Learning

由圣迭戈同名公司KidZui提供的这项服务声称它能向儿童们提供50万条与无害网站、图片和视频的链接，被链接的内容涵盖了从流行文化到科学、从搞笑作品和游戏到历史的诸多领域。儿童们通过这项服务可观看《美国偶像》(American Idol)的最新竞逐，了解有关恐龙的知识，探索历史或访问网娃(Webkinz)和企鹅俱乐部(Club Penguin)等知名儿童网站。

这项服务可以对儿童用以上网的电脑进行有选择的设置，以确保儿童不能脱离KidZui通过电脑的标准浏览器上网。父母可以将KidZui设置为电脑启动后自动以全屏模式出现在屏幕上。在这种模式下，KidZui能让那些可使用户转向或启动其他程序的按键、图标、指令和手法自动失效，或将其隐藏。

在这一系统内我可以登录《华尔街日报》的网站，并在站内搜索Spitzer(斯皮策)这个词，屏幕上立即出现了一则关于这位纽约州前州长性丑闻的报导。

Multitasking is part of daily life. But humans remember and learn differently when their attention is divided. Russel Poldrack, a UCLA psychology professor, speaks with Lynn Neary about what occurs in the brain during multitasking.

A little brain boost is something we could all use now and then. A new option may be on the horizon. Researchers at the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke, in Bethesda, MD, are studying how applying gentle electrical current to the scalp can improve learning.

So the shift to public display, a shift to expected social interaction, changed the way the students learned and the effort they put into their education. If that’s not an incentive to experiment with and use social software I don’t know what is. Social software isn’t just a new way to work, it changes the effort we put into that work. Now there is a sound byte for social media consultants.

I put the Illinois Learning Standards and the Synapse side-by-side to suggest that we require students to learn subjects inside of little boxes, while students think about them in highly connected networks. The boxes in the Standards are separated from each other in all sorts of ways: living things are in different boxes than processes of the Earth. Different things about the same subject are spread out over five different grade levels. There seems little chance of having a thought that relates an early box in “A” to a late box in “E.”

Most IQ tests attempt to measure two types of intelligence--crystallized and fluid intelligence. Crystallized intelligence draws on existing skills, knowledge and experiences to solve problems by accessing information from long-term memory. Fluid intelligence, on the other hand, draws on the ability to understand relationships between various concepts, independent of any previous knowledge or skills, to solve new problems. The research shows that this part of intelligence can be improved through memory training.

Cindi Rigsbee, for example, makes sure her students know when text language is appropriate and, more important, when it's not. She talks frequently in class about types of writing, the intended reader, and the evolution of language. At the beginning of each school year, she introduces a discussion about the way English has transformed over time. "We look at Old English, Middle English, and what was contemporary English in the time of Jane Eyre. Then I show them a MySpace page."

During most of the twentieth century, the United States dominated the math field with its output of important mathematicians and its great strides in engineering, science, and finance. But the depth of the country's decline is apparent in some frightening statistics: Less than one-third of eighth-grade students and fewer than one out of four seniors now test as proficient or better for math, according to recent National Assessment of Education Progress reports.

One technology that jump-starts algebraic thinking for middle school students is SimCalc, a program that uses computer-based graphs, animation, symbols, and tables to make difficult concepts, such as mathematical rates of change and accumulation, easier for students to learn.

Finnie's students designed an emergency plan for the home, and an emergency kit. They also created a newspaper, complete with illustrations, that "tells someone who doesn't know anything about earth science all about earthquakes, volcanoes, and plate tectonics how they're all related, and why we have earthquakes." In addition, the students videotaped a five-minute earthquake-safety commercial in the form of a rap song, and victory was theirs.