(LINK) Check out #1: "Read at least 100 blogs regularly. Not every post, but a variety. Extra hint: go OUTSIDE your particular passion circle." ..and #22 "Thank people endlessly. Be so full of humility and thanks and gracious awe at the fact that people share time with you (while not being one of those put-down artists) that your work comes off as perpetually fresh and energized and useful."

from a PowerPoint presentation by Roberta Martino    We watched "A Christmas Carol" in our classroomSome interesting facts about "A Christmas Carol":http://www.charlesdickensinfo.com/christmas-carol/trivia/  QUIZ!!http://www.charlesdickensinfo.com/games/christmas-carol-quiz/ The following are some quotations from "A Christmas Carol".Can you tell me who and when pronounces these words?"I wear the chain I forged in life....I made it link by link, and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it."  "You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of underdone potato. There's more of gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are!"  "They are Man's and they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance and this girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased."  "I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach!" "Business!" he cried, wringing its hands again. "Mankind was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The deals of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!"  "Bah," he said, "Humbug."  "And therefore, Uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that [Christmas] has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!"  "If they would rather die, . . . they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population."  "God bless us, every one!"  "Come in, -- come in! and know me better, man! Look upon me! You have never seen the like of me before!"  "Christmas is a poor excuse every 25th of December to pick a man's pockets."  "Are there no prisons?" "I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a schoolboy. I am as giddy as a drunken man. A merry Christmas to everybody! A happy New Year to all the world! Hallo here! Whoop! Hallo!"  If you need more information here is a list of some Charles Dickens websites:http://www.shmoop.com/charles-dickens/websites.htmlThese are parts of a story board of "A Christmas Carol" by some 11-years-old students 

We are proud to announce that our newest book, "Adobe Captivate 8: Beyond The Essentials" is now shipping.This book is a companion to our top-selling "Adobe Captivate 8: The Essentials" book and delves into such Captivate features as responsive layouts, creating project templates, accessible eLearning, and working with a Learning Management System.More information.

(link) Excerpt: The U.S. government is taking a giant leap into the virtual realm with the creation of a parallel world intended for training, education and networking. What began as a platform to improve collaboration of emergency management personnel has evolved into a benefit for all government agencies. The project is government-owned and incorporates techniques and technologies unavailable in civilian efforts, offering a robust, powerful tool for conducting business."

(story link)"Open source software vendor Appcelerator has delivered the second preview release (PR2) of its rich Internet application platform for developers, called Titanium. As a way to help groups of developers collaborate more efficiently, the company has also thrown into PR2 Titanium Developer, social media and communications tools such as Twitter, FriendFeed, and a chat capability."So I didn't check while I was in Vegas on what the odds were on something that goes against AIR has but what do you all think? I know that its gonna be hard enough for me to get AIR past my IT people and it comes from Adobe. 

A Californian is the latest in a string of pregnant women potentially exposed to the tropical virus -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

Ao que parece, em 2012, começa a ter força uma nova tendência no uso de tecnologias na educação (ver What Teachers Need to Know about BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) Trend in Education partilhado por @pgsimoes).  "Bring Your Own Device" (BYOD), ou seja, algo que podemos traduzir por "cada um traz o seu próprio equipamento". O que isto quer dizer é cada aluno leva para a escola os equipamentos necessários (computador portátil, tablet ou smartphone). Faz todo o sentido se assumirmos que os alunos já possuem estes equipamentos e portanto será natural que na escola não usem outros. Para as escolas a vantagem é económica. Menos dinheiro gasto em equipamentos, bastando assegurar a infraestrutura de comunicações e os espaços físicos que não serão mais do que a sala de aula normal. Em Portugal, graças aos programas de incentivo dos últimos anos, muitos dos alunos do secundário (e mesmo do básico) já têm os seus portáteis (que muitas vezes duram após a entrada no ensino superior). O portátil é cada vez mais uma ferramenta que as famílias já consideram como fazendo parte do material escolar dos alunos. Mais difícil será o acesso a smartphones e, sobretudo, aos tablets. Com estes dois últimos, é possível criar experiências pedagógicas muito interessantes mas é necessário que todos os alunos os possuam. Ainda não é essa, para já, a realidade. A generalização do BYOD terá vantagens para todas as partes envolvidas (escolas, alunos e famílias). A tendência segue a linha da visão da geração atual de alunos como sendo constituída por nativos digitais. Se estes já possuem e usam a tecnologia desde sempre (se calhar antes de começarem a andar), faz todo o sentido que a usem na escola. Trata-de de algo que já faz naturalmente parte da vida como sempre a conheceram. Proibir o uso de telemóveis na escola ou barrar o acesso a redes sociais cada vez mais deixa de fazer sentido. Mas esta é a visão mais romântica e otimista do BYOD. Apesar das vantagens, a tecnologia é uma fonte de distração. Usar os mesmos equipamentos e tecnologias na escola e para o lazer torna mais difícil aos alunos distinguirem quando as devem usar para um fim ou para outro. Tudo bem se as usarem fora da escola para continuarem as suas tarefas académicas mas mais complicado quando na escola as usam para jogar ou para atualizar o Facebook com conteúdos que não tenham a ver com escola. Também há o argumento oposto: fora da escola também as usam para fins académicos. Este será provavelmente o grande desafio para a aplicação do BYOD: encontrar o equilíbrio certo no uso das mesmas tecnologias para aprender e para socializar e lazer. O "quando" e "como" usar as tecnologias será a chave deste desafio.

