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Maung Nyeu

Simple solution to our learning challenge | The Australian - 2 views

  • Feedback so far from early OLPC schools is impressive. Most impressive of all in the first year is Doomadgee State School. In remote, largely indigenous northwest Queensland, Doomadgee has just produced stunning NAPLAN results, boosting their percentage of Year 3 pupils at or above national minimum standards in numeracy from 31 per cent last year to a staggering 95 per cent in 2011. Principal Richard Barrie and his teachers are using plenty of clever and different engagement strategies, but one important tool in the toolbox is the early and strong use of technology via the OLPC Australia
  • Particularly in regard to rural communities, there should be no excuse today for geography to be a barrier to learning. Through connected on-line learning, children anywhere can quickly move from being passive consumers of knowledge (if at all) to an active participant in learning. As well, there is a sense of ownership of the computer, and it is a very real and comparatively cheap method of encouraging school attendance, something I note is a particular and welcome focus in the Northern Territory education system under Chief Minister Paul Henderson
  • A request of $12m has been put to the federal government, with $3m already requested from the Aboriginal benefit accounts, demonstrating the desire within the indigenous community to support real and practical self-empowerment and education programs
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  • Most importantly of all, quite simply, OLPC Australia delivers
  • Most importantly of all, quite simply, OLPC Australia delivers . Results in learning from the 5000 students already engaged show impressive improvements in closing the gap generally, and lifting access and participation rates in particular.
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    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.
Malik Hussain

Into the wild: Checking learning environments against learning science - Bror's Blog - 0 views

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    Definitely worthwhile to keep a pulse on Dr. Bror Saxberg's work, esp. if you are interested in learning science. He is the Chief Learning Office at Kaplan and has a unique academic background (a Rhodes Scholar with MD from Harvard, PhD from MIT, Masters from Oxford, etc.) Professor Dede had also mentioned him in one of our previous lectures. Your's truly had the honor of having breakfast, one-on-one, with Dr. Bror Saxberg at his office in DC. :-) This posting talks about a beta course at Kaplan to train "learning architects" on how to build learning environments.
Steve Henderson

School Reform for Realists - 0 views

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    Lessons learned from Cisco's experience indicate that business-education partnerships should: * Be set up so that all aspects of the project are transparent to outsiders, even if corporations profit from the R&D * Foster experimentation, because it is not always clear in advance which ideas and projects will work best * Establish in-depth training for every new technology, with businesspeople and educators learning from each other
Stephen Bresnick

Free Technology for Teachers: Bookboon - More Than 500 Free eTextbooks - 3 views

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    In Disrupting Class, one of the predictions that Clay Christenson makes is that classroom content in the future will not come from traditional textbooks, but from students and teachers who contribute user-generated content for learning. Here is an example of a site that allows users to download free textbooks. This is further proof that once the information is out there for all to see, it is going to be more and more difficult to prevent people from spreading ideas and circumventing the charge-for-information model that is currently out there.
Maung Nyeu

Aakash gets company: Classpad tablet - 2 views

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    Classpad tablet - another low cost tablet from India will compete with Aakash. The price ranges from $150 to $262 and meant for students from grade 3 to 12. Already deployed to 1500 students in different schools in India.
Maung Nyeu

Top Universities Test the Online Appeal of Free - NYTimes.com - 1 views

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    Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) - More online courses from top universities. Not surprisingly, most people signing up are from other countries. How long these courses will remain free? At some point, will the universities try to make money from online courses?
Ashley Lee

The American Diet: 34 Gigabytes a Day - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com - 1 views

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    This article is not directly related to education, but it gives you a sense of how much information youth today might be consuming. An average American consumed 34 gigabytes per day in 2008. From the executive summary: 'In 2008, Americans consumed information for about 1.3 trillion hours, an average of almost 12 hours per day. Consumption totaled 3.6 zettabytes and 10,845 trillion words, corresponding to 100,500 words and 34 gigabytes for an average person on an average day. A zettabyte is 10 to the 21st power bytes, a million million gigabytes. These estimates are from an analysis of more than 20 different sources of information, from very old (newspapers and books) to very new (portable computer games, satellite radio, and Internet video). Information at work is not included.'
Maung Nyeu

