Tag Archives: digital

7 Tech Upgrades to the Old-School Science Class | Mashable

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7 Tech Upgrades to the Old-School Science Class

Technological breakthroughs have flooded into classrooms, changing the face of K-12 education. From smart boards to smartphones, these digital trends have become useful educational tools in the teaching process. While todays kids are learning the same lessons and concepts, they are absorbing in different ways.

With new apps and interactive sites, science class, in particular, has received a few upgrades. We took a look at how science technology has evolved over time, and what adjustments have been made.

READ MORE:  7 Tech Upgrades to the Old-School Science Class | Mashable

20 Things Educators Need To Know About Digital Literacy Skills | InformED

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Teaching digital literacy is about more than just integrating technology into lesson plans; it’s about using technology to understand and enhance modern communication, to locate oneself in digital space, to manage knowledge and experience in the Age of Information.

These are vague descriptions, as are most of the descriptions you’ll find of digital literacy in blog posts and journal articles online. What teachers need, more than a fancy synopsis of how digital publication affects the meaning of a text, is a practical and applicable guide to helping students think productively about the digital world.

[These are] the top do’s and don’ts we’ve come across–in research and in our own experience–when it comes to making students digitally literate. The post reviews 5 Teaching Practices That Destroy Digital Literacy (e.g. criticizing digitalk) and 15 Habits to Cultivate in Your Students (e.g. get used to multiple literacies).

READ: 20 Things Educators Need To Know About Digital Literacy Skills | InformED

Comixology DRM-Free Comics | $1 for Access to 15,000 Marvel Comics | Gizmodo

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You Can Finally Download DRM-Free Comic Book Backups From Comixology | Gizmodo
The biggest digital comic book distributor in all of digital comics land, Comixology, just took a relatively unprecedented move for a platform its size. Customers will now be able to download DRM-free backups—meaning when you buy a book, you’ll finally get to own it, too.

You Can Access 15,000 Marvel Comics Right Now For a Buck | Gizmodo
As we all prepare our brains and Twitter feeds for the unstoppable flood of comics and entertainment news that will pour out of San Diego Comic-Con, Marvel announced some news in the quiet before the storm. Now, for 99 cents, readers can gain access to Marvel Unlimited, the publisher’s treasure trove of 15,000 issues from current series (well, at least six months old) and classic golden- and silver-age titles. You can also store up to 12 issues offline so you can read without a reliable Wi-Fi connection. As long as you have a Mac, PC, iOS, or Android device, you’re in business.

 

Lego Fusion Blends Virtual and Physical Gameplay | Mashable

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Leave it to Lego to use the word “fusion” correctly. The construction-toy companys new Lego Fusion analog-to-digital game sets are a true blend of real-world Lego building and tablet-app play.

Announced on Wednesday, and shipping in August and September, Lego Fusion boxes each come with 200 Lego pieces. They let you build and play in app-based virtual worlds that include a tower-defense game called “Battle Towers,” a town-building game called “Town Master,” a racing game called “Create and Race” and “Resort Designer.” What you build in the real world can be captured and used in the iOS and Android tablet apps. Each structure then becomes part of the game, and each game can be a part of your world or the larger Lego social community, where others are using their Fusion sets to build similar worlds. Towers can battle towers, race cars can compete against each other and townspeople can take virtual metros to visit other player’s towns.

Read more: Lego Fusion Blends Virtual and Physical Gameplay | Mashable

The US is opening up the Smithsonian’s digitized art collection | Engadget

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The White House promised that it would open up government data last year, and it’s now expanding those plans in some intriguing directions. For one, it’s opening up the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s digitized collection; you’ll soon get to build apps and other tools using the institution’s artwork as a foundation. Even curators don’t have that much access right now, the administration says. via The US is opening up the Smithsonian’s digitized art collection | Engadget

From the White House Continued Progress and Plans for Open Government Data:

  • Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection: The Smithsonian American Art Museum’s entire digitized collection will be opened to software developers to make educational apps and tools. Today, even museum curators do not have easily accessible information about their art collections. This information will soon be available to everyone.

An Amazing Discovery: Andy Warhol’s Groundbreaking Computer Art | WIRED

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An Amazing Discovery: Andy Warhol’s Groundbreaking Computer Art | Design | WIRED

Back in the mid-1980s, Andy Warhol made a series of digital artworks on an Amiga 1000, a personal computer created by Commodore International. The artist, tapped by the company to be a spokesperson for the computer’s multimedia capabilities, created a few public pieces as part of a marketing campaign, but it was unknown if he had made any digital artworks on his own time.

Decades later, we now know he did. Stashed away on dozens of unlabeled floppy disks was a treasure trove of never-before-seen Warhol works that were slowly deteriorating. A multi-year, collaborative effort between a team of artists, museum professionals and the Carnegie Mellon Computer Club unearthed 28 works of art and a host of 1980s graphics software that Warhol used to create these digital pieces. Read more: An Amazing Discovery: Andy Warhol’s Groundbreaking Computer Art | Design | WIRED.

Why Vinyl Is the Only Worthwhile Way to Own Music | Gizmodo

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The renaissance of the long play record isn’t just an anecdotal trend. Even as physical record sales decline, people are buying more vinyl than they have in decades. In 2013, sales increased 31-percent to about 6 million units year-over-year. It’s not a single-year bump either, either. Sales have climbed to 6 million from after having been at about a million in 2007…The “why” behind it, though, is a little more elusive. People don’t have to buy vinyl, and yet, they’re increasingly choosing to do so. It seems that in a world where CDs are obsolete, and digital files are intangible, the vinyl record still has a physical value that gives you your money’s worth. If the music industry wants to survive, it better pay attention to why people are buying records.

Read more: Why Vinyl Is the Only Worthwhile Way to Own Music | Gizmodo

Handsome Paper Notebooks Come With Digital Backup | Co.Design

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1 | Handsome Paper Notebooks Come With Digital Backup | Co.Design | business + design

“Sync” is a bit of a stretch to describe what Mod truly offers, which is a pre-paid, mail-in scanning service for its notebooks. For $25, you get a blank book (designed to be exactly the same size as an iPad Mini) and a Netflix-like pre-paid envelope. When you’ve filled up the notebook, you mail it back to Mod. They scan all the pages, and within five days all the content is replicated digitally in your Mod account. (You can have the notebook returned to you, but that costs extra; by default, the paper book will be destroyed by the scanning process and recycled.)

Read more: Handsome Paper Notebooks Come With Digital Backup | Co.Design

The big steal: rise of the plagiarist in the digital age | The Guardian

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Thanks to the internet, it has never been easier to steal other people’s work. There’s also a high risk you’ll be found out. So why do it? Rhodri Marsden goes in search of a little originality…via The big steal: rise of the plagiarist in the digital age | Technology | The Guardian.

Mind-Boggling Spherical Gear Made from 3D-Printed Moving Parts | Gizmodo

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New York-based Proxy Design Studio has given Gizmodo a first glimpse of its incredible, 3D-printed spherical gear called the Mechaneu, equal parts tactile toy and mechanical sculpture, a mind-bogglingly precise intermeshing of wheels within wheels.

Read: Mind-Boggling Spherical Gear Made from 3D-Printed Moving Parts | Gizmodo