I’m seeing the use of the word “creative” more often in job postings. My hope is that the printed word is actually encouraged in the culture of some of the cannibalistic corporations. Creativity is essential to employee engagement and growth.
Clearly a demonstration of who has power over. This type of communication creates a cultural environment that is reluctant to be collegial and fun! You get what you give!
I was flicking through my Employee Handbook this morning when I came across this highly complex and informative flow chart. Please note that not only does this exist, but an entire page was devoted to it.
Are Farmbots the Future of Agriculture? Lots of people think that farming has gotten too industrialized. But there are others who believe it’s not nearly industrialized enough—such as the Iowa inventor who envisions armies of robots growing our food in the future.
“Dourhout, who based his Prospero design in part on the swarming behaviors of insects, birds and fish, believes that robotic farming will help ramp up food production for a heavily populated planet. He “hopes the next step will be to create more advanced robots that can weed, fertilize and harvest the crop,” writes Eric Niller at Discovery News.
Totally dig this, and I’ve spoken about this and similar ideas before, so it’s nice to see that people are working on it. That said, I felt the tone of the video was a bit over-dramatic and kinda terrifying. It needn’t be. For non-Luddites, like myself, I see this as a natural extension of our technology. It’ll allow us to grow more, more efficiently, and not require back-breaking labor. Seems good. I do have some concern about the food industry, though. That said, I’m also looking forward to homes that include indoor greenhouses as a normal accessory (e.g. this and this), just like a microwave or refrigerator. In other words, technology isn’t good or bad. It’s a tool. It can have either, or both, effects. It can help monopolies - like the food empires - or it can democratize food production and empower individuals. But it’s up to us to be aware and take the steps we’d like to see.
Document cameras…the overheads of the future today!
PS: A properly propped iPad 2 hooked up to a projector can also double as a document camera (assuming you have one in your classroom).
This is very cool! I used smartboards in my corporate classrooms and complimented the tool with the Senteo remotes for evaluating learning real time. This document camera and clicker will support the same approach enabling the instructor to adapt the instruction approach to ensure the information is assimilated.
When students focus on tests, they are thinking about what they need to remember to get a good grade, he said. They are not taking the time to think about why they are learning this information, and why it is important in their life.
That’s the conclusion of a study of 5,000 students taking high school health classes. Students in classes where teachers emphasized the importance of learning information because it would be on the tests were less likely to actually develop healthy habits in their lives than those in classes where the teacher concentrated on the relevance of the information.
But let’s not worry about developing life-long learners — the state tests will be coming up in a few months….
Learners assimilate information easier when they are able to critically think about the content and apply it to real life. Evaluating doesn’t always have to be in the form of a formal exam. There are other options to evaluting learning!
