The Stories We Tell about Education Technology. 6 min read This post first appeared on Educating Modern Learners Do the stories that we tell about education technology demand we ask more questions? Do they prompt us to rethink what teaching and learning looks like? Or does education technology simply re-inscribe older stories, older practices? And do the stories that we tell about education technology, particularly when those stories are tinged with judgment, shame, and condemnation, foreclose these sorts of reflective opportunities? Education technology is a MacGuffin. The "MacGuffin" was a term popularized by Alfred Hitchcock to describe the suspense techniques in his films. Education technology is a MacGuffin insofar as it's meant to "provoke learning" (or stories about learning); but we err when we expect ed-tech to carry the weight of the whole story. Ed-tech objects do make good MacGuffins.
But the MacGuffin, remember, is just the thing that draws us in. Two Spaces After a Period and Other Red Herrings about Technological Change. Is It Time to Give Up on Computers in Schools? 5 min read This is a version of the talk I gave at ISTE today on a panel titled "Is It Time to Give Up on Computers in Schools? " with Gary Stager, Will Richardson, Martin Levins, David Thornburg, and Wayne D'Orio. It was pretty damn fun. Take one step into that massive shit-show called the Expo Hall and it’s hard not to agree: “yes, it is time to give up on computers in schools.”
Perhaps, once upon a time, we could believe ed-tech would change things. But as Seymour Papert noted in The Children’s Machine, Little by little the subversive features of the computer were eroded away: … the computer was now used to reinforce School’s ways. I think we were naive when we ever thought otherwise. Sure, there are subversive features, but I think the computers also involve neoliberalism, imperialism, libertarianism, and environmental destruction. And then came the network and, again, the mainframe.
What “the network” introduced in educational technology was also a more centralized control of computers. Idea #3: Think Differently About Time. At the end of the school year I met with the administrator who does my evaluation and he/she asked me to think over the summer about some "big ideas" that would be worth discussing that could improve our school. This is the third of an undetermined number of blog posts that will explore some of those ideas. (The first was Eliminate Letter Grades, GPA and Class Rank; the second was Eliminate Curriculum (As We Know It).) Warning - this will be extremely long, somewhat rambly, and very narrative/descriptive. Name of Administrator, In my previous two big ideas I suggested that there were three major areas that needed to be explored: our system/schedule, our curriculum, and our assessment/reporting system.
As we look at a school day at AHS, here is the typical way we think about time. But students' lives - and their bodies and brains - are not limited to the artificial constraints of a system designed to mass educate a population to be successful in a factory-dominated society. Karl. What does this say about us as learners? | Dangerously Irrelevant. Microsoft's HoloLens explained: How it works and why it's different. Has Microsoft suddenly pushed us into the age of "Star Trek" and "Minority Report"?
For those confused about what's actually going on with the company's new head-mounted gadget, here's the rundown. Microsoft has a vision for the future, and it involves terms and technology straight out of science fiction. But are we actually glimpsing the future? Yes and no. Microsoft's HoloLens, which the company unveiled at its Redmond, Wash., headquarters on Wednesday, is a sleek, futuristic headset with transparent lenses. You can see the world around you, but suddenly that world is transformed -- with 3D objects floating in midair, virtual screens on the wall and your living room covered in virtual characters running amok. Technology companies have long promised to bring us the future now, reaching ahead 5 or 10 years to try to amaze consumers with the next big breakthrough. Going further, "The Matrix" showed hackers plugging computers into people's brains to transport them to imaginary cities.
TeachThought sur Twitter : "The Characteristics Of Learning Leaders #21stedchat #education... 4 Characteristics Of Learning Leaders. 4 Characteristics Of A Learning Leader by Stewart Hase, Heutagogy of Community Practice Writing is always a learning experience for me. It forces greater clarity. In addition, the tranquility of the unique Australian bush setting in which I am currently sitting, miles from anywhere, provides a perfect environment for learning. It’s an edited work where lots of people share their experiences of using heutagogy in a variety of contexts.
A number of insightful writers have suggested the skills that people need in order to cope with the 21st century. The skills she has identified are: effective oral and written communication; collaboration across networks; agility and adaptability; grit; resilience; empathy and global stewardship; vision; self-regulation; hope and optimism; curiosity and imagination; initiative and entrepreneurialism; and critical thinking and problem solving.
Some of the implications of self-determined learning are: 4 Characteristics Of Learning Leaders 1. 2. 3. 4. Interactive Learning & Collaborative Learning LMS. Ideacity: Teen Jack Andraka describes 3-cent method to detect cancers. It took a 16-year-old to bring the ideacity crowd to its feet. Maryland high school student Jack Andraka had some 500 conference-goers wildly cheering his novel paper strip sensor that can detect cancer in minutes and for pennies. But they also roared their approval for his ideas on levelling the economic playing field so that all young minds, regardless of wealth or ethnicity, have access to the tools and information they need to move science and medicine forward. Coming from a crowd focused on technology and innovation, that was the kind of praise that could go to a teen’s head.
But not Andraka’s. His IQ may be miles high but his feet are firmly planted on the ground. “That was pretty exciting,” he admitted backstage Friday after his talk. Andraka has been recognized and honoured by, among others, the Smithsonian, Popular Science, U.S. Watch the YouTube videos of his win and you’ll see a gangly wildly enthusiastic youth who insists to all he’s just a typical teen.
