A Quick Guide on Brain-Based Learning

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BrainA comprehensive new form of teaching, brain-based education focuses on how the brain learn things naturally. It involves all those teaching methods, programs and designs especially designed on scientific researches on how the brain functions while learning. The researches deal with the learning process of students as they grow up and the various emotional, social and cognitive changes that takes place. In short, the age-old belief of intelligence being a constant thing is proven wrong as new researches have proved the fact that continuous learning and practicing of skills can lead to the brain physically changing. Thus, the overall functioning of the brain can now be modified with proper academic programs in schools and educational institutions has all the reasons to introduce special programs that enhances the functioning of the brain of students.

What exactly is this brain-based education all about? Defining brain-based learning would refer to all those techniques and programs that are specially designed on scientific findings on how the brain works. Scientific researches on neuroplasticity has been carried out thus proving the fact that neural connections alters themselves accordingly when people learn new things or have new experiences or practice skills for sometime. Moreover, these findings have also focused on the importance of diet and other conditions like stress on learning functions; emotional state of a being can affect the learning process; that the brain uses various areas in it to store information, among a lot of other conclusions. And so, it is advisable to educational institutions to develop programs and lessons to create such environments that would facilitate the learning process, something that would stimulate the brain like, music for de-stressing, healthy food and exercise for the brain, etc. Brain boosting programs are already taking up a concrete shape with institutions coming up with various courses. The Graduate School of Education, Harvard University offers a master degree program on Mind, Brain and Education.

Benefits of Brain-Based Learning

Investing enough time to research of developments according to the way the brain learn things, would bring out learning materials, programs and strategies accordingly. Here, given below are some benefits that brain-based learning offers to students:

  • Lesson plans can be customized according to the level of intelligence of students with the right quantity of information being supplied to them.
  • Brain based learning strategies can help educators know the different levels of understanding of students, their abilities to perform, how fast they develop skills and their varying learning styles.
  • Stressing on brain-based education programs will also motivate educators to stress on foods and exercise regimes for brain boosting. The right food and physical exercises can trigger the right mood for learning.
  • When educators have the right understanding of how the brain functions while learning new things, different learning strategies can be formulated accordingly. Different students have characteristics of their own and hence, teaching methods can be designed to meet these characteristics.

 

Brain-based education, in a brief, is all about the researches to frame out strategies and programs on the basis of how effectively the brain can be used to enhance knowledge intake. Educators should engage in framing out these strategies to utilize the brain for optimal learning.

The New iOS 8 and its Big Surprises for Education

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ios8

The very recent launch of the next generation mobile operating system, iOS 8 by Apple is not just a good news for the users, but has a lot in store for education too! iOS 8 will be released for iPhones and iPads. The Mac operating system will be getting the latest updated version of OS X Yosemite. In this article, we bring out to you the new updates and features of iOS 8 and what’s in store for education.

A new coding language called Swift

A new easy to use programming language that can motivate more and more kids into coding using Swift. App development is smarter with Swift since it is incorporated into Xcode minus the common programming error categories and can be used for creating OS X and iOS apps. So, students who are into developing apps can definitely benefit from Swift. An official iBook guide for Swift can be found here (https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-swift-programming-language/id881256329?mt=11)

iCloud Drive

A good competitor to cloud storage services like Google Drive or Dropbox, iCloud Drive could store all documents including ePub files and allows access to them using any Apple device and makes sharing files easier across apps. Equipped with 5GB free storage, Apple have reduced their extra storage pricing also. A good opportunity for students and educators for storing and sharing docs.

Newer keyboard

A new update for keyboards- Quick type which is a predictive text update that works in 14 various languages. Special education classes are expected to benefit a lot from this new update apart from its usual benefit to people who loves lot of texting on phone. Moreover, Apple has opened the doors to developers for keyboard customization. This definitely allows education to look forward to education-based customized keyboard.

A modified AirDrop

AirDrop has been there on Macs as well as iPad and iPhone for sometime. But it lacked any kind of communication between OS X and iOS which received a makeover with iOS 8 which now allows anyone to AirDrop files from Mac to any iOS device connected within the same wireless connectivity. Imagine how helpful it will be to students who can easily AirDrop assignments to teachers using Macbook, minus the need for email address.

iOS 8 for iPad

Schools using iPad always had tough time keeping pace with software updates made by Apple which at times required new hardware to run new software. But the new iOS 8 will run on iPad mini and iPad 2. Schools will have a good time ahead!