Family | Agriculture.com - 0 views

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    In Missouri, online learning, such as, webinars, workshops, etc., from peers help farmers - beginners learn from experts. "It's farmers learning from farmers," says Mary Hendrickson. "People like to talk to others with lots experience and great information and who can say, 'I've been there before and had these problems.' It's a great way to bring both the farmers' experience and all the expertise we have in MU Extension to the table together."
Rupangi Sharma

The SPINNER project from the Responsive Environments Group at MIT Media Lab - 0 views

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    The SPINNER project from the Responsive Environments Group at MIT Media Lab is the first research platform designed to investigate the world of ubiquitous video devices. The Spinner can automatically edit video to fit a narrative structure. It uses video from cameras installed at the Media Lab and sensor data from people generated by wearable smart badges to track their activity and location. The system then creates a video using the characteristics detected from the sensor data with the video captured by the cameras.
Cole Shaw

Common Core and what the U.S. has learned from other countries - 0 views

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    We had a discussion in class a month back or so about standards and international performance versus U.S. One of the talking points was, what can the U.S. learn from other countries (or more appropriate, what is the U.S. willing to learn from other countries). Some people mentioned that the U.S. tends to show an aversion to learning from other countries, but this article notes that the Common Core State Standards is actually based on best practices from other leading countries like Singapore, China, and Finland. So maybe we're not as stubborn as we seem...
Angela Nelson

Guess who's winning the brains race, with 100% of first graders learning to code? | Ven... - 1 views

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    Program in Estonia designed to have all students age 7 to 16 learn to write code in a drive to turn children from consumers to developers of technology.
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    I just posted an article from Wired onto twitter about this! http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/09/estonia-reprograms-first-graders-as-web-coders/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=socialmedia&utm_campaign=twitterclickthru I wonder how deeply the program goes in coding or if it is more in line with applications like "Move the Turtle".
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    I am very curious, as well, and trying to find more information. I think it would necessarily be a program that expands with their comprehension and maturity... starting with very basic "Move the Turtle" applications and then grown with the student, hopefully to real world application, as they go until age 16!
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    Who initiated this ProgreTiiger program? The Estonian government? Local IT companies? Concerned parents who disparately wanted their children to learn to code? Estonia is very wired country and it's economy has found a niche in IT services, so much so that it's even been dubbed "eStonia" (http://e-estonia.com/). This program seems to be an example of market forces guiding educational policy since there are clear incentives for it's population to be technologically literate to ensure it's competitiveness and dominance in the tech sector (see: The Many Reasons Estonia Is a Tech Start-Up Nation (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303734204577464343888754210.html) A little blurb on how "plug-in" Estonia actually is: "The geeks have triumphed in this country of 1.3 million. Some 40 percent read a newspaper online daily, more than 90 percent of bank transactions are done over the Internet, and the government has embraced online voting. The country is saturated in free Wi-Fi, cell phones can be used to pay for parking or buy lunch, and Skype is taking over the international phone business from its headquarters on the outskirts of Tallinn. In other words, Estonia - or eStonia, as some citizens prefer - is like a window into the future. Someday, the rest of the world will be as wired as this tiny Baltic nation." (http://www.wired.com/politics/security/magazine/15-09/ff_estonia) p.s. I hate sensational titles like "Guess Who's Winning the Brain's Race" Learning coding doesn't automatically make your brain bigger or necessarily increase your intelligence. Sure, it's a very useful skill, but I wonder what classes will be cut out to make time in the school day for coding. Coding vs recess: Tough call.
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    Hmmm.... I read about Estonia being very plugged in as well. I wonder if there is research on whether the kids are actually learning better as a result. I think that you have a point Jeffrey. It depends what the cost is. If kids are missing some critical lesson because they are coding at such a young age, there may be a trade-off. On the other hand, maybe the skills they are obtaining from coding are more critical. I wonder...
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    Ideally, the tech skills would be used to enhance and deepen some of the other curriculum areas. But, yes, 7 years old may be young.
Jennifer Hern

