Group items tagged

Very sad news.  Not too surprising but I didn't expect this to happen so soon.  Steve has certainly made his mark.  - James  

After School officias from Little Falls, Minn., visited Apple HQ, they decided to spend $1.2m on 1700 iPads. Late Mr. Jobs in an interview with Wired mangazine said, "what's wrong with education cannot be fixed with technology." "Mr. Jobs blamed teachers' unions for the decline in education." Walter Issacson, the biographer of Steve Jobs, writes Bill Gates and Steve Jobs "agreed that computers had, so far, made surprisingly little impact on schools - far less than on other realms of society such as media and medicine and law."

Just one more remainder, from the point of view of a millennial, of how important Steve Jobs was/is to our educational lives.

This 1990 video, where Steve Jobs talks about videogames and simulations in education, is an eloquent testimony to his visionary capabilities.

Link via Free Technology for Teachers Blog. I don't have time, but some of you may want to sign up to hear Steve Wozniak (aka The Woz) talk about education this Thursday.

Let us now argue about how to create the next Jobs Having paid Steve Jobs the full measure of our devotion, let us now argue about how to create the next Steve Jobs. Which choices can governments and educators make that will encourage the next miraculous hybrid of gearhead, design genius, marketing whiz and change catalyst?

@Komal and Steve - article about MOOC meet ups 

Quoting directly from the company-wide email (to Microsoft) "Microsoft YouthSpark is a new companywide initiative that will create opportunities for 300 million young people around the world over the next three years. We know young people everywhere face real challenges....Yet, this is more than philanthropy. We are mobilizing the company. From Partners-in-Learning to Office365 for EDU to Skype in the Classroom, we're marshaling a wide range of company's programs to support youth. As Steve said this morning, "We believe that working with our partners we can help empower young people to change their world, and we are committed to using our technology, talent, time and resources to do that."" (Personal Communication)

Let's not forget the hand that Professional Development offerings, or lack there of, around Ed Tech played in this "failure," too. Just because we put a Smart or Promethean board in every school doesn't mean that it won't get written on with a dry erase marker or used only as an LCD projector instead of as the interactive device that it was designed to be...teacher training is essential in the success of ed tech integration.

In US alone, 4 million K-12 students are enrolled online. Annual conference on online (and blended) learning in Indianapolis on November 9-11, by the International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL). Online learning is seen as the solution to allowing greater access to diverse resources curriculum, especially when many schools face serious financial crisis. Expect to hear from experts and educators, such as, such as Gene Wilhoit, Executive Director of the Council of Chief State School Officers; Paul Peterson of Harvard University; Michael Horn, author of Disrupting Class; Steve Midgley of the U.S. Department of Education; and iNACOL president Susan Patrick. Full program details are available at www.virtualschoolsymposium.org.

Really good article about one teacher's experience with a flipped classroom, why she stopped using that model and how the idea of flipping made her a better teacher.

Wow, really interesting article, thanks Heather! Love how the teacher also learned from the experience and changed her in-class teaching style...

Thanks Heather, for posting, and Lauren, for suggesting...anybody who is taking T440 and loves the concept but feels skeptical about its real-world plausibility should read this article.

A few people posted about using Skype in the classroom. Thought I would add to that especially since this article reminded me of the virtual session we had on Monday when HGSE had cancelled classes due to weather conditions.

A teacher's perspective on the issue: http://gazette.teachers.net/gazette/wordpress/steve-sherman/innovation-10-reasons-google-skype-should-be-used-in-the-classroom-a-teachers-view/

This looks promising. If Skype/Google Hangout add a few more features to their interface, it could render obsolete Blackboard and other paid software for video conferencing and online classes. I think the engineers at Google and Microsoft have the skills to put together a better product than what's currently out there. It's just a matter of whether they seize the opportunity.

If you aren't familiar with Steve Hargodon, he is worth checking out. He blogs and facilitates a lot of online conversations about the future of education.

Has anyone seen this group? Seems like they are doing what we have been talking about re: blended learning. I am going to dig in for more info....

Steve, I used to work on the external evaluation of the first round of NGLC grants, which focused on colleges and community colleges applying these guiding principles. I know less about their K12 grants and present work but am happy to talk about what I know.

Steve Hargadon (http://www.stevehargadon.com/p/about-me.html) is hosting one-day events called Hack Your Education all across the US (Boston on Nov 2-3!). He wants to teach students, parents, and teachers how to use Web 2.0 technologies to create your own personal learning path / resources / plan.

An estimated 250,000 students are enrolled in full-time virtual schools where their instruction and interaction is completely online. There are many benefits to this model: lower overhead, anywhere/anytime learning, meeting students where they are...yet the students in these full-time online schools consistently fall short of their peers in traditional schools. Gives us pause to consider what is lost in the online learning environment and what are the essential parts of face to face learning that cannot be replicated online..

This article contradicts one of my favorite quotes from ISTE 2011 - "The Killer App for 2011? The Teacher" I agree Steve, while it seems to be more and more the norm, economics shouldn't be a major determinant in alternatives to good education. Would they do the same for health care? Perhaps Siri can diagnose and prescribe treatment based on patient symptom input into an app?

A blog article on learning style.

Here is a highly populated list of open course offerings at various universities on the internet. This is certainly going to be disruptive to the pay-for-learning model of higher education. Some issues: does it make sense to attach some sort of certification of completion? Is it feasible or desirable to offer complete open courses, or would it be better to make the offerings more granular in nature? Should users be able to remix offerings from various courses to create custom courses?

This is fantastic! Thank, Steve.

Indian college classrooms have not integrated technology into learning and teaching, so private companies - teaching the skills needed to perform in their specific career paths - are taking the lead, showing that universities need to catch up.