Group items tagged

Ok... maybe the tie in to education is not immediately obvious. Mostly, I just think this is so cool that I had to post it. But think for a moment about carpool, soccer practice, and sports as a starter. No longer does a kid's participation in extracurricular activities require them to get a ride from mom. Go a little further... field trips, classes that are only offered at the charter school across town, on-site science explorations. How many more kids could venture out of their neighborhood for educational opportunities? There was a time 20 years ago I never would have believed that elementary school children would be carrying their own phone, but now will they all get their own car in 2nd grade??

As Mary Jo said in class today, the lack of collaboration between teachers and developers is a hugely frustrating. The Shared Learning Collaborative is an organization that tries to bring the groups together for "camps" that tap the skills of both around big problems in education. This weekend, there's a Codeathon/Tagathon in Cambridge aimed at increasing the volume of properly meta-tagged content in the Learning Registry. Could be interesting to check out.

This conference addresses a very real gap - I really hope that more opportunities like this one bring people together that share the common goal, but are coming at it from such different perspectives. Thanks, Hannah!

DARPA is funding "hackerspaces"--high-tech workshops to give high school students opportunities to explore engineering and learning through creation--at 1,000 U.S. high schools. 

A new experiment in online learning: MIT OpenCourseWare, Codecademy, OpenStudy and P2PU are partnering together to offer a new kind of MOOC. The first course is "A Gentle Introduction to Python." It sends out emails to thousands of small groups pointing them to lectures, tutorials, and exercises - but also encourages learners to think for themselves and share additional resources with each other. It provides a map to learning Python, but doesn't discourage folks from careening off the beaten path. 

""No one's got the model that's going to work yet," said James Grimmelmann, a New York Law School professor who specializes in computer and Internet law. "I expect all the current ventures to fail, because the expectations are too high. People think something will catch on like wildfire. But more likely, it's maybe a decade later that somebody figures out how to do it and make money." "

I clicked through some related articles on this one a little bit, and it's worth following up on. I want to know how this treaty plans to address spam and cyberattacks. It is certainly high-time for this treaty to be updated, if it has truly not happened since 1988. The internet is certainly important enough to warrant further discussion, but I feel as if I'm speaking out of turn. I do not know what other treaty exist regarding internet based telecommunication in the UN.

A new proposal calls for a Consumer Reports-like rating body to evaluate new digital learning tools. Ed tech innovators like the idea in theory but they worry that it won't work in practice.

Funny, I was just talking with someone about this very idea the other day. We absolutely need something like this and my guess is that we will have a few competitors, at least early on, for the top ed tech review site. I think there is space for both an organization that specializes and for a yelp like site that essentially crowd sources the reviews. It will be tough to keep up, but think of how many products and areas Consumer Reports deals with- we can do this, and need to do this, for ed tech to get used wisely in our schools.

With regards to e-learning, I think inevitably some company or organization will provide ratings of the quality of online degree programs and learning tools. Whether this is Consumer Reports or US World & News Report or some new player (investment opportunity?), the need for objective assessments of digital learning tools is definitely needed. The Benchmarking e-learning wiki is interesting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benchmarking_e-learning

Sorting out policy or glitz and glamour?

Thank you for posting - this is fascinating. This is not only a threat to Blackboard, but also the MOOC companies (Coursera, Udacity, etc.). If the tool continues to be developed in terms of functionality and ease of use, AND third party developers build out applications that plug into this platform, then colleges and universities will start to build their own online courses, and not farm out their content to the Coursera's of the world... This reminds of the dot com era (circa 2000) when companies large and small hired "web development" firms to create websites for them. Now companies largely do this themselves...

Thanks for sharing Mohit. It's great that it's open source and allows teachers all over the world to build their own courses. I wonder what this would do to the larger online course companies...

This is mind-blowing, Jeff. It certainly speaks to the natural curiosity of children and the human capacity to learn, given resources and opportunities. Although I agree with the NETP about developing a strategic approach to tech implementation, I guess we should keep an open mind to the possibility that the technology can precede the strategy (and definitive research data) and still add value to a learning environment. After all, some inventions go on to serve unintended purposes that sometimes prove more useful than its original intended purpose. Who would have thought Ethiopian children could figure out how to hack tablets? Major props to them because I still have yet to figure it out. Thanks for sharing the article, Jeff.

Sugata Mitra would be proud!

Describes a new technology Kindle is coming out with to allow easy management of large quantities of devices. It also allows for easy integration of BYOD. Seems cool.

Interesting enrollment data from latest census. Check out the estimated K enrollment at private school...2.2%

Thanks Jason for posting this. Also, I was surprised to learn that "by 2050 residents over age 65 are expected to outnumber school-age kids nationwide."

Interesting timing on this Surface release after our discussions in class. Looks like they finally figured out a better form factor than the coffee table :)

Related to our design exercise from section this week--check out what new blended learning models caught the eye of the Gates Foundation. "Next Generation Learning Challenges (NGLC), an initiative dedicated to improving college readiness and completion, today announced grants totaling $5.4 million for 13 new models of personalized, blended learning at the secondary and postsecondary levels."

Interesting  plan coming out of "Leading Education by Advancing Digital Commission" meeting last week.  

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

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.

Financial analysis of MOOCs and potential impact on lesser-known universities...though I think people are still trying to figure out where MOOCs play in the general higher education landscape.

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."