On the apparent horrors of requiring high school students to take chemistry. | Doing Good Science There’s a guest post on the Washington Post “Answer Sheet” blog by David Bernstein entitled “Why are you forcing my son to take chemistry?” in which the author argues against his 15-year-old son’s school’s requirement that all its students take a year of chemistry. Derek Lowe provides a concise summary of the gist: My son will not be a chemist. Bernstein’s post is a slurry of claims about chemistry, secondary education, and the goals of education more generally with respect to human flourishing — in other words, the kind of thing I need to take apart for close examination before responding. So, that’s what I’m going to do here. Let’s start with Bernstein’s account of the dawning of the horror: I discovered that my 15-year-old son must suffer through a year of chemistry because a “Committee of Ten” academics was assembled in 1892 in order to standardize the curriculum (how’s that for a bad idea?) [M]y son is not going to be a scientist. Mr. There’s quite a bit to unpack in this response.
Gamine Expedition Technology Is Changing How Students Learn, Teachers Say Nancy Palmieri for The New York Times Lisa Baldwin, a chemistry teacher, works with her students to fight through academic challenges. Monica Almeida/The New York Times Hope Molina-Porter, an English teacher in Fullerton, Calif., worries that technology is deeply altering how students learn. The researchers note that their findings represent the subjective views of teachers and should not be seen as definitive proof that widespread use of computers, phones and video games affects students’ capability to focus. Even so, the researchers who performed the studies, as well as scholars who study technology’s impact on behavior and the brain, say the studies are significant because of the vantage points of teachers, who spend hours a day observing students. The timing of the studies, from two well-regarded research organizations, appears to be coincidental. One was conducted by the Pew Internet Project, a division of the that focuses on technology-related research. “I’m an entertainer.
The Magazine - The Siege of Academe September/October 2012The Siege of Academe For years, Silicon Valley has failed to breach the walls of higher education with disruptive technology. But the tide of battle is changing. A report from the front lines. By Kevin Carey It’s three o’clock in the afternoon on Easter, and I’m standing on a wooden deck in the Corona Heights neighborhood of San Francisco, looking out toward Nob Hill. Some of them are the kinds of hackers a college dean could love: folks who have come up with ingenious but polite ways to make campus life work better. But many of the people here are engaged in business pursuits far more revolutionary in their intentions. Last August, Marc Andreessen, the man whose Netscape Web browser ignited the original dot-com boom and who is now one of Silicon Valley’s most influential venture capitalists, wrote a much-discussed op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. This hype has happened before, of course.
Projects The educational graphic adventure game we produced for The Centre for Skills Development & Training, Summer in Smallywood, has gone mobile! Now you can work at Canada’s most lacklustre amusement park while learning about essential workplace skills, all on a device that fits in your pocket! (provided you have a very big pocket). The iPad release of Summer in Smallywood was developed with Adobe AIR, from the all-new “talkie” web version that launched weeks earlier at summerinsmallywood.ca. Smallywood is powered by UGAGS, the Untold Graphic Adventure Game System, which runs our most popular and anticipated adventure games, including Sissy’s Magical Ponycorn Adventure and the upcoming Spellirium. TVOntario asked us to execute their concept for a game for early elementary school-aged children to help them follow instructions, and to learn certain art terminology (colour, texture, shade/value). Give us a call and tell us about your next project!
The 35 Best Web 2.0 Classroom Tools Chosen By You 100 Web 2.0 Tools Every Teacher Should Know About 44.24K Views 0 Likes We're always trying to figure out the best tools for teachers, trends in the education technology industry, and generally doing our darnedest to bring you new and exciting ways to enhance the classroom. But I wanted t... 20 Free and Fun Ways To Curate Web Content 23.98K Views 0 Likes What's the best way to organize it all into at least some reasonable manner? It’s Time To Crowdsource Your School’s Social Media Policy 12.53K Views 0 Likes Every school has a different policy when it comes to social media. The Watchers What Is Science? From Feynman to Sagan to Curie, an Omnibus of Definitions by Maria Popova “The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious — the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science.” “We live in a society absolutely dependent on science and technology,” Carl Sagan famously quipped in 1994, “and yet have cleverly arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. That’s a clear prescription for disaster.” Little seems to have changed in the nearly two decades since, and although the government is now actively encouraging “citizen science,” for many “citizens” the understanding of — let alone any agreement about — what science is and does remains meager. So, what exactly is science, what does it aspire to do, and why should we the people care? Stuart Firestein writes in the excellent Ignorance: How It Drives Science: Real science is a revision in progress, always. Science does not purvey absolute truth, science is a mechanism. Carl Sagan echoed the same sentiment when he remarked: Later:
melanie mcbride.net Appealing Apps for Educators: Workflow Apps to Manage Student Work - iPhone app article - Jennie Magiera Many educators are realizing that the most powerful apps are those that allow for student creation. Some apps, for example Pages, Explain Everything and Popplet, push students to demonstrate, apply and synthesize their learning. However, the question quickly becomes: How do the students turn in these digital work products? Google Drive and Chrome (Free) Many schools and districts have embraced Google Apps for Education, or GAFE. Compatible creation apps: Google Chrome (documents and spreadsheets) or Google Drive (documents) Dropbox (Free) Dropbox is a mainstay for many individuals who use cloud storage. Compatible creation apps: Any that allow for “share via Dropbox” or “share via email” (for example: PaperPort Notes, Popplet, Comic Life, Pages, Keynote, Numbers, etc.) Showbie (Free) This little app can be viewed as Dropbox, education style. eBackpack ($99/teacher) The most robust of these options, eBackpack is more of a learning management system than a workflow app.
edgelab.ryerson