What's the goal, the one unifying everything that we need from technology? It's really quite simple... One device with ubiquitous access to information via the internet.

That's all we need. Paper, gone. Books, gone.

Assessment is one of the key components of technology in education.

starting today, you can add any URL -- even if it's not an RSS feed, and even if the site itself doesn't publish an RSS feed.

This is great news for people who use Google Reader, and a real incentive for those who don't to start.

As you can see the expected reward had decreased the amount of spontaneous interest the children took in drawing (and there was no statistically significant difference between the no reward and surprise reward group). So, those who had previously liked drawing were less motivated once they expected to be rewarded for the activity. In fact the expected reward reduced the amount of spontaneous drawing the children did by half. Not only this, but judges rated the pictures drawn by the children expecting a reward as less aesthetically pleasing.

Rewards reduce intrinsic motivation

In one study smokers who were rewarded for their efforts to quit did better at first but after three months fared worse than those given no rewards and no feedback (Curry et al., 1990). Indeed those given rewards even lied more about the amount they were smoking.