Remembering Robin Williams this holiday season
Future Engineers Use Their Noodles to Build Bridges From Spaghetti
Contest Caps Engineering Innovation summer program
Bridges are typically made of steel and stone, but next week hundreds of high school students will attempt to make them from nothing but pasta and epoxy as part of Johns Hopkins University’s annual edge-of-your-seat spaghetti bridge contest.
It’s suspenseful and nervewracking as students who have spent days designing and building bridges put their brittle creations to the test, gradually adding weight, kilo by kilo. Prizes and bragging rights go to the students who build the bridges that support the most weight—the record stands at 132 pounds.
As family and friends cheer them on, 115 students from 21 states and eight countries will compete at 10 a.m. pm July 26 on the university’s Homewood campus. On that morning, several hundred additional students will compete in smaller contests at other sites in Maryland and across the country.
“It’s tense and exciting and it’s fun because the kids are proud of themselves—as they should be,” said Christine Newman, assistant dean for engineering education outreach in the university’s Whiting School of Engineering.
The event caps the university’s Engineering Innovation summer program for young people eager to apply their knowledge of math and science. Over four weeks the students get a taste of everything from robotics to civil engineering and learn to puzzle through real-world problems just like an engineer. More than 80 percent of those that complete the program go on to pursue careers in science and engineering.
“Our course has proven effective in getting young people interested in and excited about STEM fields,” Newman said.
Engineering Innovation began as an off-shoot of Michael Karweit’s freshman course at Johns Hopkins for undecided engineering majors called “What is Engineering?” He designed it to give students an honest look at a field where devising creative solutions to dilemmas is the name of the game.
“I wanted to introduce students to how engineers think,” said Karweit, a professor of chemical and bimolecular engineering in the School of Engineering. “The joy of engineering is there is never just one correct answer.”
Corporate sponsors cover tuition for low-income students, including some from Baltimore. Through a pilot program this year called “Engineering Fundamentals,” a dozen of those local students started two weeks early, using the extra time to bone up on math and science basics and study skills.
“We’re trying to get these kids to build their confidence and potential for success,” said Engineering Innovation Director Karen Borgsmiller.
Recently, students from the program spread out along a JHU quad trying to measure the distance from one lofty campus spire to another using nothing but a yardstick and a length of string. One of them was Oliver Mahoro, 18, a senior at Baltimore’s Academy for College and Career Exploration who dreams of attending Stanford University to become a petroleum engineer.
Mahoro is thrilled to spend the summer challenging himself alongside other smart, motivated young people.
“It gives me an opportunity to fully challenge myself in ways high school doesn’t,” he said. “Some people think summer is about sitting around outside or going to the beach. This has been the coolest summer I’ve ever known.”
A veteran teacher turned coach shadows 2 students for 2 days – a sobering lesson learned
The following account comes from a veteran HS teacher who just became a Coach in her building. Because her experience is so vivid and sobering I have kept her identity anonymous. But nothing she describes is any different than my own experience in sitting in HS classes for long periods of time. And this report of course accords fully with the results of our student surveys.
I have made a terrible mistake.
I waited fourteen years to do something that I should have done my first year of teaching: shadow a student for a day. It was so eye-opening that I wish I could go back to every class of students I ever had right now and change a minimum of ten things – the layout, the lesson plan, the checks for understanding. Most of it!
This is the first year I am working in a school but not teaching my own classes; I am the High School Learning Coach, a new position for the school this year. My job is to work with teachers and admins. to improve student learning outcomes.
As part of getting my feet wet, my principal suggested I “be” a student for two days: I was to shadow and complete all the work of a 10th grade student on one day and to do the same for a 12th grade student on another day. My task was to do everything the student was supposed to do: if there was lecture or notes on the board, I copied them as fast I could into my notebook. If there was a Chemistry lab, I did it with my host student. If there was a test, I took it (I passed the Spanish one, but I am certain I failed the business one).
My class schedules for the day
(Note: we have a block schedule; not all classes meet each day):
The schedule that day for the 10th grade student:
7:45 – 9:15: Geometry
9:30 – 10:55: Spanish II
10:55 – 11:40: Lunch
11:45 – 1:10: World History
1:25 – 2:45: Integrated Science
The schedule that day for the 12th grade student:
7:45 – 9:15: Math
9:30 – 10:55: Chemistry
10:55 – 11:40: Lunch
11:45 – 1:10: English
1:25 – 2:45: Business
Key Takeaway #1
Students sit all day, and sitting is exhausting.
I could not believe how tired I was after the first day. I literally sat down the entire day, except for walking to and from classes. We forget as teachers, because we are on our feet a lot – in front of the board, pacing as we speak, circling around the room to check on student work, sitting, standing, kneeling down to chat with a student as she works through a difficult problem…we move a lot.
But students move almost never. And never is exhausting. In every class for four long blocks, the expectation was for us to come in, take our seats, and sit down for the duration of the time. By the end of the day, I could not stop yawning and I was desperate to move or stretch. I couldn’t believe how alert my host student was, because it took a lot of conscious effort for me not to get up and start doing jumping jacks in the middle of Science just to keep my mind and body from slipping into oblivion after so many hours of sitting passively.
I was drained, and not in a good, long, productive-day kind of way. No, it was that icky, lethargic tired feeling. I had planned to go back to my office and jot down some initial notes on the day, but I was so drained I couldn’t do anything that involved mental effort (so instead I watched TV) and I was in bed by 8:30.
If I could go back and change my classes now, I would immediately change the following three things:
- mandatory stretch halfway through the class
- put a Nerf basketball hoop on the back of my door and encourage kids to play in the first and final minutes of class
- build in a hands-on, move-around activity into every single class day. Yes, we would sacrifice some content to do this – that’s fine. I was so tired by the end of the day, I wasn’t absorbing most of the content, so I am not sure my previous method of making kids sit through hour-long, sit-down discussions of the texts was all that effective.
Key Takeaway #2
High School students are sitting passively and listening during approximately 90% of their classes.
