Author Archives: Frank Catalano

Want to Start a Makerspace at School? Tips to Get Started

February 12, 2013 | 11:30 AM | By
7566329228_4d5377458b_z-620x410

Flickr: Brightworks School

As the Maker Movement starts to gain momentum, schools that are trying to find ways to foster the do-it-yourself environment can learn a few lessons from another nexus in the universe: public libraries.

Dale Dougherty, founding editor and publisher of Make Magazine — and the de factor leader of the Maker Movement — has a vision to create a network of libraries, museums, and schools with what he calls “makerspaces” that draw on common resources and experts in each community. Libraries and museums, he said, are easier places to incorporate makerspaces than schools, because they have more space flexibility and they’re trying to attract teens with their programs.

“Schools have already got the kids,” Dougherty noted wryly, at the recent American Library Association Midwinter Meeting in Seattle. One day during the conference, dubbed Maker Monday, focused on the Maker Movement, which emphasizes learning by engaging in tech-related projects. Two packed sessions, one standing room only, were filled with librarians clearly fascinated by the potential of attracting teens (and even parents) to Maker activities in libraries.

Schools can learn from libraries that participated in the inaugural Maker Camps last summer. The librarians speaking at ALA proffered seven lessons that apply beyond libraries to schools and other potential makerspaces.

1)   KNOW YOUR SPACE.

“Why are you here?” That was one of the most common questions asked of the staff at the Make Magazine booth at the ALA. The answer: one of the hardest things for people interested in making is finding an appropriate physical space, and libraries actually have that space.

But not every space is alike, or even appropriate. Carla Avitabile of the Novato branch of the Marin County Free Library in California found some projects just aren’t suitable in certain activity rooms. For example, she said, they couldn’t do a glow-in-the-dark candy project because of the potential mess caused by boiling sugar directly above carpet.

Travis Good, the co-founder of the Maker City Census, said he visited 68 makerspaces to develop his criteria for readiness. At the top of list for libraries? “Tolerance for noise,” along with the Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Teaching With Tech, libraries, maker movement

Closing the Gap Between Educators and Entrepreneurs

January 17, 2013 | 9:35 AM | By

Getty

There appears to be no shortage of new businesses looking to apply technology to education. An entire ecosystem has emerged in recent years to develop and promote the latest product or service for the classroom or district. But a major hurdle remains: the divide between what entrepreneurs build and educators need.

The ecosystem stimulating the “edupreneurial” activity ranges from startup instigators (Startup Weekend EDU) and startup showcases (LAUNCHedu, SIIA Innovation Incubator), to startup incubators (Y Combinator, Imagine K12) and startup investors.

But in many cases, enthusiastic edupreneurs are propelled from this starting ramp to run full speed, like Wile E. Coyote, into an oversized anvil — actual teachers. It doesn’t matter how good the concept, how cool the technology, or how pressing the need. There can be a fundamental disconnect between passion and reality.

“Solutions have to be easy to implement. They have to make the teacher feel inspired, rather than stupid.”

And that can keep good ideas out of the classroom.

To dissect the disconnect, the MIT Enterprise Forum of the Northwest recently brought together a group of insiders: traditional education company executive Randy Reina, senior vice president of digital product development at McGraw-Hill Education’s Center for Digital Innovation; a not-so-recently-startup edtech company CEO Jessie Woolley-Wilson, who’s chair and president of DreamBox Learning; and teacher/entrepreneur Lindsey Own, a Seattle-area middle school science and health teacher and co-organizer of Startup Weekend Seattle EDU.

A handful of key themes emerged, casting light not just on what entrepreneurs need to know, but on issues parents and educators should expect as ed-tech startups get more attention. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Teaching With Tech, entrepreneurship, MIT, Startup Weekend EDU

2012 Ed Tech Trends: Insights From Insiders

December 19, 2012 | 12:12 PM | By

At the end of the year, pundits love to share their versions of summarized lists of what was hot in ed tech in 2012. In addition to the obvious — Common Core curriculum and assessments, games in learning, consumer tech in education — there are others that may be more subtle or even counter-intuitive.

Here are five, drawn from first-hand observation at major 2012 industry conferences ranging from the more traditional Association of Educational Publishers’ and Association of American Publishers’ Content in Context to the edgy SXSWedu event in Austin. These represent one perspective of what the education industry itself is seeing, cutting across individual conferences and events.

 

Flickr:remiforall

1. PAPER IS NOT DEAD

While digital is firing up imaginations and well-equipped classrooms, paper is still the pervasive medium of choice. Digital instruction is simply finally achieving equal billing for serious consideration and state and federal funding. Despite this year’s declaration from the FCC and U.S. Department of Education that the industry should replace paper with digital textbooks by 2017, financial and technical hurdles remain.

For example, one high-profile Open Educational Resources pilot in Utah uses digital resources to create paper high school science textbooks — at an attractive per-copy price of about five dollars, versus $80 for commercial texts. Why paper? David Wiley of Brigham Young University explained at SXSWedu that the digital device cost per student was high and much of the benefit could be derived in how the material was customized, taking advantage of paper’s “unlimited battery life.”

