Group items tagged

Though geared to the for-profit tech and design industry, this article describes what designers at Ziba learned in 2012. How might we apply these insights to education?

Also as a follow-up to our conversation on Monday. Although more women are in STEM careers, there is still a lag in those considered "hard sciences." Most people look at mathematics as the core difference, these authors look at creativity. "For instance, three factors that are widely accepted as being positively correlated with creativity are playfulness, curiosity, and willingness to take risks. Studies have found that boys and men are generally more playful than girls and women, and are more curious and more willing to take risks, which could help explain why men are more creatively productive than women in general, and in particular, in the hard sciences."

This ten-minute video uses the protein-folding game FoldIt and another crowdsourced science game called EteRNA as examples. Speaker Adrien Treuille (from CMU) talks about rewards in these types of crowdsourcing games starting around 5:50. He envisions scientific discovery, software development, product design, and societal change being "solved" in the future through a platform that allows for finding, engaging, and paying people at a very individual level: "Find Me, Engage Me, Pay Me."

This is a PBS documentary on Steve Jobs that I watched yesterday. Very interesting! There are segments in which the engaging features of Apple products are mentioned.

Discussion of productivity in university education, and Obama's comment on controlling tuition costs. Reference to Baumol's disease and the possible role of technology in modernizing the traditional approach.

Another Game for Learning- Plantville.

Even though the products of this company have been ranked highly as an education app, I am unable to see how this game is any different from the drill type computer games that have been around for ages. Am I missing something ? I think there is a need for both clear guidelines and regulation before a product can be claimed to have educational value.

Turning buses into mobile hotspots. What happens when you 'connect' erstwhile unconnected parts of the day? This article doesn't really ask that question, although it touches on it in its last sentences. Also, presumably most of the kids had data capable phones and could text etc; what is different about access via laptops?

What about the social elements they are missing out on? The difference about access via laptops is the speed and ability to be more efficient compared to a phone. The capabilities of a laptop provide more opportunities for students to be productive/non-productive. This doesn't require them to be connected, however, I wonder what would happen if teachers start to hold students accountable (unintentionally) for using their connected time more wisely?

As consumers of Apple's products we should be aware of what's going on in the lives of people who make them and also use it as a lesson not to make the same mistakes when we run our own companies

This article provides a great overview of the new technologies profiled at SXSW and makes the case that it's now cheaper than ever before to bring prototypes to market. The author notes, "The dropping costs of designing and building inventive new hardware products has prompted a wave of creativity and innovation that echoes the software boom a decade or two ago in Silicon Valley." Makes me wonder... what's next?

Thanks for sharing this Malik. I was wondering about accessibility in the middle of the report. Then when I came to wearable technology and the list of products available, I realized that there's so much more we could do for students who have special physical needs.

Grockit makes Test Prep products for the GMAT, SAT, ACT, LSAT, GRE and other university admissions tests.

"Intel won't actually manufacturer the product, but it will offer the design license for free to any company interested in making it." Maybe the first open source hardware example I've seen. Will be interesting to see what, if any, effect this has on the ed tech tablet market.

"Interactive books are everywhere, and have revolutionized the way people consume the printed word. With the recent software available to allow easy creation of interactive books and with the race to bring these products to market, there seems to be a more and more dilution of quality and a loss for the meaning of interactivity." ...And will they engage a larger group of readers than traditional flat text does? (Would love to see a study)

Brookings report on games and learning

It's interesting that so many products have a teacher focused data output model but if the software isn't making recommendations, the student must wait for the teacher to analyze the data to make changes. I wonder when software will empower students to make their own curricular choices based on their data. I don't believe I've seen this.

"Identifying promising models for mixing online learning and face-to-face instruction Challenges in e-learning Building partnerships to increase virtual learning collaboration among districts Teaching a "flip model" of instruction with online lectures as homework"

This ~3min video is a description of how a school integrates the use of games (eg. guitar hero) into their curriculum. It utilizes this game as a starting point for multiple explorations in music. I am very unsure of the value of incorporating the game. Any thoughts ?

I'm not sure how I feel about the commercial aspect of this... it feels a bit like a marketing tool for Guitar Hero. But, I do think that it sounds like they're doing interesting things with the surrounding curriculum. When I was in grade school I remember participating in a special unit on the Oregon Trail where we did related activities in every subject: managing our money and supplies in math class, learning about atmospheric conditions/obstacles in science class, and negotiating through historically-situated group decisions in social studies. I found this particular unit so much more engaging than everyday coursework, as I was able to both employ my imagination and see real-world application for skills that I was building. The Microsoft program stuck me as a 21st century adaptation of this (albeit grounded in a commercial product), where students were building various skill sets across subjects that were all tied together by a common narrative.