Obviously I was only shadowing for two days, but in follow-up interviews with both of my host students, they assured me that the classes I experienced were fairly typical.
In eight periods of high school classes, my host students rarely spoke. Sometimes it was because the teacher was lecturing; sometimes it was because another student was presenting; sometimes it was because another student was called to the board to solve a difficult equation; and sometimes it was because the period was spent taking a test. So, I don’t mean to imply critically that only the teachers droned on while students just sat and took notes. But still, hand in hand with takeaway #1 is this idea that most of the students’ day was spent passively absorbing information.
It was not just the sitting that was draining but that so much of the day was spent absorbing information but not often grappling with it.
I asked my tenth-grade host, Cindy, if she felt like she made important contributions to class or if, when she was absent, the class missed out on the benefit of her knowledge or contributions, and she laughed and said no.
I was struck by this takeaway in particular because it made me realize how little autonomy students have, how little of their learning they are directing or choosing. I felt especially bad about opportunities I had missed in the past in this regard.
If I could go back and change my classes now, I would immediately:
- Offer brief, blitzkrieg-like mini-lessons with engaging, assessment-for-learning-type activities following directly on their heels (e.g. a ten-minute lecture on Whitman’s life and poetry, followed by small-group work in which teams scour new poems of his for the very themes and notions expressed in the lecture, and then share out or perform some of them to the whole group while everyone takes notes on the findings.)
- set an egg timer every time I get up to talk and all eyes are on me. When the timer goes off, I am done. End of story. I can go on and on. I love to hear myself talk. I often cannot shut up. This is not really conducive to my students’ learning, however much I might enjoy it.
- Ask every class to start with students’ Essential Questions or just general questions born of confusion from the previous night’s reading or the previous class’s discussion. I would ask them to come in to class and write them all on the board, and then, as a group, ask them to choose which one we start with and which ones need to be addressed. This is my biggest regret right now – not starting every class this way. I am imagining all the misunderstandings, the engagement, the enthusiasm, the collaborative skills, and the autonomy we missed out on because I didn’t begin every class with fifteen or twenty minutes of this.
Key takeaway #3
You feel a little bit like a nuisance all day long.
I lost count of how many times we were told be quiet and pay attention. It’s normal to do so – teachers have a set amount of time and we need to use it wisely. But in shadowing, throughout the day, you start to feel sorry for the students who are told over and over again to pay attention because you understand part of what they are reacting to is sitting and listening all day. It’s really hard to do, and not something we ask adults to do day in and out. Think back to a multi-day conference or long PD day you had and remember that feeling by the end of the day – that need to just disconnect, break free, go for a run, chat with a friend, or surf the web and catch up on emails. That is how students often feel in our classes, not because we are boring per se but because they have been sitting and listening most of the day already. They have had enough.
In addition, there was a good deal of sarcasm and snark directed at students and I recognized, uncomfortably, how much I myself have engaged in this kind of communication. I would become near apoplectic last year whenever a very challenging class of mine would take a test, and without fail, several students in a row would ask the same question about the test. Each time I would stop the class and address it so everyone could hear it. Nevertheless, a few minutes later a student who had clearly been working his way through the test and not attentive to my announcement would ask the same question again. A few students would laugh along as I made a big show of rolling my eyes and drily stating, “OK, once again, let me explain…”
Of course it feels ridiculous to have to explain the same thing five times, but suddenly, when I was the one taking the tests, I was stressed. I was anxious. I had questions. And if the person teaching answered those questions by rolling their eyes at me, I would never want to ask another question again. I feel a great deal more empathy for students after shadowing, and I realize that sarcasm, impatience, and annoyance are a way of creating a barrier between me and them. They do not help learning.
If I could go back and change my classes now, I would immediately:
- Dig deep into my personal experience as a parent where I found wells of patience and love I never knew I have, and call upon them more often when dealing with students who have questions. Questions are an invitation to know a student better and create a bond with that student. We can open the door wider or shut if forever, and we may not even realize we have shut it.
- I would make my personal goal of “no sarcasm” public and ask the students to hold me accountable for it. I could drop money into a jar for each slip and use it to treat the kids to pizza at the end of the year. In this way, I have both helped create a closer bond with them and shared a very real and personal example of goal-setting for them to use a model in their own thinking about goals.
- I would structure every test or formal activity like the IB exams do – a five-minute reading period in which students can ask all their questions but no one can write until the reading period is finished. This is a simple solution I probably should have tried years ago that would head off a lot (thought, admittedly, not all) of the frustration I felt with constant, repetitive questions.
I have a lot more respect and empathy for students after just one day of being one again. Teachers work hard, but I now think that conscientious students work harder. I worry about the messages we send them as they go to our classes and home to do our assigned work, and my hope is that more teachers who are able will try this shadowing and share their findings with each other and their administrations. This could lead to better “backwards design” from the student experience so that we have more engaged, alert, and balanced students sitting (or standing) in our classes.
Could This Idiotic Product Help “The Internet Of Things” Go Mainstream?
EGG MINDER MIGHT BE DUMB PRODUCT DESIGN, BUT AS A PIECE OF MASS COMMUNICATION ABOUT WEB-CONNECTED PRODUCTS, IT JUST MIGHT BE GENIUS.
Pop quiz: how many eggs are in your refrigerator right now? For most of us, there are three possible answers:
- Enough.
- Who cares.
- I don’t know, let me open the fridge and check.
But if you crave the ability to know, urgently, specifically, and numerically, how many eggs are in your fridge at any given moment, Egg Minder–a new product from crowdsourced-gadget emporium Quirky–has you covered. It’s a special-purpose Internet-connected egg tray that links to a smartphone app that will tell you, with pinpoint accuracy, how many eggs are in the tray. From anywhere in the world!
Egg Minder is dumb, and you don’t need it. (How dumb? To quote Quirky’s own product evaluation video, “it’s a pain in the ass,” “superfluous,” “really silly,” and “the height of laziness.”)
