THE GIST
A mild electrical current improves a person's ability to learn math skills.
The effect lasts up to six months.
The technique could help students learn other skills besides math as well.
A system for personalized learning will not grow from inside formal education. Education is like a field that's been overplanted, with only patches of fertile soil. Too many stakeholders (parents, Unions, adhow to change, acting like weeds or plagues that choke off plant growth. The fresh and fertile soil of the open web can foster the quick growth of a personalized learning system. ministration, faculty) compete with each other with various ideas about
New delivery platform, but from what I can tell, same lecture format. "Disruptive" in that it offers students (who might not otherwise be students) a chance to sit in and learn the same content as the rich/smart enough to have a seat at MIT, Yale Stanford, etc.
Here is a brand new competitor for iPad, the Jetstream from HTC. This tablet takes advantage of AT&T's 4G data network, but its price tag is a steep $849. However, AS WITH ALL DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGIES< THE MORE COMPETITORS THERE ARE, THE MORE THE PRICE IS DRIVEN DOWN. So, perhaps this is good news for the future of tablets in schools...
In US alone, 4 million K-12 students are enrolled online. Annual conference on online (and blended) learning in Indianapolis on November 9-11, by the International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL). Online learning is seen as the solution to allowing greater access to diverse resources curriculum, especially when many schools face serious financial crisis.
Expect to hear from experts and educators, such as, such as Gene Wilhoit, Executive Director of the Council of Chief State School Officers; Paul Peterson of Harvard University; Michael Horn, author of Disrupting Class; Steve Midgley of the U.S. Department of Education; and iNACOL president Susan Patrick. Full program details are available at www.virtualschoolsymposium.org.
A hands-on report with the $35 tablet (Aakash). Interested that they call it a "leap frog" technology, in that it's a modern technology brought into a society that didn't have related legacy technologies to begin with. Relates to our class discussion of 'disruptive technologies'- if a group is starting with nothing at all, the bar can initially be set very low and it's still better than nothing. From there, the only direction to go is up (improvement).
The article was also updated with a detailed use report w/ video:
http://venturebeat.com/2011/10/28/aakash-35-android-tablet/
Adrian Sannier is VP of Product at Pearson, and gives a talk at Stanford's "Education's Digital Future" conference about "Rock Star Teachers" who use social media and online platforms to cater to hundreds of thousands of students.
"There is a danger that MOOCs will reinforce rather than disrupt a two-tier education system in the US, and eventually in the UK, with campus-based learning as premium elite education and online learning as a basic offering."