May 2012
1 post
The App is Dead (OK Not Really, But The Browser Is... →
“But with the rise of HTML5, the next generation of the Web’s markup language HTML, the attractiveness and functionality of mobile websites has gotten richer and more interactive. That’s what Schleifer means by “if it can be done on the Web, build it for the Web.” In 2008, it may not have been possible to get the functionality you wanted via a mobile website. But in...
April 2012
5 posts
Robo-Readers Used to Grade Test Essays -... →
“Mr. Perelman takes great pleasure in fooling e-Rater. He has written an essay, then randomly cut a sentence from the middle of each paragraph and has still gotten a 6.”
E2020 Inc. Releases Suite of Common Core Courses -... →
Solving College With Big Data →
“Koller explains that the lecture model was invented out of technological necessity. In the medieval university, the professor read the only copy of the book aloud, and students took notes. That basic format persists today, even though the technological constraints seem absurd in today’s classroom.”
Atari illustrations predicted Wikipedia in 1982 |... →
“It’s amazing how perfectly ordinary these images look today — people working on tablets computers, wireless access to encyclopedias, laptops on airplanes. Stein notes that what they did miss, however, were the social connections associated with that technology (Edit: Which, as noted in the comments, would truly make it Wikipedia). Still, if the point was to imagine the digital,...
Common Core: Nobody said it was going to be easy -... →
“Reading more about his experience, I could identify with his discouragement. However, Mr. Chaffee ultimately attacks the wrong culprit. The problem was with the exemplar, a prepackaged lesson, not the actual standards.”
March 2012
3 posts
Only 7 Percent of Teachers Believe in Standardized... →
“The number of standardized tests students have to take is about to increase, but the according to a national survey from Scholastic and the Gates Foundation, the nation’s teachers overwhelmingly don’t see the high-stakes exams as essential.”
Teacher: One (maddening) day working with the... →
“As we looked through the exemplar, examined a lesson previously created by some of our colleagues, and then began working on our own Core-related lessons, I was struck by how out of sync the Common Core is with what I consider to be good teaching. I have not yet gotten to the “core” of the Core, but I have scratched the surface, and I am not encouraged.”
5 Things I Learned About the Future from Stephen... →
Computers Belong In The Classroom It’s easy to believe that the Internet is destroying our brains. You know, just like the calculator did . Now that answers are constantly, instantaneously available, we don’t have to keep them in our heads anymore. Conventional wisdom tends to assert that this makes us dumber, but Wolfram argues the opposite.
“Education today is based on the...
February 2012
6 posts
Auburn School Department - Latest News →
“During the Fall of 2011, the district provided iPads to half of Auburn’s sixteen kindergarten classrooms. The remaining eight classes used traditional resources. The eight iPad classes were selected at random to provide a better examination of the short term literacy impacts. Auburn kindergartners from both settings completed a series of standardized literacy assessments in early ...
300 Years of Distance Learning [Infographic] |... →
“With the rapid advancement of the Internet, distance learning is becoming more popular, and more accessible, than ever. Even big-name institutions like Harvard are increasing their offerings of online-only instruction.
Distance learning has been around for at least three centuries, as this infographic suggests, from humble beginnings to its modern delivery today.”
Why Common Core standards will fail - The... →
“Our way of thinking about standards has always been wrong, Loveless says. We speak of them as a system of weights and measure, as benchmarks to which schools must adhere. But that’s not it. “Standards in education are best understood as aspirational,” Loveless wrote, ‘and like a strict diet or prudent plan to save money for the future, they represent good intentions that are not often...
Hurdles Remain Before College Classrooms Go... →
“Career academics are not, however, the only ones to blame. A lot of students come to college with backward views of what social media is and what it can accomplish. And most importantly, what is and isn’t acceptable on social media.
And why shouldn’t they? They come from schools where teachers can be reprimanded or even fired for connecting with students on social networks....
Mooresville School District, a Laptop Success... →
“There’s a tendency in teaching to try to control things, like a parent,” said Scott Allen, a high school chemistry teacher in South Granville, N.C. “But I learn best at my own pace, and you have to realize that students learn best at their own pace, too.”
Editorial: Lessons learned -- Laptops in lower... →
“Last year, one of the schools, Melrose Magnet in Los Angeles, saw its Academic Performance Index (API) scores rise an impressive 124 points, to 879. (The highest score of any school in L.A. County last year was 993 at Gretchen Whitney High School in Cerritos.) The elementary school’s Principal Bernadette Lucas attributes Melrose’s rise to the technology program.”
