The Ed-Tech Holiday Gift Guide

Just in case...here are some ed-tech and geography-themed gift ideas, some of which may actually be usable for teaching and learning:

• Are your students bored with your flipped classroom? Impress them with 360 degree videos (example) using the Ricoh Theta series that they can watch on Facebook.
• Turn any smartphone into an infrared camera with the Seek Compact or Compact XR and keep it charged.
• Or, use the visible spectrum better with the Creative Mobile Kit.
• Bored with your lectures, online classes or MOOCs? Experience them as virtual reality (oh...the irony) with the Samsung Gear VR. 
• A 3-D printer for every student? Why not with the M3D Micro!
• A computer for every student? Why not with the Kano or the Raspberry Pi Zero (for $5).
• A drone for every student? Why not with the Axis Wallet Drone!
• There must be some use for this in the classroom or lab: The Drop scale and app.
• For the map geek: Circle Maps or Below The Boat.
• Design your own map-based clothing or accessories @ Monochome.
• Design your own map-based wall art @ Woodcut Maps.

Still not sure? You can always Adopt-A-Glacier via the National Snow and Ice Data Center. One of my favs, Qori Kalis Glacier in Peru, is available.

Qori Kalis Glacier (June 2015)

Teens, Social Media & Technology

The Teens, Social Media & Technology Overview 2015 by the Pew Research Center is fascinating, especially since most of the results are further stratified by gender, race, income, and other factors (see table below).

And once you are done reading that, how about the Millenials and Political News report (also by the Pew Research Center). One thing seems clear: our students get their new from Facebook (see chart below).

Story Mapping with ThingLink

This week is Geography Awareness Week and ThingLink is an easy way to make a story map: just upload a picture and 'map it' by adding tags and links to multimedia. Here's a simple example: GPS Survey of the Quelccaya Ice Cap.

ThingLink is basically a simpler (and commercial) version of StoryMap for Images, the tool behind the awesome 'map' of the The Garden Of Earthly Delights by Hieronymus Bosch which is featured prominently in this year's First-Year Read The Bonobo and the Atheist by Frans De Waal.

Claim Your Domain!

And control your digital identity and digital citizenship!

• Problem: students and faculty lose control of their digital work once they upload it to the commercial LMS or E-Portfolio systems.
• Solution: claim your domain and put yourself in-control of your own digital academic or professional portfolio.
• Example: carstenbraun.us

And the institution can (and should) facilitate that by creating a Domains of One's Own initiative for students, faculty, and staff.

That's the short version of Audrey Watters new book Claim Your Domain - And Own Your Online Presence. This is a good and quick read, but you can also skim the Clif Notes version on her blog at The Web We Need to Give Students.

The End of Public Education?

Forget PLATO (no, not our PLATO), MOOCs, Sal Khan, iTunes U, or SNHU - this may be the end of public education: Knewton (if it works).

"We think of it like a robot tutor in the sky that can semi-read your mind and figure out what your strengths and weaknesses are, down to the percentile." (Jose Ferreira, CEO Knewton, 13 October 2015/NPR)

Read more about Knewton and the history of automated 'adaptive' learning here: The Algorithmic Future of Education (Audrey Watters, 22 October 2015).

http://hackeducation.com/2015/10/22/robot-tutors/