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MassCue article about the effectiveness of Student Response Systems by a tech consultant / researcher for vendor Turning Response Systems (who sells the clickers that HGSE uses). I'm interested in comparing these systems with the FREE adhoc web-based system offered by Socrative.com, co-founded by HGSE TIE grad Ben Berté.

James- very interesting article about Student Response Systems. The clickers are a great tool to facilitate student participation in a teacher-centered classroom, and many of us have seen the Turning Point clickers in action. And they really do help with engaging everyone in the audience. Remember that diversity seminar during orientation week? The rich discussion that ensued in a crowd of 650 was really made possible because of the opening survey questions, the clicker interactivity, and the discussions that sprung up at each individual table which then mushroomed out to the rest of the crowd. I never thought a diversity seminar could be that engaging, and the clickers were definitely a key part of that. My only criticism of the article is that it seems to be pushing hardware capabilities over sound pedagogy, which is always a danger in learning about emerging technologies. Question though: is Socrative not entirely free? it seems like a great tool with many interactive capabilities, ideal for many classroom settings and activities.

Steve I agree the article did have a strong sense of hardware pushing. It was written by a research on the the vendor's payroll. I've changed "free" to FREE; I intended the quotes to be for emphasis, not skepticism. Socrative is indeed free.

A NPO called Common Sense Media is working with HGSE. They have launched a new web-based interactive tool for 3-5h grade to encourage responsible online behavior

Don't be a B.L.O.B.

Great blog posts on Acceptable Use, BYOT and pointers for educators on how to support responsible use. There are also sections on connected learning and digital citizenship.

TV Tropes is being very transparent about creating a moderation system for the content. This is in response to loosing advertising dollars from Google. It is interesting to see the outline for their model of moderating content. Some of these elements could be used in a web 2.0 environment for education

I'mOK is a mobile app that rewards your kids for taking responsibility for staying connected. Checking in with parents is gamefied so that by checking-in to locations earns you points.

interesting premise.. first thing I thought was, it's taking something kids *might* be into (gameification, badges, etc) and mixes it with something they dread (letting their parents know where they are, what they're doing) -- what's the point for kids? What benefit can they draw? Why would they want to earn badges or points in game/app their parents suggested? ... But as the homepage suggests, the premise of parents using this app/system to translate the app's points into real-life rewards (a currency system that parents & kids can negotiate together)... that's an interesting idea. Maybe this kind of arrangement can actually work in some cases. But with gameification in general, I'm wondering about the likelihood of true internalization. Usually we're wondering the question of if kids are actually learning content for the long-term when intertwining it with the motivating factors of game elements. But now this adds on a layer of moral values, obligations, responsibility... are kids going to internalize that they should keep their parents in the loop cause their parents worry, it's the right/responsible thing to do? Or will it stay at the "well I'm earning points/money/privileges"...

The SPINNER project from the Responsive Environments Group at MIT Media Lab is the first research platform designed to investigate the world of ubiquitous video devices. The Spinner can automatically edit video to fit a narrative structure. It uses video from cameras installed at the Media Lab and sensor data from people generated by wearable smart badges to track their activity and location. The system then creates a video using the characteristics detected from the sensor data with the video captured by the cameras.

Interesting Forbes article about Sal Khan's journey. Mentions his recently published book "The One World Schoolhouse".  Highlights of his views reported in the article: "Khan would like to re-create the once common mixed-age classrooms that he believes encourage older kids to take responsibility for younger ones. He wants multiteacher classrooms to provide students with different perspectives. He would abolish summer vacation.... And he would eliminate letter grades altogether, preferring a more qualitative approach to assessment..."

Thanks for sharing Malik. Sal has done some nice work, and I'm wondering whether his mode of instruction can be used in other subject areas especially the arts and music. I'm guessing that it can, but his assessment mode would need to change from MCQs to something more qualitative.

This is a website created by Burlington High School students that are taking a class called Help Desk. In the class they run a help desk to help teachers learn and integrate current technology into classrooms. This was administration's response at Burlington to teachers needing support in incorporating web 2.0 tools into curriculum when they started a one to one device system.

