Group items tagged

A point of view challenging the rapid transition to digital textbooks. 

These op-eds and blogs keep popping up, but I have yet to read one that is at all compelling. It was particularly entertaining when this author referenced how digital photography put Polaroid out of business. Hard to understand why one would use that reference when defending the textbook. The funny thing is that textbooks were never a fantastic learning tool to begin with. The real danger is that digital textbooks will not not make the dramatic improvements that they may be capable of when it comes to teaching the material.

An online course that is a little more than the recording of a face-to-face version; i.e. multi-player gaming feature.

These students were successful within a primarily online environment is spite of not owning their own computer.

This is an interesting overview of implementation issues - a topic we will address later this semester

This is an opinion article that talks about immersion and the first-person camera angle in video games. He argues that game developers should re-evaluate the assumption that the first-person viewpoint is inherently more immersive than other gaming experiences.

Obama should put more money into educational technology. This seems like a very one sided and simplistic view of how technology can be used to improve education. Only at the end of the article do you realize that the author is selling something: he's an officer at a company that works with educational technology

What about providing students iPads so that they purchase textbooks on these devices to save resources for both the students and the school? Can we assume that all students will be comfortable using an iPad, or might there be implications for students with learning differences? What about the socioeconomic gap for students who cannot afford a computer to LOAD the books onto their iPads (even if the iPads themselves were provided)?

how technology is changing us: for the better or worse.

This is a good article. I used to memorize everyone's phone number. Now I only know about five people's phone number.

Article about how I-Pads will make electronic patient records easier to use, less expensive, and eventually transform health care. Interesting to read after our online discussion about AI in informal learning- health communication and medical training.

With the privacy concerns surrounding medical records, HIPPA legislation and the password security that is now required of personnel in hospitals to access medical records with ever changing password authentication tokens, I wonder if iPad wireless communication poses any risk to data being hijacked.

Cherie- I actually discussed this issue with a relative who is a doctor and he said that while his office is trying to switch to digital records, he is also concerned about privacy, increased government/insurance company regulation, and a disconnect in patient care/communication (looking down instead of talking to the patient). He also is concerned about time management with so many patients- the time it will take to record information on a tablet instead of the time he takes verbally recording patient information in just a few seconds.

I did not buy the article to get the details, but this paper seems pertinent to this course.

Very similar to the idea of teaching computer programming via storytelling/animation (Scratch)

I just watched this video and it's actually billed INCORRECTLY on that Ted.com description! The guy is *not* saying to teach math through teaching computer programming at'all!! He is simply advocating to use the power of the computer to teach math - i.e. using programs such as Mathematica. His slide says "Computer-based math: critical reform" -- so, he is saying that students should use the computer for the computing (which is for sure true) and teachers should teach with the students using this computing power asap (which I agree with) ... but he is *not* actually saying to teach computer programming ... p.s. This video is sweeping through the math teacher twitter streams and blogs right now (yes, there is such a community out there!) But, in my opinion, his idea is no big leap ...

Absolutely agree... the idea presented here is no big leap at all, especially to us who are following these advances pretty closely. I saw the parallels with scratch in terms of engaging the learner.

2009 Conference for corporate training and professional development for public sectors.

A pilot project in Ontario, brining iPad into the classroom. It is an interesting article to see how they are exploring with the idea.

Thanks for sharing this article. Looks like they have given some serious thought into integrating technology into the classroom than just say "let us throw some iPads in and see how it works". I like this quote - "Collaboration is part of our pedagogy - kids helping other kids, kids interacting and learning together," says McLellan. "That's not new, but the iPad facilitates it."

Barnes and Noble releases the Nook, which is a competitor to the Amazon Kindle. It has E-ink on the top, and a color screen below.

Schools in Denmark are piloting a program which allows students to use computers with internet access on national writing exams.

As a recent New York Times article wryly explains, it turns out that even the nation's technological elites-the same engineers, software designers, and idea people, who brought us Google, E-Bay, and Facebook-would prefer that their children grow up and learn in a technology-free environment. WOW -- SIMPLY WOW!! This is real food for thought. I completely challenged my thinking!!