HGSET561

Interactive insights drawn from neuroscience not only provide educators with a scientific basis for understanding some of the best practices in teaching, but also offer a new lens through which to look at the problems teachers grapple with every day. By gaining insights into how the brain works-and how students actually learn-teachers will be able to create their own solutions to the classroom challenges they face and improve their practice

More info on their PD (coaching service requires additional $), also details on their plan to expand audience (to 5th, 6th grader) and regions (france, singapore and korea)

Before he publishes the actual 2012 review, is reflecting on what he wrote one year ago. (the ten things he highlighted last year was the ipad, social media, text-messaging, data, the digital library, khan academy, STEM, higher education bubble, "open", the business of ed-tech) Personally interested in programming literacy part that is expected to be mentioned. Also like the questions presented at the end. 

video on Time To Know platform

A good demo of the DTP user interface and classroom engagement.

Interesting perspectives from some really creative people, who managed to create despite immense challenges.

simSchool is a classroom simulation that supports the rapid accumulation of a teacher's experience in analyzing student differences, adapting instruction to individual learner needs, gathering data about the impacts of instruction, and seeing the results of their teaching. It's a virtual learning environment where instructors can explore instructional strategies, examine classroom management techniques, and practice building relationships with students that will translate into increased learning.

Thoughtful post about technology integration for tablets

Yes, very interesting indeed. We've discussed a lot about the lack of professional development for implementation of iPads in the classroom, but not too much about the SAMR model (substitution, augmentation, modification, redefinition), developed by Ruben R. Puentendura. He is spot on in saying "For technology to be truly innovative and impactful on students, we must get to the stage of Redefinition, in which we use technology to create and perform tasks that - prior to the existence of the technology - were inconceivable" I think this is going to be tough to overcome with the iPad. Schools are so caught up in their fad. It seems as though it's hard for anyone, even smart creative people, to use their ipads in truly creative, richer, deeper, redefining ways.

Thank you for sharing this post Prof Chris. I agree that we cannot 'throw the iPad in, mix and stir' to develop a new program. However, where I disagree with the approach is that it does not start with the learner. The author began with pedagogy and then technology, but I feel that there should be learning theory first and then pedagogy and technology to support both.

Interesting Forbes article about Sal Khan's journey. Mentions his recently published book "The One World Schoolhouse".  Highlights of his views reported in the article: "Khan would like to re-create the once common mixed-age classrooms that he believes encourage older kids to take responsibility for younger ones. He wants multiteacher classrooms to provide students with different perspectives. He would abolish summer vacation.... And he would eliminate letter grades altogether, preferring a more qualitative approach to assessment..."

Thanks for sharing Malik. Sal has done some nice work, and I'm wondering whether his mode of instruction can be used in other subject areas especially the arts and music. I'm guessing that it can, but his assessment mode would need to change from MCQs to something more qualitative.

"The danger is that the technology of the 21st century is being applied using teaching methods of the 20th,"

1) Remote live proctoring 2) Remote web proctoring 3) Browser lockdowns 4) Keystroke pattern recognition software 5) Plagiarism detection software

From the UK, but in keeping with a theme we have often explored: the way the teacher uses the technology has much to do with its effectiveness.  

This is a website created by Burlington High School students that are taking a class called Help Desk. In the class they run a help desk to help teachers learn and integrate current technology into classrooms. This was administration's response at Burlington to teachers needing support in incorporating web 2.0 tools into curriculum when they started a one to one device system.

Badge Website accompanying article I just tagged.

This article introduces an online resource for giving and earning badges. It addresses the debate surrounding earning badges in education.

Semester Online is a MOOC consortium intending to compete with edX

We had a discussion in class a month back or so about standards and international performance versus U.S. One of the talking points was, what can the U.S. learn from other countries (or more appropriate, what is the U.S. willing to learn from other countries). Some people mentioned that the U.S. tends to show an aversion to learning from other countries, but this article notes that the Common Core State Standards is actually based on best practices from other leading countries like Singapore, China, and Finland. So maybe we're not as stubborn as we seem...

I think it's curious that you're having universities like Antioch and others that are including MOOC courses as for credit options without any kind of evaluation or data on the actual efficacy of MOOCs, let alone specific classes.

My understanding of the pilot program is that students will still have faculty-led components, though, so it's not purely MOOC. It's more like a blended-learning environment that uses the MOOC as the digital part. So the students will have Antioch exams and homework sets, discussions, etc. If they are satisfied with the efficacy after the pilot, then they will expand the model.