Group items tagged

Follow up to that last post. Here's the Institute of Play website.

The MIND Research Institute has developed software & games to teach math without use of language. Language is thought to be a barrier to math for many students.

Taking the math out of language provides access for students who have linguistic barriers to learning.

Founder Institute goes global using technology and helps entrepreneurs create their own companies.

Maung, Thanks for sharing this article. I liked the basic premise but also agreed with the comment by Babson College President "the vast majority of ventures take more than that amount of time [ 4 months] to become operational businesses people can be proud of". I think this 4 month program can be nicely incorporated as a course in a formal entrepreneurship program.

After today's section case discussion, I was curious about how prevalent 1:1 tablet implementations are in K12 schools in the U.S. Here's a map from the One-To-One Institute that appears to have been generated by news coverage of tablet rollouts--I doubt it's comprehensive, but it's still an interesting geographic picture...

From Michael Horn at the Innosight Institute 

This is very "hot" in India at the moment. The president of India has given 200 of these to the university I work at and they are distributing it, for free, to loads if other institutes. It costs $25!! I haven't seen the quality of the device, but I have seen other low cost, about $150, tablets and I don't like them AT ALL. D you think e device quality and user experience will not be deterrent given the price point?

Mohit, I've heard a lot about the poor quality of the device and very little about HOW universities intend on using these tablets. It seems like another case of top-down intervention that's tech-driven rather than learning-driven, which is rather unfortunate. Also seems even more unfortunate that even though it's a tech-driven initiative, they haven't thought out the *quality* component of the tech. Oy... See this article for critiques of the tablet: http://www.techulator.com/resources/5523-Most-Annoying-Defects-Flows-Datawinds.aspx

An interesting article on how resistant to change different types of organizations are. Educational institutions rank pretty highly resistant. Though it is interesting to note that businesses rank the most adaptive (non resistant)--so the education technology and startup trend may be a good sign!

Interesting. from where I am from (=Japan), business organizations with long history with the majority of employees committed until retirement age of 60 (slowly this is changing though), maybe NPO and even government (with so much shuffling going on) would rank higher...

The author makes a good point that heightened market competition seems to contribute to reduced resistance. I noticed that the more-resistant organizations operate in more highly regulated markets, which would seem to create internal cultures more oriented to compliance and, thus, resistance.

Discussion on whether higher ed institutions can save cost by allowing students tograduate in three yrs by integrating the use of mooc. (By prof from yokyo univ. who is attending this)

Schools often work in isolation or from top down directives. This site has some interesting components to its design around methodologies for digitally delivered PD: Individualization, institutional buy-in, top to bottom integration and support.

article coming out of the Innosight Institute, a think-tank based in San Francisco linked to Clay Christensen's work on disruptive innovation, on how RTTT has "the potential to reset American schools' relationship with technology by encouraging a transformation from a  one-size-fits all schooling model to one that can customize affordably for each student's unique learning needs." linked to the backchannel discussion on 9/4 on possible ways to facilitate positive and effective integration/implementation of edtech

A set of workshops in DC about transformations in education. Papers about the topics will be released next week (Sept 27), for those of us who can't be in DC. One paper will be about "Harnessing Technology to Improve K-12 Education," so it will be interesting to see what the authors say. Though both authors are business school professors, so I'm not sure how they got chosen to write on this topic? Must be a good business to be in Ed Tech right now...

MIT considering its future vis-a-vis edX: "An education from MIT may soon involve a freshman year spent completing online courses, two years on campus and a fourth "year" of continuous education. While students pursue their careers, they could access a growing library of online courses to refresh their knowledge."access a growing library of online courses to refresh their knowledge."

Is the rise of technology the downfall of humanities? The article also talks a bit about new tech tools used in humanities classes on page 2.

I thought it was interesting to note the shift in focus and interest from a broad "knowledge-based" education to a "career readiness" and skills-based education over the past 10 or so years (probably due to the recession) from students AND higher ed. institutions. Do you think this shift is from student demand for more "practical" majors in STEM fields or policy/institution push to enroll more students in STEM majors?

Ning trying to spread it's wings. Let's users create their own social networks-mini facebooks-if you will. Ning is slowly becoming popular in classrooms and institutions of higher learning

Michael Horn, co-author of "Disrupting Class" and Executive Director for Education and the Innosight Institute, has agreed to do a live chat with me and Andrew Barras on Wednesday, September 29. Right now the time is looking like 12Noon EST. This is a great one-on-one interaction opportunity for teachers, education reformers, education administrators and anyone interested in the role that digital learning plays in the delivery of equity to every student in America.

Justin, would be great to post this on the lists you mention.

Sure, can you email me a short little blurb with a few more details-- confirming the time, the medium, the end time, the topic, etc.

"This new agreement is part of an ongoing effort by University of Phoenix, the nation's largest institution of higher education, to open the doors to new educational pathways for prospective and current students in the field of Information Technology." Interesting hybrid of college-credit and training/certification programs...

I didn't hear about this - did you? Why did a foreign group attack our country though an educational institution and its technology?

"When and where does it make sense to institute a longer school day, and how should it be designed?"

I think a case can be made for structuring school hours flexibly, to accommodate those who engage in sports and other extra currlicular activities and also those who desire or need additional academic learning time.

From my own experience, using technology was an effective way to maintain student engagement during a longer day. As a sped teacher, I offered students the opportunity to do an extra online-based reading intervention if they came to school early. I had a surprising number of students come - almost every single day. Additionally, using technology during afternoon tutoring sessions helped my students stay on-task. I think if the standard school day was to be extended, putting a substantial focus on technology would be both an effective learning tool and a good way to help prevent students from burning out by the last bell.

I love these animations made for the Met Costume Institute show 4 years ago. They so clearly uncover how these garments were made.