Does handwriting have a place in today’s tech-driven classrooms? – Technology & Science – CBC News

The practice of students endlessly copying letters and sentences from a chalkboard is a thing of the past. Teaching perfect strokes and proper curves in cursive writing is no longer at the top of a teacher’s lesson plan.

With the advent of new technologies like tablets and smartphones, writing by hand has become something of a nostalgic skill.

However, while today’s educators are incorporating more and more technology into their teaching, many believe basic handwriting skills are still necessary for students to be successful — both in school and in life.

Virginia Berninger, professor of educational psychology at the University of Washington in Seattle, says it’s important to help children acquire the skill of writing by hand almost as they would a second language.

“I think it is wise to continue teaching handwriting,” Berninger said. “We need to continue to help kids be ‘bilingual’ by hand.”

The old way

In the past, the ability to accurately form all the upper- and lowercase letters of the alphabet and connect them together to make words was seen as a highly valued skill that was the foundation of a child’s education.

Marianne McTavish, a professor of language and literacy education at the University of British Columbia, recalls her early days as a teacher and the writing exercises she went through with her students.

“We spent hours a week teaching young students how to correctly form letters, doing stroke work, proper formation and a lot of printing practice,” she said. “It was very much something that was assessed and valued.”

via Does handwriting have a place in today’s tech-driven classrooms? – Technology & Science – CBC News.

Strange Random Handwriting Quote:

“You may not be able to read a doctor’s handwriting and prescription, but you’ll notice his bills are neatly typewritten.” – Earl Wilson

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Plnnr.com – plan your perfect stay!

Most of us use the Internet nowadays for holidays, whether it’s for booking flights, hotels or just finding information about the place we’d like to visit.

So it’s no surprise to find new online services such as Plnnr, which can take your idea and turn it into a full city tour, complete with hotel booking and the flexibility to move at your own pace.

Step one is choosing your destination. At the moment, there are 10, including London; Dublin, Paris, Toronto, New York and ahem, Barcelona. Then choose your dates, the type of trip you’d like (with kids, cultural, best of), the intensity (from chilled to manic) and the luxury level (does anyone travel less than 5-star nowadays??) and press the button. Et voilà!

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This is what your plan looks like for a Best Of, Relaxed, 3-Star getaway in January in Barcelona. Each day’s itinerary is marked in a different colour, with the numbers of each sight explained in the left column. By clicking on the different options there, you can tell Plnnr that you’d like to spend more (or less) time visiting a specific area, that it’s a “must-see” or even that you’d like to miss it out altogether. Plnnr automatically updates your itinerary, moving visits to another slot on the same day or a different one where appropriate. If this still isn’t what you want, you can refine your requirements until you get the perfect plan. Definitely worth a try for your next break!

Here’s the video from the site explaining what Plnnr does:

Strange Random Holiday Quote:

A vacation is what you take when you can no longer take what you’ve been taking – Earl Wilson

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• A Museum Style Hotel in The Heart of Barcelona, Spain (trifter.com)