Poetry in Motion

On an arts television programme, it was initially surprising that it profiled an engineer.  As it showed the process and products of Tomataka Takashi, there is no doubt that he is in every way an artist.

The aesthetics (or should that be ecstatic? haha) of the female robot is an artful combination of mechanical finesse, clever programming with a careful study of form and shape.

Design is already such an integral part of our technology devices. The elegance and unobtrusive ergonomics creates such natural user experiences and make us bond with our devices.

Do we have enough opportunity in school to give the focus to aesthetics and design, and to heighten awareness of their impact on us? We should better leverage on the time traditionally set aside for the arts but which might have been given the backseat a little too often.

How about exposing our students to programming? If we are keen to start off with the programming, you can consider the Hopscotch app.

As we stand at the threshold of accessible 3D printing, I think the possibilities for something akin to the work of Tomotaka Takashi for our students is just waiting for us to exploit.

On the note of engineering and art, here is another video worth watching.

Move It

Motivate – to stimulate towards action.

One of the things that teachers dread is when a group or even a class of unmotivated learners is stonewalling with them. In fact, for any learning to happen, there needs to be some iota of motivation on the part of the learners.

Photo credit: mconnors from morguefile.com

Often, motivation is differentiated between the more valued intrinsic and also extrinsic motivation.  If intrinsic motivation is about personal ownership, what roles do external parties play? Could someone be intrinsically motivated by something of no real value?

The attraction of gamification in education is that it involves leveraging on the way computer games seem to have found the key to motivation. Greg Siering shared the following ways to gamify education:

• Clear goals and progress indicators
• Level up
• Badges
• Leader board

Clearly games are highly motivating. Going by the features listed above, would we say gamification is more a case of extrinsic or intrinsic motivation? Gabbe Zichermann observes that in gamification, there is an offer of “patently extrinsic rewards (points, badges, leaderboards, free stuff) that feed a core intrinsic desire: every kid’s craving for agency and self-determination”.

Even for adults, Daniel Pink shares that the surprising truth of what motivates us include  autonomy, mastery and purpose – all of which could be said to be intrinsic desires of human beings. In counselling, these intrinsic desires are labelled as security and significance.

For educators, the question remains as to how we could  activate the intrinsic desires of learners. Angela Duckworth speaks about the importance of grit – sticking to things over the very long term until you master them – especially for education and how we are still discovering how we could become more gritty.

Angela did mention that the growth mindset is helpful. I wonder if gamification offers any gems worth exploring for this.

Gritty games in learning anyone?

Spin a Connection

I had the pleasure recently of spending time in Room 121.

This is not a real room of course but a metaphorical place that John and Jamie has created for sharing a year-long worth of ways to make business communication better. In essence, it is about making connection through words.

Interestingly, even though we would think that business writing would be largely non-fiction in nature and so belong to a very different genre, much of the creative exercises suggested were more commonly associated with fiction and creative writing. Often including an element of storytelling.

In our language classrooms, I hear that there is a shift in emphasis from narrative writing to expository and argumentation writing. Hopefully, this does not lead to a neglect of narrative writing altogether. Already Literature is not much valued in schools, and so we hope that good quality storytelling is still introduced and appreciated by students in one way or another.

The seemingly simple elements of character, setting and plot are powerful in what could be created through them.

Inklestudios has a enticing way of making storytelling into a game. They have not only created interactive stories, but have also provided a platform for anyone to try their hands at producing their own.

What’s your story?

Voice

Are you self-conscious when you hear a recording of your voice?

I normally would cringe a little. So, it was such a pleasure seeing some preschoolers record their voices and enjoying listening to themselves. Last week, a friend told me that his son realised that he is an auditory learner and would record himself reading into his iPod and then listening afterwards for his revision.

For a long time now, even though sound recording is not exactly that difficult a technology to bring into the classroom, with the exception for language labs, it is probably not something commonly used in teaching and learning.