So why did it get made–especially in a high-profile partnership with GE? Who knows, but GE does have an interest in making “the Internet of things” as mainstream as possible. But so far, the Internet of things (or IoT) is a difficult concept to sell–it’s confined mainly to fringe hacker/maker gizmos like Twine, or promotional experiments like Berg’s Twitter-powered cuckoo clock. I’d bet your mom has never heard of it, and that you’d have a tough time explaining it to her.
Enter Egg Minder. It’s cheap, it’s simple, and it’s the best “Internet of things” explainer I’ve seen yet. As an actual product with actual utility, it’s a reach at best. But as communication–a way of making the IoT instantly understandable and approachable for almost anyone–Egg Minder is great design. That might be why GE is throwing its weight behind it. As Quartz noted, “Egg Minder has the potential to help normalize the notion that pretty soon just about everything we own will have some degree of self-awareness.” A fridge full of “self aware stuff” sounds weird and/or creepy, but Egg Minder itself seems cute, familiar, and superficially intriguing. GE could probably give two farts about how many Egg Minders it actually sells–but if Egg Minder helps sell the idea of the Internet of things to you, me, and everyone we know, it’s a solid investment.
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John Pavlus
John Pavlus is a writer and filmmaker focusing on science, tech, and design topics. His writing has appeared in Wired, New York, Scientific American, Technology Review, BBC Future, and other outlets. He also creates original web videos for top media brands like Conde Nast, NPR, Slate, Nature Publishing Group, and The New York Times Magazine through his production company, Small Mammal. He lives in Portland, OR.
5 examples of how the languages we speak can affect the way we think
But that’s only the beginning. There’s a wide field of research on the link between language and both psychology and behavior. Here, a few fascinating examples:
- Navigation and Pormpuraawans
In Pormpuraaw, an Australian Aboriginal community, you wouldn’t refer to an object as on your “left” or “right,” but rather as “northeast” or “southwest,” writes Stanford psychology professor Lera Boroditsky (and an expert in linguistic-cultural connections) in the Wall Street Journal. About a third of the world’s languages discuss space in these kinds of absolute terms rather than the relative ones we use in English, according to Boroditsky. “As a result of this constant linguistic training,” she writes, “speakers of such languages are remarkably good at staying oriented and keeping track of where they are, even in unfamiliar landscapes.” On a research trip to Australia, Boroditsky and her colleague found that Pormpuraawans, who speak Kuuk Thaayorre, not only knew instinctively in which direction they were facing, but also always arranged pictures in a temporal progression from east to west.
. - Blame and English Speakers
In the same article, Boroditsky notes that in English, we’ll often say that someone broke a vase even if it was an accident, but Spanish and Japanese speakers tend to say that the vase broke itself. Boroditsky describes a study by her student Caitlin Fausey in which English speakers were much more likely to remember who accidentally popped balloons, broke eggs, or spilled drinks in a video than Spanish or Japanese speakers. (Guilt alert!) Not only that, but there’s a correlation between a focus on agents in English and our criminal-justice bent toward punishing transgressors rather than restituting victims, Boroditsky argues.
. - Color among Zuñi and Russian Speakers
Our ability to distinguish between colors follows the terms in which we describe them, as Chen notes in the academic paper in which he presents his research (forthcoming in the American Economic Review; PDF here). A 1954 study found that Zuñi speakers, who don’t differentiate between orange and yellow, have trouble telling them apart. Russian speakers, on the other hand, have separate words for light blue (goluboy) and dark blue (siniy). According to a 2007 study, they’re better than English speakers at picking out blues close to the goluboy/siniy threshold.
. - Gender in Finnish and Hebrew
In Hebrew, gender markers are all over the place, whereas Finnish doesn’t mark gender at all, Boroditsky writes in Scientific American (PDF). A study done in the 1980s found that, yup, thought follows suit: kids who spoke Hebrew knew their own genders a year earlier than those who grew up speaking Finnish. (Speakers of English, in which gender referents fall in the middle, were in between on that timeline, too.)
101 People who made a difference at iNacol 2014
One of the best things about the iNACOL 2014 Symposium is the crowd of blended and online learning #SmartLeaders.
Originally posted on Getting Smart Blog
Here’s our list of 101 interesting people we met at #iNACOL14 who you should know.
iNACOL Board of Directors
1. Susan Patrick (@susandpatrick), iNACOL CEO
2. Linda Pittenger, National Center for Innovation in Education, iNACOL chair
3. Amy Anderson, Donnell-Kay Foundation, leading ReSchool Colorado, a greenfield design project
4. Nicholas Donohue (@NickDonohueNMEF), Nellie Mae Education Foundation (@NellieMaeEdFdn), the leader in student-centered learning (attended telephonically)
5. Dr. Gisèle Huff, Jaquelin Hume Foundation, champion of blended learning
6. Jessie Woolley-Wilson (@JessieWW), DreamBox Learning, leader in adaptive K-8 math
7. Julie Young (@JulieYoungEdu), founder of Florida Virtual School
8. Virgel Hammonds, superintendent at Maine RSU2
9. Mickey Revenaugh, co-founder of Connections Education
(and Tom Vander Ark (@tvanderark), CEO, Getting Smart (@Getting_Smart)
Keynoters
10. Gene Wilhoit, National Center for Innovation in Education, laid out a vision for next gen accountability (see paperand our review).
