March 2022 Newsletter
It’s March, which means warmer temperatures (on my side of the equator), flowers showing up (early), some rain (we in California hope), and, like every other month, a bunch of cool ideas and freebies gathered for and delivered to you. Enjoy!
Powerful Prompts
This week’s NVIV (Next Vista Inspiring Video) prompt is one that packs an emotional wallop. Be warned, this may hit close to home for some of your students. The video is a piece done by Cleveland Clinic, and is a fine example of putting forward one’s values compellingly. Take a look at this page for the video and the prompts.
You can find all the great videos and discussion/writing prompts at this page. Please let us know what you think, as well!
Two EdTech Guys
This Thursday at 1p Pacific / 4p Eastern / 10p CET we’ll do another episode of Two EdTech Guys Take Questions. If you’re trying to wrap your head around a project idea or how to use a given piece of tech well, this is the show for you. And, as long-time viewers can attest, Richard (of Free Tech for Teachers) and Rushton have plenty of fun with their answers and the cool stuff they always share.
It’s free, but make sure to register here.
Fascinating Folks
Last week we did another episode of our series called Fascinating Folks: Educators Engaging Edupreneurs. This one was with Fred Delse of Unrulr. Unrulr is a social media-like tool for getting students to encourage and give feedback to each other, and one of the more interesting new edtech items I’ve seen in the last few years.
If you missed our episodes from the fall, you might binge the set, which includes three pilots who made an app to address media bias, a baseball player working to help young athletes better understand themselves and how to improve, and the founder of Remind and his new effort to simplify fundraising for programs and schools.
Launch Something
Your students’ ideas can launch community service projects around the world? How does it work? Get the details, some short video intros, and an example at our Improve the World page.
As with all our projects and contests, we can connect with you by video to help you adapt them for your class or school. Feel free to reach out to learn more!
Super Sips
Because we love those who take time to read what we put together, we give away one or more Starbucks cards each month. It’s a good way to share a smile, we figure.
Last month’s winner was, -drum roll-, Brandon O’Neill of St. Johnsbury Academy Jeju in South Korea. Cool! 감사 해요 for entering, Brandon.
Would you like to enter this month’s giveaway? If so, watch and let us know what you think of the prompts and video in Seeing Through Another’s Eyes, this week’s NVIV post.
photo by Mukul Wadhwa from Unsplash (license)
Better Schools
You might ask, “How can we make our school better?”
As it turns out, our founder Rushton has written books on the subject and the work he does with teachers and school leaders around the world is designed to answer that question.
Next Vista runs on that work, as well, and if you and the team at your school are interested in exploring ways to take what you do up a notch or three, please contact us for a time to connect and discuss the idea.
First Finish
As always, we welcome your thoughts on the newsletter, the resources, the projects, and ways we can be more helpful to you. If you are enjoying this, please forward it on to a colleague, as well!
May you inspire, and be inspired, each and every day.
Rushton and the Next Vista team
Rushton Hurley (@rushtonh)
Next Vista for Learning (@nextvista)
Muchas Freebies
We love sharing cool free stuff, and invite you to help us out. You can find the best of what we’ve gathered over the years on the Next Vista Resources pages, but if there is something free and powerful you love that you don’t find there, let us know about it using our resources submission form.
Images in the freebies section are screenshots from videos or web pages unless otherwise noted.
Worth the Watch
* All Alone in the Night is a timelapse piece using footage from the ISS (International Space Station). The music is rather intense, the footage is stunning, and the geography folks in the group will love figuring out what part of the world they’re looking at as the video goes. Hint: have your cursor over the video playback, and it’ll tell you quite a bit about what you’re seeing. (2:29)
* Speaking of space, here’s an animation from SpaceX about its plan for “Starship.” The buzz is that the animations that come from Musk’s company normally end up being very close to what they actually create, so perhaps this is a window into our future with space flight and Mars. (5:09)
* An interesting design challenge can spark plenty of discussion. In this case, it’s how to convert old buses into mobile showers to benefit the homeless. The video is from KQED Quest, and profiles the work of a nonprofit called Lava Mae that explores innovative approaches to helping the community. Shout-out to my friend Larissa Walder for the share! (4:57)
* If you are interested in fascinating ways to live better and haven’t heard of vertical farming, this video from the Centre for Liveable Cities is a nice intro. The speaker introduces how this particular vertical farm works, and covers several topics that students exploring the idea will need for understanding the various systems involved. (3:13)
* A video with the title Why the World’s Best Mathematicians Are Hoarding Chalk was certainly one I needed to see. It’s got math, economics, psychology, and intercultural contact on multiple levels, and is a good one to make you wonder what the equivalent (almost a math joke, that!) is in your subject. (3:32)
* This BBC Earth piece is called Nature Makes You Happy, and is their pitch (based on research they share) that watching nature makes you happy. As BBC Earth is loaded with exceptional nature footage, this is also a promotion of their work. Whether the promotion is an issue is in the eye of the viewer, but the video is still a cool one to watch. (2:22)
* We’ll finish the Watch suggestions with this one that is an opportunity to geek out on just how far image technology has come in the last few years. Imagine a computer taking several still images of a place, and then converting them into a 3D image. A bit mind-blowing to me, this is. (3:41)
Worth the Read
* This article from Interesting Engineering starts with the lines, “Want more young women in science and technology? Hand them a video game controller.” The piece is called Girls Who Game Three Times More Likely to Study STEM, UK Research Finds, and is based on research being done at the University of Surrey in the UK.