Schools throughout the country are experiencing the same teacher-driven adoption of technology tools. Internet-savvy teachers are increasingly finding tools to use in the classroom on their own, and lower business-startup costs mean the tools are more readily available. In response, many education companies are changing how they market and sell their products. Nationwide sales teams and central-office visits are giving way to word-of-mouth and sophisticated business-intelligence software as preferred methods for pushing adoption. Companies offer free products to teachers with the goal of influencing districtwide purchases of more-robust versions-known as the "freemium" pricing model. But in most sectors of the existing K-12 system-with its various stakeholders, budgetary restrictions, and procurement regulations- the so-called "consumerization" of education faces many barriers, experts say, making it difficult to find the right balance between selling directly to teachers and addressing the needs of central-office administrators.

Tapping into the Internet and using several iPads as video cameras, Sandel, the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government, connected his Harvard students in Sanders Theatre on Friday with students in Japan, China, Brazil, and India for a wide-ranging discussion that explored the complicated question of the ethics of solidarity and the dilemmas associated with patriotism, membership, and collective responsibility.

European scientists have integrated robotics, video, and various sensor and display technologies to transport someone into a geographically distant meeting room under the auspices of the Beaming through augmented media for natural networked gatherings (Beaming) project. The European Union-funded effort utilizes immersive virtual reality technologies in which a robotic avatar functions as the meeting participant's eyes, ears, and mouth. The participant wears a head-mounted display and is connected to sensors, enabling them to receive the avatar's video and audio feeds in three dimensions. The two-way connection also enables the participant's movements and responses to be mimicked by the robot.

Interesting stance from the UK, where the government hopes to raise up the importance of computer science in education, where ICT (information and communication technology) lessons are not up to date with the needs and skills of the 21st century. Kids engaged in ICT classes learn how to use software, and not how software works or how it's created. From the article: "Written by gaming guru Ian Livingstone and visual effects veteran Alex Hope, Next Gen called for programming skills to replace learning about business software in ICT lessons." direct link to the UK Government's response to the 'Next Gen' report: http://www.dcms.gov.uk/publications/8646.aspx

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

in response to Jen Lavalle's post about games having to go cross-platform to survive. Adobe, makes of the Flash platform, have announced they are stopping further development of the plugin for mobile devices. They are instead now going to focus on open standards (like HTML5), to allow content to be viewed on all modern devices (mobile and computers) with no plug in required. They will also focus on tools to allow developers to push content speciically to the app stores of today's most popular mobile devices. This is a good & bad sign for app developers who use Flash (lots of them, it's been an industry standard for years. Flash has suffered from terrible performance on mobile devices, so it's good to see Adobe acknowledging the need to do something different for their mobile strategy. But what this means for the tools developers will (need to learn to) use? TBD...

Edmodo And Common Sense Media Partner (the authors of the 0-8 report some of us read for Joe Blatt's class this week) to offer free teaching tools based on Dr. Howard Gardner's work at HGSE. The partnership provides teachers with a set of student activities based on Common Sense Media's free K-12 curriculum, "Digital Literacy and Citizenship in a Connected Culture," for the Edmodo platform. The curriculum introduces the basics of using social networks and other digital technologies safely, responsibly and respectfully and is based on the work of Dr. Howard Gardner and the GoodPlay Project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

This is a classic example of making a bad situation worse with a stupid response

Xu and I discussed this article in class/section. We had similar thoughts ;unfortunate as it is, this is a case of eliminating the effect and not the real cause. Perhaps this article does not fully reveal details but hopefully a real solution is being put into place...quickly.

In response to Chris's last side this morning about a mobile "6th sense", I wanted to bring up Apple's "knowledge navigator" vision of an intelligent "personal agent from the late 1980's.  Tuesday morning, it's highly anticipated that Apple will introduce an "Assistant" derived from it's 2010 purchase of Siri Personal Assistant Software.  Some form of Chris '6th sense" agent may become reality tomorrow morning!