If You're Not Seeing Data, You're Not Seeing | Gadget Lab | Wired.com - 0 views

  • “augmented reality,” where data from the network overlays your view of the real world
    • Jennifer Hern
       
      I knew that.
  • developers are creating augmented reality applications and games for a variety of smartphones
    • Jennifer Hern
       
      Who are these developers? Lots of $$ backing them?
  • embraced a version of the technology to enhance their products and advertising campaigns.
    • Jennifer Hern
       
      Of course AR has been used to enhance private $$ making industries.
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  • Tom Caudell, a researcher at aircraft manufacturer Boeing, coined the term “augmented reality” in 1990.
  • head-mounted digital display
  • was an intersection between virtual and physical reality
  • he wants to be able to point a phone at a city it’s completely unfamiliar with, download the surroundings and output information on the fly.
    • Jennifer Hern
       
      Called Anywhere Augmentation.
  • stifled by limitations in software and hardware
  • requires a much more sophisticated artificial intelligence and 3-D modeling applications
  • must become affordable to consumers
  • early attempts have focused on two areas
  • your computer is prominently appearing in attention-grabbing, big-budget advertisements
  • Mattel is using the same type of 3-D imaging augmented reality in “i-Tag” action figures f
    • Jennifer Hern
       
      Mattel is experimenting with AR... can I get a job there?
  • isn’t truly useful in a static desktop environment, Höllerer said, because people’s day-to-day realities involve more than sitting around all day
    • Jennifer Hern
       
      Okay... so desktop computers are not for AR tech. People are mobile, so AR should be mobile. But what about people stuck sitting at a desk all day?
  • And that’s why smartphones, which include GPS hardware and cameras, are crucial to driving the evolution of augmented reality.
  • Ogmento, a company that creates augmented reality products for games and marketing
    • Jennifer Hern
       
      Ogmento... see if they want to hire me, too.
  • movie posters will trigger interactive experiences on an iPhone, such as a trailer or even a virtual treasure hunt to promote the film.
    • Jennifer Hern
       
      This is going to bring out the inner nerd in everyone....
  • The Layar browser (video above) looks at an environment through the phone’s camera, and the app displays houses for sale, popular restaurants and shops, and tourist attractions
    • Jennifer Hern
       
      Where does this information come from? Who creates this information? Selected sources/companies who pay to have their information posted? A whole new competitive marketing strategy in the making.
  • it’s not truly real-time: The app can’t analyze data it hasn’t downloaded ahead of time.
    • Jennifer Hern
       
      I can only imagine crowds of people walking the streets staring at their apps, running into people and lamp posts, not to mention getting run over by cars... I think this technology might weirdly affect the health insurance industry.
  • You know more, you find more, or you see something you haven’t seen before.
    • Jennifer Hern
       
      this is supposed to be the advantage of using AR from a commercial perspective... it is still self-centralized.
  • Nokia is currently testing an AR app called Point & Find, which involves pointing your camera phone at real-world objects and planting virtual information tags on them
    • Jennifer Hern
       
      This can be a really cool feature for teachers if they have a closed-group option. If you are part of the large network, there is all sorts of things people might plant that you don't want to see or know about... Another thought, if there is a closed-group option, perhaps this will create a whole new way of drug trafficking and helping illegal organizations hide information from authorities.
  • the hardware is finally catching up to our needs
  • Nvidia Tegra, a powerful chip specializing in high-end graphics for mobile devices.
  • place (real) Skittles on the physical map and shoot them to set off (virtual) bombs
    • Jennifer Hern
       
      Are you kidding me? Marketing Skittles within an AR game?
  • open API to access live video from the phone’s camera
    • Jennifer Hern
       
      Need this technology in order to produce AR. iPhone does not have it. Wonder why.
  • live tweets of mobile Twitter users around your location.
    • Jennifer Hern
       
      I can just imagine what a nightmare this app would be in a classroom full of students with handhelds....
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    Background on Augmented Reality. Reading for 9/14.
Chris Johnson