January 2012
7 posts
iTunes U 2.0: Not Perfect, Just Awesome →
“What iTunes U is missing,” argues web commenter Brian Crumley, “is a way to show you the steps needed to master a subject. We can all learn physics 101 but without a simple and easy way to find 102 and beyond it can get frustrating. Also the quality of many of the recorded lectures is not all that good.”
iPads in classroom provide 20 percent jump in math... →
“HMH Fuse: Algebra I was instituted at Amelia Earhart Middle School in the Riverside Unified School District as the world’s first iPad-driven algebra curriculum. According to the HMH official press release, 78 percent of students in the pilot program scored “proficient” or “advanced” on the California Standards Test for spring 2011.”
New Google Accounts Require Gmail and Google →
“If you try to create a Google account, you’ll have a big surprise. Google redesigned the page, but that’s not all: you’ll now have to create a Gmail account, a Google Profile and you’ll automatically join Google.”
Music Lessons on Webcams Grow in Popularity -... →
“Players of niche instruments now have more access to teachers. Parents can simply send their child down the hall for lessons rather than driving them. And teachers now have a new way to build their business.”
The Waterbed Effect in K-12 Education -- THE... →
“But challenges abound here as well. How do we move people from face-to-face to online and encourage online communities of practice? What are some alternative ways, besides seat time, to reward teachers for participating in and applying what is learned in professional development? Is it time to stop treating all teachers in the same way and start differentiating roles and responsibilities...
Tom Vander Ark: How Digital Learning Will Benefit... →
“Digital learning won’t close the achievement gap, but it will lift the floor. More students will be more academically successful. Five years from now, a higher percentage of students will soon graduate from high school ready for college and careers. Most will have benefited from Common Core expectations. Some will have benefited from Race to the Top funded programs. Many will have...
Idaho Teachers Fight a Reliance on Computers -... →
“Last year, the state legislature overwhelmingly passed a law that requires all high school students to take some online classes to graduate, and that the students and their teachers be given laptops or tablets. The idea was to establish Idaho’s schools as a high-tech vanguard.”
December 2011
7 posts
The State of Online Courseware With The UK's Open... →
“I keep saying that if the learning experience of Open University students in 2020 isn’t unrecognizable compared to what we do now, we shall have failed. There’s so much going on that dinosaurs like me can barely keep up and it is going to be an exciting decade to look back on. Content is now truly free and what we have to do is to completely rethink the process of learning, and...
5 incredible ways mobile design will change in the... →
Free Technology for Teachers: YouTube for Schools... →
Online Schools Score Better on Wall Street Than in... →
Instead, a portrait emerges of a company that tries to squeeze profits from public school dollars by raising enrollment, increasing teacher workload and lowering standards.
21st Century learning must use technology... →
“Technology shouldn’t be the driving force, but it also shouldn’t be used to support 20th Century notions of schooling as it is in many of today’s schools. Used well, technology provides the personalization and flexibilities today’s students require.”
Education Week: Experts See Hurdles Ahead for... →
“Even among classrooms with computer and Internet access, state officials agreed there are few brick-and-mortar schools that fully integrate technology into instruction, which may make it harder for students to adapt to taking tests via computer.”
Khan Academy Blends Its YouTube Approach With... →
November 2011
5 posts
One third of Internet customers will use a tablet... →
Free Technology for Teachers: Ten Search Tools and... →
Online High Schools Attracting Elite Names →
Stanford University’s nearly $15,000-a-year Education Program for Gifted Youth will now bear the institution’s name, a move seen as a watershed in a growing field that is drawing scrutiny.
What They Don’t Teach Law Students: Lawyering →
Law schools have long emphasized the theoretical over the useful, leaving law firms fairly resigned to training their hires how to actually practice law.
iPad in Education →
October 2011
7 posts
At Waldorf School in Silicon Valley, Technology... →
Pros And Cons Of iPads In The Classroom - Forbes →
Teacher's iPad Experiment Shows Possibilities for... →
iOS 5 (iPad and iPhone) Google Sites Editing -... →
Free Technology for Teachers: Video Dropper - Send... →
A Classroom Software Boom, but Mixed Results... →
September 2011
1 post
August 2011
6 posts
What Makes Educational Technology Successful in... →
Flubaroo Overview - Welcome to Flubaroo →
Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind: An Excellent... →
July 2011
1 post
This week in Docs: New features for your Google... →
June 2011
5 posts
Official Google Blog: The J. Paul Getty Museum... →