11. Michael Horn (@michaelbhorn), co-founder of the Clayton Christensen Institute, gave an overview of his new book,BLENDED (see our Q&A)
12. Heather Staker (@hstaker), co-author of BLENDED, provided a day long workshop
13. Vicki Phillips (@drvickip), Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (@GatesFoundation), and she brought a couple dozen colleagues
14. Sal Khan, Khan Academy (@KhanAcademy), great resources, great story (again)
Startups
15. Brian Peddle (@brianpeddle), Motivis, a spinout from Southern New Hampshire University
16. Margaret Roth (@teachingdaisy), COO and Co-Founder, An Estuary, a blended PD community
17. Elliot Sanchez (@ElliotSanchez), CEO & Founder, mSchools, a blended technical assistance provider
18. Jennifer Gibson, Lesson Planet, teachers sharing lessons
19. Karl Rectanus @KarlRectanus, Learn, supporting short cycle EdTech trials
20. Chris Niemeyer, LearnZillion (@LearnZillion), a blended PD community
21. John Danner, co-founder of Rocketship and Zeal, a mobile learning startup
Growing companies you should know:
22. Curt Allen, Agilix (@Agilix), the experts in personalized learning that brought you Brainhoney and Buzz. Mark Tullis, Sean Casey, Jeff Moore and team hosted a great dinner.
23. John Sipe, Curriculum Associates (@CurriculumAssoc), i-Ready adaptive learning K-8 and Ready reading & math. Cynthia Austen and team hosted a great dinner.
24. Sari Factor, Edgenuity (@Edgenuityinc), content and platform powering models like Carpe Diem
25. Greg Levin, Fuel Education (@FuelEducation), powering new blended models
26. Jeff Kwitkowski & Mary Gifford, K12
27. Lisa Frumkes, Rosetta Stone (@RosettaStoneEd), presented Elevate & Empower, how world language teachers are leading the way
28. Keith Oelrich, Learning.com (@learningdotcom) featured Curriculum Foundry
29. Nicole Foster, Scholastic, was demonstrating READ180 (@READ180) and System 44
30. Anthony Kim, Education Elements (@EdElements), a leader in blended learning
31. Sajan George, Matchbook Learning, turning around struggling schools
32. Curtis Linton, School Improvement Network, Edivation PD system
33. Clay Whitehead, Presence Learning (@PresenceLearn) discussed how technology is transforming special ed
34. Judson Aungst (@judson76), Blackboard (@Blackboard)
35. Jenna Schuette Talbot, shared social media best practices and strategies
36. Tracy Immel (@tracy_immel), led the DreamBox Learning presence
Big impact nonprofits:
37. Nigel Nisbet (@nigel_nisbet), MIND Research Institute, unpacked how teachers can implement blended and competency-based learning from the ground up
38. Margaret Angel, CityBridge Foundation, described the NGLC-funded Breakthrough Schools Initiative in Washington, DC
39. Neil Campbell, Policy Director for Personalized and Blended Learning, Foundation for Excellence in Education, supported teams designing blended schools
40. Karla Phillips, State Policy of Competency-Based Learning, Foundation for Excellence in Education, discussed the benefits of Course Access
41. Minda Corso (@MindaC), Foundation for Excellence in Education, shared social media best practices and strategies
42. Mark Schneiderman, Senior Director of Education Policy, SIIA
43. Scott Ellis & Kira Keane (@KeaneKira), The Learning Accelerator, a blended learning assistance provider and grantmaker
44. Thomas Arnett, Research Fellow, Clayton Christensen Institute
45. Deb Pence, Idaho PTECH Network, spreading CTE opportunity statewide
46. Phyllis Lockett and Chris Liang-Vergara (@LiangVergara), LEAP Innovations
47. Carmen Coleman works with Gene Wilhoit and Linda Pittenger at the National Center for Innovation in Education(read about her great work as a superintendent)
48. Chris Sturgis (@Sturgis_Chris), CompetencyWorks, the online competency community sponsored by iNACOL
49. Judy Bauernschmidt, Colorado eLearning Collaborative, was advocating for more and better online learning
50. Shaun Adamec (@shaunadaemec), Nellie Mae Education Foundation (@NellieMaeEdFdn), led a session on the power of framing in shaping debate.
School leaders
51. Diane Tavenner, Jon Dean & Brian Johnson, Summit Public Schools (@SummitPS), the coolest secondary network around (see feature)
52. Brian Blake and the leadership team from Sanborn Regional School District where sharing their experience competency-based
53. Rebecca Midles leads competency-based work at Lindsay Unified School District
54. Gisele Falls, GSWLA, shared findings from Elevate & Empower, how world language teachers are leaders in the shift to personalized learning
55. Pablo Mejia, IDEA Public School, lead a blended learning session
56. Tom Willis, Cornerstone Schools, described their K-12 Detroit blend
57. Liz Arney, Aspire Public Schools, discussed lessons captured in her new book, Go Blended
58. Deborah Gist (@deborahgist), Rhode Island Commissioner of Education
59. Brian Stack (@bstackbu), Principal, Sanborn Regional High School
60. John Rice (@johnricedc), Supporting blended learning with District of Columbia Public Schools
61. Haley Hart, Teacher at Educational Achievement Authority of Michigan
62. Erin Wilcox, Associate Superintendent with Colorado Springs Christian Schools
63. Scott Muri (@ScottMuri), Deputy Superintendent with Fulton County Schools (See Fulton County Schools Innovation Update)
64. Jeremy Vidito (@JeremyVidito), Starr Detroit Academy discussed blended learning in elementary and middle schools,
65. Moss Pike (@mosspike), World Languages Dept. and MS TILT member at Harvard Westlake, shared findings from recently released Elevate and Empower paper–how world language teachers are leading the shift to next gen learning
66. Robyn Bagley, School Director of Career Path High, an early college high school in Kaysville Utah, led a session with two teachers from the school
67. Nicole Tempel Assisi, Thrive Public Schools (@ThrivePS), leads a great new K-8 school in San Diego (see 100 Schools Worth Visiting)
68. Cindy Elsberry, superintendent in NGLC winning Horry County, SC (See Lessons from Horry County)
69. Helen Griffith, e3 Civic High in San Diego (see 100 Schools Worth Visiting)
70. Stephen Harris (@Stephen_H), an Aussie visionary and head of school at North Beaches Christian School, north of Sydney, check out a new vision for school design