WatchKnow - Videos for kids to learn from. Organized. - 3 views

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    This is a website that allows users to find videos from which children (3-18) can learn. All videos are hosted by other sites like YouTube, but content is approved and moderated separately. Comments and discussions are separate from the comments on the original post (i.e. WatchKnow comments do not get added to YouTube and YouTube comments do not appear on WatchKnow). There is heavy emphasis on transparent, widespread monitoring of content. This is accomplished in ways very reminiscent of Wikipedia's moderation methods. Right now, the site has a good number of videos, but lacks a rich community of active users. This means that it is harder to locate quality videos since few users have rated and discussed content.
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    This website is very similar to an idea I've been brewing for a while (though I believe this site is missing some of the more promising features). I was pleasantly surprised to see professor Dede's name on the Advisory Committee.
Chris McEnroe

µTorrent 3.0 - µTorrent - a (very) tiny BitTorrent client - 2 views

shared by Chris McEnroe on 29 Oct 11 - No Cached
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    Does anyone have any experience with this tool. It looks like a very interesting example of a Intelligent Web Filtering. Wow! Good side is that this is like Tivo for the web. Bad side is that you better have nothing else to do but look at the web. Also an interesting take on Personal Learning Networks.
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    I am familiar with BitTorrent, and it's interesting Chris that you came about it excited for its uses in education. But have you read or heard about the controversy surrounding it? In a nutshell- BitTorrent is a technology that allows large collections of files and data to be shared across the internet in a decentralized, peer-to-peer manner. A person who has the original files decides to share them via BitTorrent, so others can download from him/her. But as the others begin downloading the files, they also start sharing the pieces they've downloaded with the ever-growing set of new users asking for the file. BitTorrent works like a growing web- in order to download files shared via BitTorrent - you have to share the pieces you get with others. More downloaders = more uploaders as well, ensuring popular files will always be accessible. The benefits - this is cheap and decentralized, no need to pay to host the files on the web. The users who have the file are sharing the file from their own computers with others requesting it. And this can be permanent - if you host a BitTorrent to share a file, you have that sharing channel last forever (not relying on external services that cost $ or can be shut down).
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    BitTorrent is a really powerful technology that allows large amounts of files and data to be shared quickly with a limitless number of people. It's scalability at no cost. Could be a great tool for educators to share content across the globe in a hassle-free way. Even the folks at Khan Academy are excited to use it: from: http://blog.vipeers.com/vipeers/2008/10/bittorrent-is-a.html "For Khan Academy, BitTorrent was a natural extension for it stated mission of "a world-class education for anyone anywhere," Sal Khan tells Fast Company. Kahn was excited for activist educators to be able to download the Academy's entire portforlio, burn it on a CD, and distribute it to rural or underdeveloped areas otherwise unable to access it without a broadband connection. "I think the single most fun thing about BitTorrent," Khan adds, "is this content will never die. A nuclear bomb could hit our offices tomorrow and could take down our servers, but its going to sitting somewhere in the world on somebody's server." He added, "We don't care about monetizing the content; we just care that it gets used."
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    But despite the prospects of BitTorrent being a great technology to allow sharing of digital content freely, to allow downloading of vast amounts of data that can then be stored offline and shared with anyone... the rest of the article (http://blog.vipeers.com/vipeers/2008/10/bittorrent-is-a.html) mentions that Google was unhappy with Khan's decision to use BitTorrent. Google actually blacklists BitTorrent content from its searches, and so is actually blacklisting Khan Academy content, despite being a recent financial backer of Khan. Why? This is the controversy: BitTorrent's power to share digital content in a decentralized way, where the more popular a file is, the faster it'll spread-- has led it to become the most popular method of digital piracy out there today. This has quickly become the most common use of BitTorrent, far exceeding the sharing of legitimate digital content. It's become a nightmare for the movie, music, software, and video gaming industries. A summary of the legal issues surrounding BitTorrent: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_issues_with_BitTorrent
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    Hey Bharat, I am so glad I asked. I had no idea. Very interesting. New dimension to the concept of free knowledge vs. intellectual property. I think the kids at my school are using this to share music. I'll have to check it out. I find this conflict- "Google actually blacklists BitTorrent content from its searches, and so is actually blacklisting Khan Academy content, despite being a recent financial backer of Khan. " so intriguing. At first glance it looked to me like a vision of networked learning that was aimed at an authentic task with authentic participants (as portrayed by actors :).
Jennifer Bartecchi

