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Very similar to the idea of teaching computer programming via storytelling/animation (Scratch)

I just watched this video and it's actually billed INCORRECTLY on that Ted.com description! The guy is *not* saying to teach math through teaching computer programming at'all!! He is simply advocating to use the power of the computer to teach math - i.e. using programs such as Mathematica. His slide says "Computer-based math: critical reform" -- so, he is saying that students should use the computer for the computing (which is for sure true) and teachers should teach with the students using this computing power asap (which I agree with) ... but he is *not* actually saying to teach computer programming ... p.s. This video is sweeping through the math teacher twitter streams and blogs right now (yes, there is such a community out there!) But, in my opinion, his idea is no big leap ...

Absolutely agree... the idea presented here is no big leap at all, especially to us who are following these advances pretty closely. I saw the parallels with scratch in terms of engaging the learner.

Article mentions a 10-year $500 million commitment by Microsoft to transform education systems around the world through technology. "The programme will assist teachers, school leaders and students globally on effective ways to use ICT in the classroom environment." But doesn't really give any specifics. Is this money well spent?

This Microsoft Partners in Learning site (http://www.microsoft.com/education/pil/partnersInLearning.aspx) has good info on this great program. Here's a good video I saw there: http://www.microsoft.com/showcase/en/us/details/5672418a-839d-46e5-9b19-7a68d15d4b09 Btw, thanks for this! It is a perfect addition for my team's wiki project :-)

Pulling together a social media experience on your mobile phone. This might be work that could lead to educational platforms on the mobile device in the US.

ARTLAB+ is a digital media studio that gives local teens the opportunity to become integral members of a design team. They create new visitor experiences at the Hirshhorn, taking their inspiration from its permanent collection and temporary exhibitions. ARTLAB+ designers hone crucial twenty-first century skills as they make videos, animations, wikis, games, podcasts, and more. By the end of every project session, the design team has created a unique product that enriches the museum experiences of other visitors and showcases each teen's creative growth. After-school, weekend, and weeklong ARTLAB+ workshops are held year-round to accommodate a wide variety of schedules. We welcome all teens, regardless of experience. Looks like a great way to help introduce twenty-first century skills- BB

This is really cool- combining mobile, situated learning in the real world, with creative group projects, and letting kids direct their own active, learning 'flow'.. Can this scale up to schools (or after-school programs), without access to museum artifacts and mobile devices?

Interesting look at a few sites and technologies targeted toward college students to "assist" them in learning and studying. The question is...are these actual beneficial to students or is the focus simply on making money for the companies producing these sites?

Mixing social media and academic learning may be difficult

A look at ICT in Education in 11 countries highlighting national programs in the field.

"This article examines the ongoing efforts to integrate computer video games in existing traditional CS courses."

AR not ready for prime time because of inaccurate GPS data and apps that only provide information about locations within the user's line of sight.

WISE is an international initiative and platform for a multitude of established and new educational actors to collaborate proactively all year round. They recently selected 6 high-impact projects for the finals of their awards.

an interesting writeup on on the basics of Khan Academy- including a couple of example teachers & classrooms. Also includes interview excerpts with Salman Khan.

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?

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?

sign language in online chat rooms 

This is really interesting! I never considered how primarily speaking through sign-language might thwart opportunities in video-chatting; especially with such a great technology as Google+. Good find!

Amanda, thanks for sharing. I have a soft spot for sign language as I taught a camper years ago with a hearing impairment which resulted in me pursuing some ASL classes in undergrad because I loved being a part of that world! Accessibility is a hot topic in education and to see it being addressed in a more mainstream market makes me very excited for the possibilities!

Written by Jason Rosenthal Social media was originally all about broadcasting to the world - or at a minimum, your select group - about your likes, dislikes, or even what kind of eggs you had this morning. But social media today… well, it's not just for breakfast anymore.

