In that way they drive real-world activity and advancement in ways that generate rewards and motivation similar to those found online multiplayer games. These concepts can be applied to learning, research, activity and study projects that aren’t actually games. Gamification includes concepts like social badges similar to Foursquare, social and peer group rewards, teamwork and competition, and recognition of successes. That’s one facet of gamification, which takes key concepts in game theory and applies them learning or work situations. One of the advantages of Khan Academy’s approach is that it rewards students for reaching specific goals and targets. The tracking features also allow teachers and tutors to see how much progress students are making. The service offers a range of exercises to ensure students comprehend the video content and progress tracking that uses social and gaming techniques to encourage achievement. There are also plenty of education-specific reference and resource sites, one of the most well-known being Khan Academy, which offers over 3,000 educational videos across an incredible range K-12 subjects (math, biology, chemistry, physics, economics, computer science, and history to a new handful). Some colleges that are members of these organizations are even considering the possibilities of award college credit to learners who take them.Īpple’s iTunes U, which now includes K-12 material as well as college and university classes, also offers a range of online courses complete with lectures, reading assignments, and optional projects that students can work through at their own pace (albeit without the interactivity offered by MOOCs). Massive online open courses (MOOCs) offered through college and education consortiums like Coursera and Udacity are offering complete college classes with lectures, interactive forums, and assignments to students all over the world. Online education has gotten a lot of attention in the media lately. Online courses and materials don’t replace the classroom experience, but they do provide an extremely wide range of learning resources They also have the ability to share notes with each other and with teachers. The iPad lets students organize their notes better as well as create their own learning tools from them. Any number of text-editing apps and dedicated note taking apps allow students to take copious notes either by typing or writing on the iPad with a finger or stylus. Note taking on an iPad isn’t limited to electronic textbooks. Since custom textbooks are rarely designed for public use, it’s hard to tell how many teachers are creating and using them.Īll in all, the iPad hasn’t completely revolutionized textbooks, but it certainly has the potential to do so over the next few years. Apple made this option a compelling choice for the iPad-based classrooms with iBooks Author. That gives educators the ability to truly create new learning experiences as well as tailor content to their classes. There’s also the relatively new concept of custom textbooks that are created by schools, individual educators, and companies that contract to create customized materials. These resources are used more as additional materials rather than complete textbook replacements. The movement tends to focus a bit more on higher education when it comes to textbooks, but it does offer a range of texts and learning materials for K-12 schools.
#Kahn academy excel for mac free#
The iPad hasn’t completely revolutionized textbooks yet, but it certainly has the potential to do soīeyond those offerings, there’s the open source textbook and education resources movement that attempts to provide free alternatives to commercial textbooks. Barnes & Noble also offers electronic textbooks through its NookStudy apps, but the company hasn’t developed an iPad app for them though it claims to be working on one.
Like Amazon’s textbooks, Kno books can be read using Kno’s iPad app. Kno, which provides electronic textbooks for higher education, announced last week that it is expanding its electronic textbook market to offer K-12 titles. Amazon also offers electronic textbooks and electronic textbook rentals that can be read in the Kindle iPad app. While Apple has certainly made a push for its iBooks-based textbooks, it’s worth remembering that Apple isn’t the only game in town.
0 kommentar(er)
