CNN video: Kindergartners getting iPads Years ago, I followed closely the Maine schools 1-to-1 laptop project. I found it interesting on multiple levels, but also I was skeptical for several reasons. Not that I wasn’t in favor of laptops in the classroom or one-to-one initiatives, but for more because of ratios. Concerns of cost/benefit and training/outcomes [...]
Astoria High School in Astoria, Oregon just became an experiment in the future of student computing. The tech company Google just put an experimental laptop into the hands every one of the school’s 700 students. Beyond the usual one-to-one initiative is the fact that the particular laptop, named the Cr-48, is not a regular laptop, but more a cross between a laptop and a mobile internet device.
In the video above, a third grader gets to use a rather striking example of 21st century technology to talk about some common topics in science, namely earthquakes and volcanoes. As was mentioned in this blog before, back at the 2009 National Science Teachers Association’s national conference, Arne Duncan mentioned in his keynote that, “You [...]
Here’s a taste of NSTA San Fran. More on this later, but many of the tech tools are open-ended allowing for student/teacher defined uses. Overall, the future looks like a fun place to teach!
“To know the road ahead, ask those coming back.” —Chinese Proverb A team of science educators has developed a new NSTA position statement acknowledging the value of 21st-century skills within the context of science education (available here). The statement advocates for the science education community to support 21st-century skills consistent with best practices across a science [...]
I’ve never felt inferior because I use a calculator, nor when I supplement my travel memory with a digital camera. Or even when I ignore the myriad of squiggly red lines underlining the words as I type this. My GPS guides me. My calendar beeps when its time. And my music plays whether I’m listening [...]
It’s amazing how we put such faith into a computer where we risk national-make that global scrutiny as it preforms tasks autonomously that carry immense scientific and philosophical weight. Let’s listen in for a moment… [Watson] I’ll take Valentine’s Day Computers for $1000. [Alex] The computer in question, sports a RAD6000 central processing 32-bit unit [...]
The other night, I could hear my daughter in her room talking; well more like explaining what sounded like schoolwork. Rather than opening the door, I assumed she was recording her voice on her iPod, something she had done for years. This was understandable because not 15 minutes earlier I had pulled the plug on [...]
Once again, a late evening was spent on earth science worksheets. This time, however, it was not memorizing terms that presented the challenge, but rather something that caused great consternation in science in general leading up to a discovery that happened in my lifetime. (reference: http://scign.jpl.nasa.gov/learn/plate2.htm ) My daughter was trying to stuff the mechanics [...]
There is an old physics joke about a professor who gave a test that included a question that required to the student to explain how to measure the height of a tall building using a barometer. In essence, the punch line is found in a humorous exchange where a divergent thinking student butts heads with [...]
