StudyBlue is an online and mobile flashcard service that I’ve covered in the past. Today, they launched a new way for students to discover and create flashcard materials. Now when students create flashcards in StudyBlue they can also see 30 related flashcards from the community. For example, if I were to create a flashcard about photosynthesis, I would see 30 other flashcards on photosynthesis. I could then review my flashcard about photosynthesis as well as the 30 related flashcards on the topic. I could also add all or some of those community flashcards to my flashcard sets to review.

There’s a quick (27 second) video demonstrating the tool if you click through.

Storia is in beta now and available for Windows PC through the website; an iPad version is coming later this month. The app itself is free and comes with five free e-books. A store contains over 1,000 other children’s e-books—many available in digital format for the first time—that can be sorted by grade level, reading level, age and character/series.

When the app officially launches in the fall, it will contain over 2,000 titles, reports the AP, “that can be bought directly from the publisher or from retailers.” (Scholastic’s entire list of books in print is between 5,000 and 6,000 titles, the company says.) The special “enriched” app versions of the books can only be read through the Storia app, but many unenriched e-book versions will also be available for other devices.

I’d be very curious to see the excitement level kids have toward this.

Recently some spirited debate has unfolded between several teachers whose work I admire and whose opinions I respect. And there seems to be a rift forming about the “correct” way to use Minecraft in the classroom.

I’m going to oversimplify things a bit, but here is the crux of the debate.

One…

Nearly two-thirds [of faculty] reported using at least one social media site in their class, but 53% said Facebook and 46% said Twitter add “negative” value, the Pearson study says. A survey last fall by Faculty Focus, a website about teaching, found that about 83% of professors allowed laptops in their classrooms; 58% said they found students using Facebook when they weren’t supposed to.

Maybe if you did something besides stand in front of the class and lecture the whole time, while expecting your students to just use their laptops to diligently write down all the knowledge you’re allegedly spewing, they wouldn’t be on Facebook or Twitter because you’re so damn boring.

Blame the teaching, not the tool. Too many professors seem to think lecture is an effective tool.

Guess what: It’s not.