Curriki Seeks Talented Software Engineering Students for Paid Summer Internship

By Joshua Marks, Curriki CTO

Would you like to be able to take a Curriki resource collection and make an e-book out of it so you can read it on a tablet at the beach and give to your students to take home?

Do you know of a talented software engineering student (or happen to be one) looking for something interesting and rewarding to do over the summer?

Curriki and its technology partner XWiki are participating in the annual Google Summer of Code program.

“The Google Summer of Code is a global program that offers student developers stipends to write code for various open source software projects. We work with many open source, free software, and technology-related groups to identify and fund projects over a three month period. Since its inception in 2005, the program has brought together nearly 6,000 successful student participants and over 3,000 mentors from over 100 countries worldwide, all for the love of code.”

Here are the details on the specific project for which we would like to find a great student to mentor:

ePub Publisher

• The tool proposed here is to provide a shell to publish ePub archives that work on mobile devices. The objective is to export assemblies of pages within an ePub book that can be enjoyed offline on devices following identified profiles.
• In particular, the XWiki Collaborative Learning Assets Management System, an OER sharing platform in use by several projects, supports the assembly of learning resources of diverse origins and types by a concept of collections which encourages re-usability. This project should enhance this re-usability by an export feature that allows the content of a collection to be exported as e-book.
  • The software should support the author in predicting and verifying the playability of the content on various devices (e.g. warning that a Flash file is not going to work on the profile Aldiko on Android). It should also leverage open-source software such as Swify, ImageMagick, or FFmpeg to ensure an embedding that is reasonable in size and that works. An environment for prototyping the delivered ePub is central to this work.
  • The Curriki and Sankoré teams, together with the trainee, will support this choice in suggesting environments in wide use in their target population where this can be tested in the timeframe of the project (schools in the U.S., India, France, and French-speaking Africa).
  • A very successful contribution would include code that we can deploy to any XCLAMS installation. It should, with a small amount of changes, allow developers to also export to other package formats such as SCORM or Common Cartridge.
  • Mentors: the XCLAMS community and Curriki team, among others Paul Libbrecht and Joshua Marks (confirmed), as well as Ludovic Dubost and Flavius Olaru.
  • Delivery: open-source code (LGPL) using Groovy, Velocity, UNIX command-line-tools, that can be made part of the XCLAMS core code.

If you know a suitable candidate, please review the XWIki project site here http://gsoc.xwiki.org

Then sign up as a student with Google and List the XWiki ePub proposal, or your project of choice with Google here: http://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/org/google/gsoc2013/xwiki

Thanks for your interest and we look forward to your contributions!

The Secret is Out (Attention Math Fans)!

By Janet Pinto, Chief Academic Officer, Curriki

It’s no coincidence that we are unveiling some big news this month.  After all, it is Mathematics Awareness Month .

Today, Curriki announced a new online project-based geometry course that will be available free to teachers and students!

Geometry is arguably one of the most useful math subjects. It touches many aspects of our everyday lives, from art and driving, to sports and construction. We’re excited that this new Geometry course is based on the popular Project Based Learning  (PBL) “active” approach and is designed to appeal to today’s generation of students, who expect an interactive, digitally-connected experience.

 

If you’re not familiar with Project Based Learning (PBL), this approach teaches both doing, as well as learning, and gives students real-world opportunities to think analytically, formulate ideas, and solve increasingly complex problems. We’re a big fan!

Developed with funding from AT&T and available online, this course is also aligned to Common Core State Standards.

“Students are going to love geometry after taking this course!” said Kim Jones, Curriki CEO. “So many students hate math because it’s difficult to make a real-life connection between math and their everyday lives.  By adopting a Project Based Learning approach, we show students that geometry is not only theoretical, but practical and necessary. Students will move beyond a basic understanding of concepts to enjoyment of discovery.”

The online Curriki Geometry course will be available in September 2013. To participate in the beta launch, sign up today and we’ll notify you when the course is available.

Adapting Classroom Resources to Meet the Needs of ALL Students

By Janet Pinto, Chief Academic Officer, Curriki

Did you know that autism affects 1 in 88 children (1 in 54 boys)   and that it is the fastest-growing serious developmental disability in the U.S?

April is autism awareness month. Be familiar with the early signs of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in order to seek out early intervention programs.

At Curriki, we offer many resources in all subject areas that you can adapt and customize to meet the needs of ASD students. Our intent is to enable true personalized learning for all students, since everyone learns differently.