France's iconic Chauvet cave holds mysterious spray-shaped imagery, made around the time when nearby volcanoes were spewing lava -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

So George Siemens and Stephen Downes are leading a course entitled "Connectivism & Connective Knowledge." The course has an insane number of students (something like over 2,000) - probably speaking to both the interest in the topic and the reputation of the two leaders. Now sometime soon, I hope to have an interview with George Siemens about this class - details when they become available - but I did want to go ahead and point to one of the lessons from the class so far. We all talk a lot about networks these days but few of us - actually damn few of us - know more about networks than Valdis Krebs. Thanks to CCK '08, we now have this post outlining Krebs' talk on networks, this copy of slides on the same and this recording of the presentation - do say nothing of the follow-up discussion of networked learning between George and Stephen.

The debate between Direct Instruction vs Discovery Learning is not new. It has been around. However, the amazing part is, it still rages on. Should we let the trainers and designers take control of the learning process or should we transfer the steering wheels to the learners? There is no easy answer.Direct Instruction vs Discovery LearningAccording to Jean Piaget, the father of discovery learning, interfering with discovery blocks complete understanding. Therefore, discovery learning should be the preferred way to learn.A. Faye Borthick and Donald R. Jones emphasized the advantage of collaboration in discovery learning and the sense of community that results from it.  They opined that, "In discovery learning, participants learn to recognize a problem, characterize what a solution would look like, search for relevant information, develop a solution strategy, and execute the chosen strategy. In collaborative discovery learning, participants, immersed in a community of practice, solve problems together."On the other hand, experts like Paul A. Kirschner, John Sweller and Richard E. Clark are strongly in favor of Direct Instruction. According to them, "learners should be provided with direct instructional guidance on the concepts and procedures required by a particular discipline and should not be left to discover those procedures by themselves."Personally, I prefer Discovery Learning but I also acknowledge that there are situations where Direct Instruction is the better approach.How Do We Provide Information and Still Make Learning a Discovery Rather than Telling the Learner?Tita Beal who is an Instructional Designer with the American Management Association posed this challenge, "How then can we guide learners toward a skill model, conceptual framework, correct procedure or other "answers" while still providing opportunities to discover, use inductive reasoning and give a sense of ownership over - and therefore more commitment to apply - the learning? In short, how and when do we provide the information and still make learning a discovery lesson rather than telling the learner?"According to Beal, this is an example of direct instruction: "stop and think before responding to identify the stage of the change process -- denial, resistance, acceptance even if grudging orfull commitment?I believe a third option is in order:I usually use the embedded model. This means that in a Story-Based eLearning lesson, I design an event so that the learners need to access a reference guide to find the answers to the problem they are solving in the event.      An example event might be: Compare that to Beal's "stop and think before responding to identify the stage of the change process - denial, resistance, acceptance even if grudging or full commitment?We keep on creating events to help learners discover the content in real life.   You can always provide a link to show learners the key ideas. My suggestion would be to rewrite the content in a way that relates to your scenario.For example: (as an Insight)Why does Gigi suspect Joe's views? What are the consequences if Gigi continues to deny, resist and not accept her tasks/role/etc. as demanded by the situation? On the other hand what would be the benefits if Gigi opens her mind to accept and commit?Observe, that your content is still integrated within the insight. But it is in a story form and related to the decisions that your learners can relate to.ConclusionWhile the debate between Direct Instruction and Discovery Learning rages on, I believe we can come up with a third option where we provide instructions to the learners while keeping the learning process as a discovery scenario. Embedding insight into the content designed in a form of a story, makes it natural for the learners to relate to.References A. Faye Borthick and Donald R. Jones. The Motivation for Collaborative Discovery Learning  Online and Its Application in an Information Systems Assurance Course. Georgia State  University.    Paul A. Kirschner , John Sweller & Richard E. Clark. Why Minimal Guidance During Instruction Does Not Work: An Analysis of the Failure of Constructivist, Discovery, Problem-Based,Experiential, and Inquiry-Based Teaching. Educational Psychologist.   William W. Cobern, et.al. Experimental Comparison of Inquiry and Direct Instruction in Science.   Jean Piaget, Wikipedia  Ray Jimenez, PhDVignettes Learning"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"Ray Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning

