Just in case you didn’t catch it someplace else, I thought I’d share the free math app review that we published this week over on Balefire Labs. I’ve talked to you guys about the Native Numbers app before, but here is a detailed, point-by-point review of its instructional design and usability design. Want more info about the review criteria that you see below? Click here to get the full definitions.
This past Wednesday I had the opportunity to give a talk at the Computer-Human Interaction Forum of Oregon (CHIFOO). CHIFOO is a really interesting group. They are a local chapter of SIGCHI, the premier international society for professionals, academics and students who are interested in human-technology & human-computer interaction. The CHIFOO group has a lot of User Experience (UX) folks, User Interaction (UI) people, web developers, software engineers, app developers and other people interested in computer-human interactions. Continue reading
I read a really great article in The Atlantic about more testing, not less, in American classrooms. That was not a typo. It is a really fantastic article about how great testing can be…in spite of the much-maligned status of testing in the media!
I couldn’t repost the article here, so I’ll just give you the first paragraph, and then please do yourself a favor and click through to read the rest. You won’t be sorry…especially if you are a teacher, whether elementary, secondary or higher ed. Continue reading
You know I’m a sucker for a fun infographic. And when I came across this one I thought it was really funny….until I realized that I’m in that “your parents” generation! Yikes! When did that happen?!? Continue reading
This blog post originally appeared on the Balefire Labs blog.
A lot of teachers and parents we talk to have told us that when they are trying to find apps for their kids they look at the Top Charts in the iTunes store. And we go there too when deciding what apps to review. It’s a pretty common thing, to see what others buy and use that information in your own purchasing decisions. All of us tend to think that popularity must mean something.
So we decided to do a little experiment. On Friday, we downloaded the top 10 paid apps in the Education category on iTunes. Then over the weekend we reviewed them. Here’s what we learned: Anyone who is basing their purchasing of apps on popularity rankings, expecting them to be high quality educationally, is in trouble.
We want to share the results of this experiment. Here they are: Continue reading
So on Thursday when I posted my shameless self-promotion post I promised a “real” post today. Here it is (finally).
I wanted to have a conversation with you all about an experience I had last week. Balefire Labs was invited to participate in Congressman Joe Kennedy’s STEM Tour of Massachusetts. Congressman Kennedy is a member of Governor Deval Patrick‘s STEM Council and he’s been on a statewide listening tour, of sorts, to hear from stakeholders in STEM education…what are their issues, what do they think some solutions could be, what are they doing to help STEM education in the Commonwealth. Continue reading
Here’s a bit of shameless self-promotion…with the promise that I’ll write a “real” blog post tomorrow! But what an honor for us to be featured in the “Cool Tools” section of Ed Tech Digest! Rock on!
Karen Mahon never had the goal to start her own business, but after seeing too much instructional “junk” out there, she couldn’t hold back. “If you read the marketing claims of most ed tech products on the market today you will see that pretty much all of them say that they improve kids’ learning. And it just isn’t so,” she says. As president and founder of Balefire Labs, a subscription service for parents and educators, she has made it her mission to keep school curriculum and technology directors from having to reinvent the wheel by coming up with their own screening systems, to help teachers and parents, and to drive spending dollars toward those developers who are really doing a good job creating high quality instructional products. The most common question she hears from parents and teachers? “How can I tell that an app actually teaches?” As very few…
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Just to mix things up a bit, I thought this would be fun for all of you who are teachers! Have a great first day back (whenever that may be…for some of you, today!)
This is pretty far out and, yeah, kind of blew my mind!
We’ve all seen the recent images of Google Glass in the news, but I confess, I hadn’t really given any thought to how it might be used in education! Had you? Well, clearly the folks at Open Colleges have! Check out these ideas and in the comments section please share what you think the BEST idea is and which idea you think will just NEVER work! Continue reading
This article shares some really interesting numbers about parents, kids and mobile learning in school. I think you’ll find some of them shocking! I sure did!
Guest Writer Reese Jones (UK)
Parents are giving their approval stamps on the use of modern technology inside the classrooms. The presence of devices has breathed a new life to the otherwise routine of the students. But, of course, there are ways on how to purchase the right device for your kid. Participating in a survey, parents have voiced out their views on mobile learning.
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Family members these days own mobile devices, from elementary students to teenagers have a gadget in their hands. These children know how to look for great mobile deals. They search websites like O2 Learn to look at the latest trends or news about the newest release device model from different manufacturers.
According to information from PCMag:
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disrupt learning! 