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Eric Kattwinkel

Does Your Language Shape How You Think? - NYTimes.com - 1 views

    • Eric Kattwinkel
       
      Old ideas about language affecting thinking have been discredited, but more recent research has revived the idea, with important differences.
    • Eric Kattwinkel
       
      It's not that features of our language prevent or allow certain kinds of thinking; it's that they "oblige" us to consider some things and not others, thereby causing us to develop certain "habits" in how we think.
    • Eric Kattwinkel
       
      Compare different language requirements of making a simple statement ("I had dinner with a neighbor last night"): in French you have to reveal the gender of the neighbor, but in English  you don't; in English you have to reveal when the dinner happened; not so in Chinese.
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    • Eric Kattwinkel
       
      Research shows that when languages have different genders for the same objects, speakers of those language think differently about those same objects -- and this can affect their ability to remember those objects. (no reference?)
    • Eric Kattwinkel
       
      How would the habits of mind of a speaker of a geographic-based language be manifest in the way that person learns/remembers/teaches? How do speakers of egocentric languages learn/teach/remember differently?
    • Eric Kattwinkel
       
      Language even affects our perception and experience of color: "Our experience of a Chagall painting actually depends to some extent on whether our language has a word for blue."
    • Eric Kattwinkel
       
      Does an avid user of social media, who makes subtle distinctions among different ways to post something (comment, like, message, poke, etc.), have different habits of mind that affect how he/she relates to other people and/or incoming information?
    • Eric Kattwinkel
       
      Area for potential study?: how to measure the ways habits of mind affect our intuitive/emotional/impulse behavior.
    • Eric Kattwinkel
       
      Very intesting article about how our language affects the way we think. People who speak different languages adopt different "habits of mind" from an early age, and those habits can affect they way they experience the world. Especially fascinating is the discussion (2/3 of the way down) of languages that use a geographical, rather than egotistical, method for describing direction and relative position. (For example, the cup is resting on the north side of the west table in the southern room of the house.) How would a person with this type of view of the world experience a virtual environment? Also interesting implications for kids growing up with social media. Do new technologies impart habits of mind that affect the way kids learn?
Junjie Liu

TeachThoughtWhat 100 Experts Think About The Future Of Learning - 1 views

  • What 100 Experts Think About The Future Of Learning
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    Excellent talks
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    What 100 Experts Think About The Future Of Learning
Rupangi Sharma

Design Thinking Toolkit for Educators - IDEO - 3 views

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    The Design Thinking Toolkit for Educators contains the process and methods of design, adapted specifically for the context of education. You can download the toolkit by registering on the website.
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    I really like this approach. I'm going to check out the toolkit. I like the intro video and it's approach to design thinking in education as part of the story that each teacher has. This reminded me of what Dede spoke about today in class about how he always starts out with asking and understanding why a teacher is teaching...
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    Great find, Rupangi, thanks for posting it! I like IDEO's approach to things, and they have been branching out into development, too. It's cool that they are promoting design for education; I definitely think there are lots of application opportunities!
Angela Nelson

You won't need a driver's license by 2040 - CNN.com - 1 views

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    Ok... maybe the tie in to education is not immediately obvious. Mostly, I just think this is so cool that I had to post it. But think for a moment about carpool, soccer practice, and sports as a starter. No longer does a kid's participation in extracurricular activities require them to get a ride from mom. Go a little further... field trips, classes that are only offered at the charter school across town, on-site science explorations. How many more kids could venture out of their neighborhood for educational opportunities? There was a time 20 years ago I never would have believed that elementary school children would be carrying their own phone, but now will they all get their own car in 2nd grade??
Cole Shaw

Sale of McGraw-Hill's education division - 2 views

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    For the business-type folks in the class, McGraw-Hill just sold its Education division to a private equity company. They think that education will continue to be a good investment.
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    Interesting that they sold it to Apollo Group. The parent company of UPhoenix seems to be shifting their investments around, having just closed, what 40% of UPhoenix's brick-and-mortar campuses?
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    Yeah, I thought it was weird. I looked into that--I think the sale is to a different "Apollo" group. UPhoenix is something like "Apollo Group" whereas McGraw Hill sold their division to "Apollo Global Management". I think they are different entities, but it is hard to tell. If they are the same organization, it is definitely a weird sign of shifting investments.
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    Cole, you're absolutely right, I missed that Apollo Global Mgmt is a VC firm.
Daniel Melia

