On Wednesday I had the distinct pleasure of attending Beaver Local’s professional development waiver day. It was a twofer for me, I not only got a chance to see how they ran their waiver day PD, but I also had the chance to present and converse with the staff in the district. This was invaluable to me, and I was… Read more →
Author: ryan
Gamification in education research
How to effectively use Civ IV in higher education | Ars Technica writes: Lots of games, from dedicated educational titles to adult brain-teasers, make claims about how they can improve someone’s mental performance in various ways. But there’s often little evidence available to back up these claims and, in many cases, the evidence itself is ambiguous. Can playing games actually… Read more →
IRC for teachers #tlah
Since the website at talk.eduk8.me just isn’t up to everyone’s standards on using IRC for group chats I’ve put together a brief tutorial on installing a Chrome app that works a lot better than the website. It is also prettier. 🙂 (I also stumbled acrossed Tiny Tiny IRC tonight, but the install is a little more involved, so this will… Read more →
In honor of The Lego Movie I present Ohio Dan and the Silver Brick of Doom
Back in 1999, my brother and I put together a Lego stop motion movie. Ohio Dan and the Silver Brick of Doom. I had to laugh at the beginning of The Lego Movie since the beginning scene and a couple of the lines reminded me of Ohio Dan. The pictures were taken with a Sony Mavica floppy disk camera at… Read more →
How does water instantly freeze in a water bottle?
In our garage we have some bottled water. With the colder weather I’ve witnessed an interesting phenomenon. When I bring a water bottle into the house, it is entirely liquid, but as soon as I shake it, it fills with slush. Apparently, it’s a process called supercooling. The water temperature is brought below the freezing point, and all it takes… Read more →
Open a new laptop like an animal
The best part of the terrible story done by NBC was learning how to unbox a new MacBook Air. Read more →
Noteable people from #oetc14
A quick script and I have a list of the people I interacted with on Twitter! I highly recommend following each and every one of person! (And if I missed you, let me know so I can update the list!) @_AmyHansen Amy Hansen @StateImpactOH education reporter, as well as second grade multiplication table champion, reality TV show couch critic, &… Read more →
Teach Like a Hacker presentation at #oetc14
I’m finally getting a chance to post my presentation and supplemental materials from the OETC14 conference! Presentation Link “Ryan is a hottie” .mp3 “Ryan is a hottie” .m4r Backchannel log And you know, for all the flack I get about trying to promote IRC, the back channel log is the most dialogue I’ve ever seen happen in a session! 🙂 Read more →
How to differentiate using Screencasting in a flipped classroom! #oetc14
Presentation link Introduction Usually used at the high school Equipment iOS, PC, Mac, etc. Microphone Topic: script or keywords Media Options to record Screencast-o-Mac Jing Screenr EduCanon Educreations Teach by Knowmia Camtasia ($) Snag it ($) Combining technology Younger students, watch videos at school while teacher works with other students different types of media: pictures, videos, PDFs, etc. Put the… Read more →
Record every class I teach? Are you crazy? #oetc14
Presentation link Why record your classes? Originally only recorded when kids are missing, now record all For when you are out Most subs can follow directions Remediation Different examples from different classes, post multiple recordings Differentiation National Trail Moodle If you don’t have an LMS, make a new calendar for your class and add each class as an event, linking… Read more →