Finding Academic Information Efficiently

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Teaching a computer to "see things while doodling"

Image
Introduction Recently I came across an  awesome tool  that google released to assist in creating the world’s largest doodling data set of common objects. I used it in a weekly ICT lesson with Grade 8’s & 9’s and was surprised by how much they enjoyed it. We also managed to have a brief discussion of what a neural network is and how researchers  are trying to use them to teach computers to recognise common objects. Neural Network – “A computer system modelled on the human brain and nervous system.” Outline of Lesson Begin the lesson by asking the class if they know what a neural network is? They probably wont, then ask if they have ever heard of AI? Most will have, and some will even want to tell an interesting story about what they’ve heard. Explain how one of the challenges for AI is getting computers to recognise common objects. One type of solution is to have a massive human generated Database to compare things to. And today we are going to make ou...
Read more

Mindmap of Deep Work by Cal Newport (Read 2017)

Image
Link to full  MindMap Recently I finished reading the book Deep Work by Cal Newport after hearing it referenced in one of my favourite  Ted Talks . It deals a lot with the issue of using our time in productive ways and especially limiting our use of technology to things that actually add value to our lives and education. It definitely helped shape an awareness in me, that not every tech tool that seems useful is worthy of my time. Time is our ultimate scare resource and so we would should allocate our time, including our technology usage in a way that is most conducive to us reaching our goals.  It’s well worth a read in the context of how our modern lives are being saturated with technology and how we as individuals need to set appropriate boundaries to deal with this.
Read more

Fundamentals of Effective Teaching

Image
I have been thinking a lot lately about the fundamentals of education. There is so much written about new innovations or new ideas on the web these days and it’s easy to get overwhelmed as a teacher. It’s also hard to know how to capture the good stuff you see out there, and actually use it to make your the learning environment a more effective and exciting place to be. A strategy that I am being drawn to more and more is mindmapping excellent pedagogical content I see on the web to retain and process the information. I can then come back to it a later stage and customise it for my context and hopefully add even more useful information to this new resource that informs my ever growing skills as a teacher. I have a small example below taken from one of my favourite Youtube Talks done by Robert Duke. In it he mentions what he thinks are the fundamental skills of effective teaching. This is something all teachers would benefit from bearing in mind whenever they plan for learn...
Read more