The Centre for Social Innovation Annex. The Centre for Social Innovation (CSI) owns and operates a beautiful brick & beam building at 720 Bathurst Street in downtown Toronto. The space is made up of five floors and totals 36,000 square feet. The building is two blocks from the subway line, has plentiful light, and is in close proximity to an array of restaurants and services.
A variety of permanent and part-time workspaces are available! CSI Annex is a dynamic space that's bursting at the seams with creative and entrepreneurial energy. The first floor is a community gathering place, with event spaces, the CSI Coffee Pub, and plenty of unstructured social space to chill-out and connect.
The second and third floors have a vibrant mix of private offices, private desks and Hot Desks (shared desk spaces), hosting an incredible diversity of members in a beautiful and open collaborative environment. Tour & Information Sessions Thinking of getting a workspace at CSI? Tenancy For wheelchair accessibility information, please contact us. Rethinking Scale: Moving Beyond Numbers to Deep and Lasting Change. Cynthia E. Coburn , Assistant Professor + Author Affiliations Abstract The issue of “scale” is a key challenge for school reform, yet it remains undertheorized in the literature.
Article Notes. Charting technology’s new directions: A conversation with MIT’s Erik Brynjolfsson. “We’re finally getting at that seminal moment in human history when we can talk to our machines and our machines will understand us in regular, natural language,” says Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor Erik Brynjolfsson. In this video, he explores the role of big data in business performance, the rise of robotics, and the decoupling of the historical relationship between gains in productivity, incomes, and jobs. He is the coauthor, with MIT research scientist Andrew McAfee, of Race Against the Machine (Digital Frontier Press, October 2011).
This interview was conducted by McKinsey Publishing’s Rik Kirkland. What follows is an edited transcript of Brynjolfsson’s remarks. Interview transcript Technologies to watch We see a slew of amazing innovations already in the pipeline. Andy [Andrew McAfee] and I have done a lot of work on looking at how big data is changing companies. We’ve spent some time looking at different kinds of robotics.
Man and machine Productivity paradox. Disruptive technologies articles and insights. 4. YRDSB DIRECTION.
The Digiital Journey. BYOD in the 21st Century. Blah. 1. Intro. The future of jobs in Canada - Business. Fernando Morales/The Globe and Mail/CP On a recent February evening, Karl Eve received an emergency call from a restaurant owner in Canmore, Alta. The busy eatery had suddenly found itself with no hot water, even though the basement hot water tanks appeared to be working fine. A plumber with 10 years’ experience, Eve eventually traced the problem to a malfunctioning dishwasher and got the hot water flowing again—much to the owner’s relief. It’s the sort of detective work Eve says he loves about his job. He also likes that his plumbing business, which he runs with his wife in nearby Exshaw, provides his family with a comfortable middle-class lifestyle.
Eve’s story is more rare than it should be in Canada. At the same time, the nature of work itself is changing as the country transitions to a so-called knowledge economy that relies on a well-trained and highly educated workforce to produce value-added products and services. Economists call it a skills “mismatch.” Where are all the jobs? MacLean's Jobs Graphic. Technology related job gap. www.pisa.gc.ca/eng/pdf/81-590-E.pdf. www.oecd.org/pisa/46660259. Dig.cit. ICT.
2 Tech Trends. 3. EDTechFuture. Expanded Learning Opportunities. What’s wrong with this picture? The Future of Education - Charting the Course of Teaching and Learning in a Networked World. Elements. April 18, 2014 The Antisocial-Media App A few weeks ago, I was in a café across the street from my house, having just put in an order for the first cappuccino of the day, when a woman walked in with her young son. I recognized him as one of the children who is regularly looked after by the same child minder as my own son. The woman, on the other hand, I had never seen before. April 17, 2014 Little Lies the Internet Told Me Everyone knows about the big Internet scams: the e-mails advertising diet pills, the proposed Nigerian bank transfers.
Take search. The Happiness App On a sunny morning, Ofer Leidner, a co-creator of an app called Happify, sat in a meeting room at the Fueled Collective, in SoHo, where about half of Happify’s staff works in a corner of a large, open-plan space, among some twenty other startup teams. ...Continue Reading >> April 16, 2014 The Amazing Tale of the Cherry Pit from Space Everyone loves a mystery, and if it comes from outer space so much the better. April 15, 2014. Opsbacover. Opsba A Vision For Learning. Ontario Teachers! How Students Learn is Changing. LC Instructor Blended Learning Survey. What Happens In An Internet Minute? Google glasses. Wearable Technology. Pages - YRDSB Inquiry Framework: Three Phases of Inquiry. Inquiry Model YRDSB.
Bridging Our Future, Envisioned by Intel. Future Tense Report. OntarioSnapshop. DigitalLit. Digital Literacy Framework. How to Spot the Future | Wired Business. Photo: Brock Davis Thirty years ago, when John Naisbitt was writing Megatrends, his prescient vision of America’s future, he used a simple yet powerful tool to spot new ideas that were bubbling in the zeitgeist: the newspaper. He didn’t just read it, though.
He took out a ruler and measured it. The more column inches a particular topic earned over time, the more likely it represented an emerging trend. “The collective news hole,” Naisbitt wrote, “becomes a mechanical representation of society sorting out its priorities”—and he used that mechanism to predict the information society, globalism, decentralization, and the rise of networks.
As clever as Naisbitt’s method was, it would never work today. This may sound like a paradox. So how do we spot the future—and how might you? It’s no secret that the best ideas—the ones with the most impact and longevity—are transferable; an innovation in one industry can be exported to transform another. This notion goes way back.