We featured today in SecEd magazine with an article on how the kind of sharing Teachable.net encourages can improve learning and save teachers time. With special thanks to Henry Cordy for this article. Click on the image to read more.
Post-SATS, exams and the warm weather can sometimes mean it’s a real struggle to keep students engaged. But we have a few ideas up our sleeves to make them stand to attention. (We can’t guarantee they will actually stand to attention but we hope the ideas will help you keep them entertained!).
New Scientist this week published an article on the science behind the TV series Battlestar Galactica which might be able to help. Try showing a clip as a starter and asking the class to comment on how much of what they see might be possible. You could then give different groups in the class sections from the article as a starting point and then ask them to do some further research. For example into some of the problems astronauts experience in space and how these might be overcome; or different ways it might be possible to generate gravity in space. Bring the groups back together afterwards to report back their findings and ideas to the whole class. To incorporate ICT even further into the lesson ask them to create a PowerPoint presentation but make sure it isn’t just 5 pages of images from the show!
For a sixth form group try the Wellcombe Trust’s climate health impact game. In this simulation students are asked to take charge of medical and research decisions relating to climate change and are judged on how many diseases they correctly identify and how many people die. You will need to have talked about the greenhouse effect and climate change already as the game will take most of a lesson. Students can either work alone or you could divide the class up so that some are researching the diseases while others are the politicians making the decisions. A chocolate bar for the person with the highest score always goes down well! Once they have tried it out ask them to comment on the types of diseases which were the main problems. Hopefully they will have noticed that diseases with insect vectors could be a particular problem if the climate changes which links nicely to A2 specifications. You can follow up in the next lesson by looking at some of the date relating to the evidence for global warming and its possible effects on plants and animals.
We’ve always thought textbooks have had their day, but this view has now been endorsed by no less than Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
From the beginning of the next school year in August, maths and science students in California’s high schools will have access to online texts that have passed an academic standards review, rather than buy any new textbooks.
‘Online teaching resources for maths and science texts that have passed an academic standards review’ … that sounds a bit like Teachable; and we include interactive whiteboard content as well.
The key reason is that textbooks are no longer thought to be good value for money. California spends approximately $350m on teaching resources, and is facing a big budget deficit – a bit like the UK. If education authorities are forced to cut either staff or textbooks, then most schools and parents would rather keep the staff. And that choice may soon come to the UK, which spends around £350m on equivalent materials.
So, although not all schools are equipped to make best use of fully online resources, the move towards Quality Assured online content is speeding up.
Textbooks are going. And no, they won’t Be Back.
We featured in an article today in a Guardian supplement on ICT in teaching. It encourages teachers to experiment with simple, ubiquitous technology such as Powerpoint and social networking to engage pupils. Click on the image to read in full. 