Tape Recorder

With devices like the iPad which have integrated mic for voice recording, the opportunity for exploring the use of voice in the classroom is beckoning.

We could start with the many iPad apps that are not solely for sound recording but allow students to use voice recordings as part of their creating process. These include ShowMe, Toontastic, Book Creator, Tiny Tap and many more.

For apps meant for sound recording, here are 2 ways in which they can be used.

There is SoundCloud which allows for listeners to leave comments at specific points of the recording. In a Language classroom, this would come in useful to point out areas for improvement in oral presentations. For other subjects, comments about the content could be added at specific points.

For recordings that comes creates a URL for sharing the recording, such as when you use AudioBoo, the URL can be made into QR Codes. In this way, these QR Codes can be placed near exhibits or signage so that the students can introduce their works or give direction verbally.

Sounds good to you?

 

 

Origami

origami

Origami is a fascinating way of transforming a piece of paper into three-dimensional objects – almost any object that one can fancy. Is there a place for origami in the classroom? Yes, I think the opportunities are just waiting to be unfolded (pardon the pun).

Basic origami starts with a square piece of paper. That in itself would be a useful activity when introducing younger ones to shapes, and then fractions. The tactile experience, and the colours and patterns of the paper used also offer a multi-sensory experience. There is also the fine-motor skills and attention to detail required, not to mention the possible spatial thinking required.

The objects that can be created can also be linked to all manner of content – animals, flowers, insects, boxes and furniture.

Then there are origami-related story such as the one about the cranes or about scientists who learnt to better pack space-equipment using the principles of origami.

(Here is a good example to consider. More tips here.)

There are many iPad apps for origami and many of them are free, as well as the many Youtube videos for folding origami.

Deep Reading

In response to a blog about the Internet being the death knell of reading, readers were asked to provide examples of students “who are both savvy in using the Internet and at the same time, deep readers of print”?

I found the phrase “deep readers of print” intriguing – both for what makes deep reading, and also whether such reading be done in print only.

The most basic of digital books is merely a transfer of text into digital ink. If deep reading involves books which might not have been digitised in this manner, then perhaps it is a matter of time the important classics (including those that are out of print) are available digitally. So, if gaining access to reading materials of depth is the essential first step to deep reading, then non-print books are in fact helpful.

Many digital books are of course come with multi-media materials and hyperlinks. Very often, this has been a case of adding these just because it can be done and not necessarily with clear thinking about how it might add value to the book. (Similar to when all manner of bells and whistles are gratuitously added to a slide presentation like having way too many fanciful fonts, tiring transitions and annoying animations.) In addition, with  the multi-task friendly nature of digital devices, compared to print, digital books could suffer from “blinking cursors and beckoning hyperlinks” becoming a distraction to deep reading.

However, when used well, the non-textual and non-linear elements could enhance deep reading. Representing information in non-text forms do add new dimensions to thinking. Being able to determine the route through which reading is done could potentially deepen the reading too.

Perhaps, the easy access to such tools is till relatively new and thus the better uses of them in digital books might have yet to be exploited or even appreciated. And reading in a digital environment might require more (or would it be a different form of) concentration to fight off the many more distractions than reading a printed book.

 

 

 

Tinkering

In a conversation with a Design and Technology teacher, she mentioned that the current emphasis is now on the thought process as much as hands-on technical work. We then went on to chat about how the young today seem to have fewer opportunities for tinkering – factors include the situations that they are just too busy, they spend so much time on technology devices and that with electronic goods, there are now less mechanical things for them to disassemble and assemble.

Having the chance to tinker, also sometimes called thinker, is important. Gever Tulley believes in that and have set up the Tinkering School.

This video clip showing a kid designing cardboard chair could inspire others to try it out.

Does this then mean that it is either tinkering or the use of technology for learning? In fact, I think that in tinkering, there is also a place for leveraging on technology to support and even enhance the learning.

