Mont Tremblant
Stephen Downes, Flickr, 2017/07/11
Please enjoy my most recent photos, a set from the Quebec resort town of Mont Tremblant, taken while we visited for my workshop on Satuday. It's Andrea's new favourite place and I would also return any time. More...

How Pokemon Go Went From Viral Sensation To Wasteland in Just One Year
Jameel Raeburn, Complex, 2017/07/10
This item is for those ed tech writers (you know who you are) who jumped on gthe Pokemon Go bandwagon a year ago. Today, Pokeon Go is a wasteland, the Second Life of the AR world. Four out of five people have drop out of the game and this article explains why. More...

3D Electronic Nose Demostrates Advantages of Carbon Nanotubes
Katherine Bourzac, IEEE Spectrum, 2017/07/10
The E-nose probably won't be nose-shaped as illustrated in this article, but it will be ubiquitous. Noses are useful for a wide varoety of things - testing for bad meat, detecting smoke, identfying perfume, and tracking down bacon. The e-nose described here is made from carbon nanotibes; these are used because they bring memory and processing closer together. More...

Game On! Students’ Perceptions of Gamified Learning
Patrick Buckley1, Elaine Doyle1, Shane Doyle, Educational Technology
& Society, 2017/07/10
We should not draw any generalizations from such a narrow study (a large third year undergraduate class (n = 142) and a small group (n = 19) of graduate students). But there's much that could be said of it, beginning with the definition of 'game' as (1) rewards for achieving goals (2) rapid feedback cycles (3) governance by rules, and (4) competition. More...

Technology-Enhanced Peer Review: Benefits and Implications of Providing Multiple Reviews
Pantelis M. Papadopoulos1, Thomas D. Lagkas, Stavros N. Demetriadis3, Educational Technology & Society, 2017/07/10
As the literature review makes clear, studies of online peer reviews are a dime a dozen. This one is a bit different, though. The proposition being tested here is whether students can improve their own self-assessment by participating in a peer review process. More...

Integrating global issues in the creative English language classroom
Alan Maley, Nik Peachey, British Council, 2017/07/06
In 2010 Alan Maley and Nik Peachey released Creativity in the English Language Classroom (180 page PDF) which blended langiage learning with creative activities. This book (208 page PDF) is a follow-up to that effort. More...

Trolls, Catfish, Cyberbullies--Oh My! How to Help Students Stay “Internet Kind”
Donnie Piercey, EdSurge, 2017/07/06
According to Donnie Peircey "The trouble is many of our students operate under the assumption that a divide exists between the 'real world' and the 'digital world.'" It's like the people at the other end of the line aren't real, and so it's OK to behave badly toward them. "As educators, our goal should be to eliminate this divide," he says, referencing Google's "Be Internet Awesome" resources. More...

Why I’ve just ditched my cloud-based password manager
Doug Belshaw, Open Educational Thinkering, 2017/07/06
I never used LastPass but I did use software from its parent company, LogMeIn, including Cubby and Join.me, along with the flagship LogMeIn application. But price increases, dubious practices and poor customer service led me to quit all their services. More...

Do the “basics” change over time?
George Couros, The Principal of Change, 2017/07/06
The short answer to this question is "yes". But I don't think they hop from topic to topic, and I don't think they're something that communities simply decide for themselves. More...