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Interesting report from Main on an iPad Kindergarten pilot.  A study in collaboration with Boston College showed evidence of increased kindergarten literacy scores compared with a control group of Kindergartens with traditional instruction.

LuminAR is another project out of the Fluid Interfaces Group at the MIT Media Lab that combines a camera, projector, and computer into the currently available infrastructure of lamps and sockets to augment reality with additional information.

Call for research proposals!  Connected Learning has very interesting educational, research, and design principles; this study asks from group of participants who are engaged in connected learning environments.

Augmented reality on Sesame Street? Pretty incredible! I do wonder how kids will interact with this type of technology at such a young age. 

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."

A Stanford University group tracked students in eight virtual schools and found that "in every subgroup, with significant effects, cyber charter performance is lower." K12 Inc. made large profit, but at what cost?

It is sad that every good idea gets hijacked for 'profit-maximizing'

Georgia's Hall County partnered with Dell and transforming the classrooms "one student at a time", using 1) personalized 2) blended 3) data collection and 4) results. Sounds familiar? "wouldn't believe that these types of classrooms existed if I hadn't seen it for myself. When you get a group of dedicated educators together with a shared vision that is designed to remove the business-as-usual stigma and support total transformation you can achieve amazing things."

Cable companies, as part of a new FCC initiative, will be offering broadband internet to homes with children who are elgible for free school lunches.  The initiative is called "Connect-to-Compete". While having broadband at the home isn't the same as always on, mobile internet available wirelessly for students wherever they are on any device they happen to have on them, this is a good start to lessen digital exclusion for these groups

Check out nb a very cool, collaborative note taking tool developed by MIT's Haystack Group. Last night I got into a discussion with Sanjoy Mahajan, an Olin College professor who got his Phd at MIT.  We were talking about Eriz Mazur's Peer Instruction technique when he began describing how in his flipped-classroom courses he uses the MIT Haystack Group's "nb" software to enable his student's to collaboratively discuss the course readings (online in pdf form) through shared, online annotations & notes.   Sanjoy's students are required to participate in the online annotation discussion, making their own annotations and responding to others, the night before his class.  He then reviews the annotations to prepare the next day's discussion and peer-instruction lesson plan.

LearningSpace, a new tool from ePals that is also COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act) and FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) compliant, provides K-12 appropriate selective access to the applications within a protected, customizable social learning environment. Schools and districts can customize the rules and policies that determine which groups, classes and projects have access to third-party applications.

Interesting that some publishers are in favor of this, because it means big changes for them...

I'll be working on this project through the Lifelong Kindergarten research group at MIT Media Lab this semester

This is very cool...I haven't seen much on cross-generational learning, but I think that there are very valid benefits to it (as well as multi-generational living). Anyways, it seems not so different from the research that Uche is doing in the class. Look forward to hearing how your semester goes!

Here's an example of one person who excelled in a MOOC. While everyone may not have the drive of this student, this is a good example of how an online technology facilitated a social learning group. Also - yet another example of how online resources can benefit people across the country who do not otherwise have access.

A friend just sent me this same article, Molly! However, my takeaway was much different. Whenever I read articles about young people doing extraordinary things with limited resources and technology, my first thought is always "how is this possible??" The article addresses my question directly: "The answer has to do with Battushig's extraordinary abilities, of course, but also with the ambitions of his high-school principal." The principal, also a graduate of MIT, was focused on developing more skilled engineers in Mongolia, and made it his mission to bring science and tech labs to his students; while MOOCs, the government's heavy investment in IT infrastructure, and the ubiquity of a 3G network made it possible to extend and enhance learning opportunities, the students may have never been exposed to engineering were it not for the encouragement of the principal. This human component, combined with technology, was what nurtured Battushig's drive and talent. This path will not work for just any student. If most homes in Mongolia have an Internet connection and even nomads cell phones, why have more people not found success with MOOCs? The author of the article summed it up best when she said, "Battushig's success also showed that schools could use MOOCs to find exceptional students all over the globe." Battushig is exceptional, just as elevated learning through MOOCs is still the "exception" and not the rule. MOOCs still lack a certain (perhaps human?) element that can move them from producing the anomaly of one "boy genius" to a more widespread level of learning.

Hi Laura - That's a good point about the principal. The principal and the student were both exceptional. While I do not think that MOOCs, as they are right now, can work for everyone, I do think that this example of educating an exceptional student is heartening. Maybe this exceptional student can learn a lot and then in turn, help others in his community. As undemocratic as it is, many advances in society are made by individuals or small groups of people. Overall though, I agree that MOOCs lack, as you said maybe a human element, to promote widespread education.

September 26, 2013: 6:00pm - 8:00pm A Fireside Chat with MIT and edX leaders, Sanjay Sarma, Director, Office of Digital Learning, MIT and Kathy Pugh, Vice President of Academics, edX Registration and refreshments: 6:00-6:30pm Program 6:30-8:00pm Moderated by Nish Sonwalkar, Editor-in-Chief, MOOC FORUM Journal The Educational Technology field is exploding with innovation, and in response the MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge brings you a look at this field with two experts from MIT.

More on MOOCs: "One one side, there are those who portray traditional higher education models as enjoying too much immunity from market forces and public demands for greater academic efficiency and productivity; on the other side are faculty groups and others who are struggling against a narrative of disruption that sees higher education as a business while discounting the issues of academic quality, freedom and governance."

Background on Augmented Reality. Reading for 9/14.

Describes a group looking at the role of technology in both formal and informal educational settings.

Dueling opinions on what the Net offers us.

Minimally Invasive Education is defined as a pedagogic method that uses the learning environment to generate an adequate level of motivation to induce learning in groups of children, with minimal, or no, intervention by a teacher. (Disruptive Tech?)