Software developer Mike Matas demos the first full-length interactive book for the iPad -- with clever, swipeable video and graphics and some very cool data visualizations to play with. The book is "Our Choice," Al Gore's sequel to "An Inconvenient Truth."

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encourage transparent learning

For years school curriculums have emphasized top-down instruction, especially for topics like math and science. Learn the rules first — the theorems, the order of operations, Newton’s laws — then make a run at the problem list at the end of the chapter. Yet recent research has found that true experts have something at least as valuable as a mastery of the rules: gut instinct, an instantaneous grasp of the type of problem they’re up against. Like the ballplayer who can “read” pitches early, or the chess master who “sees” the best move, they’ve developed a great eye.

Now, a small group of cognitive scientists is arguing that schools and students could take far more advantage of this same bottom-up ability, called perceptual learning

We all have to be learning all the time. Why should a snow day stop the progress of learning

Skype and YouTub

It's been a really bad winter, so the teachers were grateful they could use these tools and not lose a day or cram too much material in one day

New Models for Education: Maker Faire and the Young Makers Program

Maker Faire also captures something about the potential for a new direction in education

our optimism for making as a way to learn