Saying Goodbye to Now: How Do iPhone Photos Impact Our Experience? : The New Yorker - 0 views

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    No hard news here; but this reminded me of Sherry Turkle and her (misguided, I think) argument that parents are too caught up with their phones to pay attention to their kids. There's a lot more subtlety in this piece. And even though this is literary and not academic, I think there's valuable food for thought re: T561 because of big questions about "real" experience vs. digital or "virtual" experience.
Cole Shaw

Jeb Bush on education - 1 views

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    Just thinking about Professor Dede's experience with the Bush Foundation, I found this interview with Jeb Bush interesting. He talks some about the Bush Foundation's recent Education in Excellence conference and what kinds of issues are at stake for education reform to stick. Obviously a little bit political, but not too much. Building on some of the previous posts, politics does impact change in education so I think it's important for us to keep these things in mind.
Chris McEnroe

Parents of Sippican and Old Rochester Regional Schools - 0 views

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    This is a Facebook page started by parents at our local Elementary school about school.
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    Much of the conversation seems reasonable enough but it will be interesting to see how adults can model public conversation. I'm not comfortable with having adult conversation displayed for kids within the school environment. I think that this is the equivalent of parents fighting in front of their children. Kids don't process it in a healthy manner and adults who do it I think do so for their own convenience and at the peril of kids. I think if adult in this community can be disciplined in their comments and stick strictly to logistical information with the understanding that kids are watching (FB will never replace parent oversight), it may be a useful tool. I also think the only way teachers can influence this page is by jumping on and using it to communicate because it seems to me that is the real "ask" in establishing the page.
Harley Chang

The King of MOOCs Abdicates the Throne - 3 views

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    Sebastian Thrun, CEO of Udacity, has openly admitted that his company's MOOC courses are a lousy replacement for actual university class and instead will be taking his company to focus more on corporate training. I personally will reserve further judgement until after I finish the readings for next week.
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    I posted this article in G+ a day or two ago. Some of the better commentary surrounding this article below. Tressie McMillan Cottom: "Thrun says it wasn't a failure. It was a lesson. But for the students who invested time and tuition in an experiment foisted on them by the of stewards public highered trusts, failure is a lesson they didn't need." Rebecca Schuman: "Thrun blames neither the corporatization of the university nor the MOOC's use of unqualified "student mentors" in assessment. Instead, he blames the students themselves for being so poor." Stephen Downes: "I think that what amuses me most about the reaction to the Thrun story is the glowing descriptions of him have only intensified. "The King of MOOCs." "The Genius Godfather of MOOCs." Really now. As I and the many other people working toward the same end have pointed out repeatedly, the signal change in MOOCs is openess, not whatever it was (hubris? VC money?) that Thrun brought to the table. Rebecca Schuman claims this is a victory for "the tiny, for-credit, in-person seminar." It's not that, no more than the Titanic disaster was a victory for wind-powered passenger transportation."
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    Grif - where did the Stephen Downes quote come from ? I read the Rebecca Schuman article and don't really agree with her. To expand on the Schuman quote you posted - it's really interesting how she says the massive lecture format doesn't work but then provides two examples of massive technology that do work - texting and World of Warcraft. This relates directly to some of what we talked about earlier this semester. I don't think it's the 'massive,' as Schuman implies, that causes the failure of a MOOC. It's part of the design. Once the design is better and more engaging, then MOOCs may find that they have higher retention rates. Schuman: Successful education needs personal interaction and accountability, period. This is, in fact, the same reason students feel annoyed, alienated, and anonymous in large lecture halls and thus justified in sexting and playing World of Warcraft during class-and why the answer is not the MOOC, but the tiny, for-credit, in-person seminar that has neither a sexy acronym nor a potential for huge corporate partnerships.
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    The Downes quote was from OLDaily, which is a daily listserve of his that I subscribe too. I think the difference between texting/WoW and MOOCs is that, while both have many many users, the former two have means in which those groups are disaggregated into smaller units that are largely responsible for the UX/individual growth that goes on. I agree with you that massive is not necessarily the failure, in fact, I think it's the best thing they have going for them. However, until the design can leverage meaningful collaboration, like WoW and texting, the massive will remain a burden.
Chris Dede

