Doodling in Math

This video is the reason I decided to start doing the Friday Flix series.  This is the whole playlist and is over an hour long so sit back and learn!

Homework Help and Summer Support

Web Addresses:

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  Homework Help: http://www.uen.org/k12student/homework.shtml

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  Summer Reading Resources: http://www.uen.org/general_learner/summer_reading/ 

With summer approaching it's either time to ramp up the homework factory so that students get all caught up and prepared for next year or it's time to start planning summer excursions and activities to keep kids learning.  Summer can be a really good time to allow kids to recharge and explore interests they have developed during the school year.  I never saw summer vacation as a break from learning but more as a chance to learn at my own pace and to explore my own interests.  The two sites listed above can help students get the support they may need to do just that.

Make a QR code

QR codes or Quick Response codes are 2-D bar codes. These codes go beyond what regular bar codes can do. Regular bar codes use the varying black and white bars to communicate numbers and usually just that. But the 2-D QR codes allow more robust uses including:

• Text
• Hyoerlinks
• Contact Information
• YouTube videos
• Direct access to certain apps ie: 4Square

These codes can be read by a variety of tools on a smart phone. Apps like Redlaser, and i-Nigma and even the Google Goggles feature of the Google search app will red these codes and the redirect them as needed. So what are teachers doing with these? Well UEN resident expert on QR codes Mindy Hintze has collected a variety of resources and examples all available at http://my.uen.org/myuen/70775/12
How are you using QR Codes? Leve your ideas in the comments!

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How do we learn this stuff?

Predictions about the future are amazingly varied in their accuracy.  Sometimes people are spot on! Other times somethings initiates a change that few if anyone predicted and suddenly the whole world seems to change over night.  Read any novel written before cell phones or smart phones to see this in action.  One thing that has been predicted is an exponential growth of information technology.  That pace has held true for close to 50 years.  Ray Kurzweil suggests that this will lead to exponential changes in the human condition and the way we will be able to manipulate the digital world and eventually the real world.  Well we might not think about it but in order to create better video games we have to understand how things work in reality.  I find it intriguing that in order to make a better virtual world we have to learn more about the real world.  See the video below for an example of how stunning this can look

HippoCampus

Web Address: http://www.hippocampus.org

With the proliferation and growth of OER there are more and more resources available for teachers to forge into their own weapon of mass education.  Hippocampus has been an access point for these kinds of openly available resources for years.  UEN has been directing learners and educators to HippoCampus for a long time and has partnered with HippoCampus to offer specific resources in a variety of ways.

HippoCampus will allow users to create their own profile.  They can then browse through, search and locate materials to add them to playlists.  For educators these playlists can be shared with students as either preliminary or review material. This would help you effectively flip your classroom.  Students could preview materials and information before class and then be ready for problem solving, discussion and critical thinking in class.

Students can create their own playlists and explore their own interests.  Essentially taking control of their own learning.  For a list of additional OER Resources check out this list: http://www.uen.org/oer/