I’ve been reading a bit about Joe Renzulli and I like his Three Ring concept of Giftedness. According to Renzulli, there are three important factors for the development of gifted behaviour: Above average ability, creativity, and task commitment.
Renzulli defines Creativity as the fluency, flexibility, and originality of thought, an openness to experience, sensitivity to stimulations, and a willingness to take risks. Task Committment is motivation turned into action (like perseverance, endurance, hard work, but also self-confidence, perceptiveness and a special fascination with a special subject). Renzulli argues that without task commitment high achievement is simply not possible.
I like how he has identified these three aspects. One thing I wonder about though, is ability innate or is it learned? I like to think that almost anybody can learn to do almost anything, if they have the perseverance.
Filed under: Interesting for Educators, Interesting for Families-
by winstonw
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The Electronic Frontier Foundation has a very useful website for Teaching Copyright issues. It is an excellent resource for teachers on a tricky subject. The website covers the issues in a balanced way I feel—it clearly states downloading copyrighted music without permission is illegal. However many of the subtle areas of fair use are discussed which are the important parts. I used their first lesson plan today and while the kids loved the Copy Quiz Game Show, I had some suggestions overall. I emailed them, but I thought I’d post them here too for others.
First of all, I made the mistake of jumping right in and not setting the context—why should my students care about copyright and fair use? I found my students took a while to focus and I think an introduction on the value of the lesson would help.
Second, some of the questions in the Copy Quiz Game Show are somewhat difficult to interpret when said out-loud. E.g. question 8: “Kathy downloads a few photos of local organic farms from Flickr.com… She follows the rules of the photographer’s specific CC license… That’s OK.” The true/false question hinges on just the last sentence and it is unnecessarily hard to parse when spoken aloud. Which “that” is ok? Also, in some of the questions, the teacher reads out statements which are false, such as “Paula wants to use a short quote from the Titanic in her school paper. That’s copyright infringement.” This statement is false, but in the confusion of the game, that is too easily lost. The students remember what the teacher said, but the true/false part is overwhelmed in the player’s run for a chair and the ensuing struggle. I recommend the questions be rephrased as situations, and the chairs are labeled as Legal and Illegal. That way students are concentrating on the situation and if it is legal or not. Rather than the specific phrasing of the last tricky sentence.
Filed under: Interesting for Educators, Interesting for Families-
by winstonw
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Flip Boom is a simple animation application for Mac OS X and Windows. It comes from the makers of Toon Boom, a well regarded animation package. I haven’t tried it out, but it looks cool from their website.
http://www.toonboom.com/products/flipboom/
Filed under: Fun, Interesting for Educators, Interesting for Families-
by winstonw
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This year’s summer workshops were a huge hit. With most classes filled to capacity, we want to thank all new and returning Stratolab members. With such great students doing amazing work, Stratolab is always fun and rewarding for all.
Filed under: Interesting for Families-
by winstonw
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To celebrate spring, Stratolab invites the public to visit our Upper West Side Studio for “StratoLounge.” All through May, when courses are not in session, StratoLounge will be open to everyone!
StratoLounge is a place to come hang out Tuesday – Saturday after school. Please come visit, use our computers, play games, do homework, or just chill out and have fun. Light and nutritious snacks will be served, and there will be short computer demonstrations every hour. StratoLounge is free and open to everyone. No appointment or registration is necessary, just drop in and join the fun.
We look forward lounging with you!
Filed under: Interesting for Families-
by winstonw
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Stratolab is demonstrating at NY Comic Con. We have a booth number 2046. If you are at the DC Comics Booth, go 3 rows North towards “Artist Alley”, and turn left.
Filed under: Interesting for Families-
by winstonw
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Only tangentially related to Stratolab, I just heard about a very interesting place in Brooklyn — LEMUR. They build musical robots and installations. I happened to meet one of the artists, Joshua Goldberg, and he is a fascinating guy. With a background in music, theater, computers and mechanics, his work looks very interesting.
Filed under: Interesting for Educators, Interesting for Families-
by winstonw
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Why are all comics about other people? Aren’t you the most interesting person around? Should you be a super hero instead of that Clark Kent dude? Here’s your chance. Starting January 4, our own Sebastian Mondrone will be coaching a new version of this course on creating cartoons using Comic Life and iMovie. For more information, see the course description.
Filed under: Interesting for Educators, Interesting for Families-
by winstonw
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Some of you may have heard of WNBC’s news segment “Wednesday’s Child”. Every week Janice Huff interviews a foster child who would like to be adopted. They find out some interest of the child such as sports, music, or…video games, and they arrange for him or her to get a lesson. It’s a wonderful program.
They found me somehow and asked if I could teach a young man named Mauricio a bit about video game programming, and then use my studio for the the interview. I was honored to help out and I had a really good time with Mauricio. He was quiet but very intelligent and picked up what I was showing him immediately. I wish him the best fortunes for his future. Truly a worthwhile cause and I was glad to help in a small way.
Filed under: Interesting for Educators, Interesting for Families-
by winstonw
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After many months of searching, we’ve finally found the perfect place for our studio, a.k.a. Stratolab Internation Headquarters. It’s on West 72nd Street on Manhattan’s Upper West Side where most of our clients are, near the express subway stop for the 1/2/3 trains and also the B/C trains. It’s next to ButterCup Bakery and just a block and a half from Central Park. We have a quiet area for working on computers or robots, and another comfortable area for discussing ideas and projects.
Filed under: Interesting for Families-
by winstonw
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