Group items tagged

This is a program developed at WPI out in Worcester. It allows teachers to load in questions and create assessments. Pretty useful.

Cuban asks an important question that cuts through the apparent controversy: what level of technology use is best for children in school? I think his response also highlights how to frame technology as a tool and enhancement rather than a replacement for hands-on learning

Reminded me of our conversation about online chat participation during a class lecture. Hotseat allows students to vote on question priority. 

"As the session continued, Lindquist gestured, pointed, made eye contact, modulated her voice. "Cruising!" she exclaimed, after the student answered three questions in a row correctly. "Did you see how I had to stop and think?" she inquired, modeling how to solve a problem. "I can see you're getting tired," she commented sympathetically near the end of the session. How could a computer program ever approximate this? "

Thanks to Dr. Dede for inviting Neil Heffernan to speak to our class a while back. Great to see Dr. Heffernan's work being covered in the press.

A letter to President Obama about MOOCs and higher education, from his council of advisors on science and technology. This was released just a couple of days ago and highlights some of the potential benefits and current issues in the ongoing MOOC debate which we have all discussed. "Although the new technologies introduced by MOOCs are still in their infancy, and many questions and challenges remain, we believe that they hold the possibility of transforming education at all levels by providing better metrics for educational outcomes, and better alignment of incentives for innovation in pedagogy."

Duncan pushes technology verbally, but does not act on the national ed tech plan and has eliminated funding for technology. This is bad reporting by someone who does not understand the subject and does not ask tough questions

Ars Technica's take on the grand question of our time

This is a review of Clay Shirky's book, "Here Comes Everybody" in which he describes the dramatic impact the internet has, and will continue to have on how we learn and communicate. This book (and review) will give you some insight into how your children may be using these technologies. But it should also raise questions about how we, as practitioners, can use the affordances of the new tech to improve our efficiency, effectiveness, and efficacy.

Very few virtual schools have worked with students this young, so there are interesting questions about jumping from no virtual schooling all the way to this model.

There is a really fascinating and controversial policy story behind this. Through "legislative sausage-making" the states first virtual school is being run by a single district out in Western Mass., mostly as a result of the entrepreneurial spirit of the superintendent. There are big questions about what will happen as students across the state sign up for the virtual school and their districts are required to pay tuition to Greenfield. And Greenfield isn't really providing a school, they are just enrolling students to be taught by a for-profit company, K-12. There are quite a few very interesting policy issues that would be worth digging into as the state launches this new venture in an unusual way.

When I first read the article, I immediately thought "an idealist gone rogue." I wondered if there was even any research/method behind this decision, and you mentioned there is a fee. Did I understand correctly that the school district will have to pay this fee for the student like some sort of voucher? If I get a chance I'm going to look for more articles out there on this project. Thanks for mentioning it, Justin. Interesting, indeed.

Why is overhearing a "half-alogue" more annoying than overhearing a dialog? Study shows that it's not a question of volume: hearing a half-alogue causes the brain to work harder to make sense of it, hurting our performance other cognitive tasks. Could this phenomenon be exploited in a positive way in a learning environment? (e.g. make use of the brain's natural tendency to work on filling gaps?)

The author's top 5 keys to successful education technology... do you agree? Is it missing anything?

One of the more powerful messages I have learned in Stone's class is when you are designing an educational intervention you have to know WHEN to ask the question: what technology, if any, will improve our educational problem? Before you ask this question, the problem should be clearly identified, and the steps to assess if the problem is improving should be laid out. When you have this information, you can then tailor the technology to specifically meet the needs of your current problem. In this way, technology is sort of the means (not the ends!) towards improving education. So, in addition to the author's 5 key factors for educational technology, I would like to add: Is the technology a good fit for addressing our clearly defined educational problem?

Here is a follow up on this topic of how children learn best when collaborating - this time in a formal setting - http://spotlight.macfound.org/blog/entry/student-centered_learning_in_the_digital_age/ These studies/examples push further the question around technology and if that can replace a teacher. Its perhaps really hard to answer that question with one answer for the various kinds of learning spaces.

Children can teach themselves; education in non-traditional way; child driven education.

Definitely want to read some of the books mentioned in this Q&A.

Video Games, Violence, Ban Question: Is there a coin here? Do educational video games sit on the opposite side of violent video games? If video games are good for instruction then are violent video games also instructing violence? Perhaps existing violent games are not following good educational design and therefore are bad at instructing violence (which is good)?

SpacedEd learning software educates through repetition of wrongly answered questions. Practice makes perfect.

Ideas for using texting at school.

great article. relevant to today's discussion about web 2.0 / social media. for those who didn't read it. Here's there article's list of interesting sms based tools for education use: Remind101: Remind101 allows teachers to send text messages (and email) home -- to students and/or to parents -- to offer reminders and updates for class. Remind101 allows teachers to communicate with their classes without either teacher or students having to share their phone numbers. Poll Everywhere: As the name suggests, Poll Everywhere allows teachers to use cellphones for polling in class. Students text their responses, using their cellphones to give feedback, answer questions, take quizzes. Celly: Celly provides SMS-based group messaging. Classrooms can use the service to take quick polls and quizzes, filter messages, get news updates, take notes, and organize and hold study groups. The groups can be public or private, moderated or open. StudyBoost: StudyBoost allows students to study via SMS-based quizzes. The questions can be self- or teacher-created, and can be multiple choice or open-ended.

I like Celly for its group messaging and polling applications. Note: The link to "Poll Anywhere" is broken.

I feel like this is one more instance of expecting schools to be everything to everybody. The filtering issue is there because of the blurring lines between student's home-life and school-life. Student's experience cyberbullying should not expect that the medium in which they are harrassed is also accessible during school hours. I agree with you Chris that filtering is ineffective but the schools are stuck. They are leaving themselves wide open to a lawsuit without it.

This site is an invaluable collection of Web 2.0 Tools for educators. On this Wikispace are links to free sites that provide teachers with some exciting and engaging tools. It is now possible to easily create SMS-based real-time responses to discussion questions, allow students to easily create Flash-based cartoons and Flash-based online posters with a ton of functionality, and even create beats online that they can then record text over (perfect for my "Romeo and Juilet Rap" assignment). Links to all of these tools and more are available from this site.