HGSET561

Interesting description of what is going on right now with advances in haptic technology

Great website that guides children through computer programming using Java in a really easy step by step way.

Dr. Lawrence Summers, former President of Harvard, tauts the role of technology in educaiton in NYTimes' "Schools for Tomorrow" conference. #HGSET561

Ed Tech 2012 event in Philadelphia - Oct 4 2011

Videos from "School for Tomorrow, Bringing Technology to the Classroom", NYC, Conference. #HGSET561

Integrating technology into teaching and learning at CPUT

#HGSET561 Integrating technology into teaching and learning at CPUT

The documentary asks a question the education reform movement seems to neglect: Why flood American schools with young, highly educated teachers if the good ones cannot afford to stay?

Interesting follow up to a previous post about open-source learning management systems (LMSs), the most popular of which is Moodle. Hawaii's Virtual Learning Network has decided to scrap Moodle and go with Blackboard, a commercial LMS. Moodle's really losing its lustre...

How young is TOO young to get technology in front of children? Baby Einstein DVDs are used as early as a few weeks old to "babysit" (entertain, soothe, and occupy) a baby - is the tablet just the newest "babysitter" on the market?

That's WAY too young to "babysit". We have been learning in Joe's class this week that parents using media as a means of parental substitution can have deleterious effects on a child's emotional development and ability to internalize good media messages and reject dangerous media messages. Giving babies tablets when they are that young reeks of lazy parenting, in my opinion. Unless the tablet becomes that "Transitional Object" that we are reading about in Turkle/Resnick's class....Gotta love when all of the class readings converge into similar ideas!

MOOCs, or "Massive Open Online Courses", are a relatively new model of distance e-learning where hundreds and sometimes thousands of participants all take an online course together. The instructional mode of the courses is fairly decentralized; since there are so many participants in the course, the individual students cannot typically expect to have much individual interaction with the professors running the course. As a result, individual members of the MOOCs take on roles of peer teachers, and these roles are assumed organically (i.e. nobody invites them to become teachers in the course, they simply step up and take the reins). The assessment of MOOCs is extremely flexible; there are no grades and people only participate in what they want to participate in. The theory is that the MOOC creators put the learning environment into place, and the participants learn what they want to learn; less participation simply means that they will not learn as much. Thought this was a though-provoking model of eLearning and the changing role of the instructor in an eLearning environment.

Here is an entertaining talk about how everyday objects can be used for science education. We are all aware / starting to better appreciate that "it definitely ain't about the technology", but what conceptual understanding the technology can effect. Personally, I see two advantages of such low cost technologies: 1. They increase access to interesting learning materials for all - quickly. 2. They can serve as the kernels of ideas for influencing emerging technologies. ( Like in out class discussion : models are still expensive but they can guide / inspie Do share your thoughts.

This link is taken from a blog about technology in education. From the video, it definitely appears to me that the children are engaged in their work. I have heard of the company valve and their physics game portal. If any of you have personal experience in this domain , please share.

"A continually improving collection of questions and answers created, edited, and organized by everyone who uses it."

#HGSET561 A continually improving collection of questions and answers created, edited, and organized by everyone who uses it.

Twitter founder Biz Stone talks about his foundation which focuses on education and conservation.

I was struck by the city government question. Seems to be a parallel of how the government can interact with the people they represent using technology and how teachers can interact with their students using technology. (People centered government and student-centered learning.)

The best way to study languages, vocabulary, or almost anything P.S. It's fun, it's free, and you can share with friends!

#HGSET561 A great way to study languages, vocubulary, or almost anything. Attended the founder speak at MIT Bootcamp. http://quizlet.com/

While I haven't had a chance to watch the videos yet, I'm interested to see what ideas were discussed at this conference that aimed "to harness the power of technology to improve the learning experience."

A look at 10 upcoming education-related startups!