights on the side of your Empathy Map.

How do we teach it?

This can be introduced as a synthesis tool to be used after going to the field for needfinding. A method that might be introduced previous to this method is Grouping. Grouping will produce a specific and defined User Group to build a User Empathy Map around. The other option is to do a User Empathy map for one single user. In this case, the words 'User Group' as illustrated below at the top of the map, would be replaced with the User Name or description.

Steps to building the map:
Draw a map on a horizontal surface that displays the following:

2. Populate each section of the map with the following mindsets in each quadrant. On the whole, go for vivid descriptors!:
Quotes & defining words--Capture specific quotes from the user, as well as any unusual phrases or words that 'struck' you as something that might contain a deeper meaning.
Actions & behaviors--Capture things you saw the user (or group of users) doing. Writing down specific details or even drawing out diagrams can be useful here. Thoughts & beliefs--This quadrant should contain phrases that begin with "I think..." or "I believe..." that were specifically stated by the user. You might also capture other thoughts & beliefs that may not have been explicitly stated but can be inferred from what the user said. Feelings & emotions--Capture feelings and emotions that the user displayed or talked about having. Capturing feelings and emotions that specific experiences elicited will also be useful here. You might also capture other feelings & emotions that you infer from actions & behaviors that you observed.

3. Reveal needs by using the left hand side of each empathy map to generate a list of use & usability needs. Use the right margin of the map to generate a list of "meaning" needs. Meaning needs relate to how they are feeling and what the experience means to the user as people.At this point, the User Empathy Map is 'complete' and expanded and ready to be used to fuel the next Mode--
4. Take a step back to examine the revealed needs. Watch for solutions posing as needs--they can be recognized as nouns. Aim for verbs! Reframe by asking "why do we need a [solution]?" Define. Here is an example of a completed User Empathy Map:

Students will have done some empathy work around their users coming into this activity. You can do a sample empathy map using a user from one of the sample empathy videos if that would be helpful for your students.

Introduce the empathy map (5 min):

-We use this map to collect and organization information about our user.

-Go through the quadrants of the empathy map, explaining what goes in each.

-Tee-up the clip by reminding students what to look for (evidence of what the user says, does, thinks and feels)

Fill in empathy map as a class (5 min):

-Have a few examples ready.

-Call on students to help you fill in the map.

Have students work on filling in their empathy maps for their user(s) in groups (15-20min):

-Float between groups to make sure they aren't stuck and that each student is contributing.

Time permitting: Have students write user needs on the outside of the empathy map (5 min):

-See the visual above for where these should go.

-How did this go? What could make this activity be more helpful?

It makes sense to follow-up this activity with one that gets the students to a POV statement.

Back to Curriculum Home Page

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Good design is grounded in a deep understanding of the person for whom you are designing. Designers have many techniques for developing this sort of empathy. An Empathy Map is one tool to help us synthesize our observations and draw out unexpected insights. We teach it as a synthesis tool to help quickly uncover latent user needs.