71. Jessica Saxon, teacher at St Edmonds School in Wharoonga, Australia was blending in ways that make students smile.
72.Charles Carver, Nexus Lansing (see feature)
73. DeLaina Tonks, Mountain Heights Academy (formerly Open High of Utah)
74. Angela Underwood, Nolan K-8, Education Achievement Authority, Detroit (see feature)
75. Keven Erickson, Kettle Moraine School District (see feature and 100 Schools Worth Visiting)
76. Dawn Smith (@Dawn4Math), RUSD Principal who shared best-practices for creating a student-centered learning environment
Smart Cities
Mary Ryerse (@maryryerse) framed a Smart Cities dialogue and Carri Schneider led a discussion on policy, read the full recap
77. Matt Williams, KnowledgeWorks, led a collective impact discussion
78. Matt Candler (@mcandler), 4.0 Schools, beamed in to discuss the importance of incubating new tools and schools
79. Shawn Rubin (@ShawnCRubin), Highlander Institute (@Highlanderinst), led a discussion on talent development
80. Tim Hilborn, TRECA (@TRECA_Ohio) led a discussion on sustained leadership
Impact investors
81. Bruno Manno, Walton Family Foundation
82. Alex Hernandez (@ThinkSchools), Charter School Growth Fund
83. Scott Benson, Henry Hipps, and Tom Stritikus, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
84. Luis de le Fuente and Russ Altenburg, Broad Foundation
States
85. Paul Leather, deputy commissioner in New Hampshire, described efforts to improve teacher prep in a state leading on competency-based learning
86. Christina Jean, Colorado Department of Education, Innovation & Blended Learning Specialist
87. Jamie Fitzpatrick, President of Michigan Virtual University, was part of a panel on course access
88. Dave Lefkowith,, talked about the Louisiana Supplemental Course Academy
Competency-based teacher prep & development
89. Bridget Foster, Digital Promise, described the framework for Preparing Teachers for Deeper Learning
90. Beth Rabbitt (@BethRabbitt), The Learning Accelerator, described their talent development portfolio including Highlander Institute, Relay GSE,
91. David Haglund, deputy superintendent in Santa Ana described blended PD in his district
Online/blended learning leaders
92. John Watson, led an informative discussion on Keeping Pace with K-12 Digital Learning
93. Mark Lonergan, MIND Research Institute, discussed blended learning in elementary and middle schools
94. Jeff Kerscher (@kerscherjp), shared key ELA blended learning strategies that will enable practical implementation
95. Stacy Hawthorne (@StacyHaw), Hawthorne Education, #iNACOL14 Twitter superstar
96. Robanne Stading (@tchlrn_ak), Alaska based blended special ed instructor
97. Eric Nentrup (@ericnentrup), Indy based ELA Instructor/Ed Tech Coach
98. Aaron Kaswell, teacher, MS88 in Queens, a NewClassrooms site
99. Kia Bordner (#RiledUpTales), provided the student voice with fellow online and blended students
100.Jason Ellingson, Collins-Maxwell superintendent and Iowa ASCD president. Jason Ellingson
101.Tom Ryan, eLearn Institute
Thanks to Jonathan Oglesby (@oglesbyj), Allison Powell, Linda Wood, and the whole iNACOL (@nacol) team that made #iNACOL14 possible.
The 104 Smartest Public Colleges In America
AP Photo/John Raoux
Does your school make the cut?
If you want to be surrounded with some of the smartest students in the US and get the most bang for your buck, you may want to consider one of the following universities.
From our recent list of the smartest colleges in America, we pulled out the top 100 public schools. These colleges offer brainpower and affordability, since the average annual cost of attending an in-state public school is $8,500, according to US News & World Report. Compare that to the average private school cost of $30,500 — a difference of $22,000 a year.
In order to determine a school’s overall smarts, Jonathan Wai, a Duke University Talent Identification Program researcher, analyzed the average standardized test scores that schools report to US News. (Those that did not report scores are not included.)
These tests are often criticized, but research shows that both the SAT and ACT are good measures of general cognitive ability and give a reasonable snapshot of the brainpower level of that school.
ACT scores were translated into SAT scores (math + verbal) using this concordance table, so that all schools could be compared using one metric. Then, an average of the 25th and 75th percentile was computed (see a full description of the methodology and limitations here).
On the following ranking, a (2) next to the school’s name indicates that some or all students aren’t required to supply scores; a (3) indicates that the school did not supply all students it has scores for, or did not tell US News if it had; a (4) indicates that the data is from a previous year, rather than from the most recent year; and a (9) indicates that the school may not require scores from all applicants and that it may not have submitted data for all students.