Tying into discussions this week about bringing access to mobile devices to all via non-prohibitive costs, while still reaching a set of bare-minmum technical specs for actual use: India's "$35 tablet" has been a pipedream in the tech blog-o-sphere for awhile now, but it's finally available (though for a price of roughly $60). Still though, as an actual Android color touch tablet, with WiFi and cellular data capability - I'm curious to see how it's received and if it's adopted in any sort of large scale

I had heard months ago that India was creating this, but was not going to offer it commercially - rather, just for its own country. Just like the Little Professor (Prof Dede) calculator, when tablets get this affordable, educational systems can afford classroom sets of them and then use them regularly. But to Prof Dede's point - can they do everything that more expensive tablets can do? Or better yet - do they HAVE to?

I think this is what they're aiming to do - all classrooms/students across the country having this particular tablet. They won't be able to do everything today's expensive tablets can do, but I think they'll still be able too to do plenty. This $35 tablet's specs are comparable to the mobile devices we had here in the US in 2008/2009. Even back then, we were able to web browse, check email, use social networking (sharing pics and video too), watching streaming online video, and play basic 2D games. But even beyond those basic features, I think this tablet will be able to do more than we expect from something at this price point and basic hardware, for 2 reasons: 1. Wide-spread adoption of a single hardware. If this thing truly does become THE tablet for India's students, it will have such a massive userbase that software developers and designers who create educational software will have to cater to it. They will have to study this tablet and learn the ins-and-outs of its hardware in order to deliver content for it. "Underpowered" hardware is able to deliver experiences well beyond what would normally be expected from it when developers are able to optimize heavily for that particular set of components. This is why software for Apple's iPhone and iPad, and games for video game consoles (xbox, PS3, wii) are so polished. For the consoles especially, all the users have the same exact hardware, with the same features and components. Developers are able to create software that is very specialized for that hardware- opposed to spending their resources and time making sure the software works on a wide variety of hardware (like in the PC world). With this development style in mind, and with a fixed hardware model remaining widely used in the market for many years- the resultant software is very polished and goes beyond what users expect from it. This is why today's game consoles, which have been around since 2005/6, produce visuals that are still really impressive and sta

In light of our conversation of mobile learning, this article provides insight as to the stationary nature of the use of mobile technology. Shadow Cities - a game that prizes 'on the go', 'real world' scenarios within the game, found that most people play mobile games in the spaces where they spend the majority of their time - especially the home, which means mobile games compete with traditional gaming devices. Anyway, some food for thought...

Jennifer, Thanks for sharing this. In this push for mobile, I guess it makes sense if you step back and realize that most of the gaming systems that people started using (PS3, Xbox, Wii) were not built for mobility or portability and perhaps they haven't realized they can "transfer" the gaming experience to anyWHERE? Or maybe it is that gamers are creatures of habit? or superstition (like baseball players who don't shave their face throughout the playoffs so as to not mess with the karma or mojo?) and don't want to upset the environment that they consider the best for their particular performance of the game? The commercial that Prof Dede showed with the Augmented Reality spin and where Shadow Cities is headed really is a whole new way of approaching gaming and I wonder if the same type of gamers who are traditionalists (sit at home and play) would be interested in this new type of mobile gaming or if it might just open up a whole new set of gamers - who despise the sedentary nature of traditional gaming systems - and push them to get involved?

Newest Disney attraction called - Sum of All Thrills where kids get to design their own virtual roller coaster. It uses virtual-reality technology. "Disney hopes the interactive nature of the ride would also help kids learn that math and science can be fun."

While I would not consider this incredibly expensive ride a 'distruptive innovation' or even an emerging ed technology, what Epcot has done by bringing this DIY-VR concept to the masses (if you are one of the masses that can A- afford Disney and B-have the patience to wait in line for `5-6 hours) is very important to future ed tech innovation strategies. The progression/invention of such cost prohibitive entertainment tools will fall squarely on the high-end theme parks and consumer venues. The challenge has been set by Epcot and now others must either compete directly or develop a better or more accessible solution. Off the top of my head, I can think of a few cost saving innovations that might be developed in this 'race'- Artificial G-Force Engline: variable air pressure, smart-chairs, fans