Group items tagged

I have found Zaid's blog postings to be very appealing visually (with good use of colors) and to the point (with higher signal to noise ratio). Here is an example of a "1, 2, 3" style posting on the important topic of Autism with Dr. Martha Hebert (a prominent Harvard Medical School researcher and clinician).

Miami-Dade county explores BYOD. Looks like, as of last Tuesday, the school system has $1.2 billion coming their way (it's worth clicking on the relevant link within this article), at least some of which is intended for technology upgrades. 

A report by the Alliance for Excellent Education says that public education will face four challenges in adopting education technology: 1) preparing kids for college / career, 2) shrinking budgets, 3) teacher-centered to learner-centered, and 4) technology equality (especially for low-income students).

This is not necessarily related to technology but think is relevant to the concern presented by Dr Turkle on 'multitasking'. Many of us and current management have fostered the bad habit of multitasking, responding to the expectation that we will respond immediately, seek to keep ourselves busy to reward our brain... This famous book by Ghoshal introduces the concept of 'active non-action'. Figure 2-1 provides 4 types of managerial behaviors (the detached, procrastinators, frenzied and the purposeful). how many of us are being 'the purposeful' today? 

Conference at MIT "Across Boundaries: Innovation & The Future of Education." February 1-2, 2013, MIT Tang Center, Cambridge, MA (http://learnlaunchconference2013.eventbrite.com).

Do any of you know 'LINE'? as of last months, 80mn users globally (36mn users in Japan) and its pace of growth is exceeding that of any other types of social media in the country (Facebook, Twitter, etc). They target 1) users who have smartphones but not PC, 2) those who are interested in communication emotions effectively through ''emoticons'. If some people are concerned about how twitter/facebook/texting would have adverse impact on children language skill, let's talk about the implication of this thing if kids learn to communicate just by selecting emoticons (whose designs and variety are great by the way) and sending that to each other. I still have LINE on my PC but seeing this rapid growth in my home country concerns me a bit. 

Some key training initiatives in cyber security, big data, analytics, mobile, etc. IBM's recent report "found that only 1 in 10 organizations has the skills needed to effectively apply advanced technologies such as business analytics, mobile computing, cloud computing and social business."

I am wondering if this is the most disruptive form of education for college-age students...

Assistive technology and the ability to personalize learning for students with disabilities

"The unveiling of Samsung's GALAXY Note 10.1-with its advanced S-Pen and multitasking capabilities-signals a new generation of tablets that open even greater opportunities for empowering teachers and engaging students in the K-12 classroom." THE Journal

This is a truly dumb set of definitions that of course are being widely publicized by the media (sigh)

"Social Learning: Using social media as part of class. Who said that Twitter was just for Justin Bieber?"

I have revisited this over and over - but each time I realize that no, I'm not hallucinating. They do indeed endorse 1:1 laptop/iPad, as they are "way cooler than stickers." Obviously, they don't have access to the right stickers.

A leading game maker is, among other things, dedicating resources toward education games. It's also worth noting, I think, that a company that rejects typical corporate structure might be a good one for disrupting typical education structures.

mobile devices as a route to 1-1

""Mobile learning is all about changing instruction. Because if the instruction doesn't change, allowing the kids to bring their own device will do nothing,""

Here's video examples of some of the MIND Institute's games... I'm not sure how the reveal of locations behind the iPad really come into play... SURELY they could have come up with more functional examples that relate content to real life?

Can you think of more functional & relative locations to showcase?

full disclosure: classmate Alex Schoenfeld first shared this with the us in the TIE facebook group :). But it brings an interesting trend in the adoption and pricing of mobile apps: Article outlining what lots of us know when it comes to moblie apps and pricing - free, $1, and $2 are the price-points that sell, and allow us to try out an app with minimal regret. But with the rise of more and more high-quailty, high-profile, and high-budget educatioanl apps, will the pricing structure change? Will parents and educators be willing to spend the prices of traditional computer software ($50 or more?) for really great mobile apps? The article brings up an interesting model that seems to already be coming to life looking at how apps are being sold and updated lately: "Donahoo and Russell propose there's a better way: subscriptions and content expansion packs.  Launchpad Toys follows the latter tact. The initial price the Toontastic app for $3 (though it's currently free). Users can use that fully functioning app, or choose to add additional characters and themes with $.99 expansion packs. This way, they contend, costs are controlled; it's cheap for parents and children to evaluate an app, and the model encourages regular updates."

In contrast with the deployment issues of OLPC, here's an article on 1-1 initiative that focused on professional development, teacher collaboration, switching to a teacher selected, digital based curriculum with formative assessments, and a leased laptop support & deployment model.  (Full disclosure - the vendor is Apple).

An article on Khan Academy

First there was Digital Divide.... Now, Mobile Divide!!