Educational Resources & Tech Tools 11/18/2014

• Beyond Minecraft: Games That Inspire Building and Exploration | MindShift

  Five gaming options for teaching principles of science and math.

  tags: gaming minecraft gamification physics

• Google Search Modifiers

  How to perform stronger Google searches.

  tags: google search terms search engine boolean

• Report: Teachers Better at Using Tech than Digital Native Students -- THE Journal

  tags: edtech tech integration report education technology

  • According to a recent study of middle school science students and teachers, the teachers tended to have greater technology use.
  • Do school-age students fit the digital native profile? Do school-age students surpass their teachers in terms of technology use? What roles do teachers play in shaping students' technology experiences inside the classroom?
  • "In many ways," the researchers wrote, "it is determined by the requirements teachers place on their students to make use of new technologies and the ways teachers integrate new technologies in their teaching."
  • "School-age students may be fluent in using entertainment or communication technologies, but they need guidance to learn how to use these technologies to solve sophisticated thinking problems," Wang noted. "The school setting is the only institution that might create the needs to shape and facilitate students' technology experience. Once teachers introduce students to a new technology to support learning, they quickly learn how to use it."

• Teaching With YouTube

  tags: youtube technology education

• Making School About Connection | Edutopia

  The relationships that teachers build with students are far more important than the content and the tests that they deliver.

  tags: SEL edutopia

  • No one looking back on his or her school experience remembers a particularly poignant test. Instead, people remember the teacher who reached out to them at a vulnerable moment, the unit that changed the way they understand an issue, or the project that seemed impossible at first but then became something far beyond everyone's expectations.
  • Warm, genuine greetings and attempts to connect can have a large impact.
  • Classrooms based on a foundation of respect encourage people to be kind and the best versions of themselves.

  • What can be done to bring more students into the mainstream and alleviate feelings of marginalization?

      

  • If the first message that students get about their work is what is wrong or how it is deficient, they are less likely to invest themselves in revision, and less likely to work hard in the future.
  • If students hear what is interesting, special, or unique about their work, they will more likely be open to suggestions for improvement.
  • Create rituals that help everyone laugh and be willing to pause the action to appreciate each other. Congratulate a class when they complete a large project.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.