Some more features are expected to be there in iOS 8 that can be a positive introduction to education and they are as follows:

* Pre-installed iBooks

* 24 new dictation languages

* Braille keyboard that allows 6 dot braille input directly

* Speak screen

* Alex voice accessibility

* Touch ID to exit Guided Access

* Panoramic photos on iPad

The latest iOS 8 update surely has a lot to offer to education, especially mobile learning. Moreover, a lot of customization opportunities awaits young developers ahead with iOS 8. Till then, lets wait for its free download to be available from Fall of 2014.

College Girl Develops Attendance Tracker App

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Bunk (1)

Nokia’s ‘Your wish is my app’ contest saw the birth of an app that can keep a systematic track of assignments and attendance of students, thus letting the student keep a knowledge of their performance in class. This app has been developed by Devyani Ruhela, a second year civil engineering student at B.M.S College of Engineering, Bangalore and is expected to solve the much prevailing problem of attendance management among students in India. ‘Bunking Buddy’ as the app is called, seems to be an ideal solution to the problem of missing out on classes and keeping a track of it.

How it works? Well, the app ‘Bunking Buddy’ will ask the students to feed in timetable and subjects along with the minimum attendance that is required to be updated and also keep a record of the classes attended or bunked. So,students can easily keep a proper track of their attendance in class. Besides, the app will also act as a reminder for assignment deadlines, tests and other class events. In short, the perfect organizer that can smoothen student life.

It was an initiative by Nokia who hosted a reality television show on application that prompted Ruhela to get the idea that was selected from more than 61,000 app ideas as one of the thirty entrees. Later, Ruhela got assisted by designers from Nokia to create the appearance of her app.

Ruhela doesn’t support bunking classes. And what made the idea pop up? As she says, “Being a college student, I know how difficult it is to remember and keep a track of the various deadlines for assignment and tests. Skipping classes is common, and it helps to have a track on it to prevent shortage and this idea can help students prevent shortage at the end of the year.” The idea is still in the development stage and is expected to affect students of all levels to plan and organize their attendance problems.

5 Video Games to Boost Learning

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Teachers, nowadays, have shifted away from traditional modes of teaching with classrooms, huge bags of books, notebooks and jotting down of notes, etc. They are introducing various media to deliver teaching in classroom. And one of them is the use of video games to boost learning. Video games are not just for fun. They can be great sources of learning too! We bring to you 5 such interesting video games that are not just for entertainment, but for some learning as well.

1. Civilization V: The several award-winning strategy game, Civilization V has sold some 9 million units all over the world. Children belonging to the age group of 6 to 12 years and above can easily deal with the game that teaches problem-solving skills, management of resources, collaboration, apart from the usual strategy building. Civilization V also throws light on political tactics, diplomacy, communication and also hoarding and trading.

2. Portal 2: This first-person puzzle video game is perfect for students to learn collaboration, problem-solving, visualization as well as develop thinking strategies. Portal 2 is ideal for children within the age group of 4 and 12 years and above. Portal 2 is one of the best example for videogames that promotes cognitive thinking instead of action and violence. Sequel to 2007’s Portal, Portal 2 is developed by the masterminds at Valve who brung us the ever-loved Half-Life and Half-Life 2.


3. Crayon Physics Deluxe: Crayon Physics Deluxe is a puzzle game that help students develop drawing skills, creativity, puzzle solving capabilities and a lot of physics. A 2D physics puzzle/sandbox that makes simple drawing into real physical objects. The possibilities are endless here as you are allowed to draw anything that can help solve a puzzle. There are even user created levels.

4. Braid: Another amazing game to teach students some puzzle-solving skills and creative thinking, Braid was developed by Number None, Inc and was released in the year 2008. A platform game, Braid allows the player to manipulate the time flow to manage the puzzles.


5. World of Goo: World of Goo was developed by 2D Boy, an independent game developer and was released way back in 2008 on Wii and Microsoft Windows platform, and later released on Linux, Mac OS X and even mobile devices. This video game can teach students some lessons on resource management, some physics and of course, how to deal with puzzle.