It Stems from Algebra: Professor Chris Dede and Assistant Professor Jon Star | Harvard ... - 4 views

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    "It Stems from Algebra: Professor Chris Dede and Assistant Professor Jon Star" Chris & Jon Star investigate the effects of online learning in math instruction & STEM.
Cole Shaw

Microsoft Europe's take on technology in higher education - 0 views

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    Kind of a slightly different perspective from Europe, but some commentary from Microsoft Europe on how they think technology will change higher education and job preparedness. Towards the end he talks about things like personalization, digital resources for all schools, and some MS initiatives in schools (Partners in Learning).
Laura Johnson

Media Literacy | EdSurge - 1 views

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    Articles on media literacy -  an excerpt from their newsletter:  Here's how George Mason history professor Mills Kelly teaches media literacy. "'We will work together as a group to create an online historical hoax that we will then turn loose on the internet to see if we can actually fool anyone.'" His students have created stories that have fooled Wikipedia (but not Reddit) and provoked the ire of Jimmy Wales himself. We're delightedly amused at this intriguing piece from Brendan Fitzgerald, which examines the tradition of published hoaxes within the larger discussion over media transparency and credibility. While we agree that planting deliberate lies makes our job a little tougher, there's definitely value in its effort to challenge the largely assumed reliability of Wikipedia and other crowdsourcing efforts. It begs the question: are today's kids digital natives or "digital naives?"
Tomoko Matsukawa

MIT Media Lab: Learning Through Connecting - 2 views

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    A blog from MIT after their Scratch@MIT conference this year (only happens once every two years). It suggests that the use of Scratch encourages 4 different types of connections that the user can benefit from during his/her learning of creativity.
Cole Shaw

13 Tips for Social Media Training | EdTech Magazine - 0 views

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    Relevant to the discussion we had yesterday in recitation about professional development and the comments from Emily about similarities in technology adoption. Teachers can learn about how to use social media from business trainers, too.
Danna Ortiz

What to test instead - Ideas - The Boston Globe - 2 views

  • A new wave of test designers believe they can measure creativity, problem solving, and collaboration – and that a smarter exam could change education.
  • Reengineering tests has become a kind of calling for a group of educators and researchers around the country. With millions of dollars of funding from the federal government, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, as well as from firms like Cisco Systems, Intel, and Microsoft, they have set about rethinking what a test can do, what it can look like, and what qualities it can assess.
  • computer simulations, games, and stealth monitoring
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  • Chris Dede at Harvard
  • Such predictions require a clear sense of the qualities a person needs in order to thrive.
  • There are just a lot fewer jobs where you’re not doing information-seeking, interpreting, problem-solving, and communication than in the past.”
  • engineer tests
  • equire people to exercise a bundle of complex skills at the same time,
  • rafting computer programs that take advantage of so-called stealth assessment, a method of judging test-takers without telling them exactly what’s being judged.
  • When we test, we’re really probing for certain qualities—the particular mix of knowledge and ability—that tell us a student is ready to move ahead, or an employee will be an asset to the firm.
  • developed a 3D video game to test scientific skills
  • students
  • evaluated
  • rocess they go through to attack a problem.
  • Harvard developmental psychologist Howard Gardner participated in an effort to design new kinds of tests in the humanities that could be graded objectively.
  • Ultimately, he found that the nuance required to measure softer skills collided with the demands of standardization.
  • A test becomes a sign post,
  • t becomes an example of what to strive for.”
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    How test designers are trying to move away from standardized tests to computer programs that can measure a myriad of skills simultaneously through simulations and "stealth monitoring."  Both Chris Dede and Howard Gardner are mentioned.
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