Group items tagged

This is a classic example of "gee whiz - it's magic" journalism about technology in education

It's intersting to think about what sorts of journalists get handed these kinds of stories. Should this be the education beat? The technology beat? This particular journalist doesn't seem to bring expertise of either kind. (It seems like it's just a Metro desk story.) Mostly he comes across as a shill for Apple.

The financial struggles of print media have led to the substitution of "piecework" journalists, often with no credentials for the story, for qualified professionals with strong backgrounds. Poor articles are the result...

Yet another story about the magic device. I had not realized that interactive whiteboards automatically communicate 21st century skills.

The tablet craze continues...a continuation of the "magic device" phenomenon

This video shows Marco combining simple AR with super storytelling skills. Makes one wonder what a skillful teacher could do with those two tools.

We know a good deal about the contents of this article arlready, but its a TIME article and it links to some interesting studies and polls. http://nation.time.com/2012/10/18/higher-education-poll/?pcd=teaser and this should encourage us, as we pay through the nose for this education: David Stavens (Udacity's co-founder, and Stanford alum) concedes. "I think the top 50 schools are probably safe," he says. "There's a magic that goes on inside a university campus that, if you can afford to live inside that bubble, is wonderful." ... I agree with Mr. Stavens . I hope you do too. See you in class!

A profile of a teacher in Florida who is using smart pens from LiveScribe to create pencasts of exercises for her HS math classes.

Optimists have scoured the dictionary for superlatives to describe the future of internet education. But the cult of the Mooc - massive online open courses - took a blow last week when one of its leading Silicon Valley pioneers, Sebastian Thrun,

This is a new interface for taking notes -- what are the implications for studying and for content mastery?

Hey Prof! Funny you tagged this article. I was just searching for advanced note-taking software and was having a difficult time finding anything that would resemble my handwritten notes. Also, I came across a similar device that is described in your article today at my internship at Soup2Nuts. Since all of the animators/artists use Flash to create the cartoons, they have something similar to this "magical pen". However, they need to use a specific type of tracking pad to draw. The idea of applying this same technology to any piece of paper is a useful idea (if you are one of those people who remember to bring paper and pads to class).

A reminder of how to use technology to be an effective communicator.

Speaking of being wary of marketers pitching 'magical digital products'...this study found "no discernible effects" on high school students standardized test scores - of course, we must ask how the effects were measured (what the test actually tests) and measure in what ways software has a meaningful effect on student's learning...

I think Karen Cator makes a good point in the article when she talks about standardized tests being the sole gauge for assessing the effectiveness of the programs. While the programs may be used with the intent to improve test scores, I'd also argue it's important for digital literacy to be valued as a skill in its own right. Thus while test scores may not reflect the sought-after results, other important skills may still have been developed by using the programs.

Three long-time Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, veterans from Yahoo, Sun Microsystems, and Google, started funding education start-ups last Spring. Their incubator, Imagine K12, has now "graduated" its first group of startups. If accepted, Imagine K12 give $15k to $20k to startups and empower them with "dazzling network of connections."