DemoSlam is a very cool site from Google that has all kinds of different technology demonstrations and let the viewer choose their favorite.

You can view the champs and all of the demos created. There are some great demos that can be used by teachers and students alike such as one on how to use Google Docs to create a presentation, and on how to use Google Video Chat.

The coolest part of the whole thing is that ANYONE can create a tech demo using the tools and resources provided. That means this can be used by teachers to create demonstrations to help their students, or by students as a way to demonstrate what they have learned. This is the kind of assessment that lets students demonstrate content knowledge, technology skills, collaboration and teamwork if they work on a team, creativity and problem solving. These are the skills they need for college and the future.

Check it out! http://www.demoslam.com/


Related:

10 Important Skills Students Need for the Future

10 Tech Skills Every Student Should Have

Google for Educators Resources

Infographics, short for information graphics, are collections of information and data presented in a graphical format, are nice resources for educators and students to get information. But students could also create them as a project.

Infographics are a great project for students. They have to research, analyze, synthesize, compare and contrast, and summarize, as well as use graphical skills and software skills. Students can work in groups on the projects, allowing them to develop teamwork, collaboration and communication skills.

Adobe Digital Schools Collection is a collection of software that can be used by students to create infographics. It is available for Windows and Mac and contains Adobe Photoshop Elements 10, Premiere Elements 10 and Acrobat X Pro.

Photoshop can be used to modify pictures and graphics and then Acrobat can be used to publish the project as a PDF file. Students could even create interactive, multimedia infographics with Premiere (video editing) and the fact that Acrobat X can include audio and video in the PDF file.

There are a lot of resources for educators to help them use the ADSC in their classrooms. The Adobe Education Exchange is a great resource for educators and has curriculum and lesson plans for using the ADSC in class along with teacher resources and a community of users. There are 23 lesson plans, tech guides, user guides, teacher guides, and completed examples to view. There are over 36,000 members in the community and that number continues to grow.


Have students create an infographic as a project in your class.


Related:

A Great Collection of Cool Infographics on Pinterest - from Free Technology for Teachers

The future. What do our students really need to know and be able to do to succeed in future education and careers?

Content is a part of what they need to know. Standardized tests test content knowledge and some skills. There are huge debates raging over standardized testing, curriculum, and the like. But what it is that students really need to know for the future. Hint: it isn't all content.

Content is important to a point. Having certain knowledge of facts and information helps us put things in context as we work and live. Content helps us evaluate other information we are working with. However, in today's world of the web and smart phones, facts and content are less important. Students, and the workforce, need to know how to think critically, find and evaluate information, work in teams, communicate effectively, solve problems and apply knowledge and skills to new things and be able to learn on their own. These are some of the "21st Century Skills" that have been talked about for years. I agree that these are the most important skills and I feel that Project Based Learning is one of the best ways to teach these skills.

I learned many of these skills in college because even 20 years ago, my school, WPI, understood these ideas. The WPI Plan is an excellent model of project based learning, core competencies, and needed skills. This base has allowed me to be successful as an engineer, and successfully transition to being an educator. It has also helped me to learn on my own.

Research by the Institute for the Future released in a report entitled “Future Work Skills 2020″ shows that preparing for a specific career area based on content is difficult and, instead, people should be developing certain broad skills. These same skills are important for our students to learn. The report explains each of the skills in detail, and also goes into the implications for education and policies.

Here are the skills:

Sense-making. The ability to determine the deeper meaning or significance of what is being expressed

Social intelligence. The ability to connect to others in a deep and direct way, to sense and stimulate reactions and desired interactions

Novel and adaptive thinking. Proficiency at thinking and coming up with solutions and responses beyond that which is rote or rule-based

Cross-cultural competency. The ability to operate in different cultural settings

Computational thinking. The ability to translate vast amounts of data into abstract concepts and to understand data-based reasoning

New-media literacy. The ability to critically assess and develop content that uses new media forms and to leverage these media for persuasive communication

Transdisciplinarity. Literacy in and ability to understand concepts across multiple disciplines

Design mind-set. Ability to represent and develop tasks and work processes for desired outcomes

Cognitive load management. The ability to discriminate and filter information for importance and to understand how to maximize cognitive functioning using a variety of tools and techniques

Virtual collaboration. The ability to work productively, drive engagement and demonstrate presence as a member of a virtual team

I just found a great Prezi on Edudemic's site called "How To Future-Proof Your Education." The Prezi was created by Maria Andersen and explains how while content and technology change, the key skills around them stay the same. They skills include learning, explaining, analyzing, solving problems, and communications. If students have these skills, they can adapt to the changing future.

This is a great Prezi for educators to look at to get ideas for skills they should be teaching their students and it's a great Prezi to share with high school and college students.

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills is a national organization advocating for 21st century skills for students. The site has tools, resources, publications, and more to help schools and teachers help their students develop these skills.