Increasing classroom engagement through outdoor lessons

Increasing classroom engagement through outdoor lessons

Teachers wishing to offer lessons in nature may hold back for fear of leaving students keyed up and unable to concentrate in subsequent, indoor lessons. This study tested the hypothesis that lessons in nature have positive—not negative—aftereffects on subsequent classroom engagement. Using carefully matched pairs of lessons (one in a relatively natural outdoor setting and…

Sleep and memory

Sleep and memory

The results show that during slow wave sleep, the largest connections are maintained while the smaller ones are lost. This brain mechanism improves the signal-to-noise ratio — important information remains and the dispensable is discarded — and allows the storage of various types of information from one day to the next without losing the previous…

Google is shutting down its goo.gl URL shortening service

Google is shutting down its goo.gl URL shortening service

Google announced last week that it is shutting down the goo.gl URL shortening service. A URL shortening services is an online service that takes long, unwieldy addresses and creates a new, shorter address that it is easier to share. I’ve covered the Chrome extension before, which made it very easy to use. The timeline for…

All things, including your smartphone, in moderation

All things, including your smartphone, in moderation

A decade ago, smart devices promised to change the way we think and interact, and they have – but not by making us smarter. Eric Andrew-Gee explores the growing body of scientific evidence that digital distraction is damaging our minds Source: Your smartphone is making you stupid, antisocial and unhealthy. So why can’t you put it down?…