Some Effective Ways of Learning

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Learning-Ways

Learning should be continuous. Nothing is constant. There is ever evolving technology, and continuously developing organizations; and you too, need to change yourself to adapt to the constant switch. If you stop learning, you’ll be lagging behind the world. You have to be a better learner- something that depends on the speed of learning, your ability to retain information and recall what you have learned at the right time are all important factors of a good learner.

 

So, what can make you a better learner? We bring to you some tips which when followed would surely help you become a better learner. Read the article and know what are the ways to effective learning.

 

  • Continue learning new things. Studies have proved that people who are engaged in learning new things, have higher chances of increasing the gray matter in the brain, associated with visual memory. When somebody ceases to participate in learning activity, the gray matter tends to vanish.
  • Make use of whatever knowledge you have acquired. Unless you use the knowledge you have gained, it becomes very difficult to retain it. Make the utmost use of knowledge and help your visibility to increase.
  • It has been seen that if you teach things that you have learned, you have better chances of learning it well. This theory is widely accepted in many educational institutions where teachers do follow the concept of letting a student be the teacher for rest of the class. Practicing this concept helps to solidify any information in the brain.
  • Try and establish a personal connection with any of the information that you read. Once you do it, your retention power increases.
  • Learning through practical experience is often considered to be better than reading through textbooks. Reading information and writing it down is good; but when they are applied to practice, its appear to improve learning, better than anything else. Particularly, when you are learning a new skill, it’s always recommended to practice it regularly to develop faster.
  • Another very effective way of learning is to go through tests which can actually help you remember things very well that you have learnt. Various researches have proved that students can recall any knowledge for long when they are tested than those who are given extra time for study and not tested.
  • Reviewing your work by someone is one really good idea to get yourself corrected. Whenever possible, check with someone who has wide knowledge in your concerned subject and help you acquire some additional information.

Effective learning is not something that is adopted in one day; it takes time. Follow these tricks added with some determination can take you long way as an effective learner.

The healing touch of music in classroom

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Music

“Music is the electrical soil in which the spirit lives, thinks and invents.” – Ludwig van Beethoven

Music, the soothe to our heart and a boost to energy level. We cannot deny the positive effect that music has to the mind- making us happy, energetic, lift the spirit and help to concentrate. Music is beneficial to students as well, helping them focus and memorize. Various studies across time have proved that music can play a huge role in improving classroom activities and enhancing learning capabilities. Moreover, learning appears fun and enjoying when accompanied with music. And if we were to travel back to our childhood days, we all had been through the ‘Alphabet Song’ or the nursery rhyme song days. Music surely made the learning much easier then. It’s not just limited to making nursery rhymes attractive, music can improve the way higher studies are conducted and promote effective student engagement.

Music and its presence in education: How you can incorporate

  • Music can help in attaining student concentration and a lot more attentive students in classroom. And more attentive students can focus on their studies for long and grab more knowledge.
  • Music played during the start of a day in school can help set up a positive mood in students. Or, play it during the time of recess or any break in between classes.
  • Enhance learning activities in your institution by playing music that develops an emotional connection between students and the activities they are engaged to. Researches carried out in various educational institutions shows an increase in engagement among students who are under the influence of music during any learning activity.
  • Plus, it has been seen that music can affect behavioral problems in class and lead to increased performance level among students. Dealing with unruly students becomes a lot easier when music is played in classroom.
  • Learning a foreign language often requires lots of concentration and includes the use of various techniques by teachers in the classroom. And one of the technique is the use of music that is believed to reduce stress and anxieties involved in learning a different language.

The use of music in education is wide; various researches and studies can prove the positive effects that music has on students. It act as a tool for classroom management for the teacher who can make the most of it to improve the quality of learning in classroom.

Interesting must-have apps for e-learners

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Apps

E-learners have to stay updated with the constant evolvement taking place in the world of e-learning. With every passing day, new and advanced technologies being introduced to facilitate education and learning. And if you an e-learner, you must be well-equipped with all latest apps to speed up your learning activities. To help you out, we have compiled some of the must-have apps for e-learning. Check out what are they as you go through the article.

 

TED: The free to use TED app is the perfect choice to gather knowledge from some of the best thinkers of the world. Downloading the talks of great people is allowed with TED and all you need to do is to download the ‘My Talks’ and incorporate into your learning at your ease.

