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How test designers are trying to move away from standardized tests to computer programs that can measure a myriad of skills simultaneously through simulations and "stealth monitoring."  Both Chris Dede and Howard Gardner are mentioned.

RIT hosts a school within a school- the National Technical Institute for the Deaf makes it a unique environment to study this question. I wonder though if this passes Prof. Dede's predictable outcome test.

Founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, Atari played a central role in the early history of video games, going on to create what are still some of the most recognizable arcade games on the planet, like Pac-Man and Pong, to name a few.

very interesting. With the rise and widepsread adoption of mobile devices as the gateway of choice for gaming, more and more game companies are jumping on the mobile app bandwagon. With Atari shifting its focus like this, it instantly makes me think what other founding game company have or will need to do. Sega, another big name in the early gaming days, eventually had to drop out of the hardware game because it couldn't compete. It now produces game content for its former competitor's gaming hardware. And Sega now even ports lots of its classic video games from the 80s and 90s to mobile devices like the iPhone and iPad. Nintendo is still in the hardware game, but it's portable gaming hardware is now competing with directly mobile devices (& apps) head on. Nintendo's revenue and userbase is shrinking, and most analysts and observers are pointing to the rise of iOS and other mobile devices as substitutes to dedicated gaming devices. Will Nintendo still stick around using its current model- making its own gaming hardware to sell its own (highly regarded) 1st-party properties, like Mario, Zelda etc? Lots are predicting (or even encouraging) Nintendo to drop making its own hardware, and to produce content with its prized properties onto mobile devices.

It includes technologies the size of atoms, that will be present in all area of our environment-- similar to the Microsoft Future Vision videos we've seen in T561. But we'll be able power our devices using our own bodies?

Interesting predictions made about what was going to be big in 2011.

Conceptual change is aided by model building. Visualizing the relationships between different components of the model using a graphical interface is a powerful technological capability. Powersim is one such tool. Such an iterative model building activity to predict theoretically principled outcomes is stated to be conceptually engaging. There are other tools like Stella and VSim that fall into the same category.

"Twelve emerging technologies are identified across three adoption horizons over the next one to five years, as well as key trends and challenges expected to continue over the same period, giving educators, administrators, and policymakers a valuable guide for strategic technology planning across STEM+ education. The addition of the "+" in the acronym incorporates communication and digital media technologies in the traditional four areas of study." Curious what others will think about these predictions.

A history and forecast of the internet

I would be for this. I could not believe a place so big on recycling (Harvard) murdered so many trees with the printing of course packs. I like this idea if you could get the material from other sources than just the school (say the author or publisher directly or something like Amazon). Otherwise, there is no opportunity for competition or bargaining.

Some really interesting stuff here. Vander Ark's prediction about traditional classrooms being replaced by ever-changing groupings of students working on the same thing at the same time sounds feasible to me for some reason. It makes sense to take advantage of computers' ability to foster independent learning as a way to group students who might not share the same classroom location. I also found it interesting that Silversnail believed that the classrooms who used the technology the most in Maine were not necessarily the most successful or educationally sound. It shows you that, with technology, the how and the why are much more important than the what.

CHANDLER, Ariz. - Amy Furman, a seventh-grade English teacher here, roams among 31 students sitting at their desks or in clumps on the floor. They're studying Shakespeare's "As You Like It" - but not in any traditional way. To hear from more experts, and to share your own predictions for the future of technology in the classroom, visit the Bits blog.

The future of smartphones, including "an electroactive polymer that vibrates beneath the glass, and gives your fingers the sense of touching individual keys." NYTimes article, may require login

A fascinating video about using an existing technology (wireless headsets) as a vehicle for an emerging technology (augmented reality).

Thanks for sharing. The prediction of the device "watching and learning about you and then making suggestions as to what it should program" is a little to "Big Brother" for me and then there's the consideration as to what happens if the device is lost - will someone who picks it up have access to your information, or will it be "smart" enough to know that it is no longer with its original owner? Interesting things to think about.