Here are the smartest public colleges in America:
| Smarts Rank | School | Average SAT |
| 1 | Georgia Institute of Technology | 1385 |
| 2 | University of California-Berkeley | 1375 |
| 3 | College of William and Mary | 1365 |
| 4 | United States Air Force Academy | 1360 |
| 5 | University of Virginia | 1355 |
| 6 | University of Michigan-Ann Arbor | 1340 |
| 6 | Colorado School of Mines | 1340 |
| 8 | University of California-Los Angeles | 1320 |
| 9 | University of Maryland-College Park | 1310 |
| 10 | University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill | 1305 |
| 11 | Ohio State University-Columbus | 1300 |
| 12 | Binghamton University-SUNY | 1294 |
| 13 | University of California-San Diego | 1290 |
| 14 | University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign | 1285 |
| 14 | New College of Florida | 1285 |
| 16 | United States Military Academy (3) | 1283 |
| 17 | United States Naval Academy | 1280 |
| 18 | United States Coast Guard Academy (3) | 1275 |
| 19 | University of Pittsburgh | 1270 |
| 20 | SUNY-Geneseo | 1269 |
| 21 | United States Merchant Marine Academy | 1267 |
| 22 | University of Wisconsin-Madison | 1265 |
| 22 | University of Florida | 1265 |
| 22 | University of Minnesota-Twin Cities | 1265 |
| 22 | Missouri University of Science & Technology | 1265 |
| 26 | University of Texas-Austin | 1260 |
| 26 | University of Texas-Dallas | 1260 |
| 28 | University of California-Santa Barbara | 1250 |
| 28 | Stony Brook University-SUNY | 1250 |
| 30 | Clemson University | 1245 |
| 30 | Miami University-Oxford | 1245 |
| 30 | Truman State University | 1245 |
| 33 | University of Georgia | 1240 |
| 34 | North Carolina State University-Raleigh | 1235 |
| 34 | College of New Jersey | 1235 |
| 36 | University of Washington | 1230 |
| 36 | University of Connecticut | 1230 |
| 36 | CUNY-Baruch College | 1230 |
| 39 | Florida State University | 1225 |
| 39 | Auburn University | 1225 |
| 39 | California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo (3) | 1225 |
| 42 | Virginia Tech | 1220 |
| 43 | University of California-Davis | 1210 |
| 43 | Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey-New Brunswick | 1210 |
| 43 | University of Massachusetts-Amherst | 1210 |
| 43 | University of Maryland-Baltimore County | 1210 |
| 47 | University of Colorado-Boulder | 1205 |
| 47 | University of Tennessee | 1205 |
| 47 | University of South Carolina | 1205 |
| 47 | Michigan Technological University | 1205 |
| 51 | Purdue University-West Lafayette | 1200 |
| 52 | University of Delaware | 1195 |
| 52 | University of North Carolina-Asheville | 1195 |
| 54 | St. Mary’s College of Maryland (3) | 1190 |
| 54 | University of North Carolina-Wilmington | 1190 |
| 56 | University of Vermont | 1185 |
| 56 | University of Alabama | 1185 |
| 56 | University of Oklahoma | 1185 |
| 56 | University of Alabama-Huntsville | 1185 |
| 56 | New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology | 1185 |
| 61 | Texas A&M University-College Station | 1180 |
| 61 | University of Central Florida | 1180 |
| 63 | Pennsylvania State University-University Park | 1175 |
| 63 | Indiana University-Bloomington | 1175 |
| 65 | SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry | 1170 |
| 65 | University of South Florida | 1170 |
| 65 | CUNY-Hunter College | 1170 |
| 68 | University of California-Irvine | 1165 |
| 68 | University of Iowa | 1165 |
| 68 | Michigan State University (3) | 1165 |
| 68 | University of Missouri | 1165 |
| 68 | Louisiana State University-Baton Rouge | 1165 |
| 68 | University of Arkansas | 1165 |
| 68 | University of Minnesota-Morris (3) | 1165 |
| 75 | College of Charleston (3) | 1160 |
| 75 | Christopher Newport University (2) | 1160 |
| 77 | University at Buffalo-SUNY | 1155 |
| 77 | Salisbury University (9) | 1155 |
| 77 | University of North Florida | 1155 |
| 80 | George Mason University (2) | 1150 |
| 80 | Florida International University | 1150 |
| 80 | Virginia Military Institute | 1150 |
| 83 | University of Nebraska-Lincoln | 1145 |
| 83 | Iowa State University | 1145 |
| 83 | University of Kansas | 1145 |
| 83 | Arizona State University-Tempe (2) | 1145 |
| 83 | University of Cincinnati | 1145 |
| 83 | University of Kentucky | 1145 |
| 83 | Oklahoma State University | 1145 |
| 83 | University of Alabama-Birmingham | 1145 |
| 83 | University of Louisville (3) | 1145 |
| 83 | James Madison University | 1145 |
| 83 | University of Wisconsin-La Crosse | 1145 |
| 94 | University of California-Santa Cruz | 1140 |
| 94 | New Jersey Institute of Technology | 1140 |
| 94 | University of Houston | 1140 |
| 94 | Georgia College & State University | 1140 |
| 98 | Appalachian State University | 1135 |
| 99 | University of Massachusetts-Lowell | 1130 |
| 100 | Colorado State University | 1125 |
| 100 | University of Wyoming | 1125 |
| 100 | SUNY-New Paltz | 1125 |
| 100 | CUNY-Queens College | 1125 |
| 100 | University of Michigan-Dearborn | 1125 |
Correction: An earlier version of this post incorrectly included the University of San Diego, a private institution. The list has been reranked and updated with a new total of 104 schools, due to the five-way tie for No. 100.
SEE ALSO: The 600 Smartest Colle
The 10 Best Kid-Friendly Minecraft Channels on YouTube
If Minecraft has taken over your kids and you hardly know who they are or what they’re talking about anymore, you’re in good company. But, although you may love that the game helps build 21st-century skills such as creativity, innovation, and collaboration, your kids’ obsession can be overwhelming. Perhaps most puzzling is that every waking moment they’re not playing Minecraft, they’re in front of YouTube watching Minecraft.
For fans — and they are legion — Minecraft YouTube videos are a huge part of their enjoyment of the game. There are tutorials (for ideas on new things to create), “Let’s Play” videos (footage of people playing the game), challenges (new gameplay ideas to try), mod showcases (which show off cool thing kids can download to modify their Minecraft worlds), and more.
But the unique things about the game, including the ability for any player to create anything they want, can result in wide variations in quality, age-appropriateness, and relevancy to your kid’s specific interests and gaming ability. There are hundreds of channels devoted to Minecraft, including popular but edgy ones such as Yogscast and SkyDoesMinecraft, and it’s hard to know which ones are good for kids. Although you could download an app such as KicVidz, which curates only kid-friendly Minecraft videos, you know your little fanatic will be begging — and searching YouTube — for more.
Even kid-friendly videos come with a few caveats. First, with many clocking in at 20 or 30 minutes, they can be a major time suck. Second, many have commercials that advertise products from cars to cookies to vodka. Third, some videos contain salty language so take note of our age recommendations below and preview videos when possible. But there’s plenty to explore to help fan the flames of this mostly worthwhile pursuit. Here are the top 10 best-for-kids YouTube Minecraft channels.