 

Available @ Google Play, Windows Store, iTunes App Store

 

Scoop.it: Another free app, Scoop.it allows content organisation to let you stay updated with latest trends and development in your concerned industry. Use this app and select, organise and publish any kind of content gathered from other posts from anywhere in the web. Sharing your organised content in social media is so easy and exciting.

 

Available @ Google Play, iTunes App Store

 

Trello: An amazing organisational app, it lets you manage all your important tasks, dividing huge projects into easy small steps to accomplish. Trello is perfect if you have a group project as it helps you with division and completion of the project with less effort.

 

Available @ Google Play, Windows Store, iTunes App Store

 

Evernote: Find it hard to remember things from your daily life? Then you should surely go for Evernote and store all images, files, notes, web pages, audio and a whole lot of other things and get access to them whenever and from anywhere you want. And its free!

 

Available @ Google Play, Windows Store, iTunes App Store, Blackberry

 

Learnist: Follow great thinkers, topics and tags and extract information for learning and share with others as well. Another free app for you!

 

Available @ Google Play, iTunes App Store

 

GoToMeeting: Connect with your colleagues from anywhere in the world for meeting using the GoToMeeting app which is available for free for installation, but requires in-app purchase. View presentations and reports as well as share screens using the reliable and easy to use app.

 

Available @ Google Play, Windows Store, iTunes App Store

Never Heard Before Facts about Maths

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Maths is often, the one subject that is mostly disliked by students. The reason being that maths is known to be the subject that requires a lot of thinking and reasoning. But, mathematics can be fun too!Today, we have gathered some of those amazing fun facts that would surely make students enjoy mathematics on a lighter note!

  • The word ‘mathematics’ derives from a word ‘mathema’ which in Greek means learning, study, science.
  • Have you ever heard of the word ‘Dyscalculia’? You will be surprised to know that the word means any kind of difficulty in learning arithmetic including understanding of numbers as well.
  • Four is the only number that has the same number of English letters as the number itself!
  • Did you ever know that the easiest possible way to remember the value of Pi is to count the number of letters in each of the word in the line ‘May I have a large container of coffee’.
  • In Thai language, the number 5 is pronounced as ‘Ha’ and so, if you need to say 555, its just ‘HaHaHa’!
  • Ever wonder what comes after a million, billion and a trillion? Its quadrillion, sextillion, octillion, nonillion, decillion and undecillion.
  • The word ‘Mathematics’ is an anagram of ‘me asthmatic’. An anagram is a phrase or a word that is formed by either re-arranging or interchanging the letter of other words or a phrase.
  • The number 0 has quite a number of names other than ‘zero’ including ‘naught’, ‘zilch’, ‘nil’, ‘nought’ and ‘zip’.
  • The ‘=’ sign was developed by Robert Recorde, a 16th century Welsh mathematician who was bored with writing ‘is equal to’ every time in his equations.
  • Abacus is often considered to be the origin of calculator.

Not-so-Familiar Facts About Education Around the World

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Education is one sector in the world that attracts a lot of attention- be it the education future of your kids or the education policies of a country. The condition of education is surely different in different parts of the world. While you can’t expect children from developed nations like the United States of America to worry about whether they will get access to education, a situation more prevalent in poorer nations. Children in wealthier nations are more concerned about what colleges are best for the courses of their interest. While it’s a common known fact that there are still huge number of children who are yet to go to school; on the other hand, studies have shown that  participation in education have increased over the years in all parts of the world.

These are some of the facts to be known. A see through the article will help you learn more unknown facts about education around the world.

  • The average number of years of a student in school has shown a sharp rise in the past 10 years.

 

  • Study shows a growth of 600 times in the number of students getting into post-secondary education, particularly during the period of 1970 and 2008.

 

  • And the educational engagement has equally gone high during the same period.

 

  • Although, the literacy rate among women is still lower than that of men, but they have more number of post secondary graduates with 78.3% in the world, a figure that is higher than the men.

 

  • Researches have shown a huge loss of student engagement, including both boys and girls, mainly in the primary education sector all over the world in the last 15 to 20 years.

 

  • On the other hand, the secondary education sector has seen a decent growth in most of the major developing countries.

 

  • The literacy graph shows a steep rise in the global literacy rates. And much thanks to the development in the education system. Perhaps, the best improvements have been tracked in the countries in South and West Asia as well as Eastern and Central Europe.

