HGSET561

Schools need edtech staff to provide "intensive, on-the-ground support" to "unite tools and training in a way that renders the marriage of technology and education feasible"

Interesting graphic on video games and ed; purports kids who learned by playing an ed game improved their standardized test scores by 50% (no reference however)

NY City touting 5 public schools' adoption of School of One curricula in Race to Top application, but the schools' assessment scores show mixed results so far.

Georgetown University has been accepted by the leadership of EdX : "The addition of Georgetown to edX, which officials plan to announce Monday, marks the latest development in a fast-growing movement that aspires to connect the ivory tower to the world."

Article on how the government and philanthropies can support innovation in education.

What's the big barrier (besides government reluctance to spend money on education) to this? Historically, I thought that education funding was left to states as "states rights", hence the fact that the Federal government has even put up any money should be a step forward. I would be interested in hearing what people think are the levers for getting the Federal government to invest more...should education research be treated like NSF or NIH "basic research" and get core government support?

I believe that the federal government used to spend more dollars for basic research in education, but that number has been reduced dramatically over the years. I agree 100% that we need to increase this type of investment, and the federal government is the natural source. These social innovation funds are a separate type of investment, distinct from basic research. These grants are "translational" in that they seek to help commercialize promising research, but are not intended to fund the basic research. For a healthy and dynamic ecosystem of innovation in education, we need both.

Hi Douglas, thanks for sharing this. I went to the Globaloria link on the site and some of the games made by the children are amazing! This is a nice testament to learning by building.

A fascinating talk on the barriers broken by this new biotechnology. Personalized medicine could be coming our way soon...I wonder how this would transform the teaching of biology in school too.

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.

How the web is changing the lives of people after they die. This is not depressing! I actually think it's quite interesting, and certainly now a part of "life after death." A friend of mine with over 2000 FB friends passed away last summer and I still see his page ranked highly on mine almost daily. Admittedly, it's odd, but it's also a nice reminder of him.

Using mobile technology as a tool for financial support... could this be geared toward education? (Has it been?)

Fantastically simple interface! It doesn't appear as though any funding is going to education, but more to households. But if this takes off, it would be great if the leaders of this non-profit lead school building initiatives, or other types of education initiatives.

Berkman Center Video on the implications of integrating digital technologies into traditionally analog worlds in nature. How can they help and how can they distract?

Many students are interested in STEM (suprisingly high) and also use their mobile devices to complete homework, but unfortunately not nearly as many in school (6%). It also seems that mobile device usage in school strongly correlates with those who are also interested in STEM fields.

I had heard of Google Sky Map but the rest of these were new to me

Using Minecraft inside and outside the classroom to inspire and explore engineering ideas.

Lessons learned from Cisco's experience indicate that business-education partnerships should: * Be set up so that all aspects of the project are transparent to outsiders, even if corporations profit from the R&D * Foster experimentation, because it is not always clear in advance which ideas and projects will work best * Establish in-depth training for every new technology, with businesspeople and educators learning from each other

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.

Augmented Reality sandbox museum display

3D printers making innovative toys possible