“I teach special needs children at Bowling Green Elementary School,” said Linda Olson.  “I found that I could research on the Curriki site and be able to find the exact worksheet or resource that a child in my class would need.  When your children are as diverse as mine, it is timesaving and beneficial to look to your site first.  This year I will be starting the first Elementary Autism Class for our district.  The range of needs for each child will be different on many levels, but I know that Curriki will help me meet those needs. Thank you for this site.”

Here are a few helpful resources:

• Autism Resources for Teachers from NEA
• Technology Central: tools & resources for the autism community from AutismSpeaks.org
• The Autism Speaks 100 Day Kit for newly diagnosed families
• Supporting Students With Autism: 10 Ideas for Inclusive Classrooms from Child-Autism-Parent-Café.com
• Ban Soon-taek Speaks at United Nations for World Autism Awareness Day video

Please share this post with a friend or colleague!

Job Trends for this Decade: What are the Implications for Education?

By Kim Jones, CEO, Curriki

A report from Intuit notes that fully 25 to 30% of today’s workforce in the U.S. is already categorized as self-employed or freelancers!
http://http-download.intuit.com/http.intuit/CMO/intuit/futureofsmallbusiness/intuit_2020_report.pdf

The Intuit report further suggests that through this decade -

“The number of contingent employees will increase worldwide. In the U.S. alone, contingent workers will exceed 40 percent of the workforce by 2020.
• Traditional full-time, full-benefit jobs will be harder to find.
• Small businesses will develop their own collaborative networks of contingent workers, minimizing fixed labor costs and expanding the available talent pool.
• Self-employment, personal and micro business numbers will increase.”

And an article at the Quartz blog site by Jeremy Neuner notes that 40% of the U.S. work force amounts to over 60 million people. Mr Neuner is CEO and co-founder of Next Space, which builds coworking communities.
http://qz.com/65279/40-of-americas-workforce-will-be-freelancers-by-2020/

In 2006 according to a government survey the number was already over 40 million people and around 30% of the workforce. The term “contingent workers” covers contractors, temps and self-employed. Temporary and contract workers represent some 22% of the workforce even at the largest 200 companies.

“The forces behind this sea-change are many: the rapid adoption of mobile technology, ubiquitous internet access, and a general sense of malaise powered by the vague yet nagging notion that we’re just not meant to work all day sitting in a cubicle. Add to that the waste of time, energy and brainpower that commuting engenders, and it becomes apparent that our definition of “workplace” will never be the same. It may seem like a tug of war between companies and workers, but in fact they share common goals: using technology and mobility to maximize productivity, innovation, and well-being.”

Wasted time, energy and brainpower

While the decreasing proportion of traditional jobs may seem like bad news, we are seeing a great resurgence in startup companies, especially in fields like Cloud Computing and Social Media. Thanks to Internet and Cloud computing technologies, starting a new company is much less expensive than before. The genomics revolution is at hand and will generate many new jobs in biotech. And 3-D printing technology will allow a return of manufacturing jobs to the U.S. and increase the opportunity for new small-scale, non-capital intensive, manufacturing companies. These new companies also bring new models of work, a Net-Work model of collaboration via networks of people and the Internet.

The theme of shifting work models was explored in Tom Friedman’s recent article in the N.Y. Times, reporting on his interview withTony Warner, Harvard education specialist and author of the book Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/31/opinion/sunday/friedman-need-a-job-invent-it.html?_r=0

Mr. Friedman notes that earning good middle class wages requires a higher level of skill than ever. Skill as used here has a broad context, incorporating critical thinking, creativity, innovation, motivation, communication and teamwork.

Mr. Warner explains that “what you know matters far less than what you can do with what you know. The capacity to innovate — the ability to solve problems creatively or bring new possibilities to life — and skills like critical thinking, communication and collaboration are far more important”.

We know that even full time jobs in large companies are requiring more initiative, creativity, problem solving, teamwork than ever before. Here’s one approach to recommend -

“Finland is one of the most innovative economies in the world,” Warner said, “and it is the only country where students leave high school ‘innovation-ready.’  They learn concepts and creativity more than facts, and have a choice of many electives — all with a shorter school day, little homework, and almost no testing.”

Warner suggests students need to have digital portfolios which they build during their K-12 years and beyond, highlighting critical thinking, communication skills, creativity and initiative. Whether students end up as freelancers or within a large company these skills and the ability to collaborate within real and virtual teams will be vital to success.

Curriki aims to be at the forefront of these education trends by providing free, open source resources that are highly adaptable in support of project-based learning and other methodologies. This is all in support of the goal of helping students develop teamwork and communication skills, creativity and initiative to help them to better succeed in our high-tech world.