Stampy (aka Mr. Stampy Cat, aka stampylonghead). A British cartoon cat (voiced by Joseph Garrett from Portsmouth, England) hosts the lively videos on this lighthearted channel. Stampy offers Let’s Plays and tutorials on a range of Minecraft topics (and other games, all family-friendly), and his game worlds are distinctly colorful.
Best for: Younger fans. Stampy feels like a cross between Pee-wee Herman and Mr. Rogers.
Check out: His How To Minecraft series is excellent for noobs.
iBallisticSquid. Stampy’s best friend is a squid — remember, anything is possible in Minecraft! — voiced by Garrett’s real-life pal David Spencer. Squiddy (or Squid Nugget) exchanges mild, kid-friendly, English-accented banter with Stampy and uploads Let’s Plays, mods, and challenges (which are usually set for him by Stampy).
Best for: Younger fans. Squiddy’s squeaky-clean.
Check out: His Pixelmon Learning the Basics is a great introduction to a cool mod.
Paul Soares Jr. This self-described husband, father, entrepreneur, and gamer offers family-friendly Let’s Plays and tutorials in a kindly, straightforward style.
Best for: Younger kids, new players, and families. Soares mixes in a lot of how-to information while he’s playing.
Check out: Soares’ How to Survive and Thrive tutorials are newbie nirvana. Also, note the ratings on his videos; he’s the rare YouTuber who has bothered to have his content rated for families so you know it doesn’t contain mature content.
TheAtlanticCraft. Hard-core gamers Cody (theCodyMaverick) and Joe (JoeBuzz) manage to make their Let’s Plays, mods, mini-games, and more both kid-friendly and technically advanced. The two have a fun rapport as they battle and explore very sophisticated worlds. Language on this channel can get heated.
Best for: Older kids. The guys also host servers and offer downloads on their website.
Check out: “Let It Glow,” a Minecraft parody of Disney’s “Let It Go” from Frozen.
Popular MMOs. Although it’s known for epic battles and massive explosions, Popular MMOs’ host is a friendly, folksy guy named Pat, whose knowledge of and enthusiasm for the game plus killer mods draw big audiences. He also frequently plays against his fiancée, Jen (who hosts her own Minecraft channel, GamingwithJen).
Best for: Older kids with a taste for excitement.
Check out: The Minecraft Kitty Cat Challenge, where Pat and Jen honor the passing of their cat by duking it out on Minecraft, shows the human side of the game.
Minecraft Universe. Charming TrueMU (real name: Jason Probst) hosts this popular channel that’s jam-packed with adventure maps, parkour maps, mini-games, and even original electronic songs available for download. He often plays spirited games against other advanced Minecraft players in a group called Team Crafted.
Best for: All ages. There’s a wide range of content.
Check out: The “Hottest Girls Ever” Let’s Play, wherein Jason and an opponent play as female avatars, can spark a conversation about gender roles in games.
The Bajan Canadian. Twenty-year-old Canadian video game commenter Mitchell Hughes offers a wide range of technically adept Minecraft videos, mostly played with a gentle, nerdy patter against his mild-mannered gamer pals.
Best for: Older players who really want to geek out on Minecraft.
Check out: His parkour videos and downloadable “wacky parkour maps” are some of the best.
Maricraft. Hosted by female gamer Mari Takahashi on the ultra-popular gaming channel Smosh Games, Maricraft features mostly Let’s Plays of spirited battles with her pals in wacky Minecraft worlds.
Best for: Older fans. Players swear, but the words are bleeped out and there’s some juvenile humor.
Check out: In Splegg in Your Face!, Mari and friends pummel each other with spleggs (Minecraft eggs).
TheDiamondMinecart. Hosted by twentysomething Dan Middleton of Northamptonshire, England, TheDiamondMinecart is popular for its wide variety of entertaining, creative videos. The videos’ quality across all genres (Let’s Play, mod reviews, characters, and so on) has made it one of the most highly subscribed-to and most highly viewed channels on YouTube.
Best for: More experienced players; the offerings are pretty advanced, but they’re mostly clean.
Check out: The Hunger Games video wherein DiamondMinecart takes on Stampy has a fun twist at the end.
CaptainSparklez. With one of the biggest audiences on YouTube, CaptainSparklez dazzles with his technically advanced worlds and warm, entertaining commentary. Recently purchased by Disney-owned Maker Studios, CaptainSparklez is beloved as much for his intricate, atmospheric, and complex worlds as for his parody videos.
Best for: Experienced players who can grasp the technical jargon. He can get a little edgy, too.
Check out: His Super Modded Survival Series takes fans on an epic adventure full of dungeons, new dimensions, and mighty foes.
Here’s How Study Breaks Boost Learning
Originally posted in The Huffington Post | By Carolyn Gregoire
Students in school are rarely given opportunities to rest and reflect on the knowledge they’ve acquired, but a new study suggests that giving the mind a little targeted downtime could be a highly effective way to boost learning.
The brain mechanisms that are engaged when the mind is resting and reflecting on previously acquired information can boost future learning, according to research from the University of Texas at Austin, recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
To demonstrate this ability, researchers asked 35 adult study participants to memorize pairs of photos in two separate series. In between each series, the participants were given some time to rest and think about anything they wanted. Participants who used the time to reflect on the first series of photos, according to brain scans taken during the break, then outperformed themselves on the subsequent series. This was especially true in cases where minor details of information overlapped between the two tasks.
During reflection, the researchers theorized, the participants were making mental connections that helped them to later absorb information that related in some way (even loosely) to the information that they had previously acquired.
“Nothing happens in isolation,” lead researcher Dr. Alison Preston, associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Texas, said in a statement. “When you are learning something new, you bring to mind all of the things you know that are related to that new information. In doing so, you embed the new information into your existing knowledge.”
The findings counter previously held assumptions that older memories are likely to interfere with new learning. In at least some cases, the findings show, prior memories can act as helpful connections when acquiring new knowledge.
“We’ve shown for the first time that how the brain processes information during rest can improve future learning,” Preston said. “We think replaying memories during rest makes those earlier memories stronger, not just impacting the original content, but impacting the memories to come.”