It could be start at making a multi-media record of the process be it in photos, a blog or an e-book. This translation and record-making provides the platform for the learner to reflect and consolidate the learning. And such reflection and consolidation is essential for deep and lasting learning.

In the kid designer clip, the kid was fortunate to have been able to consult his architect dad. While we may not be able to easily invite an expert into the classroom, with technology we can certainly increase the access to experts. Through virtual meetings , we can increase the chance of being able to accommodate the schedule of the experts. Technology also allows connection to experts beyond the classroom and go virtually anywhere in the world to seek them out.

Besides communication tools such as Skype and Google Hangouts, I think a useful support web tool or app would be one that helps match experts to the classroom. I do not as yet know of such a tool, so if you do, please let me know.

Share-A- Like

Photo credit: dieraecherin from morguefile.com

Learning through sharing is certainly a useful approach for teachers and students alike. Especially in a time of easy access to and faced with an increasing flood of information, curation is often appreciated.

For educators, Pinterest and Learnist are valuable sharing sites to explore.

Pinterest is a visually-driven sharing site at which you can “pin” inspiring images from the web. The “pins” can then be organised by themes, and when browsing other pin boards, one can follow the links, share by re-pinning and of course add comments too. Be intrigued by the many boards tagged for education.

I find those Pinterest boards about preschool and elementary education especially interesting because of the visually colourful resources that are shared.

Click here for a useful infographic and here for a written guide about the use of Pinterest in education.

A caution about using Pinterest is that those under 13 requires parental permission and there might be images on Pinterest that might not be appropriate for the young.

Learnist is built around learning – for learning new things and for sharing what we know through “learn boards” that could be used to file websites and learning resources.

In many ways, Learnist is similar to Pinterest. At its debut, some have commented that Learnist is Pinterest for learning.

Again, there are many ways teachers and students can leverage on this for learning. Browse through the Education category Learnist boards for a start.

You might also find this list of useful Learnist boards helpful.

There are also apps for both Pinterest and Learnist.

And Flipboard has recently added the feature of creating your own magazine from the news feed. Very similar concept I would say.

GIF-t

I was once again fascinated by animated GIFs when I recently saw this series of hypnotic animations.

I was also reminded of this very good video about the history and current creative uses of animated gif.

There are so many intriguing uses of animated gif and it is getting easier to create our own either using web resources such as picasion or apps such as Moquu or Gif Cam.

Compared to a longer animation, an animated gif could be said to be easier to create. On the other hand, because its brevity, to make it meaningful, one needs to be able to abstract the essence – and this is an essential skill to learn that is not always an easy one to teach.

There are probably many ways to tap on animated gifs for teaching and learning, besides plastering them onto presentation slides and websites. For instance, students could produce gifs to represent different emotions or think of animated gif as a form of kinetic art or a simple timelapse to show a process or even to present data.

Have you tried, seen or thought of some good uses?

Go Forth and Multiply

I was recently asked if I knew of any ways to help a child learn the multiplication tables. My immediate thought is that this seem to be one of those things that just have to be done by rote. The better we remember the tables, the easier it will be to handle more complicated multiplication. I even said that perhaps understanding of the concept of multiplication, which is important, would come about later, and may not be necessary at the start. On reflection, I am not sure.

In my recent conversations with students, many told me that they did not enjoy mathematics in school because it appears to be largely rote learning and not always an opportunity for stretching their analytical thinking to understand the mathematical concept.

There are indeed tips and tricks, and of course apps, which make mathematics more accessible by stressing on the mechanical aspect but not necessary aiming for understanding. Perhaps these are good for giving confidence or increasing the motivation of the learner but not sufficient for deep learning in mathematics?

Here are a few samples of such tips, tricks and an app (free too). What do you think about them?

Finger Tricks for Multiplication of 6 to 10

Drawing Lines to Multiply (Was first told this was Japanese, and now Mayan in origin)

Multiplication Training App (free)

What seems interesting for this app is that you can set the multiplication sets as well as whether the questions should be sequential and sequential ordering would be helpful for learning.