The debate between Direct Instruction vs Discovery Learning is not new. It has been around. However, the amazing part is, it still rages on. Should we let the trainers and designers take control of the learning process or should we transfer the steering wheels to the learners? There is no easy answer.Direct Instruction vs Discovery LearningAccording to Jean Piaget, the father of discovery learning, interfering with discovery blocks complete understanding. Therefore, discovery learning should be the preferred way to learn.A. Faye Borthick and Donald R. Jones emphasized the advantage of collaboration in discovery learning and the sense of community that results from it.  They opined that, "In discovery learning, participants learn to recognize a problem, characterize what a solution would look like, search for relevant information, develop a solution strategy, and execute the chosen strategy. In collaborative discovery learning, participants, immersed in a community of practice, solve problems together."On the other hand, experts like Paul A. Kirschner, John Sweller and Richard E. Clark are strongly in favor of Direct Instruction. According to them, "learners should be provided with direct instructional guidance on the concepts and procedures required by a particular discipline and should not be left to discover those procedures by themselves."Personally, I prefer Discovery Learning but I also acknowledge that there are situations where Direct Instruction is the better approach.How Do We Provide Information and Still Make Learning a Discovery Rather than Telling the Learner?Tita Beal who is an Instructional Designer with the American Management Association posed this challenge, "How then can we guide learners toward a skill model, conceptual framework, correct procedure or other "answers" while still providing opportunities to discover, use inductive reasoning and give a sense of ownership over - and therefore more commitment to apply - the learning? In short, how and when do we provide the information and still make learning a discovery lesson rather than telling the learner?"According to Beal, this is an example of direct instruction: "stop and think before responding to identify the stage of the change process -- denial, resistance, acceptance even if grudging orfull commitment?I believe a third option is in order:I usually use the embedded model. This means that in a Story-Based eLearning lesson, I design an event so that the learners need to access a reference guide to find the answers to the problem they are solving in the event.      An example event might be: Compare that to Beal's "stop and think before responding to identify the stage of the change process - denial, resistance, acceptance even if grudging or full commitment?We keep on creating events to help learners discover the content in real life.   You can always provide a link to show learners the key ideas. My suggestion would be to rewrite the content in a way that relates to your scenario.For example: (as an Insight)Why does Gigi suspect Joe's views? What are the consequences if Gigi continues to deny, resist and not accept her tasks/role/etc. as demanded by the situation? On the other hand what would be the benefits if Gigi opens her mind to accept and commit?Observe, that your content is still integrated within the insight. But it is in a story form and related to the decisions that your learners can relate to.ConclusionWhile the debate between Direct Instruction and Discovery Learning rages on, I believe we can come up with a third option where we provide instructions to the learners while keeping the learning process as a discovery scenario. Embedding insight into the content designed in a form of a story, makes it natural for the learners to relate to.References A. Faye Borthick and Donald R. Jones. The Motivation for Collaborative Discovery Learning  Online and Its Application in an Information Systems Assurance Course. Georgia State  University.    Paul A. Kirschner , John Sweller & Richard E. Clark. Why Minimal Guidance During Instruction Does Not Work: An Analysis of the Failure of Constructivist, Discovery, Problem-Based,Experiential, and Inquiry-Based Teaching. Educational Psychologist.   William W. Cobern, et.al. Experimental Comparison of Inquiry and Direct Instruction in Science.   Jean Piaget, Wikipedia  Ray Jimenez, PhDVignettes Learning"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"Ray Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning

How to create a culture that encourages innovation: the key is to set direction, invite commitment, and then build capability.

