Dr. Thrun recognized the power of technology to deliver his course content to over 160,000 students who signed up for his online artificial intelligence course at Stanford University. Dissatisfied with traditional lecture techniques at most higher education institutions, Dr. Thrun started Udacity. Learn more about Udacity or enroll in an upcoming course. Homeschoolers, the Introduction [...]
Archive for the ‘Eclectic Homeschooling’ Category
Ex-Stanford Professor Starts His Own Low-Cost Online University
Posted by ginac on January 24th, 2012
Turn Your Child’s Art into a Stuffed Toy
Posted by ginac on December 9th, 2011
Child’s Own Studio hand crafts stuffed toys based on your child’s drawings. The examples on the Child’s Own Studio website show that no matter how crazy-looking the drawing seems, a cute, creative, and beautiful toy emerges. This is such a great idea that I wonder how Child’s Own Studio will keep up with demand as the [...]
Posted in Activities, Art, Eclectic Homeschooling, Just for Fun 
Tags: Childs Own Studio, craft, drawings, stuffed toys, Toy 
Comments OffGuest Post- Alternate Education Options
Posted by ginac on November 28th, 2011
Alternative Education Some children take to school like a duck to water. From kindergarten upwards, they just seem to fit in: they work hard, please their teachers and play well with their peers. Other children may start off enjoying school, but as the years progress, find they clash with aspects of formal education, perhaps beginning [...]
Posted in Eclectic Homeschooling, Global Homeschooling, Learning Methods, Teaching methods Tags: Alternate education, homeschool, Learning Comments OffHomeschoolers Win National LEGO Contest
Posted by ginac on November 18th, 2011
A North Carolina Homeschooling Family won the 2011 LEGO Smart Creativity Contest in the homeschooling category by showcasing how they use LEGO to make stop-motion animation videos. The family plans to give some of the $2,500 LEGO gift certificates to their local 4-H Lego and Robotics Club. Read more Check out all of the winning [...]
Posted in Contests, Eclectic Homeschooling, LEGOs, News Tags: contest, homeschool, LEGO 2 Comments »Unschoolers Already Know This: Youth Don’t Like Learning STEM in Classrooms
Posted by ginac on November 16th, 2011
Harry Potter fans may remember the 5th Harry Potter Book (The Order of the Pheonix) when a government appointed teacher (Professor Umbridge) at Hogwarts School changes the learning process in her classroom so that kids only learn theory and not practice. Disappointed students preferred to practice what they’ve learned and found the in-class reading and [...]
Posted in Eclectic Homeschooling, Learning Methods, News, STEAM, Teaching methods Tags: alternative education, Education Reform, Homeschooling, Learning, NPR, Science Friday, STEM, Unschooling Comments OffUnschooling and the Maker Culture
Posted by ginac on November 10th, 2011
Unschoolers are radical mavericks who approach learning 180 degrees in the opposite direction from traditional education. Unschoolers learn in an unstructured environment almost completely devoid of teachers, separate subjects, grades, tests, or quizzes. Instead, unschoolers hack together their learning palette from many sources to create a truly personal learning experience. Unschoolers are active learners who [...]
Posted in Crowdsource, Eclectic Homeschooling, Economics, Electronics, Interdisciplinary, Learning Methods, Make, News, social change Tags: DIY, Hack, make, maker, Maker culture, Open source, Tim O'Reilly, UnCollege, Unschooling Comments OffScoop.it! Disruptive Learning
Posted by ginac on November 5th, 2011
Scoop.it is a fun way to share online articles, videos, photos, etc. around a topic. It is free, easy to use, and fun to curate. We’ve curated an eclectic collection of disruptive learning articles on our Scoop.it specially for SpottyBanana viewers. In our case, disruptive learning means nonmainstream, non- traditional learning ideas outside of the [...]
Posted in Activities, Art, Eclectic Homeschooling, Learning Methods, Literacy, Online Tools, STEAM Tags: content curation, disruptive learning, Eclectic Homeschooling, Learning, online tools, Scoop.it, spottybanana Comments OffQuantum Camp Teaches Advanced Calculus and Physics to Homeschoolers
Posted by ginac on November 4th, 2011
An ambitious summer camp and tech school for homeschoolers in Mountain View, California, is fast becoming a full-fledged mainstream school. At Quantum Camp, youngsters dive into advanced physics, math, and technology. The founders, of course, are physics and math experts. Ryan Nurmela taught entry-level physics as a lecturer at California State University, San Francisco and [...]
SpottyBanana’s Top 3 Online Learning Platforms
Posted by ginac on November 2nd, 2011
A quick Google search confirms that there is a dizzying array of online learning platforms that provide everything from standardized educational courses to niche subjects and personalized feedback. Some are free, others cost money. Some are better at online education and others focus on learning. So, which online products (free or otherwise) are worth investment of [...]
Immigrant Science Award Finalists Credit Attitudes
Posted by ginac on November 1st, 2011
Children of immigrants took 70 percent of the finalist slots in the 2011 Intel Science Talent Search Competition, an original-research competition for high school seniors. According to LiveScience.com, only 12% of Americans are foreign born, so statistically, “one would expect only one child of an Indian (or Chinese) immigrant parent every two and a half years [...]
Posted in Biology, Chemistry, Culture, Diversity, Eclectic Homeschooling, Physics, Science, social change, technology Tags: culture, family values, immigrants, intel science award, Science, science award, success, tolerance Comments Off
