Kids certainly need to understand the concepts of programming, the logic behind the computing devices, visible and not, they use everyday. That needs to be a fundamental part of the basic course of study, replacing the rote processing and endless repetition in the K12 curriculum we call “math”. The computer science classes need to be…
Most people these days still see computer coding or programming as a highly technical or even nerdy activity that is only attractive to a minority of the population. In reality, coding is getting to be a newer type of literacy. It is a skill that is useful in everyday life, especially in today’s highly digital…
Boxy SVG lets you edit vector graphics in Chrome without an internet connection. There are two different ways of how the computer renders graphics. One is bitmap or raster images, which include .jpg, .png, and .gif. Raster images take a graphic and view it as a combination of pixels to form the image. This allows…
Somewhere between education and entertainment lies a sweet spot. MinecraftEdu — rereleased as Minecraft: Education Edition — hit square on the mark by bringing game-based learning to subjects like anatomy and art history. Now, Nintendo’s Pokémon GO mobile game appears poised to find its target too. The augmented reality app, released just one week ago,…
It was a typical Tuesday in my seventh-grade social studies class. Only, it wasn’t. I couldn’t coax students to stop writing. I made several announcements to save and export work to Google Drive and to put away computers. Students continued to pore through the books and online sources to learn more details about major battles…
Today I stumbled upon a clip art collection I bought of ten years ago. The collection contains over 600,000 images spread across 29 CDs, in various formats. The vector formatted images are Windows Metafile files with a .wmf extension. Vector images use math to describe the image, and can be resized without any loss of…
Each night this week, Kellian Adams-Pletcher and her husband Brian have looked out from their Somerville, Mass., home and seen the same thing: dozens of people, all sitting in the tiny park across the street, mobile phones in hand. The crowds are, of course, hunting for elusive digital monsters in the augmented reality game Pokémon…
Unless you’ve degreed in visual or graphic communications, creating appealing images or graphics may be challenging to many. In this blog, I’ll share some graphic design tips that can help you have a better grasp at creating images, and some tools that will aid you in creating visually appealing graphics. Source: Simple Graphic Design for…
ZType is a pretty addictive typing game. Once started, a series of invaders with words attached come down from the top of the screen, and when you type the word, your ship at the bottom works on destroying the invader, one letter at a time. The game also has an iPad/iPhone version that plays the…
Though the conversations focused either on the literature or on its implications, students acquired a number of soft skills through the process that were as valuable as the content of the exchanges. Removed from those conversations, I think our students’ education is incomplete without these skills. Source: 4 Skills Every Student Needs – Leading, Learning,…