Switching from STL to 3MF for 3D Printing
The STL file format is ubiquitous for 3D printing in its various forms, however it is not perfect. Many users will run into scaling issues or have to convert units while setting up their printers for printing. These problems can…
Teachers as Content-Creators
In our new educational landscape teachers have been thrust into finding new and exciting ways to keep students engaged while doing distance learning. This year (19-20) is a bit of crap shoot for that, since we as teachers didn’t have resources or training to get going on distance learning full time for the most part, we just had to go.
Fixing the Late Work Problem
Late work is problem many teachers struggle to solve, in this article we will provide a couple of solutions to this problem.
Royalty Free Photos
This past year I have started to incorporate pictures more into my class presentations and materials. When I began, I started with images that I had taken around my shop or at locations I visited. While this has given me…
Building a Podcast and YouTube Collection
In the past ten years the internet has become a hotbed for social medias of various types, but two services have begun to standout as unique. Podcasts and YouTube have become an amazing source of information for those getting into new area of learning.
Bring Design Critiques Back to the Classroom
This leads to the question of what is a design critique? A design critique is any type of meeting in which designers present unfinished materials to colleagues to get feedback. This feedback can range in breadth from positive comments about aspects that work to aspects that don’t work and should possibly be revised. Using feedback from peers to improve design concepts is the primary purpose of the design critique, it gives the designer to a chance to make improvements to the design. Typically, in these types of open feedback processes some ground rules or norms are adhered to, usually a set of 3-4 questions are posed to a group (should be at least 5 people) and they focus commentary on how the designs answer those questions. Keep in mind, the purpose of this type of meeting is to evaluate existing ideas for future direction or changes.
Building Classroom Data: Tying Lessons to Standards
Education is being pushed to become and more data driven, instead of a teacher’s hunch that something needs to be changed it needs to be data that makes the decisions now. One of the most important pieces of data a teacher can use is achievement data.
Forums Drive Class Questioning
Last year in my classroom I went back to using online forums as a way to prime my students’ about a given topic that we would be talking about in class. Forums can be a great tool to get students…
Why Join Professional Organizations
Professional organizations are a great way to build connections with others professionals in your industry. In many professions isolation tends to become the norm as people are tied to their desk and working on multiple projects at the same time….
Why I Moved To Standards Based Grading
I have always felt that educational assessment, needed to reflect skills and abilities not simply just facts and figures that could be memorized and regurgitated back. This isn’t deep and meaningful learning, it is simply recalling memorized information that students…