HGSET561

Isabel, Chris M., Stephen B., and I are at MassCUE today watching Yong Zhao's keynote.  You can find a copy of his presentation here at this website.

I saw Zhao speak yesterday at the MassCUE conference (with James, Chris McEnroe and Isabel Schwartzman). His message was provocative: the United States did not do well on the TIMSS test, but the US has never done well on this type of testing even way back to the 1950s. Therefore, Zhao thinks that these tests are not good indicators of educational quality, but that the things that the US does right are fostering creativity, building in tolerance and forgiveness into the educational system, and stressing problem-solving and collaborative learning.

This relates to part of the discussion in class today. I've seen him speak about the irony that Chinese schools, which are outperforming US schools on PISA and TIMMS, are actually trying to model their systems more on US pedagogy. See his latest book or look for him on TED.

Three long-time Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, veterans from Yahoo, Sun Microsystems, and Google, started funding education start-ups last Spring. Their incubator, Imagine K12, has now "graduated" its first group of startups. If accepted, Imagine K12 give $15k to $20k to startups and empower them with "dazzling network of connections."

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and four nonprofit education organizations are investing to accelerate the development online learning tools. According to Mr. Gates, "Innovation is our only hope", and "And the nly new game in town is Technology."

The link within the article to the hybrid education 2.0 article really speaks to the new "badge" movement online. What they say makes sense in support for these. Will be interesting to see how this evolves.

Cell phones are banned in NYC public schools, but it is the norm for students who attend schools without metal detectors to bring their phones anyway. If caught teachers are confiscating phones for up to a week, or longer, at their discretion. At schools with metal detectors small businesses have popped up around schools, storing students' phones for the school day for a small fee, similar to a coat check system. Instead of harnessing the power of mobile phones that almost every student already has, they are punishing them and/or causing them to pay money to keep them stored for the school day so that they can have them before and after school. I think this is a missed opportunity for the NYC school system not only because they are missing out on mobile learning opportunities with technology the district doesn't have to buy, but they could also be teaching the students responsible and appropriate use of mobile phones in public spaces.

What is the definition of a book?

This seems to be a little forced as an application of AR, but I still found it interesting as it may be a crude version of an AR application we may see in the future.

Online education for high school students is not an option, it is mandatory. Idaho Education Board approved that at least two credits of online class is required to graduate from high school. Idaho is first in the nation to mandate online class. We have read articles and discussed in class pros and cons of online learning. However, should online learning be mandatory for high school students? Do you think it is a good idea?

Having online education for the sake of online education does not seem like a good idea to me. If it saves them enough money that they can improve classroom education, that might be worth it, but I'm not convinced that this is worth doing.

Agree with Ayelet. Idaho board of education went through this despite heavy criticism from public. Instead of making it an option, Idaho makes it mandatory. Online education may not work for some students. They may feel that it has been pushed down their throat.

A great talk about what it means to have an effective educational system. Also points to an interesting difference between scaling and spreading of good systems.

Lisa Nielsen, the author of "Teaching Generation Text: Using Cell Phones to Enhance Learning" and "The Innovative Educator" blog, believes it is time to shatter a few myths about students bringing their own devices (BYOD) to school

Many of you have read my "rants" about buying iPads before the teacher's even know what to do with them. This article speaks to the need for Professional Development before full scale implementation.

This conference is happening this weekend. The website lists various means of hearing the lectures and discussions that will happen.

Professor Clayton Christensen says, now more than ever, online education is ready for disruption.

This is a very interesting follow-up to the topic we saw a few weeks ago in class!

More about badges

Here is another documentary trailer previewed through the conference.

This articles featuring various stances on technology in the classroom. Arguments are made for technology-heavy curriculum, classrooms free of technology and responsible and effective technology use with thorough professional development and teacher facilitation. Another voice adding their two cents to the technology in the classroom conversation. I think that the most well informed angle expressed in the article is the opinion that we need better teachers and careful use of technology when it's inclusion will improve the learning potential more than if it weren't used.

This article discusses ways to use mobile technology in a higher education setting, including uses to increase engagement among students and to provide safety and emergency information. The author fails to include any uses that actually involve learning or improved communication and transparency between students and teachers, which I believe is an oversight that many schools have when considering implementing mobile technology in their schools. 

Jeff Kirchick is Director of Universities at SCVNGR, the popular mobile game about going places, doing challenges and earning points. He presents regularly about the future of mobile and location-based services in education. You can follow Jeff on Twitter @JeffreyKirchick or e-mail him at jeff@scvngr.com.

A student's step by step guide to structuring her own personal learning environment. It demands more responsibility from students.

The Personal Learning Network is a concept that has some overlap with the concept of Digital Teaching Platforms.

A Great Primer Article for Ediucators

Conceptual change is aided by model building. Visualizing the relationships between different components of the model using a graphical interface is a powerful technological capability. Powersim is one such tool. Such an iterative model building activity to predict theoretically principled outcomes is stated to be conceptually engaging. There are other tools like Stella and VSim that fall into the same category.

Innovative learning environments are found only in isolated pockets and not widespread - a finding in a conference of educators and researchers from seven different countries in New Zealand. "The recurring theme of Partners in Learning is that schools, even those well equipped with technology, are not providing for a 21st century workforce."

Experimentation Down Under and on "the East Island" (NZ) with tech in the classroom is full steam ahead! That's where I got my feet week.

it is really dramatic the fact that there are still teachers who are using traditional methods . i really do not know while the benefits of technology for education are very clear ,what is the reason for people who insist on not to use it