Ever wondered what 10,000 young people could do to solve some of the world’s greatest problems?

My Twitter friend Ewan McIntosh recently shared an incredible opportunity for involving students in solving real world problems.  I love putting kids creative minds to problems that keep us all wondering. I’m always so impressed with the unique approach that children take to problems.  Kids don’t have the same life filters that we do.  Some assumptions we make about the way things have to be done don’t exist for kids. They are free of those.

Ewan explains how your students can be involved wonderfully so I won’t reinvent the wheel:

“At TEDxLondonBLCNaace and a few other events this summer I asked if people wanted to join me in trying to encourage more curricula that were based less on students solving the irrelevant, contrived pseudo problems given to them in textbooks, and based more on finding great, real world problems that need solved.

A superb opportunity for action has come along.

Ever wondered what 10,000 young people could do to solve some of the world’s greatest problems? We want to know for the world’s most important ICT event, ITU Telecom World 11, by gathering young people’s vision for the future on world2011.us.

The October 24-27 event is the flagship meeting of the world’s telecoms industries, brought together by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the specialised United Nations agency responsible for information and communication technologies. In the run up to the event, and during it, we’ll be showcasing the ideas of young people, aged 8-18, alongside the debates, panels and corridor discussions of these influential delegates.

I’ve been at so many events recently that have either totally lacked the student voice, or made third party reference to it through second-hand reportag from their teachers. This is a real chance for your students to make a global impact on problems that matter, wherever they are.

It’s a once-in-a-lifetime real world project-based learning opportunity, that ties into most teachers’ curriculum at any given point in the year.

We’re providing some brief points of inspiration to get you started, over the seven key themes, and will open up a wiki space today where teachers can collaborate and add to each other’s resources on the areas.

By October 24, we hope to have videos, photos, blogs and examples or prototypes of what young people believe might help solve challenges on their own doorstep. Sign up your class, school or district to begin sharing the ideas of your students. We want you to tell us how technology could be harnessed to:

To take part, you just have to sign up your interest, and from there you’re able to submit posts to the project.”  -via http://edu.blogs.com

 

Way cool!  Thanks for sharing Ewan!

 

 

 

 

 

 

GE Smart Grid Augmented Reality!

 

What it is:   Okay, sometimes I just have to share things because they are off the charts amazing.  Augmented reality is something I was introduced to by my graphic artist husband.  Until I found this GE Smart Grid site, I wasn’t able to share it with others and let students play with it.  What is augmented reality?  Basically you print off a sheet from the website that has a bold graphic on it.  When you hold up this graphic to a web cam, a 3-D model is produced on screen, by moving the paper you can look at different views of the 3-D model, zoom in and out, and in some cases cause the model to react to other inputs (like blowing into the microphone).  The GE Smart Grid Augmented Reality shows a digital hologram of smart grid technology in the form of wind turbines and solar energy.

How to integrate GE Smart Grid Augmented Reality into the classroom:  I am introducing this site to my students as a discussion starter for where technology is going and brainstorming what augmented reality could be used for.  The Smart Grid site can also be used when teaching students about alternative energy sources like wind turbines and solar energy.  They can actually see 3-D models of each and interact with them.  This would be a great introduction and attention grabber for an energy unit in science classes.

 

Tips:  Augmented reality is still relatively new technology, it is starting to pop up in the advertising world and in baseball trading cards.  Hopefully the education sector will jump on this technology, how amazing would it be to hold up a science worksheet to the computer and be able to see a 3-D model of a skeleton, or a beating heart?!  (I’ll see if I can talk my husband into working on a few augmented reality education goodies). 🙂   Mac users, if you can’t get it to pick up your camera, ctrl + click on the popup window and choose the USB camera option.  Enjoy!

 

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using GE Smart Grid Augmented Reality  in your classroom.

Lost Generation

I came across this video recently on YouTube.  As I understand it, a 15 year old wrote this poem as part of a school assignment.  Amazing!  This video would be wonderful to use as inspiration for a teaching staff or with students.  It would be a great opener for a creative writing class! The video speaks for itself, I’m sure you’ll come up with great ideas for using this video with your students (share those great ideas with the rest of us). 🙂

Flowlight

Well, it is taking me longer than expected to blog my recent vacation to California where I visited Apple, Google, Exploratorium, The Tech Museum, and Napa. Sorting through 800+ photos and embedding them in a virtual tour is taking FOREVER! So, in the meantime I thought I would give you a glimpse into the future. Meet the Flowlight, essentially a blackboard with lasers. I read about this concept on Gizmodo last week and I have to say, I think this ‘blackboard’ could hold students attention. Basically, “a base station would focus a laser beam 100 times a second into a point in space, creating small plasma points that glow in mid air. Users could then use the pen to draw and write, making doodles look like some sort of fantastic light show.” While I don’t think this will be in your classrooms in the forseeable future, it may be a glimpse into classrooms to come.