 

  • A report by UNESCO says that some 61 million children didn’t go to school in the year 2010 of which, some 47% never got admission to school and 26% left schooling half-way. Whereas, some 27% of the children are expected to go to school in the near future.

Classroom: The ‘More teaching, less tech-ing’ free app by Google Apps for Education

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Google-Classroom

We are no strangers to the revolution that Google has brought in education. Educational contents, innovative tools and budget devices; Google has been playing a huge role in boosting classroom productivity. Google’s latest launch- Classroom is the new addition to Google Apps for Education. What it does? Well, this collection of web apps is perfect for teachers to create and manage any kind of assignments, communicate with class and provide feedback to students.

Google’s Classroom, still in preview, brings together Google Drive, Google Docs and Gmail to help teachers with their management of assignments and communication with students. And its not just a help to teachers alone; students too, can make the most of it in organizing and completing their assignments and initiate proper communication with teachers.


This new, free tool from Google will allow you to:

  • Create and manage classroom assignments using Google Drive, Docs and Gmail. The best part about Classroom is that it helps you to keep a watch on who all have completed the assignments and offer the students, some effective feedback!
  • Stay updated and well organised on assignments, particularly if you are a student in due of an assignment page. The tool help teachers to create separate Drive folders for each assignment for each of the student.
  • Develop proper communication in the class, encourage comments and questions from students in real time.

Google expects Classroom to be available in all schools using Google Apps for Education by September. And it won’t contain any form of ads. Nor does it uses any student data or user content for advertisement purposes. Interested education professionals are given a chance to try it out for which they need to apply for a preview of the tool!This latest education effort by Google will surely be something to watch out for.

Blind Spot: EdTech of the Month

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Edtech-of-the-Month

Every week Foradian brings to you the story behind one and many EdTech startups and ideas that are changing the education industry worldwide. From elearning apps to math games, these interesting EdTech ideas are a part of Foradian’s Edtech Revolution series by means of which we celebrate the innovation in education industry.

Read the story of Blind Spot, which was featured on Edtech Revolution earlier this month and is our EdTech of the Month. This amazing app helps you build on your blind spots with creativity. Read the whole story here: http://foradian.com/post/84315517990/blind-spot-a-powerful-platform-for-creative

Edtech-Of-The-Month-1

Inspire Your Students to Develop the Habit of Reading

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Reading is always considered to be a divine habit and is equally beneficial to students for their learning. Reading is not just about reading lines or a passage loudly; instead it involves proper understanding of words and to relate them to the overall meaning of the passage. Cultivating the habit of reading from early age is beneficial as this could help them in their studies as well. Some students develop this habit naturally and love to spend their leisure time with books. On the other hand, some don’t develop it naturally and have to be compelled to sit with books. As a teacher, you can play an eminent role in motivating your students to develop this habit. But forcing them to sit in front of books won’t be the solution. You have to encourage them to start loving books, not just sit with them. Some tips are shared below to help you out.

 

  • One of the best way to encourage those kids for whom reading is quite a boring task is by letting them read graphic novels. Graphic novels include lot of pictures and catchy dialogues that attract young kids and you can use this as a bait to develop the habit of reading.
  • Let your students select their own books to read. It is often seen that things that are mandatory are less attractive to them. Plus, encourage them to share books with other classmates. Let them choose from a collection of books that is appropriate of their age and help them enjoy the book they want to read.
  • Start the habit of discussing about the books that students are reading in class once they finish. This one way will help you to know the level of understanding in your students when they read a book- whether they are able to grasp the idea and thought correctly. Moreover, this also develops the habit of storytelling too!
  • As a teacher, promote the habit of reading among parents as well. It has been seen that children tend to learn things from their parents and if parents read books at home, talk about it with their children will be a natural booster for the kids to start reading. Not all parents know the benefits of reading at home, but if they are made aware of the good that they can do to their children, they will surely be motivated to practice the habit at home.
  • If your student loves non-fiction, encourage them to read a lot of books on Nature, Space Science, History and others that are appropriate for their age.

When you motivate your students to take up reading seriously, make sure you are not being a tormentor who is forcing them to gulp down knowledge like a glass of milk. Reading for them should be fun and an enriching experience. At no point should it be some kind of pressure for them.