Group items tagged

Very interesting article. "iREAD (Impact on Reading of E-Readers And Digital content) Ghana Pilot Study" Another example showing us the traditional standardized test doesnt seem to be a suitable type of assessment here. But in addition to that there are many interesting findings related to IT literacy, benefits of the teachers and increased access to learning materials. (never really thought a simple hardware such as e-reader itself will be this 'transformational' to certain countries across the world) 

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.

Provides an interesting classification system for MOOCs, of which edX, Coursera, and Udacity fall into one category--content-based. The other two MOOC categories are network-based and task-based. Interesting argument...

Many students are interested in STEM (suprisingly high) and also use their mobile devices to complete homework, but unfortunately not nearly as many in school (6%). It also seems that mobile device usage in school strongly correlates with those who are also interested in STEM fields.

An interesting, non-education, look at what Ubiquitous Computing may mean for social interaction. Interesting to view it through this lens and see what might work or not work well for education.

The issue

HGSET561

This is a really interesting article, and coupled with the edX / Anant Agarwal article below from Douglas, I think it brings up additional questions. Even with all the features that Anant says will be added to edX, I feel like they are all just part of the "convenience" factor and in many cases (like grading, discussion forum), more convenience for the teaching staff than the students. It is convenient for the students to do online labwork instead of going to a physical lab, for example. So I wonder if that type of convenience is enough to convince more students to sign up to MOOCs, or if they have to fundamentally change to add more types of value?

What makes good instructional design in the real world? These are the 2011 winners of the Blackboard Exemplary Course Program. Anyone interested in entering the instructional design field would probably be interested in watching some of these videos.

Social Network for teachers in schools? An interesting approach to learning communities. I'm interested to see how schools are using this tool. 

Kind of like Professor Dede's post about McGraw-Hill's interest in e-learning, here is a blog post from Pearson about MOOCs. I think his take (Jeff Borden, one of their VPs) is pretty accurate, in that we need a version 2 where it's not as lecture-based as version 1. I would guess that they are working on their own "version 2" solution (perhaps with Knewton?).

Maria, do you know if this event is open to the public, or more a "sponsor-day" event? I would love to go!

Not sure if it's public event, I only know about it because I will be helping with the App Inventor demo. I'll let you know once I know more info.

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?

A social network for educators interested in Web 2.0 technologies. Here you can connect with other educators who are interested in talking about the challenges and opportunities of using Web 2.0 technologies in all kinds of learning settings.

"School of One uses technology to develop a unique learning path for each student and to provide a significant portion of the instruction that is both individualized and differentiated." I liked the definitions of individualized (pacing), differentiated (learning preferences/methods), and personalized (pacing, preferences, and content/objectives).

Interesting look at the limited menu of viable open source LMSs that are out there. Moodle is by far the most popular, but as anyone who has ever developed any online courses on Moodle knows, the interface is clunky and it is overall pretty uninspiring (although adequate). Sakai sounds like an interesting competitor to Moodle and it sounds like it's gaining traction in the market- Rhode Island schools use it. From what I have read about it, it sounds like it is much more user friendly than Moodle and the students surveyed preferred the interface and design of Sakai to Moodle significantly (81% vs. 53%). Would love to hear any posts from people who have used any of these systems.

Those of you interested in our conversation today about the brain, media and learning may be interested in attending part of this conference on Nov 20-22

An interesting product for reading and comprehension. Tim McEwen, chairman, chief executive officer, and president of Archipelago Learning. "Once children learn how to read, it's important to keep them engaged in and enlightened by reading. This product offers teachers a way to do this by leveraging a channel that already appeals to them - social networks and virtual worlds. If we can relate the core principles we're hoping students will learn to the areas that already interest them, then we create a mutually beneficial and relatable teaching environment."

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.

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

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 :).

This article describes Google's first large scale attempt at an augmented reality game taking place on City Streets via smartphones. I find it especially interesting to think about the educational value of such a platform.

I also saw this earlier. very interesting stuff.

An interesting take on "Achievement Gap"

More than interesting. This challenges a basic premise of the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Gates funds edX to bring their courses/content to the community college setting. Is K-12 next?

Interesting point Harvey - thanks for weighing in! Per Clay Christensen, disruptive innovators often target the least desirable/most under-served segment of the market upon entry - the business that the established folks don't bother to pursue (think Southwest Airlines, etc). They then evolve up the value chain, ultimately displacing the large, established guys.

Chip, that's what makes this especially curious: it's the major players (Harvard, MIT, etc.) who are pursuing the least-served part of the market here - Christensen would argue that they are more like to pursue sustaining, not disruptive innovation! In essence, EdX is seeking to disrupt the teaching of entry-level, profit-generating classes at other schools, while possibly undermining their own teaching of the same topics. Should be interesting to see how it plays out.

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."