Group items tagged

Sorting out policy or glitz and glamour?

This imaginative film, which eloquently illustrates "innovation" in its most inncent form, was shot solely on a cell phone... Enjoy!

"This contribution to Seton Hall's Center for Mobile Research & Innovation is about more than just teaching the students to develop mobile apps - it is also teaching them professional and life skills, motivating them and preparing them for college, and instilling community service values"

What education really needs is not more digitized textbooks, but open platforms, where smaller innovators can compete with big publishers.

A useful service for innovators and entrepeneurs

I was especially struck by the "take a pile of dirt" argument: new products don't require as long an incubation period as they once did. And so we're likely to see more and more untested ed tech options on the scene. That entrepreneurial spirit seems exciting, but the absence of research in support of any given innovation might also be something to be wary of.

This is a great resource to check out some ideas of how to assess 21st century skills. (This is in reference to our conversation in the section on Monday.) The rubric on the page (you can download it) uses the following categories as: Expertise (in at least one domain), Inquisitiveness (Exhibition of curiosity, inquisitiveness, wonder, openness and excitement), Flexiblity (and adaptability), Ambiguity (toleration of and response to ambiguity), Unique Ideas (original, unique and cogent ideas, phrasing and products)

A quote from Dean Kamen, Inventor of the Segway, regarding innovation

Lecture by one of the authors of Disrupting Class. He describes how disruptive innovation will change the education and along the lecture picks on HBS.

Wondering if this idea of "Pulling people into education, rather than pushing them into it" can work for the world's "worst-off Children"? Most interesting ideas found in the TED talk here: http://www.good.is/post/education-innovation-in-the-worst-situations/ Q: Are there smart-phone/cell-phone-based MUVE games?

Another fun RSA Animate video -- this one about Steven Johnson's "Where Good Idea From." Possible relevance for thinking not only about tech's role for students, but also how collaboration enabled by technology can yield big -- possibly disruptive? -- ideas among innovators in education.

"SOUTH KENT, Conn., Sep 26, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- South Kent School is pleased to announce that it has continued an innovative new platform for curriculum delivery, including digital textbooks and media tools for the 2011-2012 school year, said Head of School Andrew Vadnais." iPads are clearly entering classrooms...how do we make sure that we are making the most out of these tools and not just getting caught up in the hype?

an interesting writeup on on the basics of Khan Academy- including a couple of example teachers & classrooms. Also includes interview excerpts with Salman Khan.

It seems that the gamification of Khan Academy is undermining the "dropping out/back" of the technology after a certain amount of time, but students are learning, so is this good or bad?

This article seems pretty consistent with what we heard today. I think the most interesting aspect of the whole Khan Academy phenomenon is not what he does (make direct instruction videos- People learn to cook that way from Emeril), or how he does it (very few production values), or even that the internet makes him so distributable. The most incredible thing to me is that this one guy who did an end run around the entire establishment of EDUCATION is having this much impact on kids, teachers, and policy makers around the world. He isn't doing anything all that innovative and yet he is having the impact on education that one would think would come from an extraordinary innovator. Why isn't that innovator coming from EDUCATION. I think the big generative questions KA offers us in Education are: Why is this such a big deal? (And I do believe it is), Why didn't we think of it?; and Given all we know about education, shouldn't we be able have a much more substantial effect with much more substantial outcomes with as few resources as KA? If not? What are we doing?

Breakthrough product innovations of 2009 - tools, gadgets and toys.

I love competative learning labs. I wish this project based co-opetition model were a standard in our schools. Innovation and team dynamics are mindsets and skills that need to be developed in our kids.

Basic but a good refresher on the maverick mind of futurists in business

"New technologies have transformed the way students interact with the world, with information, and knowledge," said Dean of Harvard College Evelynn M. Hammonds.

Harvard Recieved $40 million from Rita E. and Gustave Hauser to support excellence and innovation in teaching and learning.

This speaks to the issues we have discussed in class about people who have naive ideas about protecting children from digital threats