News Corp's unveiling of its tablet for schools at SxSWedu in Austin this week was definitely a sign of the times. Its 10" Amplify tablet, which runs on the Android operating system, will cost K-12 schools $299 and come complete not only with curriculum but also training and customer care, the New York Times reports. It's the project of Joel Klein, the former chancellor of New York City schools, … [Read more...] about High expectations tablets will be huge in K-12 schools
School & Tech
Learning life, communication & app development all at once
One of the most interesting comments I heard in the "Making Apps with Youth" session here at the SxSW EDU conference was from Kurt Collins, tech strategist and lead developer at Youth Radio in Oakland (he also started a nonprofit called the Hidden Geniuses Project aimed at "teaching young black men how to code"). Kurt said that "the liberal arts matter. The problems we run into [in the app … [Read more...] about Learning life, communication & app development all at once
Connected learning reality check from the UK & US
By the sound of it, there are significant barriers to connected learning in UK schools too – maybe bigger ones. I'm referring to hurdles pointed out by Sonia Livingstone at the London School of Economics in a presentation she gave for the Connected Learning Research Network about "The Class," her ethnographic study of the connected lives of British middle-schoolers. For the past year, Sonia and … [Read more...] about Connected learning reality check from the UK & US
App developed by a 7-year-old at school
Talk about authentic learning! A first-grader not only gets to learn how to develop a cellphone app, she creates her own game, presents it a showcase event at a nearby university and then – when it's insinuated that maybe her older brother helped her – she reconfigures her code on the spot, demonstrating she's a master of the Bootstrap programming language. The 7-year-old in question (literally) … [Read more...] about App developed by a 7-year-old at school
Making Digital Learning Day meaningful
"Powered up, self-directed students" using digital tools "to lead their learning" is how Leslie Wilson, CEO of the One to One Institute describes what Digital Learning Day (today, Feb. 6) needs to be about in her commentary "Connected Students and Agency." It's that blend of agency (self-directed participation or action) and connected technology that New York Times columnist Tom Friedman says has … [Read more...] about Making Digital Learning Day meaningful