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Check out these old videos from the '80s in which Apple predicts the future of education. First thought is that the technologies they show in these videos seem quite pedestrian in today's world. Second thought is that they got it right- many of these things that they show in these videos have come to fruition. Very cool look back.

A new survey is showing one in five students are "hyper texters" - texting 120 times a day. This group is three and half times more likely to have had sex with their peers. The study goes on to show those who just text a lot, are more likely to fight, drink and take illegal drugs.

SIIA survey shows stagnation, not progress, in US ed tech

Interested in researching more what we talked about in class today, I found that some universities are actively trying to promote civic engagement in youth. Illinois State University students created a documentary to help them reflect on their learning. This is not at K-12, and maybe shows that (as we talked about in class), districts have less freedom to implement things like this...

The idea of "showing what you know" and earning badges instead of degrees? In this economic downswing, could something like this become the new emergent way of learning and of assessing? Thoughts?

Sounds like the digital badge is more lke a digital portfolio- which I would more likely support. I find it interesting that our education system (which strives and struggles to provide consistent, high quality education from coast to coast) is seen as deficient but this badge proposal will be the answer? It's like the flood of support for home-schooling after a home-schooler wins a national competition but no one knows about the tens of homescholers I had to remediate in rural NH. Standardization is the key for any system to be integrated into another system. The variety of education models we have in our country makes it difficult for employers to integrate employees. If this digital badge concept relies on a variety of models, they will have the same problem.

The prospect of digital badges to show what you know is both exciting with its potential affordances and worrisome with some of its limitations and ambiguity. It'd be great if the ideal came to pass that digital badges would allow valid demonstration of super-specific skills and knowledge over a greater range of fields and topics than what having a B.A. or B.S. currently does. Digital badges could represent the most particular concepts or skills at a granular level even-- those that are essential in the real-world (whether that be desired by employers or otherwise). If the task or test or challenge, or whatever else would be the means of assessment for earning a badge, was carefully designed and evaluated to be a truly valid measure of proficiency, then earning a badge for something would be a clear indication that you know something. But like Allison said, standardization would be key. What would these assessments/ badge challenges be- so that they would be truly valid indicators of proficiency? Who would be the purveyors or authorities to determine the assessments or challenges to accomplish a badge? Given the medium (completing badge assessments on one's own computer or mobile device - from any site they're at potentially) - what's to stop a user from going "open book" or "opening another tab" in order to look up answers to questions or tutorials on how to do a task, in order to complete the assessment? Doing this would allow a user to ace the assessment and earn the badge- but would defeat any value of the badge in truly demonstrating knowledge or skill. By imagining if digital badges did reach mass-acceptance and use in the real world, and we were to ultimately find them all over the internet like we're now finding social media widgets, it made me realize that the "prove proficiency anywhere I am in any way I want" won't work. I changed fields and career paths from what I studied in college, so I definitely appreciate the value in being able to truly show e

The Daily Show takes on iPads educational games and the 'freemium' pay model (free to get a game, costs $ to get desired add-ons and content). They specifically look at the game Tapfish.  Pretty funny - but I think hits the dangers of this model head on

Battu!!! You stole my thunder. I wanted to post this but I'm glad you did because I think it is one of the real hazards of education fronting for the products of private companies. We need to be ahead of the curve.

agreed - I think awareness of this growing model is crucial. But with the increasing occurrence of the pay-for-more mantra in mobile apps (especially those made by big publishers & developers-- even educational apps)--- will small-time efforts (solo developers, non-profits) be able to compete? Is this model reflecting the true nature of app development? It's already hard for small/independent efforts to match the polish and amount of content of stuff made by the 'pros' (big publishers & devs). Is it the constant revenue the big apps are getting from in-app purchases that allows their stuff to rise and stay steps ahead? I wonder if there'll be an obvious and real difference in the quality of free vs paid/pay-to-play apps down the road, enough that certain apps won't even be available in one category or the other.

Very interesting article. "iREAD (Impact on Reading of E-Readers And Digital content) Ghana Pilot Study" Another example showing us the traditional standardized test doesnt seem to be a suitable type of assessment here. But in addition to that there are many interesting findings related to IT literacy, benefits of the teachers and increased access to learning materials. (never really thought a simple hardware such as e-reader itself will be this 'transformational' to certain countries across the world) 

Western Governor's University shows what software it uses to keep up with its competency based model

Dave Meslin shows ways to counter apathy towards civic engagement. 

Another look at digital badges.

NY City touting 5 public schools' adoption of School of One curricula in Race to Top application, but the schools' assessment scores show mixed results so far.

not clear this will lose votes for her, given how many adults are into fantasy gaming. Shows how bizarre the political process has become

Thanks for sharing Prof. I know of many educators who have actually started playing WoW just so they could understand their students' world a little better. I wonder how many principals would have supported them openly though.

relates to the 3 little pigs video I showed you

For those interested in what individual states are doing, a database was just released that shows info on all fifty states for the following: broadband Internet access online assessment digital content

Sherry Turkle on NPR

Interesting report from Main on an iPad Kindergarten pilot.  A study in collaboration with Boston College showed evidence of increased kindergarten literacy scores compared with a control group of Kindergartens with traditional instruction.

This article highlights 9 essential characteristics of 21st Century Learning. Diagram shows the sphere of influence of each of them.

I just started using this on my iPad - it shows you where all the stars and planets are as well as the ISS - basically a planetarium on your mobile device that you can use to find things in the sky in the day or night

Rupangi posted some educational tools for educators below in his link, so here is another post that shows some productivity tools from the student-side.