Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 11/27/2012
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Can Knewton’s Adaptive Learning Software Personalize Education? | MIT Technology Review
Advertising adapts, shouldn't our learning? The theory behind is great, but perhaps it isn't well implemented yet. I wrote a piece for the New York Times a while back on Adaptive Testing. This piece in the MIT technology review is worth a read. "By carefully logging students’ every action online, a company called Knewton says, it can personalize questions and lessons to help people learn faster. Skeptics say that’s not proven."
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I love and use Evernote - with all of the apps that add into it, it is very useful. I do also know that many schools love Microsoft One Note -one of the best academic offerings of the company. Here's a website about Evernote for Schools with resources for you. Either way, schools moving to 1:1 initiatives need to upgrade their school's notebook to allow for group notetaking and simple sharing as afforded by both of these programs.
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Fascinating read about current cognitive research and lesson plans and information on education reform in the UK, which is being driven largely by the mentioned book in this quote. If you want to look at the research being discussed in the UK, I'd start with this article. "In Why Don’t Students Like School, Willingham says that ‘the most general and useful idea that cognitive psychology can offer teachers’ is to ‘review each lesson plan in terms of what the student is likely to think about’. I could not agree more. Last year I applied this idea to every single lesson I taught, and I apply it now to all the resources I design. It may sound obvious but it was not something I did before I read Willingham, and it absolutely was not something that my teacher training taught me to think about. Students are more likely to remember something they’ve had to think about – or, in another of Willingham’s phrases, memory is the residue of thought. So we need to make sure that students are thinking about the right thing for the whole lesson. That way there is a better chance they will remember it. This approach also eliminates dull rote-learning. If pupils are always thinking about the right thing and thinking about its meaning, then they are more likely to remember it, and to remember it meaningfully."
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Here’s Where You Can Buy the New Kobo eReaders in the US
The Kobo is a new ebook reader on the block by indie book sellers and other small chain stores (I read this weekend that Family Christian Bookstores are going to be selling the device.) The shift to ebooks is going to happen everywhere - my husband and I were wondering just yesterday how long Lifeway is going to publish paper Sunday School books -- it makes more sense to release as a PDF, but then, you're looking at a significant mark up and a whole new model which I think many companies who sell such subscriptions (i.e. weekly reader, local newspapers selling smaller versions for students) aren't ready for.
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TED Curator Chris Anderson On The Conference's Past, Present & Future
I found this interview of Chris Anderson an interesting read about the history of TED. It is hard to believe they started with just 6 videos in 2006. The flops, he acknowledges, are those who are full of ego - and I'd agree. I saw a TEDx where at least half were so full of the fact they were on stage, it made listening to the speeches a bit difficult. So, then, I guess humility would be part of a giving a good talk and I, as a rank and file teacher, find that refreshing.
