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The first week in December was deemed Computer Science Education Week by the U.S. House of Representatives to promote awareness and education of computer science.

The further along I go, the more I am realizing that we have fully arrived in the information age. For our nation to compete globally - we must get out of the trap of growing media consumers, technology consumers, and information consumers. We must grow a generation of students who not only use technology, but understand technology so that they can become active technology producers, so that they can create, innovate, imagine, and disrupt. Possibly, understanding computer science will be as important as learning to read and write - the new literacy.

Interesting stance from the UK, where the government hopes to raise up the importance of computer science in education, where ICT (information and communication technology) lessons are not up to date with the needs and skills of the 21st century. Kids engaged in ICT classes learn how to use software, and not how software works or how it's created. From the article: "Written by gaming guru Ian Livingstone and visual effects veteran Alex Hope, Next Gen called for programming skills to replace learning about business software in ICT lessons." direct link to the UK Government's response to the 'Next Gen' report: http://www.dcms.gov.uk/publications/8646.aspx

A step forward in comprehensive online ed, and also an example of "mashing up" existing offerings by a third party. This guy "thought it would be an interesting exercise to see if it was possible to design a reasonable computer science curriculum using just Coursera courses (a MOOC)."

I think that's a really interesting exercise--especially the one comment about "you could take all these in about six months." Thanks for the link!

The headline promises more than the article delivers. It mainly identifies the limited effectiveness that the federal government can have. There are no specific "how to's" here and no mention of technology whatsoever, perhaps because that would be too specific a focus for the scope of the article. These are prominent figures in a prominent publication having a conversation that could have taken place in 1980. How do we change that? The absence of real civic engagement on issues about education is the missing link in education reform. I wonder if we can organize public discourse on the internet more effectively to have formal impact on civic activism and administration.

A demographic survey of 200,000 students conducted last fall by Coursera. The average age of a Coursera student: 37.

GoGoNews, an online news resource for children, announced that OLPC XO laptops will feature GoGoNews App in the collection of default applications. Through GoGoNews app, children can read filtered headline news, as well as art, cultural science, or fun topics, and play online games.

"This article examines the ongoing efforts to integrate computer video games in existing traditional CS courses."

The iphone brings together computer science and music at the University of Michigan. The course is titled "Building a Mobile Phone Ensemble"

Compelling for educational uses, particularly science and health (but the price has to come down some first).

"By 2017, the first wave of students of P-Tech - Pathways in Technology Early College High School - is expected to emerge with associate's degrees in applied science in computer information systems or electromechanical engineering technology, following a course of studies developed in consultation with I.B.M."

Conceptual change is aided by model building. Visualizing the relationships between different components of the model using a graphical interface is a powerful technological capability. Powersim is one such tool. Such an iterative model building activity to predict theoretically principled outcomes is stated to be conceptually engaging. There are other tools like Stella and VSim that fall into the same category.

Newest Disney attraction called - Sum of All Thrills where kids get to design their own virtual roller coaster. It uses virtual-reality technology. "Disney hopes the interactive nature of the ride would also help kids learn that math and science can be fun."

While I would not consider this incredibly expensive ride a 'distruptive innovation' or even an emerging ed technology, what Epcot has done by bringing this DIY-VR concept to the masses (if you are one of the masses that can A- afford Disney and B-have the patience to wait in line for `5-6 hours) is very important to future ed tech innovation strategies. The progression/invention of such cost prohibitive entertainment tools will fall squarely on the high-end theme parks and consumer venues. The challenge has been set by Epcot and now others must either compete directly or develop a better or more accessible solution. Off the top of my head, I can think of a few cost saving innovations that might be developed in this 'race'- Artificial G-Force Engline: variable air pressure, smart-chairs, fans