Tag: TEACHING

The cult hit 'Minecraft' stands out from the current crop of video games as perhaps the most malleable, and its latest adaptation is as a classroom aid. Computer teacher Joel Levin at Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School has adapted the game to teach an entire unit to his first and second grade students. Lessons start with Levin explaining the day's goals, but quickly move into the world of ...

In 1999, Professor Sugata Mitra was working for a software company in Delhi, at an office building surrounded by one of India's infamous slums. The children populating the slum, needless to say, were mired in poverty, and hardly spent any time in school, much less in front of a computer. That didn't stop Mitra, though, from embedding computers on the walls of his office building, and exposing ...

We couldn't make this stuff up if we tried: Lee Sheldon, a teacher of game design in Indiana, bases his entire teaching philosophy on the online game, 'World of Warcraft.' The nerdy professor coordinates several game design courses at Indiana University, and has now overhauled the grading system of his classes in an effort to better motivate students. Instead of traditional grades, IU game ...

Chances are, you weren't always kind to your teachers when you were in school (or aren't kind to them now if you're still there). Back then, the worst you probably had to worry about was a bit of a verbal rebuke or, perhaps, a trip to the principal's office. But things may change with Saya, a Japanese robot undergoing trials as a teacher at a Tokyo school. Misbehave in front of her and she might ...

We've reported contrasting reports indicating that using the Internet either makes you more or less intelligent, but whatever your opinion you can't doubt that today's online generation of students require some different teaching tactics. According to "Wikinomics" author Don Tapscott, the answer is to stop teaching the details and start focusing more on the concepts. Tapscott argues that we no ...

It's no secret that kids are reading less these days, and attracting the youth back to the printed page is no small undertaking. Publishers and authors are increasingly looking for ways to get kids engaged, and the newest scheme is... video games. PJ Haarsma writes a series of science-fiction novels aimed at pre-teens, and the novels come with an online game that encourages children to explore ...

Do your professors twitter? Do they blog, or even e-mail? Professor Dave Parry from the University of Texas at Dallas does all of the above. Now, after twittering to solicit some ideas for taking one of his classes online, Parry is taking things a step further by opening up the seminar to (almost) anyone who wants to join in, free of cost -- assuming his school goes along with it. Online classes ...