I’ve got a new fav. It’s called Timeline and it’s awesome

It seems like I have a new favorite of some kind pretty much every week. And so, yes, today I have a new favorite game. I found it at the MidAmerica Nazarene Center for Games & Learning – the CGL is hosting their first conference today and I had the chance to do a couple of cool things as a part of the event.

One of the things I got to do today was to deliver the opening keynote. We had a great time having a conversation about how play and board games can be an important part of instruction and learning. I also had the opportunity to participate in a couple of breakout sessions.

The first session was hosted by Assistant Professor of History Elizabeth Horner. Elizabeth was one of the bleeding edge practitioners on the MNU campus who volunteered to integrate game-based learning – specifically the use of tabletop games – into her spring 2015 semester.

She led a conversation this morning focused on her experience using tabletop games to teach world and US history. She suggested that there are three ways to use games in classroom:

#NCSS14: Social Media as Inquiry Tool

An interesting conversation that I joined late. Members of the NCSS Technology Community are working to develop policy and recommendations that they will deliver to the NCSS Board of Directors.

It’s an important conversation that I wish we could spend more time with this topic. Very interesting topic.

And it’s not just whether or not we use tools, it’s the actual use of the tools. As Dr. Joe O’Brien said,

Leaving the house without your phone is like leaving the house without your pants.

Tech, especially social media, is literally becoming something we wear and that is part of who we are. What impact does social media have on society? On politics? On economics? On advertising?

We need to be teaching kids this content. Because this sort of content will probably more important than when Lincoln was elected.

FInd resources here.

“Breathe. Don’t worry about the test.”

I’ve been saying this for years.

Don Gifford, Kansas Department of Education social studies consultant, has been saying it.

And now?

Diane Debacker, Education Commissioner for the state of Kansas, is saying it.

What are teachers supposed to do? Just teach. Breathe. Don’t worry about the test.

What we’re trying to do is change the conversation . . . But we have lived for the past 12 or 13 years with it being all about assessment results, so it’s going to take us a little bit of time.

In an article published in this morning’s Wichita Eagle, DeBacker shared her feelings and suggestions about the new type of test being rolled out this spring. Designed to reflect new Common Core state standards, the new assessments will feature more complex questions and “technology-enhanced” items that require students to enter numerical answers, drag and drop items into correct categories, or highlight portions of text that support a central idea.

The tests will be shorter this year but questions are richer and more complex, designed to better measure students’ critical thinking skills.

Don’t ask what. Ask where.

The Google StreetView cars have mapped over six million miles of road around the world. And depending on your perspective, that’s either a ton (240 times around the equator) or barely getting started (just a tenth of the world’s possible 60 million miles of road.)

An article in a recent New York Time Magazine shared this information along with an interesting commentary on the state of digital maps. Adam Fisher, the article’s author, claims that over 20 percent of searches made using Google are “where” related and growing. It’s no longer just a matter of  searching for the “what” – it’s becoming increasingly important to know the where. The StreetView cars, and the data they collect, are the new Google Search.

And it’s not just where. It’s something called “location-awareness,”  the sort of geographical information that our phones and other mobile devices already require in order to function.

In the future, such location-awareness will be built into more than just phones. All of our stuff will know where it is — and that awareness will imbue the real world with some of the power of the virtual. Your house keys will tell you that they’re still on your desk at work. Your tools will remind you that they were lent to a friend. And your car will be able to drive itself on an errand to retrieve both your keys and your tools.

While it’s not exactly clear how or when we’ll get from what we have now to that sort of future, one thing is clear:

Using Chrome apps to get smarter, faster, stronger

Leap tall buildings. Outrun speeding locomotives. Stop bullets. Save the world.

Okay. Perhaps a bit of exaggeration. While Google can do a lot of stuff, I’m not sure that even the folks at the Googleplex can save the world. But they do have some very cool tools. And until recently, a lot of them didn’t live in the Mac/Apple world.

They lived in the Google Web Store, on the Chrome browser in the PC/Windows world. That’s changed. Mac users can now access the apps and extensions in the Web Store for use on the Chrome browser running on Apple devices.

And my world has gotten better and worse. I’ve been a Firefox browser for years. I did dip my toes in the waters of the Apple Safari option a few years ago and found it clunky. I also tried Chrome and liked it. But Firefox had so many more working add-ons and extensions. So I’ve stayed in my Firefox rut.

With the Google Web Store open to me now, I’m rethinking my options. Safari is also much better now – adding a third option to the love triangle that is my browser decision. So . . . more choices about where I spend my time online. That’s the better part. The worse part is deciding on one.

I’m leaning Chrome.

So today a quick list of Chrome apps that can make you smarter, faster, and stronger. And for you Internet Explorer folks out there in the PC/Windows world, you might want to slip over to Chrome and give it a try.

My new fav iPad app – Oyster: “It’s Netflix for books!”

We all know Netflix. Hard copy DVDs delivered to your door and on-demand, online video streaming. Depending on your account type, it’s basically unlimited access to video content, anywhere / anytime. Pretty wesome stuff for minimal amounts of money per month.

Is it possible to do the same thing with books?

Oyster says yes.

The new app lets you “rent” unlimited books for $9.95 per month and access them on your iPhone or iPad anywhere / anytime. Think Netflix for books. Pretty sweet.