Technical concerns were front-and-center at a Consortium for School Networking/SIIA Feedback Forum held with district and state officials during the ISTE 2012 conference. While WiFi and devices may exist in a school district, distribution can be lumpy, creating hurdles to smooth implementation. “We have schools that are one hundred percent textbook, and schools that are fully digital — a broad spectrum,” said a Louisiana-based tech coordinator.

It is, one administrator from a California district noted, the last mile Internet connection into schools and even individual classrooms “where things get interesting.” Which renders paper Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Teaching With Tech, blended learning, iPad, open education resources, Technology in Schools

Going Retro: Reading Apps for Real Books

November 27, 2012 | 8:00 AM | By

Reading Rainbow app

YouTube clips. Texting. Twitter. Facebook status updates.

The prevalence of short-attention-span media — easily scanned or consumed — has led to much hand-wringing over how students will develop that lifelong love of reading perceived to be so critical to lifelong learning.

One answer (in addition to “it’s not as bad as you think,” as a recent Pew Research Center study might be summarized) may be in adapting the function to the form. Which is to say to put real, and sometimes classic, children’s books on the latest digital devices via apps and the web.

That’s the tack several tech-oriented companies are taking with both fiction and non-fiction. And while the customer for each effort differs — ranging from parents to teachers to librarians — the emphasis is remarkably similar: instilling the love of reading and books early, even if there isn’t a physical book.

A handful of recent examples for this revenge of the retro:

LIVING BOOKS.  Your first reaction may be that “Living Books” sounds familiar. And it should.  A startup, Wanderful, is bringing back titles in the much-loved series that software company Broderbund originally produced two decades ago, at the dawn of the CD-ROM age.

No longer restricted to physical discs or desktop computers underpowered for multimedia, the updated titles are returning as $5 iPad iOS apps (and eligible for Apple’s Volume Purchase Program for Education), with plans to add Android versions after the first of the year. These newest Living Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Teaching With Tech, apps, books, Reading

Where Do Educational Games Come From?

September 19, 2012 | 8:32 AM | By

Flickr:Flickingrbrad

Increasingly, digital games are cropping up everywhere in education. And that’s stimulated a flurry of activity leading to the expectation that no longer are learning games only likely to come from traditional education companies, but a wide variety of sources.

The expectation-setting stats and statements, at least, are straightforward. Both the New Media Consortium’s 2012 Horizon Report on higher education and its 2011 Horizon Report for K-12 put game-based learning in the mainstream (defined as adopted by about 20% of institutions) in the next two-to-three years. “The greatest potential of games for learning lie in their ability to foster collaboration and engage students deeply in the process of learning,” noted the 2012 higher ed collaborative effort of NMC educators and research centers.

Then there’s the expectation of the “demand” side: students. An Educause survey last October found 37% of college students use educational games or simulations – and 15% wished their instructors used them more often. Project Tomorrow’s national Speak Up report released in April found that 52% of middle school students wanted their “ultimate” school to have games and simulations.

Now, it appears, the “supply” side is responding, building on a base of learning game research from this century – or simply taking advantage of heightened expectations. No matter what the motivation, it provides evidence a perceived K-20 trend toward games may actually be real and is spurring activity from places not always thought as hotbeds of hard-core learning game development.

CONSUMER

Consumer and learning game worlds have long been separate, with some notable crossovers (Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego and SimCity are two early standouts). But motivated companies are trying to make consumer crossovers more common and even more structured. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Teaching With Tech, game-based learning, Games

What’s the Difference Between Games and Gamification?

August 21, 2012 | 7:00 AM | By

Minecraft

Perhaps the best way to think about games in education is not to automatically call everything that looks like fun a “learning game.” Lumping all digital game approaches together makes no more sense than a toddler’s inclination to call every four-legged animal a “doggie.”

Game interest is definitely on the upswing in K-12 and higher education. It seems almost cyclical: every several years, almost in sync with the acceptance of new technologies (such as multimedia CD-ROM, then online, then mobile), there’s a surge of activity with games in education.

But everything game-like is not a game. And while game purists may wince at this simplification, it helps to consider games in education in terms of gamification, simulation and (simply) games. The three approaches aren’t always exclusive – they’re more of a continuum, or a Venn diagram’s overlapping circles – but they are notably different.

GAMIFICATION

Gamification is the current bright-shiny of the three terms – and, as a result, is the most used and frequently misused. But the cleanest definition is straightforward: gamification is adding game elements and mechanics to things that aren’t designed to be games.

Providing feelings of competence, of being in control and that the outcome matters is critical, “and marketers (and frankly most people) don’t really have a clue.”

Outside of education, some call these “reward, recognition and motivation programs.” And Alex Chisholm, executive director of the Learning Games Network, a spin-off from the MIT Education Arcade and University of Wisconsin, shared an equivalent perspective recently when he noted that saying you’re going to “gamify” something in education means you’re applying game design principles to motivate and inspire learners.

In apps and software, this is commonly interpreted as adding point systems (sometimes with competitive student leaderboards), badges for accomplishments and levels of progression. One of the highest profile examples of this approach is the Khan Academy, which layers avatars, energy points and badges on top of completing traditional math activities.

But gamification can be done well or poorly.

“The first place people go with gamification is ‘rewards.’ There can be dragons,” says Scott Dodson, a gamification expert and executive with Bobber Interactive. “Rewards done wrong Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Teaching With Tech, game design, game-based learning, Games