This free content is a boon to tutors looking to advance their own educations, delve into subjects of interest, and provide learners with compelling and informative material. Here are five of the largest and most prestigious repositories:
Friday, August 31, 2012
Top 5 Free Online University Courseware Sites for Tutors
This free content is a boon to tutors looking to advance their own educations, delve into subjects of interest, and provide learners with compelling and informative material. Here are five of the largest and most prestigious repositories:
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Great Apps for Toddler Learning
People are always happy to talk to you about the apps that their kids love and come back to again and again. Over the weekend I was able to talk to a number of mums who gave me a series of apps that their littles one play. There are a number of really interesting apps here, some I would have thought were too complex for toddlers, but the mums say their little ones spend ages trying to get a handle on them. Have a look and see what you think.
Spelling Bus: FREE
Spelling
Bus is for learning to spell and practice to spell. Kids see the
pictures and listens to the word and then type the spelling. The simple
to use user interface is designed to be child friendly, it allows kids
to engage in learning with out parents help. See, Listen and Spell. 50
most common sight words kindergartner must know. Beautiful visuals and
clear sounds to keep kids engaged. 6 Chapters full of words. Chapter
size big enough to be completed without losing the concentration.
Race
through sea and sky in the action-packed adventure, Lil Flippers! Dive,
Jump, Surf, and Swim as you seek treasure, evade enemies, and build a
school of friends to protect you. 6 beautifully themed worlds with
randomized level generation means you never play the same game twice.
Enjoy the Sargasso Sea, an old Ships Graveyard, weedy Kelp fields, the
beautiful blue Pacific, and the lost world of Atlantis!
The
app allows kids to build your own town of shops, restaurants and
apartments then grow the population of happy citizens to work and play.
It’s up to you to decide the future of the Small Street citizens. Keep
them happy by finding them a dream house and matching them to their
perfect job.
Ever
wanted to play with your food? Now you can! In this Monster edition of
the super-hit Toca Kitchen you can cook and play with food for two
hungry monsters. Pick any ingredient and prepare it in your own way!
Slice, boil, fry, cook, microwave or mix? And wait for the response from
the hungry monster...
Want
a creative, kid-and-family-friendly app? Cake Pop Party lets your
child’s imagination run wild. Getting started is a piece of cake; soon
you’ll be combining shapes, coatings, candy and sprinkles to bring your
favorite pet, character or tasty treat to life in Cake Pop form.
Playtime
With Dora the Explorer is a chance for kids to play fun games while
developing their memory and observation skills! Put together puzzles,
test your memory matching up hidden pictures, and spot Dora and all her
friends!
Experience
the excitement as Dr. Seuss Band transforms your device into a vibrant,
energetic musical instrument that all ages will enjoy! Jam along with
playful Seussian melodies or create your own whimsical masterpiece. As
you play, you'll unlock new instruments, silly effects and catchy songs.
Contains over 120 combinations of sounds, so you'll always have
something new to discover!
Where’s
My Water? is a challenging physics-based puzzler complete with vibrant
graphics, intuitive controls, and a sensational soundtrack. To be
successful, you need to be clever and keep an eye out foralgae, toxic
ooze, triggers, and traps. Now with iCloud support to synchronize your
hard earned progress across multiple iOS 5 devices. One game, multiple
devices!
The
#1 preschool game in the app store. Learn and have fun by helping
monkeys pack lunch! Monkey Preschool Lunchbox is a collection of six
exciting educational games for your preschooler (ages 2 to 5).
This
app is developed specifically for young children. The user interface is
intuitive and simple enough for my 3 year old daughter. Create a Car is
a click and drag activity for elementary age students. Choose from over
30 fun vehicle body styles and then select from over 70 different parts
to place on the vehicle body. Once your vehicle has been designed you
can save it to your profile and send it to friends.
