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Showing posts from November, 2017

Learning Management Systems

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Online learning E-learning earnings The internet has made teaching and learning to be done across time and space. It's amazing how elearning has gained so much popularity not only as a platform for educational purposes but it is also a business that is worth millions of dollars. The statistics by eLearning Marketing Trends and Forecast(2017-2021) below shows worth of the elearning industry. E-learning is based on content production, content distribution, platforms for hosting the content,  learning management systems for managing the content. Content Creation Credit  https://www.commlabindia.com/ People take online or elearning lessons for various reasons. In creating educational content, it is important to know the characteristics of your target audience. There are a plethora of tools that can be used to create e-learning content. The internet's massive data, information, and knowledge that can be used to for creating educational content. with search eng

Self-Regulated Learning Models

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Description of Solo Task I attended the lecture on Models of Self-regulated learning?  by Héctor J. Pijeira Díaz. I read the three articles and attempted to summarize the articles based on Panadero's article to have an in-depth understanding of the SRL models. Like I said in my previous post, I am a novice in the field of Education and I seek to knowledgeable in this field so my aim is to understand the models. I am willing to put in the effort because I believe its worth it. I came to a conclusion on two ideas I consider important and I used the ICE to elaborate further. Topics in Article       Goals Long Term: To be an expert in Self-Regulated Learning Short Term: To understand the 6 common models of SRL Confidence in Achieving goals Positive. It has been good so far. ICE NOTES §                Agency       Self-regulation is impossible without the willingness for the individual to take full responsibility for h    their actions. In

Virtual Reality

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What is Virtual Reality? Virtual reality is a technology that creates an artificial environment a mixture of pictures, sounds and different vibes to reenact a users physical nearness in a non-existent condition. Virtual reality is fundamentally experienced through two of the five detects: sight and sound. Types of Virtual Reality The   Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) has an article on virtual reality that discusses the types of Virtual Reality and their classification. Immersive virtual reality,desktop virtual reality, projection virtual reality, mirror the world and cyber space are types of virtual reality in their article. The existing virtual reality devices (Oculus Rift, Google Cardboard, HTC Vive, Samsung Gear VR, etc.) falls under different categories in their post. Virtual Reality in Education Virtual Reality has many uses in many industries: medicine, aviation, business, music, education. In education, virtual reality technology can be

3D Design and Printing

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3D Design With Tinkecad Design-driven education, learn by doing, maker culture, fablab, do it yourself are trending topics in education recently. Teaching and learning are through problem solving with students as knowledge creators  exploring and building their own knowledge. With 3D design students can design an object that they can print it out with 3D printers. 3D designs and printers brings the imagination of students to life. This approach enables students to learn and work collaboratively in team through problem solving. Students explore areas of interest hence learning covers multiple subjects and topics. Fusion 360, Tinkercad, are among the many tools for designing 3D objects. Read here for more. In this post we explore the possibilities of 3D design with Tinkercad. Tinkercad is a free online tool for creating 3D objects which can be printed. It is so simple that there is no need to have experience in design to design with Tinkercad. Anybody can design. All that is requir

What is SRL?

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What is SRL? Description on Solo Task I attended the lecture on What is SRL?  by Sanna Järvelä. I read the three articles and attempted to summarize the articles to help me understand what SRL is all about. I am a novice in the field of Education and I seek to knowledgeable in this field so  I took it upon myself to read and summaries the articles in order to understand. I know is going to take a considerable amount of time but I am willing to put in the effort because I believe its worth it. I came to a conclusion on two ideas I consider important and I used the ICE to elaborate further.  Topics in the Articles Read Common topics in the three articles   Goals Long Term: To be an expert in Self-Regulated Learning Short Term: To understand what self-regulated learning is? Confidence of Achieving goals Optimistic Social Cognitive Theoretical Perspective of Self-Regulation  Usher, E.L. and Schunk D.H. (2018) Social co

Augmented Reality

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Augmented Reality (AR) is a technology that uses existing environment and overlays new information on top of it. A picture can be used in the background with a video overlay.  The real world is displayed in a digital form overlayed with other object from the world. Smart phone, wearable devices with special software is used to view the augmented world. With augmented reality physical world are virtual world. Augmented Reality Apps include Aurasma, Green Screen, Augment, ARKit. Find more apps here .  In classrooms, Augmented Reality enhancing teaching with interactive lessons, clarify concepts with 2D or 3D objects. Augment is one of the Augmented reality Applications for education with subscriptions for teachers and students. Jonathan Newman teaches Maths and Science with Augment Personally, I have used Aurasma to create a seasonal greeting augmented reality but it didn't work due to technical challenges. I also used Green to create a video and a pi

Digital Repositories

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Information sources and Acknowledging sources The internet presents limitless data, information and knowledge. There are many "shoulders on which you can stand on" in your research just by searching. However, though there are tons of information, you are responsible for the quality of the information you use. It is also important to bear in mind to acknowledge the "shoulders". Failure to do so results in plagiarism which is punishable by the law. In this post some of the sources will be discussed. Creative Commons is website that provides the platform to upload your resources for free public use. Users may make modifications to the content that has been shared being it videos, audio, images, etc. Some content requires that acknowledgement. Others don't. With creative commons searches can be made to multiple sources. The picture below shows the search channels. Within the creative commons, google searches can be done. Google is a power

Minecraft EDU

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Computational Thinking is a skill in a number of countries around the world, including Finland, Great Britain, and Sweden. The digital world we live needs digital citizens hence its important to equip students with digital skills including coding. Programmes like Computer Science Unplugged, Minecraft Edu, Micro: bit are examples of projects that seek to equip students with the ability to think creatively and program computers Minecraft Edu has been designed to engage students in a creative game. According to the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA), games enable children to develop their  imagination and creativity, cognitive ability, communication and language skills and social interaction skills. Minecraft Edu can be played one or many people. Imagination , creativity and will ingness to explore i s all that is needed to play Minecraft. It can be used by t eachers to teach many subjects . Many instructions and support for using Min ecraft in classroom. Using the m

Computational Thinking and Programming

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Programming and Computational Thinking When I was growing up in Ghana, computers and internet were not very common. The first computer in my house was a Pentium 4. It was for the entire family and we had to use it in turns. Today, computers are very common in types and sizes to choose from. There many forms of computer technologies and applications for general and specific purposes. The ability to use them is gradually becoming a requirement hence the need to educate oneself. The idea of computational thinking began with algorithm thinking. In Tedre Matti and Denning, Peter journal article, " The Long Quest for Computational Thinking ", they classified computational thinking from the perspective of early pioneers who viewed computational thinking from the algorithm thinking and the later pioneers who view computational thinking as systems, architectures and design. The concept of computational thinking in schools being in different ways. Google, Microsoft, BBC, are amon