Five Ways to Incorporate Video Into Your Classroom and Instruction

By Patricia Brown (Columnist) Mar 22, 2016

Video in the classroom is powerful, because it has the ability to make the classroom come alive, and make meaningful learning experiences and connections. Video allows you to deliver long-lasting images, and reach children with various learning styles. But how do you make sure you’re keeping things fresh?

Here are a few ways you can incorporate video projects in your classroom—on a daily basis.

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At SXSW, Augmented Reality Brings An Alice In Wonderland Book To Life

By Aqila Xiao Qi, 25 Mar 2016

At the recently concluded SXSW festival, Sony Future Lab unveiled a new device that will transform any flat surface into an augmented display. Testing out the technology on an Alice In Wonderland book, touching any character will take them out of the pages, turning them into interactive animations.

According to website The Verge, the technology is built from two components: a camera and projection. The former “map[s] the terrain and tracks changes while hand and finger recognition provides the controls,” and the latter creates the images that appear in the physical space.

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Idea to retire: Technology alone can improve student learning

Ellen Lettvin, Joseph South and Katrina Stevens/Mar 18, 2016

Nearly every aspect of the world is being transformed by digital tools.  Over Thanksgiving weekend in 2015, more people shopped online than braved the aisles of brick and mortar stores fighting for highly discounted items. Globally, there are 2.6 billion active smartphone subscriptions. And self-driving cars have already clocked over 1 million miles on public roads.  There is no doubt that technology is impacting how we educate our children and ourselves as well.  Over 21 million post-secondary students are enrolled in online courses. Computers are in virtually every school in the country and more of those computers are connected to the Internet than ever before.  In fact, the number of students with broadband at school increased by 20 million over just the last two years. Because technology is widely perceived to improve our day-to-day experiences, it is logical to conclude that technology will improve learning outcomes in our nation’s schools by itself.  This is an idea that must die.

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Meron Gribetz: A glimpse of the future through an augmented reality headset

TED2016 · 10:54 · Filmed Feb 2016

What if technology could connect us more deeply with our surroundings instead of distracting us from the real world? With the Meta 2, an augmented reality headset that makes it possible for users to see, grab and move holograms just like physical objects, Meron Gribetz hopes to extend our senses through a more natural machine. Join Gribetz as he takes the TED stage to demonstrate the reality-shifting Meta 2 for the first time. (Featuring Q&A with TED Curator Chris Anderson)

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Encryption (HBO)

Published on 13 Mar 2016

Strong encryption poses problems for law enforcement, is weakening it worth the risks it presents? It’s…complicated.

More on the FBI vs. Apple

Our refugee system is failing. Here’s how we can fix it

A million refugees arrived in Europe this year, says Alexander Betts, and “our response, frankly, has been pathetic.” Betts studies forced migration, the impossible choice for families between the camps, urban poverty and dangerous illegal journeys to safety. In this insightful talk, he offers four ways to change the way we treat refugees, so they can make an immediate contribution to their new homes. “There’s nothing inevitable about refugees being a cost,” Betts says. “They’re human beings with skills, talents, aspirations, with the ability to make contributions — if we let them.”