How are teachers using social media?

Fascinating post on teachers’ use of social media. Perhaps the quickest and most effective ‘do-it-yourself CPD’ available…

Joe Kirby

“The internet: probably the most important human invention since the printing press…”

A long-overdue technological revolution in education is at last under way, says The Economist.

This week, The Economist ran a briefing on education technology. As long ago as 1913, Thomas Edison predicted the motion picture would make the book obsolete in the classroom. Though it ‘has been on the verge of transforming education for over a century, this time it looks as though it will’. This time is different, The Economist argues, because of high-speed networks, cheap tablets, big data, online gaming, adaptive software and private equity. In 2012, around $1.1 billion of venture capital was invested into edtech in the US alone. Pearson has spent over $9 billion in the past decade on technology. As Bill Gates said in 2013, ‘this is a special time in education’.

 

History tells a different story. ‘This time is…

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T & L activity of the week – Tarsia jigsaw puzzles

Tarsia is a nifty piece of software that creates complex jigsaw style puzzles. This is a engaging way of introducing challenge and independent learning

•       To download the software go to

http://www.mmlsoft.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=11&Itemid=12

•       Input the information and the software will create a puzzle automatically for you;

•       In pairs or groups, students then match up the sides of the triangles so that they complement or correspond with each other in some way. This could be matching keywords to definitions and examples;

•       This activity can be made less challenging through providing a simpler shape (several shape options are available);

•       Challenge can be introduced through using images instead of descriptions and removing triangles and asking students to identify the solution.