I don't tag and I don't often need the tagging of others to "advance and personalize" m... - 21 views

I believe that many types of resources should be available for learning in a course, because people learn in very different ways. If tagging is not useful for you, fine. I know that a substantial p...

Chris Dede

A 'Stealth Assessment' Turns to Video Games to Measure Thinking Skills - Technology - T... - 3 views

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    using videogames to measure thinking skills
Bharat Battu

How Khan Academy Is Changing the Rules of Education | Magazine - 3 views

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    an interesting writeup on on the basics of Khan Academy- including a couple of example teachers & classrooms. Also includes interview excerpts with Salman Khan.
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    It seems that the gamification of Khan Academy is undermining the "dropping out/back" of the technology after a certain amount of time, but students are learning, so is this good or bad?
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    This article seems pretty consistent with what we heard today. I think the most interesting aspect of the whole Khan Academy phenomenon is not what he does (make direct instruction videos- People learn to cook that way from Emeril), or how he does it (very few production values), or even that the internet makes him so distributable. The most incredible thing to me is that this one guy who did an end run around the entire establishment of EDUCATION is having this much impact on kids, teachers, and policy makers around the world. He isn't doing anything all that innovative and yet he is having the impact on education that one would think would come from an extraordinary innovator. Why isn't that innovator coming from EDUCATION. I think the big generative questions KA offers us in Education are: Why is this such a big deal? (And I do believe it is), Why didn't we think of it?; and Given all we know about education, shouldn't we be able have a much more substantial effect with much more substantial outcomes with as few resources as KA? If not? What are we doing?
Stephen Bresnick

Brown attacks testing and data as main measures of school success | EdSource Extra! - 0 views

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    Jerry Brown, Governor of California, speaks out about the ineptitude of standardized tests as a comprehensive, accurate way of measuring student learning. This idea is germane to most of what we are learning about the virtues of performance-based assessments, constructivist approach to learning, and the future of education. Does anybody think that there will ever be a time when standardized testing is replaced by something more effective? Emerging technologies like augmented reality simulations and multi-user virtual environments could be candidates for the replacement of standardized paper-based tests. Interesting to think about...
Yan Feng

10 Things That Will Be Obsolete in Education by 2020 - 6 views

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    Interesting.
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    I thought the word "satchel" was already obsolete? HA! And does anyone else agree that they use the term "obsolete" very loosely in some of their explanations - for example HOMEWORK - doesn't "some work at school and some work at home" still constitute homework? And about Standardized TEACHING - until Standardized TESTING goes away, HG and supporters can advocate for this type of teaching reform, but try as we might (and many of us do offer alternative lessons and assignments to take advantage of the multiple intelligences within our classroom), end of the day, we still have to get our kids to pass those tests. It is how we as students, teachers, schools, districts, states and a nation are continually evaluated as being successful.
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    I think this article is a little odd too. I think that a lot of times, writers of articles want to make these large shocking claims in their headlines. When you read the actual body of the text though, it becomes evident that the term "obsolete" isn't what they're after - but rather, it's about renaming or altering the way we think about current systems. Also, I was interested in what they meant by changing the actual architecture of schools. When I looked into the gallery though, it was a group of photos of a bunch of weird structures that didn't really show anything about schools (maybe the outsides?).
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    Also, I can't imagine that education will make the fear of failure extinct. It may make failing a bit more tolerable with individualized instruction, but I can't image that the pressure on students to succeed will decrease; it seems more likely that it will increase.
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    I appreciated that they mentioned learning HTML. I wish I learned that in school -- I think basic web design should be a 21st century skill.
Bharat Battu

