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An article on some benefits of wikis for younger students

The distraction of technology, especially mobile phone and computer, has always been a concern to us. When I was in middle school, few students owned cellphones or laptops. So we have no chance to be immersed in the virtual world. But apparently we couldn't enjoy the benefits of the latest technology either at that time. If I were able to choose, I would definitely choose the colorful school life which is enriched by the various technologies.

what is gained, what is lost

I am really surprised to see that teachers are using facebook for class assignments. Why can't students and teachers use the school website for posts and responses. I don't expect to get work related information through facebook, so why should students be expected to do their 'work' in a social medium? Should schools post homework in facebook? Almost all schools have a website. Use it.

One teacher claims that "The idea is to invert the normal rhythms of school, so that lectures are viewed on the kids' own time and homework is done at school." - Do you agree that this is a good solution? 

I too am intrigued by this "inverting" of time spent in the classroom and at home. My idealized model would be to introduce learners to new material at their own pace out of the classroom (allowing for pausing, note taking, reflecting and/or rewinding) and focus classroom time on face to face guiding and coaching of clusters of students or individual students engaged in applying or exploring the current material. To help facilitate this (and assist with accountability) some brief form of pre-assessment before class or at the start of class could illuminate for student and teacher alike what material has been mastered and what needs more attention. The research report from the TIE Foundations summer reading appears to support this type of hybrid approach. => Marsha Lovett, Oded Meyer, and Candace Thille (2008). The Open Learning Initiative: Measuring the effectiveness of the OLI statistics course in accelerating student learning.

An added benefit of tools such as Khan Academy is the option for reinforcement. In a traditional K-12 school environment students do not have the option to watch a video of their class or spend personalized time reviewing a concept they need more time with during class time due to the required pace of school curriculum. An online learning tool allows a student to watch a lesson as many times as needed and to learn from an expert. Often if a student needs help outside the classroom the only people they turn to is parents, who may or may not know about the content themselves.

""As much as we are here to serve the teachers, it is the students who ultimately benefit from the integration of technology in the classrooms," she said. "Students who once felt that they had to 'power down' to go to class, are now experiencing 21st century skills and styles of learning - because their teachers are better able to utilize the tools of the digital age.""

"Distance learning courses have played an important role in raising awareness for one community-based charity, according to those involved. Online learning provider Virtual College worked with the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community in Bradford to raise important issues regarding prejudice and discrimination in the workplace."

Arizona State University is using data mining to collect information on their students and help guide them to the "most appropriate major". also, in class, using data collection methods, teachers collect information to be used in assessment Ex: "Ms. Galayda can monitor their progress. In her cubicle on a recent Monday, she sees the intimacies of students' study routines - or lack of them - from the last activity they worked on to how many tries they made at each end-of-lesson quiz. For one crammer, the system registers 57 attempts on multiple quizzes in seven days. Pulling back to the big picture, a chart shows 15 students falling behind (in red) and 17 on schedule (in green)."

wow this is kind of bothersome on some levels and kinda amazing on other levels. While I can see the benefit of understanding where and how a student is more likely to succeed, I think there are some potential dangers with such a system. There is the what I would imagine the psychological effect of such a program and I am thinking particularly about STEM fields where women are already way under-represented and often self conscious about their performance, do you really also need a system telling you you shouldn't be majoring in that as well cause you're not performing at that point....or what about a student who really wants to be an engineer but maybe hasn't been fully prepared with the appropriate math courses in high school, would he or she be filtered into another major? I understand using such a system as a means to target help for example if a student could get an assessment of where they currently are, where they want to go and how to get there....

Game-Based Learning in higher education...

Thanks for sharing this Jennifer. I wonder how how transferable these skills are from games to reality. Apart from the motivation and engagement factor, I think research is still inconclusive about the actual benefits of gaming. Any thoughts on such transfer? Thanks for sharing again!

MIT just appointed a new Director of Digital Learning. I guess edX and the impact of educational technology at MIT has become official and institutionalized--and probably not just a fad.

