It’s not unusual to find the Pontydysgu staff in a bar on a Saturday but I was there before the staff this weekend. Pontypridd’s Clwb y Bont played host to an event to promote the Cycle project. Cycle aims to promote circular economy ideas to teachers and trainers in adult learning who can in turn…
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It’s not unusual to find the Pontydysgu staff in a bar on a Saturday but I was there before the staff this weekend. Pontypridd’s Clwb y Bont played host to an event to promote the Cycle project. Cycle aims to promote circular economy ideas to teachers and trainers in adult learning who can in turn
Pontypridd’s Clwb y Bont played host to an event to promote the Cycle project. Cycle aims to promote circular economy ideas to teachers and trainers in adult learning who can in turn promote the ideas through their work with learners. Fortunately Pontypridd is a hotbed of circular activities and I am still being contacted by people who want to get involved.
Circular economy sounds far more complicated than it is. It means that instead of buying a product, using it and then throwing it away, we aim to get the absolute maximum use out of it, ideally reusing it over and over. The aim is to produce zero waste. This requires thought and planning at all levels of the production/supply chain but it is something that everyone can play a part in.
At the start of 2019 I sat down with a local group of adult educators and community group leaders, told them about the Cycle project and asked what sort of event would be most useful for them. They knew far more about circular economy that I did!
What resulted was a day long circular economy and sustainability festival in the glorious Welsh summer combining workshops and discussions about implementing circular economy ideas in practice, about teaching those ideas to others and about making what adult educators already do more circular. At the same time there were practical demonstrations of the work and teaching including willow craft, home brew and sustainable gardening.
We called it Your Ponty Needs you because the whole town needs to pull together to reduce waste and improve sustainability.
Integrating STEAM and Computational Thinking Development by using Robotics and Physical Devices (Acronym: RoboSTEAM) is a new project funded under the European Erasmus+-program, Key Action ‘Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices’: Strategic partnerships for school innovation.
The project aims to integrate what is called STEM, explicitly adding the subject of arts – towards STEAM: Science Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics. Physical computing environments for school use (pre-university level) are identified in the countries. At KIT’s Institute of Vocational and general Education we will look at more playful, visual and art-based processes for teaching and learning about computational modeling and thinking by bridging technology, art and design processes. For example, haptic materials such as smart textile and wearable projects will be developed by pupils supported by students of engineering pedagogy.
The project will define a methodology and a set of tools that will help learners to develop computational thinking by using/programming PD&R in pre-university education stages. The project will also improve teacher education, providing them with a framework for easy STEAM integration in different educational contexts by providing guidelines for good practices and lessons learned adapted to different contexts. All these products will have been tested in different countries and cross-validated in different higher education institutions.
RoboSTEAM’s innovation is based on the following items: It defines a framework and a set of instruments for integrating STEAM and develop computational thinking in a replicable, effective and measurable way. The framework is based on a Challenge Based Learning approach which implies dealing with general and social problems. It applies Policy Development and Research (PD&R) to do this, which aims to attract students to study scientific disciplines.
Co-ordinator is Miguel Ángel Conde González, PhD,
Universidad de León, Área de Arquitectura y Tecnología de Computadores
Dpto. Ingenierías Mecánica, Informática y Aeroespacial.
Escuela de Ingenierías Industrial e Informática, ES
Partners are
• University of Eastern Finland, School of Computing, KUOPIO, Finland
• Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute of Vocational and General Education KIT
• University of Salamanca
• Instituto Polytecnico de Braganca, Pt
• IES ERAS De ReNUEVA, ES
• Colegio Internato dos Carvvalhos, Pt
The Media in Action project has published its resource bank of hand-picked, tried and tested tools, literature, how-to guides, articles, videos and inspiration. The resources are split into our 7Ws; What – with resources on historical context, the definition and concepts of convergence literacies, pedagogy, and the era of prosumerism. Why – on media citizenship,…
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The Media in Action project has published its resource bank of hand-picked, tried and tested tools, literature, how-to guides, articles, videos and inspiration. The resources are split into our 7Ws; What – with resources on historical context, the definition and concepts of convergence literacies, pedagogy, and the era of prosumerism. Why – on media citizenship,…
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Here are some photos from our successful YETI in the Valleys event. We met some brilliant and inspiring people.
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Here are some photos from our successful YETI in the Valleys event. We met some brilliant and inspiring people.
The YETI project will hold its final multiplier event in Clwb y Bont, Pontypridd on 24th and 25th August. During the two afternoons there will be chance to learn more about the project and to talk to local business owners and organisations about the process, challenges and rewards of self-employment. If you are a business…
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Cardiff may be a small city but it certainly knows how to put on a good show. The beautiful Wales Millenium Centre in Cardiff Bay was jam-packed with exhibitors, speakers, workshops and discussions with attendees ranging from wannabe start-ups to big business moguls, politicians to street food vendors. Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies featured highly on the agenda, which…
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Cardiff may be a small city but it certainly knows how to put on a good show. The beautiful Wales Millenium Centre in Cardiff Bay was jam-packed with exhibitors, speakers, workshops and discussions with attendees ranging from wannabe start-ups to big business moguls, politicians to street food vendors. Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies featured highly on the agenda, which…
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Cyborg patented?
Forbes reports that Microsoft has obtained a patent for a “conversational chatbot of a specific person” created from images, recordings, participation in social networks, emails, letters, etc., coupled with the possible generation of a 2D or 3D model of the person.
Racial bias in algorithms
From the UK Open Data Institute’s Week in Data newsletter
This week, Twitter apologised for racial bias within its image-cropping algorithm. The feature is designed to automatically crop images to highlight focal points – including faces. But, Twitter users discovered that, in practice, white faces were focused on, and black faces were cropped out. And, Twitter isn’t the only platform struggling with its algorithm – YouTube has also announced plans to bring back higher levels of human moderation for removing content, after its AI-centred approach resulted in over-censorship, with videos being removed at far higher rates than with human moderators.
Gap between rich and poor university students widest for 12 years
Via The Canary.
The gap between poor students and their more affluent peers attending university has widened to its largest point for 12 years, according to data published by the Department for Education (DfE).
Better-off pupils are significantly more likely to go to university than their more disadvantaged peers. And the gap between the two groups – 18.8 percentage points – is the widest it’s been since 2006/07.
The latest statistics show that 26.3% of pupils eligible for FSMs went on to university in 2018/19, compared with 45.1% of those who did not receive free meals. Only 12.7% of white British males who were eligible for FSMs went to university by the age of 19. The progression rate has fallen slightly for the first time since 2011/12, according to the DfE analysis.
Quality Training
From Raconteur. A recent report by global learning consultancy Kineo examined the learning intentions of 8,000 employees across 13 different industries. It found a huge gap between the quality of training offered and the needs of employees. Of those surveyed, 85 per cent said they , with only 16 per cent of employees finding the learning programmes offered by their employers effective.
Our Wikispace for teaching and learning
Join our Sounds of the Bazaar Facebook goup. Just click on the logo above.
We will be at Online Educa Berlin 2015. See the info above. The stream URL to play in your application is Stream URL or go to our new stream webpage here SoB Stream Page.