Still noddling my way around this one but wanted to pass it along.  What Is Communilytics? : A community analytics funnel in practiceView more presentations from Alistair Croll and Sean Power .

Today is the 90th anniversary of the Certification of the 19th amendment. My friend Libby Dorsey shared an email this morning with a reminder of this important anniversary, asking that we remember the day and remember the efforts of those...

Sebastian Deterding, Dan Dixon, Rilla Khaled e Lennart Nacke, apresentam em From Game Design Elements to Gamefulness: Defining " Gamification, artigo já referido no post anterior, um estudo interessante sobre a origem do termo "Gamification" indicando outras expressões que têm sido usadas para ilustrar este conceito (ver a "cloud" abaixo). Neste artigo é apresentada uma definição de "Gamification" como sendo "the use of game design elements in non-game contexts". Usar a expressão "game design elements" é provavelmente mais abrangente do que referir os habituais "game mechanics" ou "game dynamics" (ver os posts Gamification & E-learning, Gamification of Education is Bullshit e Gamification). Num ponto de vista de aplicação de Gamification na educação interessará identificar, classificar e analisar esses "game design elements" e encontrar quais os que estão presentes nos melhores jogos ("What everybody wants to understand is really what makes a good game" - Jane McGonigal). Em seguida, deve-se perceber, para cada um, que tipo de comportamento estimula e qual a relação que o jogador tem com esse elemento. Em resultado deste estudo, se for possível criar um enquadramento de referência (uma "framework") que sistematize as várias categorias de "game design elements" e os efeitos desses elementos no jogador, haverá condições para criar ferramentas com as quais os professores possam aplicar o conceito em atividades pedagógicas reais. Em função de determinados objetivos de aprendizagem, um professor pode escolher, de forma personalizada para cada aluno, um percurso orientado por "game design elements", devidamente adaptados, que garanta um maior envolvimento de cada aluno na atividade e eleve o seu nível de motivação.  Os "game design elements" podem ser facilmente integrados em plataformas colaborativas ("social learning environments") onde, para além de promoverem o envolvimento e a fidelização dos utilizadores com a plataforma, podem ser usados para "gamificar" uma atividade a partir de conteúdos fornecidos pelo professor. A componente social é fundamental neste tipo de plataformas (ver, por exemplo, o projeto escolinhas.pt) permitindo a participação de alunos, pais e professores. Todos estes atores podem, de acordo com o papel que desempenham,  usar "game design elements".

I'm reading this article by Clayton Christensen, Michael Horn and Curtis Johnson in Forbes drawn from their book and they are saying some good things. "A powerful tool to help reach this goal is online learning technology, which offers students the ability to learn in ways that match their intelligence types in the places and at the pace they prefer. But with the shift to student-centric learning, assessment--the art and science of testing children to determine what they have learned--can and should change, as well."OK. I'm good with that, in fact right on!Then there is this: "When students learn through student-centered online technology, assessment and individualized assistance can be interactive and woven into the instruction rather than tacked on at the end of the process. Software makers can also use the feedback loop to learn how to improve their products for different kinds of learners."Sure. You bet. Now I'm thinking though that I need to read the book - the article jumps back and forth between a corporate training example and how K-12 online assessment could change and that left me a bit confused. I also want to see if the book says anything about game-based learning because the feedback loop that they describe and the constancy and immediacy of feedback could have come from a game design textbook.