* While there’s only so much text in this article, it’s certainly an interesting one. A photographer used Photoshop and some AI tools to create “real life” versions of popular cartoon characters, and there’s plenty of discussion that might ensue from checking these out. Thanks to my friend Randy Damewood for sharing this piece.
* I tend to pick out what I think is the strongest of Michael Linsin’s posts each month to share, and this time, it’s one called Why A Beautifully Designed Classroom Is A Bad Idea. Have colleagues who spend loads of time creating a boutique of a classroom? This post might be a gut-punch for them.
* Because I like a clever environmental idea, here’s one from The Verge called Engineers are building bridges with recycled wind turbine blades. This could prove a great point of departure for having students imagine how items they use (plastic water bottles, for example) can be repurposed for projects on campus.
* And for the intersection of fonts and historical eras, here’s a great post from Tom Mullaney about creating historical assignments in which the fonts help convey the feel of the time.
Worth the Try
* The prolific Richard Byrne included info in a recent mailing about a new feature in YouTube that allows you to identify grade level and standards addressed for instructional videos uploaded to YouTube. Give his short tutorial a look, start thinking about videos that can help kids learn something, and feel free to contact us if you want to develop a project along those lines with our free help!
* Nicole Zumpano in Illinois posted a note in an Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility ISTE forum about making slides accessible to more students. She points to a resource she created called Start Designing for Accessibility, which is a great one-pager to share with your students.
* Those wanting to highlight interesting elements of work being done by women in STEM fields might look at this resource on Google Arts & Culture. The info is broken down into Women in Space, Inventive Minds, Code Breakers, Did you know?, and The First Programmer. You can also follow a link to more stories of women making a difference in the world.
* I was one of the many heartbroken fans of TodaysMeet when it shut down a few years ago, as the ability to make a simple chat quickly for a group, class, or conference session was so helpful. There is a similar tool available called Backchannel Chat, which has plenty of features. Even with the free option’s limitations, it’s worth a look. Thanks to my buddy Fred for mentioning this.
* If you’re looking to learn more about an image, you can look at the metadata using a tool called Jeffrey’s Image Metadata Viewer. That typically includes where and when it was taken, what device was used to get the photo, and more. I learned about this from a nice tutorial from Richard Byrne. Thanks again, Richard!
* Microsoft has a site called the MakeCode Arcade which can be used to help students learn to create games. Charlie Blanchard (thanks for your ISTE post, Charlie) uses it with his middle school students to get going with block-based coding, but reports that for more advanced students, it’s also possible to use Java and Python.
* I ran across the Travel Photographer of the Year selections in a news piece from the Daily Mail. The photos from around the world are stunning, and wanting more, I followed the link to the 2021 winners on the TPOTY site. There I got more pictures, but fewer stories aligned with the pictures, so choose which one works best for you. Do know that the Daily Mail site requires some careful work to select the “Do not sell my info” setting, so be careful with that one.
* The wildly cool Lisa Highfill highly recommends Whichbook, a site that allows you to find books several ways, including by spinning a globe, selecting a country, and seeing the books either by authors from that country or that have topics connected to the country in some way. The screenshot below is what came up when I clicked on India. You can also select books by mood, plot, and more.
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Last Bit
Those fortunate enough to travel might have a place that is particularly special to them. For me and my wife, it’s San Juan, Puerto Rico. We visited there in February of 2020, right before the pandemic kicked into high gear in the United States. Last month, we went back for the first time, and I hope that’s a sign of good things to come for all who treasure traveling.
El Paseo de la Princesa
by Rushton Hurley
(CC by-sa 4.0)
See you next month!
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