It’s important to note, according to Perston, that participants were not necessarily actively reflecting on the previous learning experience.
“In fact, our participants did not know they would later be learning related information — so, they knew of no reason to try to remember what they had just been shown,” Preston said in an email to the Huffington Post. “We think that it is more likely the case that memory replay during periods of rest is an automatic process — the brain automatically reflects on past experiences to make memories for those experiences stronger.”
Preston’s findings are in line with a number of studies which have found that when the mind is at rest (engaging in mind-wandering or daydreaming), parts of the brain that aid in memory storage and consolidation, as well as information retrieval, are highly active.
“This study is consistent with an emerging body of research suggesting that the capacity to imagine the future draws on the same mental machinery required to remember our past,” Dr. Scott Barry Kaufman, psychology professor at Penn University, who has studied mind-wandering extensively, said in an email to the Huffington Post. “Our deep storehouse of memories is part of the Default Network (or as I like to call it, the Imagination Network), which facilitates not just learning, but also perspective taking, imagination, creativity, future planning, reflection, and morality.”
Twelve Reasons Every District Should Open a Flex School
Flex model programs or schools have an online curriculum with onsite support. This category of blended learning is more common in high school because it requires a good deal of independent study. The Christensen Institute describes flex models this way:
Students move on an individually customized, fluid schedule among learning modalities. The teacher of record is on-site, and students learn mostly on the brick-and-mortar campus, except for any homework assignments. The teacher of record or other adults provide face-to-face support on a flexible and adaptive as-needed basis through activities such as small-group instruction, group projects, and individual tutoring.
Flex models vary in the degree and type of face-to-face support but many include small-group instruction, group projects, and individual tutoring. In contrast to rotation models where students spend 20-30% of their time online, students in flex models spend more than 50% of their time online. Matriculation at rotation schools is typically by cohort (with some flexibility to meet individual needs) while students in a flex models are typically progressing as they demonstrate mastery in most courses. Rotation schools add some online learning to what otherwise may look like a traditional school while flex schools start with online learning and add physical supports and connections where valuable expanding the potential for innovation is higher in flex schools.
Examples. The Flex name comes from San Francisco Flex and Silicon Valley Flex, two Bay Area schools that combine the K-12 core curriculum with a full day of academic support, clubs, and activities. FuelEd works with school districts to create flex learning environments with the PEAK platform which allows teachers to add open or created content.
The Carpe Diem network was launched with a top performing Yuma Arizona secondary school where students split their time between workshops and personal learning online. Six teachers and a team of paraprofessionals support the development of 300 students grades 6-12. Given the 50/50 split with online and workshops, some observers would call this an individual rotation model but the roots are pure flex (See feature on Carpe Diem Indianapolis and Cincinnati).
Connections Learning developed a midwest flex network of 7 Nexus Academies. The double shifted high schools serve up to 300 students. The facilities look like modern office space. In addition to master teachers, students benefit from a counselor, a fitness trainer, and a success coach to guide them through Connections’ comprehensive online high school curriculum. Nexus students benefit from frequent small group instruction in half hour sessions.
In partnership with school districts, AdvancePath has been managing flex dropout prevention academies nationwide for most of a decade. Students that are a year or two behind have the opportunity to get back on track by earning credits more rapidly than would be possible in a typical classroom. AdvancePath has a robust response-to-intervention (RTI) solution for high school-a personalized pathway for every student.
After opening an iPrep demonstration site, Miami Dade added flex academies to 8 comprehensive high schools.
12 benefits. There are at least 12 potential benefits of flex models:
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Competency-based. Students progress based on demonstrated mastery. They use cohort groups and teams when and where they are helpful.
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Accelerated learning. Flex models allow students to move at their own pace. For students with partial content knowledge but credit deficiencies, the ability to move quickly and test out of topics they have mastered may allow them to earn credits at two or three times the normal rate.
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Customized experience. Flex models make it easy to customize the experience for each student. As platforms get more robust, student pathways will become more customized (by interest, modality, motivation, and schedule).
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Portable and flexible. Students can take a flex school on the road for a family vacation or for a work or community-based learning experience. There’s a flex school with a football team. For districts, flex programs can be quickly deployed in less than 90 days and scaled rapidly.
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Productive operations. Flex models have the potential to operate at lower cost than alternative education models.
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Small rural high schools. Flex models make it easy to run very good very small high schools. Where it would have been difficult to serve 100 students with a traditional comprehensive high school model, a flex program can offer every AP course, every foreign language, every high level STEM course-all in an affordable and well supported environment.
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New staffing models. Flex models make use of differentiated (levels) and distributed (locations) staffing. As noted at OpportunityCulture, we need to invent new ways to leverage talent with technology and flex models will be the source of the most interesting and productive staffing strategies.
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Early college. Flex models facilitate college credit accumulation in high school. Look for AP, dual enrollment, and career/major specific models. Flex students should be able to finish high school in three years with a year of college credit. Like Career Path High, a flex school can be located on a postsecondary campus.
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Career focus. Flex models can focus on particular careers and make time for work-based learning. GPS Education Partners is a network of manufacturing flex academies in the upper midwest where students take high school classes in the morning and complete manufacturing internships in the afternoon.
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Leverage local assets. Flex models have the unique ability to leverage community assets like museums, theaters, historical sites, natural resources, as well as local employers.
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Early movers. Like two in-district charter high schools in Kettle-Moraine Wisconsin, flex schools can operate as a school-within-a-school offering thematic integration.
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Site visits. For many of us site visits are the most important component of professional learning. A flex academy provides a local opportunity for staff members to experience competency-based blended learning with innovative staffing and scheduling–a visit is far more powerful than reading about it.
Do now. Using a flex model, every community can afford to have a great high school. Every community should have a flex option that provides a fully supported individualized pathway to graduation. Every community should use a flex model to leverage local resources and meet specific needs. Every district should open a flex model so that everyone can visit and experience the future of education.