Tap Fish Dealer - The Daily Show with Jon Stewart - 12/08/11 - Video Clip | Comedy Central - 5 views

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    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
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    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.
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    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.
Jeffrey Siegel

The Effect of Technology on Classroom Learning & Attention - 0 views

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    Important questions to ask students 1. What do students think is the best use of technology in schools? 2. What do students think the roles of computers should be in the classroom? 3. What do students think about computers being used as tutors? 4. Do students want more time with the teacher or is the computer instruction enough? 5. What is a good use of the internet in classrooms?
Tomoko Matsukawa

New Report: We're Not As Connected As We Think - Pankaj Ghemawat and Steven A. Altman -... - 0 views

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    The DHL's Global Connectedness report is interesting. The pillar is composed of trade/capital/information/people. Total rank of connectedness: US 20th. Each page for country analysis is helpful to think about kind of education is required for each country's future growth. 
Cole Shaw

Does ed tech need its own Consumer Reports? - 2 views

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    A new proposal calls for a Consumer Reports-like rating body to evaluate new digital learning tools. Ed tech innovators like the idea in theory but they worry that it won't work in practice.
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    Talks about different groups that are trying to help classify and rate the various ed tech products out there--more and more are released every day!! So how do teachers know what is useful and what is not? Discusses initiatives and some possible con's--so many are released and so many are updated that it may be impossible to keep up the evaluation pace.
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    Funny, I was just talking with someone about this very idea the other day. We absolutely need something like this and my guess is that we will have a few competitors, at least early on, for the top ed tech review site. I think there is space for both an organization that specializes and for a yelp like site that essentially crowd sources the reviews. It will be tough to keep up, but think of how many products and areas Consumer Reports deals with- we can do this, and need to do this, for ed tech to get used wisely in our schools.
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    With regards to e-learning, I think inevitably some company or organization will provide ratings of the quality of online degree programs and learning tools. Whether this is Consumer Reports or US World & News Report or some new player (investment opportunity?), the need for objective assessments of digital learning tools is definitely needed. The Benchmarking e-learning wiki is interesting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benchmarking_e-learning
Maung Nyeu

The Mackinac Center: Outdated thinking stands in the way of online learning | Detroit F... - 3 views

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    In the US, 250000 students are enrolled in full-time public virtual schools in 30 states, according to Susan Patrick of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, a trade association. Although that's just a fraction of the country's 50 million students, it has grown 30% each year. Some schools in Michigan already shown the advantage of digital learning.
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    This is an interesting article. I am just concerned that it is not unbiased or driven by an agenda other than improving education. I found this information about the Mackinac Center online: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/mackinac-center-public-policy I am starting to realize that a lot of the technology in schools rhetoric is driven by corporate and political interests, and as the industry becomes ever more profitable, I'm worried that companies are going to jump in and try to influence policy, rushing through the movement toward the wrong kind of technology in schools- i.e. sacking half of the teaching staff and replacing them with cheap computers. I think one of our most important jobs as Harvard TIE students is to education the public about the right ways to adapt technology in the classroom, and the important role that teachers will continue to play in this movement.
Sunanda V

Re-thinking School Architecture in the Age of ICT | A World Bank Blog on ICT use in Edu... - 0 views

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    Brings up the interesting issue of physical space in 21st century classrooms. Should schools of the future look like the way they do now (ie. desks and chairs, albeit with iPads/laptops atop desks)? How can we match the shift in pedagogical thinking with what our physical spaces of classrooms look like? On a related note, a colleague at an international school in Mumbai showed me around their new K-12 school recently (K-12 1:1 laptop program, phenomenal tech integration program)... and they no longer have walls to demarcate classrooms across the entire school. Instead of classrooms, they have "learning pods." So, imagine you're a third grade teacher--you have four slidable "walls" that you can open up to collaborate with the adjacent third grade section for social studies. Or perhaps you notice that the fifth grade science experiment seems to align with what you're doing today so you walk over to see if they'd be up for sharing what they're doing. Their idea is that the physical space needs to reflect the same environment of open education and collaborative learning that we're promoting in our classrooms.
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