Hats off to MIT. I think they will reap huge benefits from putting an accomplished leader in charge of this endeavor. Not only does this appointment communicate how much value they place on digital learning, but it will likely lead to the development of a coherent vision, comprehensive strategy, and stream-lined effort to push MIT forward in the edtech scene. I haven't seen this same kind of commitment to edtech from Harvard. As HBS professor and author Clay Christensen so eloquently wrote, "you can talk all you want about having a strategy...but ultimately, this means nothing if you do not align those [strategies] with where you actually expend your time, money, and energy. In other words, how you allocate your resources is where the rubber meets the road."

Emerging technology has had a strong geographical component. With Google Fiber up and running in Kansas City and tech start-ups burgeoning in Des Moines, we may see yet another wellspring of innovation in the Midwest. This could have significant implications on rural education and agtech.

There were numerous communities in Colorado that tried to lure Google Fiber; it looks like it's paying off for KC. It would be interesting to see the tech start-up numbers in comparison to other US locales. I would like more details as to why only two regions increased their share of angel investors.

My guess is that insufficient momentum or critical mass exists in other regions, Danna. The article mentions the Southwest and Great Plains as two regions with an increase in angel investors. The Southwest probably represents spillover from Silicon Valley, while the Great Plains benefits from large metropolitan areas, good universities, and a concentration of young professional residents. I also think that tech start-ups and VC firm naturally promote the growth of one another.

There has been so much buzz around gamification recently that it can be difficult to separate the hype from the reality. With clients asking the first questions about gamification, in this post I'm attempting to draw some lines around gamification in learning. First off, as I understand it, gamification in learning means attempting to apply the principles that make individuals play games for thousands of hours. Gamification is not 'gaming', we needn't create digital games costing thousands of dollars and hours to benefit.

While technology is changing the face of college admissions, "not all students are reaping the benefits of this virtual access to resources and information. For disadvantaged students lacking awareness or the digital-connection capabilities, entry into college may become harder to obtain than ever before."

Interesting and creative ways of using Twitter in classrooms.

A video showing how Twitter is used in one classroom. It offers reactions from students who share how they benefit from the use of Twitter in classrooms. http://mlearning.wordpress.com/tag/classroom/

One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) implementation in Australia seems to bring positive results. In remote, largely indigenous northwest Queensland, Doomadgee, 3rd grade students' numeracy improved from 31 per cent last year to a staggering 95 per cent in 2011.

"This is our second Sputnik moment. At a time when women hold only 24 percent of STEM jobs and blacks and Hispanics also fare poorly in these fields, we better get this argument about diversity of talent right or else it's going to be a very expensive moment, indeed."

I like the ethic and attiude that this article promotes. I have seen this gap for a long time and I have heard the meritocracy argument as well. The fact is that people who benefit from a system want to believe that they inherently earned their spot due to superior intellect, personality, etc. It is difficult to believe that you are a member of an organization because others feel you belong there and your presence reinforces the establishd culture of power.

Innovative learning environments are found only in isolated pockets and not widespread - a finding in a conference of educators and researchers from seven different countries in New Zealand. "The recurring theme of Partners in Learning is that schools, even those well equipped with technology, are not providing for a 21st century workforce."

Experimentation Down Under and on "the East Island" (NZ) with tech in the classroom is full steam ahead! That's where I got my feet week.

it is really dramatic the fact that there are still teachers who are using traditional methods . i really do not know while the benefits of technology for education are very clear ,what is the reason for people who insist on not to use it

Nice contrast - one company believes in design and the other in data.

I'm intrigued by the writer's argument that a focus on data (Google) helps make the existing technologies more effective and powerful, while the focus on design (Apple) helps create new technologies and bring about revolutions in technology usage. It seems to me that we must have both existing to reap maximum benefit, but it's not clear whether the two ideologies together will be as effective as they are apart.

General discussion of the benefits of MOOCs and the growing dissatisfaction with the state of college education.