Most content are unnatural. It emanates from a higher plain with an objective source and is written in a perfect world. Hence most content is not understood by people. On the other hand, certain content that people understand may not be really recognized immediately as content. These are ordinary things we see, feel, touch, smell and use every day.Factual vs Real-Life Content  ̶  Which One Works?When unnatural content is taught, this results in unnatural learning and consequences that  are highly ineffectual. Likewise, they are costly. Most of all, they fail on the job because it is not based on reality (unnatural content) and therefore beyond the reach or comprehension of people intending to use them.But why does content tend to be unnatural instead of natural? What can be done about it?Move Away from Factual Learning into Reality LearningThe natural way people learn is through the wholistic approach. This means that as we learn, we strive to understand the whole and not just the parts. I spoke of SLOMO learning in a previous tip because we need to slow down our thought process and look at the whole picture. We lead our minds to think of facts and events and make our own interpretations of things as fused and connected items.This is automatic and unconscious. One's natural tendency is to look at things in its totality. The disconnect starts when we talk about facts separate from events or events separate from facts. And when we talk about such items, we inhibit or disallow learners to have the opportunity to reflect and form their own interpretation. The disconnect happens because designers are in a "reality distortion" mode.Have you seen the movie/documentary, Steve Jobs? Steve Jobs has the habit of being cocooned in his own world because he creates distorted realities. The best part is, he succeeds in bringing his audiences and customers to believe in another reality. Many of them follow him. They buy into a dream, a new reality that Jobs has created in their minds. The distortion becomes productive when customers purchase the product and the experience is fulfilled. However, it fails badly when customers do not experience the promised distorted reality.In learning design, we distort reality without realizing it. How do we do that? In a manner that we present content that is far from real-life. We tell the learner to learn content as if it is separate from reality and experience. The consequence of this is that, we stress on recalling the facts. So we make them memorize and let them take a series of tests.Practical Tips in Design and Development of ContentJust like Steve Jobs, we seduce our learners. In a similar fashion, we appeal to the human experience. Technology and content are just mediums.Seduction today in learning is done with massive efforts through bells and whistles of e-learning. They are not wrong solutions. Yet, when used to seduce learners to learn facts, these tools become ill-used or underutilized. Examples are over-investments in videos, gamification, social interaction, exercises, assessments, etc.Remember, these are only tools to help keep our learners learning. We need to reflect back on the idea that learners look at the whole world and do not split facts and events. They create their own interpretations. Here are four practical tips in design and content development:1. Always add context and meaning in real-life related to the fact. This will automatically lead the learner to his/her natural learning tendency which is the wholistic approach. This will prevent the disconnect between content and reality.2. Start with context, not facts. Avoid making the learners memorize volumes of information that are disconnected from reality. Doing this will provide meaning and help learners to value the facts. 3. Write in the way that learners talk about the content. You immediately connect to your audience if you avoid using technical jargons and instead develop your contents in the context of their own conversations of the topic. 4. Ask learners a question always as part of your content.The purpose is to encourage learners to quickly create their own interpretation of the fact and events. Facts and events are foreign and unknown or removed from the learners until they reflect on them.Until they create their own insights, learners are not applying or understanding the content.Start by asking, "What would happen if you are unable to use this content?""What would happen if your are unable to discover the fraudulent transactions ahead of time?""What would happen if you are able to detect and prevent the fraudulent transaction ahead of time?"In the above examples, you immediately invite the learners to understand the fact and content.ConclusionCurrently, there is a disconnect between content and reality. Learners find it hard to comprehend and apply content to real-life situations. The solution to this predicament is to apply the four tips in design and content development.References  Ray Jimenez. Stop That Dump Truck! Ask Questions to Know What is Important for Learners Ray Jimenez. Slow-Mo Learning is Faster   Ray Jimenez. Creative Musing   Ray Jimenez, PhDVignettes Learning"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"Ray Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning

Most content are unnatural. It emanates from a higher plain with an objective source and is written in a perfect world. Hence most content is not understood by people. On the other hand, certain content that people understand may not be really recognized immediately as content. These are ordinary things we see, feel, touch, smell and use every day.Factual vs Real-Life Content  ̶  Which One Works?When unnatural content is taught, this results in unnatural learning and consequences that  are highly ineffectual. Likewise, they are costly. Most of all, they fail on the job because it is not based on reality (unnatural content) and therefore beyond the reach or comprehension of people intending to use them.But why does content tend to be unnatural instead of natural? What can be done about it?Move Away from Factual Learning into Reality LearningThe natural way people learn is through the wholistic approach. This means that as we learn, we strive to understand the whole and not just the parts. I spoke of SLOMO learning in a previous tip because we need to slow down our thought process and look at the whole picture. We lead our minds to think of facts and events and make our own interpretations of things as fused and connected items.This is automatic and unconscious. One's natural tendency is to look at things in its totality. The disconnect starts when we talk about facts separate from events or events separate from facts. And when we talk about such items, we inhibit or disallow learners to have the opportunity to reflect and form their own interpretation. The disconnect happens because designers are in a "reality distortion" mode.Have you seen the movie/documentary, Steve Jobs? Steve Jobs has the habit of being cocooned in his own world because he creates distorted realities. The best part is, he succeeds in bringing his audiences and customers to believe in another reality. Many of them follow him. They buy into a dream, a new reality that Jobs has created in their minds. The distortion becomes productive when customers purchase the product and the experience is fulfilled. However, it fails badly when customers do not experience the promised distorted reality.In learning design, we distort reality without realizing it. How do we do that? In a manner that we present content that is far from real-life. We tell the learner to learn content as if it is separate from reality and experience. The consequence of this is that, we stress on recalling the facts. So we make them memorize and let them take a series of tests.Practical Tips in Design and Development of ContentJust like Steve Jobs, we seduce our learners. In a similar fashion, we appeal to the human experience. Technology and content are just mediums.Seduction today in learning is done with massive efforts through bells and whistles of e-learning. They are not wrong solutions. Yet, when used to seduce learners to learn facts, these tools become ill-used or underutilized. Examples are over-investments in videos, gamification, social interaction, exercises, assessments, etc.Remember, these are only tools to help keep our learners learning. We need to reflect back on the idea that learners look at the whole world and do not split facts and events. They create their own interpretations. Here are four practical tips in design and content development:1. Always add context and meaning in real-life related to the fact. This will automatically lead the learner to his/her natural learning tendency which is the wholistic approach. This will prevent the disconnect between content and reality.2. Start with context, not facts. Avoid making the learners memorize volumes of information that are disconnected from reality. Doing this will provide meaning and help learners to value the facts. 3. Write in the way that learners talk about the content. You immediately connect to your audience if you avoid using technical jargons and instead develop your contents in the context of their own conversations of the topic. 4. Ask learners a question always as part of your content.The purpose is to encourage learners to quickly create their own interpretation of the fact and events. Facts and events are foreign and unknown or removed from the learners until they reflect on them.Until they create their own insights, learners are not applying or understanding the content.Start by asking, "What would happen if you are unable to use this content?""What would happen if your are unable to discover the fraudulent transactions ahead of time?""What would happen if you are able to detect and prevent the fraudulent transaction ahead of time?"In the above examples, you immediately invite the learners to understand the fact and content.ConclusionCurrently, there is a disconnect between content and reality. Learners find it hard to comprehend and apply content to real-life situations. The solution to this predicament is to apply the four tips in design and content development.References  Ray Jimenez. Stop That Dump Truck! Ask Questions to Know What is Important for Learners Ray Jimenez. Slow-Mo Learning is Faster   Ray Jimenez. Creative Musing   Ray Jimenez, PhDVignettes Learning"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"Ray Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning

In the early years of the Jurassic Period, when the world was recovering from one of the worst mass extinctions on record, a modest meat-eating dinosaur from Wales helped pave the way for some of the... -- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

A plataforma escolinhas (schooools, na sua versão internacional) foi notícia no jornal chileno El Mercurio (17 de Julho de 2011), a propósito da participação deste projecto no programa Startup Chile. O escolinhas é uma rede social que se constitui numa plataforma colaborativa para comunicação e partilha entre alunos, pais e professores do ensino básico. Ver também este post.

"Establishing lasting peace is the work of education" Maria MontessoriIn this hard time for peace I suggest some activities to talk about love and tolerance.ListeningListen to the following songs about peace:"Playing for change" songs bring together musicians from around the world to talk about peace and to fight war.Gimme Shelter - Playing For Change Love Is All - Playing For ChangeImagine - Playing for Change War/No More Trouble - Playing for ChangeA Better Place | Playing For ChangeIn the above video there are not subtitles. Can you understand what they are saying? Write down all the words or sentences you can catch.Some other classicsOne love - Bob MarleyJohn Lennon - Give peace a chanceU2 - Peace on EarthWritingAnswer the following questions:What do you think about war?How do you think conflicts should be solved?Do you know anyone who has fought in a war?What war has your country fought in the recent past? What do you know about that?Do you think that war always solves problems?Which is the best way of achieving peace in your opinion?Conflicts are around us everyday (in our family, school, etc.). How do you respond to conflicts?Do you know any important people who promoted peace and non-violence?Now have a look at the following diagram I made for you. Are there any other words that you would use to define "war" and "peace"? Use them to compose some sentences.https://cacoo.com/lang/en/SpeakingForm two groups of students: one group is in favour of force and war to resolve conflicts, the other is in favour of peace and diplomacy. You are on a TV talk show, make a debate!ReadingRead about some famous people who promoted world peace in their life, then write your impressions:http://www.biographyonline.net/people/world-peace.htmlhttp://listverse.com/2011/06/05/top-10-peaceful-men/http://worldpeace.org.au/messages.asphttp://www.biography.com/people/groups/nobel-peace-prize-winnershttp://www.britannica.com/nobelprize/article-9487436  "If we don’t end war, war will end us."HG Wells

