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"the reason why I make toys like this is because I think if there's one difference I could possibly make in the world, that I would choose to make, it's that I would like to somehow give people just a little bit better calibration on long-term thinking. Because I think most of the problems that our world is facing right now is the result of short-term thinking, and the fact that it is so hard for us to think 50, 100, or 1,000 years out. And I think by giving kids toys like this and letting them replay dynamics, very long-term dynamics over the short term, and getting some sense of what we're doing now, what it's going to be like in 100 years, I think probably is the most effective thing I can be doing to help the world. And so that's why I think, personally, that toys can change the world." - Will Wright

Thank you for sharing this! I completely agree...I think besides short-term thinking, another dangerous tendency is severe risk-aversion...

On a study break, I rediscovered this quite addictive, simple game that I think captures the ideas of flow quite nicely. I think the simple design, exponential scoring, soothing music, great art, and realistic physics make it quite immersive (for better or for worse!)

The music, the challenge of hitting the bells, the fact that the bells actually add some 'harmony' to the music, the high score at the end of the game. Simply brilliant. Thanks for sharing it!

This is a brief summary of the Games for a Digital Age report released by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center (Sesame Workshop related) on the challenges facing Digital Educational Games market. I recommend linking through to the full report. I am curious to know what the class thinks of the recommendations the report makes. One thing they emphasize is situating games as supplementary material - do you think this is a good thing/bad thing?

I was just thinking about the class discussion yesterday when we were talking about pink legos, that parents might be over-thinking the purchase of toys their kids play with. It made me think about the doll test, which many of you might know about already, which is more about race than gender. I think it shows that in terms of racial and self-identity and societal views of beauty, parents might be more thoughtful in purchasing toys. For example, African-American parents might make sure that their daughter has a collection of both the "classic" Barbie dolls and the Barbie dolls of color to make sure that she doesn't believe that she is physically less beautiful or does not fit the ideal form of beauty that the "classic" Barbie represents.

Is computational thinking a fundamental skill that should be added to every student's analytical ability?

As I read this article, I thought about how many friends I have that are in non-technical professions, but who have been asked to take on technical tasks as part of their roles (managing databases, building organization websites, etc.) They've all been able to figure out how to do these things, but have found it very challenging to do so on their own and without any prior experience/contextual knowledge. So while I'm not sure that it's an absolute necessity, I do think that an increasingly broad range of vocations expect some level of technological fluency that could be built upon a computational thinking foundation. (There was a nice quote from a librarian in a NY Times article posted by Tom Keffer that illustrates this as well - the librarian says that all librarians rely upon software now, and that it's up to them to become technically empowered if there is something IT-related that their library needs.)

"Activity oriented toward intrinsic goals, almost by definition, is play." - Peter Gray I was struck by this quote because I've thinking a lot about motivation and engagement in terms of games, but haven't really been thinking about EMF in terms of play.

Zuckerberg's letter accompanies Facebook's IPO. While there is no explicit mention of education, I think the letter is a must-read as we think about the function and possibilities of social media.

I find the arguement that there is no practical need for a network connection this robust ridiculous. You would think that at this stage in the revolution the experts would be aware that the old adage 'if you build it they will come' rings quite true for tech innovation. Perhaps at present 322 terabytes per second is a overkill, but think that we are still going to be surfing the web in the same ways we currently do in 5-10 years is very shortsighted.

I agree that some students may be more musically inclined but will integrating music into all aspects of the curriculum, as the article suggests, really help students learn?

Thanks for sharing Sandra. I think it depends on how well the teacher designs the activity. It also depends on how the music is used. For example, music in a game is really important, but it's in the background. So the player doesn't really pay attention to it, until it's turned off. I think music can really help us learn, but it depends on the context in which it's used.

Thanks for this link, Matthew, and for the comment on it, Sandra! I think that music is a great avenue for learning. From personal experience, I seem to study better and with more focus and future recollection when music is playing in the background. It would be great to see if music truly does have a connection with the acquisition and recollection of knowledge.

The Parent Engagement Tracker (PET) is a secured information system developed to easily track, measure and link parental involvement to student achievement. The software is available via the Internet and Microsoft Access Principals are able to measure parent attendance of various parent activities, school compact parent requirement hours, and the popularity of the different types of activities on a daily, monthly, quarterly or annual basis. This is really new. I have never seen something that tries to incentivize parenting.Do you think this would be a good initiative for a school.

How did you stumble on this? The copyright date is still listed as 2010 and three of the 5 links, including "About Us" are not working. In addition to the fact that I do not think it would be successful or a good idea and PET is a terrible name, the company simply does not seem to be up and working. Perhaps it is the wireframe for a college project :)

I'm sorry that I didn't see this earlier. I definitely think this may have been a real organization. The Connecticut parents union seemed to be doing something with it and here is a link to their brochure http://ctparentsunion.org/PETBrochureFinal.pdf, IN addition, the Hartford Public Schools piloted the program in 2010. They might have disappeared but there is definitely evidence that they were an actual organization.

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."

Thanks for sharing this, Chris. It's both interesting and relevant to my project for this course. A comment at the bottom suggested that really the companies need to change their unrealistic minimum criteria for job candidates. I've heard that argument before, and sometimes I do wonder when I see complaints from companies looking only for people with 5+ years of STEM work experience railing on the state of STEM education. What do you think?

Thanks for sharing Chris! I can totally relate to this. I remember having to sit through those "weed out" intro biology and chemistry courses in undergrad. They were the antithesis of motivating but I pushed through because I knew without them I couldn't do the "cool science" I wanted to. I remember at the time thinking these courses were weeding out people who were entertaining the idea of a STEM career but just didn't want to put up with the cut throat nature of these courses. It seemed to me the classes were more concerned about weeding out people than by providing an environment that really fostered learning.

Apple iPad

First thing I think is K-12 education. The schools, like where I work, that give each kid a laptop could make their money go so much further with these. Kids rarely do more than research online and word process. This could take care of that for $500

oooh....Would be pretty cool to have these! - just thinking of all the "on-the-go" activities you could have the kids doing!... and if you're really smart you could remotely track their learning/progress/engagement..... a tool that could really help teeachers take learning out of the classroom & into the world, and still manage the tedious recording & assesment requriements!

Back to the basics: "Studies show that positive feelings can enhance students' attention and higher-order thinking skills, as well as encouraging perseverance."

This takes rewards to a whole new level. Do you think people contribute to this website because the are motivated by the cash rewards or because they are genuinely interested in problem solving?

Includes practical tips; even though the blog post is written mainly from undergrad perspective, I think many of the tips apply to grads as well. Hope the tips help keep us "engaged" in our readings. :-)

Future of MOOCs

relates to our tweeting as part of the blended learning community

An interesting argument to be made and something I think we should be aware of