Khan Academy in the New World of Common Core Standards

By Janet Pinto, Chief Academic Officer, Curriki

An intern at Khan Academy recently asked for suggestions on a Reddit education site. There was some interesting discussion in response around the efficacy of Khan Academy videos and how these video resources relate to Common Core standards.

One commenter notes that it is harder to grade and check answers with this approach. Another points out that math and science topics are more objective, so potentially more amenable to the use of short video lessons than say, history. “Dr. Momentum” responds that even math and science still involve opinions.

Students need to be able to understand a logical argument, construct a logical argument and refute an incorrect argument. Students need to develop their own reasoning ability. And coherence and depth in teaching a subject, not just subject knowledge, are required from their teachers.

One commenter points out that the Common Core standards for math include Mathematical Practices as well as Mathematical Content. Indeed, Khan Academy is good for the procedural side of things, and in conveying content. Practice transmission, on the other hand, just doesn’t happen on its own, and it’s not enough to explain procedures. It’s about developing expertise in students – “reasoning ability, conceptual understanding and procedural fluency,” among other attributes.

Here are the 8 practices for Math, which you can find at http://www.corestandards.org/Math/Practice -
MP1: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
MP2: Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
MP3: Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
MP4: Model with mathematics.
MP5: Use appropriate tools strategically.
MP6: Attend to precision.
MP7: Look for and make use of structure.
MP8: Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.

Attention to how a student is thinking and attempting to reason is not something a video can do. Don’t get us wrong, we love the Khan videos, and there are many of them accessible from Curriki.

It’s about the connectedness. One can pick up a procedure or three, but until one has the ability to generalize then the subject matter is not really being understood sufficiently. While some students have an innate ability to do this, most will benefit from coaching and development and assistance in seeing the larger context.

The Curriki Algebra 1 course found here is designed to align with Common Core State Standards.

Benefits of Project Based Learning

By Janet Pinto, Chief Academic Officer, Curriki

How do you engage today’s Digital Age students in relevant, authentic learning tasks?

Project Based Learning (PBL) teaches both doing, as well as learning, and gives students real-world opportunities to think analytically, formulate ideas, and solve complex problems.

Project-based learning (PBL) has a long history in American education, dating to John Dewey and other early advocates.

Today, the project approach is center-stage as a strategy to engage diverse learners in rigorous learning.  Students are assessed based on what they produce or demonstrate rather than what they can recall for a test. This application of learning is a higher need as districts transition to the Common Core State Standards.

With PBL, not only do students acquire the knowledge outlined in the content standards, they also become proficient in essential skills for success in today’s world — such as critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, and collaboration. Teaching strategies that involve project-based learning offer students the potential of gaining deep insights into core concepts. For example, mathematics projects prompt students to develop and answer their own questions. This strategy assists students in developing higher order math skills that allow them to make the all-important connections between one math concept and other math concepts.

If you’re not familiar with our Project Based Learning Curriki Algebra 1 course, please consider using it as a classroom supplement, as the foundation for students’ Algebra 1 curriculum, in an after-school program, or in a homeschool environment.  (This course was sponsored by AT&T and developed by Curriki.)

Please share your experience with PBL, we’d love to hear from you!

5 Helpful Apps for Writers

By Janet Pinto, Chief Academic Officer, Curriki

If you fancy yourself a writer (or an aspiring writer), you’re probably already using the dozens of free apps available, from FreeSaurus to A Novel Idea. We did a bit more searching and found five unique apps that can be used for writing. You can find the collection here.

Handwriting Mail Free HD allows you to “handwrite” on your iPad. Per one user, “I use it for notes and journal entry because i find it easier to write than type. I just export the page as a pic and import that into my journal app with no loss of quality that i can tell.”

EasyBib helps you create bibliographies for your papers. Take a look at the video.
Evernote ensures that whatever you write is available on all of your devices. Here’s their description: “Evernote is an easy-to-use, free app that helps you remember everything across all of the devices you use. Stay organized, save your ideas and improve productivity. Evernote lets you take notes, capture photos, create to-do lists, record voice reminders–and makes these notes completely searchable, whether you are at home, at work, or on the go.”
DropMind Lite helps you pre-write by creating mind maps. Here’s their description: “DropMind® is a mind mapping application for iPad that will help you visually capture, organize, and store ideas and information wherever you are.”
WordWeb Dictionary makes sure you’re choosing the most effective vocabulary AND using it correctly. Here’s how they describe it: “The WordWeb English dictionary and thesaurus: fast searching, spelling suggestions, definitions, usage examples, synonyms, related words – and no adverts. An offline audio version is available separately.”

Do you have a favorite app that helps the writing process? Please share it below.