Most card games ported to the App Store suck. Here's how Exploding Kittens avoided the trap.Imagine a version of Russian Roulette played with a cat that had dynamite up its butt, then add in some Uno for good measure. That's Exploding Kittens in a nutshell, a card game designed by Microsoft's Elan Lee and Shane Small, with art from The Oatmeal's Matthew Inman. When it launched on Kickstarter last year, it became the site's most-funded game ever. Now, it's coming to iPhone, but the App Store version of Exploding Kittens isn't just a port. It's a whole new experience. Straight ports are usually shit.Read Full Story

In the 1989 cult classic Field of Dreams, mysterious voices instructed Kevin Costner, a struggling Iowa corn farmer, to build an elaborate baseball field amidst his crops. As the soft whispers on the wind told Costner, "If you build it, they will come," he felt an overwhelming desire to blindly construct his ballpark…even though the act would almost surely bankrupt him. Modern-day software developers often take on the same type of "Field of Dreams" mentality when they design Serious Games, 3D Simulations, E-Learning and other titles, simply because they believe that consumers will come out of the woodworks for a chance to play them. While this is true in a select number of cases, the vast majority of software titles end up never taking off for a number of reasons. We have listed some of these shortcomings below- An Abundance of Smart Marketing Have you ever noticed that epic blockbuster movies coming out of Hollywood are often advertised months in advance of the initial screenings? That’s because a smart marketing campaign will try to build up tremendous hype by the time release day comes around, so that consumers will work themselves into a frenzy with anticipation. The exact same concept should be applied to Serious Games, 3D Simulations and E-Learning, but only a handful of companies take pre-launch marketing strategies to heart. In fact, it is often only an afterthought due to tight budgets and inadequate planning, with developers expecting word of mouth to flood their online servers right from the start. It simply does not work this way. Gameplay that Exceeds Consumer Expectations It is also vital for Serious Games developers to make sure that the titles being created are in-line with what consumers are currently searching for. While it would appear that the main goal would be to create a title that’s extremely entertaining, the client will also expect a great learning experience that will empower his employees for years to come. At the end of the day, both traits need to be delivered because today’s brand of gamer is extremely unforgiving when it comes to even minor glitches, confusing gameplay and/or storyline issues. In today’s gaming world, "pretty good" is no longer good enough. From having a polished feel to implementing a simple user-face, developers have to ensure that their software titles can deliver a wow factor straight out of the box. At the same time, however, it is also important to keep in mind that over-developing a game is also a sure-fire path to failure, since it will be extremely difficult to become profitable. Enticing Player Rewards & Incentives Likewise, a great 3D simulation or E-Learning module will not only deliver fantastic content, it will also keep players motivated to advance. The easiest way to make this happen is to create very clear objectives and incentivize them with rewards, advancements or some type of prestige. Be forewarned though; the incentives have to present actual value to hold the gamer’s attention. Take Google News, for example, and their "News Badges" that were handed out for reading different types of content. This campaign started in mid-2011 to give readers a feel of an extra accomplishment for getting their daily doses of world news from the Internet giant, but the campaign ultimately backfired. Nobody cared that they had an extra icon next to their name because it was meaningless, and some even took offense to the obviously shallow marketing tactic. While it may seem like our staff at Designing Digitally, Inc. has Jedi-like powers due to our proven track record, our success has come from understanding what motivates the end-user to have fun and strive towards victory. Feel free to contact us to see how we can educate and inspire your organization.