Especially
designed for children 2-4 years old, Bananas in Pyjamas Bubble Time is a
digital toy that allows your child to have fun blowing and popping
bubbles. By blowing into the microphone or tapping on the bubble blower,
bubbles will float across Cuddlestown and then pop, pop, pop! Your
child can pop bubbles with their finger until they are all gone. Tap on
the residents of Cuddles Town to say hello.
All
aboard? Time to get on Toca Train! Your kids are the train driver in
this fun and friendly train simulator. The controls are intuitive and
there are no written instructions. Just pull the levers, push the
buttons and start exploring the island with your train!
Welcome
to Toca House! Help the five friends to do fun chores around a cosy
house. Let your kids do the dishes, ironing, sweeping or planting
flowers in the garden. Loads of fun with 19 different mini-games! And if
your kids liked Toca Doctor, they are going to LOVE Toca House!
Toca
Store is a Store Play Set that triggers your child´s imagination and
inspires role-playing. We wanted to create a toy that can be included in
children´s natural exploration of everyday life and help them to master
social and mathematical skills. That´s Toca Store!
Let
your kids run their own Toca Hair Salon! Cut, color, comb and blow-dry
lifelike hair on six different cute characters. Using your fingers you
can make any hair style you want! And of course - take a snapshot and
save your creations! Cut and trim hair with the scissors and electric
hair trimmer. Wash the characters hair with shampoo, shower, and towel.
Use the hair dryer to get the right look.
All
aboard for the newest adventure on the Island of Sodor with 3 new games
featuring Thomas and his friends. Start your little engineer on the
right track with matching games, puzzles and mazes, guaranteed to
entertain for hours. Find as many engine matches as possible and test
your memory skills in “Matching Mission”. Help the engines collect cargo
and find their way back to Tidmouth Sheds in “Cargo Mazes”. Drag and
connect shapes to find out which engine is hidden behind the puzzle
pieces in “Engine Puzzles”.
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Apple's new vision of education
While there have been pilot projects and full-scale deployments of the iPad as an educational tool, you can’t say yet that it has truly revolutionized learning. While it’s made researching information, viewing video, and working with interactive content more portable and more tactile, for mainstream education, many of those tasks have been available to desktops and laptops in the classroom for a generation.
E-Learning and Public Education
CLASSROOM 21 | by Greg Limperis
Let’s face it: great
blended, online, virtual digital public schools and courses will always
be few and far between. The problem with public education is that it is
habitually underfunded. For years, I remember being in a classroom and
struggling to get things such as paper to use in my class before going
paperless. Today, we want schools to build great online virtual lessons
and courses for our students. Before last year, my wife used to be one
of the best classroom teachers out there. She has the skills to come up
with great lessons, but lacks the technical prowess—and the time—to
bring those lessons to fruition.
Let’s face it: great
blended, online, virtual digital public schools and courses will always
be few and far between. The problem with public education is that it is
habitually underfunded. For years, I remember being in a classroom and
struggling to get things such as paper to use in my class before going
paperless. Today, we want schools to build great online virtual lessons
and courses for our students. Before last year, my wife used to be one
of the best classroom teachers out there. She has the skills to come up
with great lessons, but lacks the technical prowess—and the time—to
bring those lessons to fruition.Sunday, August 12, 2012
Resource: 7 Things You Should Know About Educational Design Research
EDR is particularly powerful because it addresses real needs in the here-and-now through the development of a solution to a problem, while also generating knowledge that can be used in the future. It can offer researchers and practitioners the opportunity to produce interventions of real value—tools, approaches, theories, and products—tested in the field and shown to be effective.
Thursday, August 9, 2012
What Will The Ed Tech Revolution Look Like?
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Predictions for how the next 15 years are going to change how children learn, at school and at home.
During the past 40 years, accounting for inflation, we have nearly
tripled the amount of money we spend per student in public K-12
education. It was roughly $4,000 in 1971, and last year amounted to
$11,000 per student. Over that same period time, our students’ math and
verbal test scores have remained unchanged. I am no Warren Buffett, but I
can comfortably say to you that that is a lousy return on investment.