Greenhaus Education and Other "Effects"

Today is October 21, 2015 and Marty McFly is set to arrive this evening, so of course, a post about the technology that actually exists today compared to what the movie predicted is in order! Someone else has done all the work for me and gone through 22 things that the movie got both right and wrong - I will let you check that out on your own. Here's a movie trailer clip that shows the some of the "things" of the future:  What I find amazing to consider is that the writers/creators of the movie were making predictions about a future 25 years down the road in a time, 1989, where none of this technology existed.   Heck - the World Wide Web was just being born in 1989. And yet now, 25 years later, some of their predictions are in fact a reality. We have 3D TVs & movies, we have Google Glasses, digital cameras, tablets, talking computers who can do things for us (Siri), and while we don't have flying cars, we do have electric cars. It's like Star Trek t...

I found this very interesting TED talk this morning by Daphne Koller from Stanford University. She speaks about the power of online learning to reach thousands of people who otherwise do not have access to education opportunities, as well as the capabilities of the online learning environment. Coursera is the social entrepreneurship company she helped develop that works with the universities to sponsor the courses she is referencing. Koller gives a great argument for using technology to not only reach more students, but provide personalized curriculum and feedback and expand the creativity and thinking of students via the online environment. Online learning can bring active learning and formative assessment and ignite student creativity and learning rather than just giving them information.  Her approach is that universities should be providing this content free so that anyone can change their lives, expand their minds, and make the world a better place. While listening to her, ...

UPDATE T O POST 2/19/12:  Michael O'hara's talk can be viewed at http://bit.ly/w7nQcS or via iTunes http://bit.ly/LWFiTunes    Thanks Graham Brown-Martin for the updated links!) It's been a few weeks since I attended the Learning Without Frontiers conference in Olympia, UK.  I wrote a previous reflection piece on Noam Chomsky' s talk right after I returned.  I was revisiting my notes on other speakers and re-watching some of the talks at the LWF website trying to come up with my blog post for the day.  In my notes, the one that stuck out as relevant to me this week was Michael O'hara's talk about the mobile industry and education called " Learning While Mobile ".  Imagine my disappointment when I went to re-watch the talk to find that it had been blocked due to potential copyright issues, apparently because of some materials mentioned in his talk.  Sigh. I have decided to still focus on O'hara's talk, even though I can't share the vi...

I thought it would be fun to post several math-related Ignite videos from events my company has sponsored in the past year as a way to inspire some thought and spark some creativity around math and how we teach it. I must admit to being a little brain dead and suffering a lack of thoughts for posting.  I have been writing 5-6 hours every day for my literature review and, while I realize I should be posting to my blog, I find I don't have the energy, so I am going to take the easy way out and let others do the talking for me! For those of you unfamiliar with Ignite, these are 5-minute presentations where the speakers have 20 slides that auto-advance every 15 seconds.  I have chosen just a few of my favorites here, but if you are interested in looking at more, you can find them at Key Curriculum Press Ignite. Here are several for your enjoyment (in no particular order). Some inspiring, some funny, but all thought provoking and things we should consider as we begin 2012. ...

Clearly, the loss of Steve Jobs has many people wondering where are the next innovative technology ideas going to come from, what's going to happen to Apple, who is the NEXT Steve Jobs?  There are articles galore on Jobs impact, so I was not surprised to run across one connecting Steve Jobs to education entitled " If we don't let our children play, who will be the next Steve Jobs?" by Darell Hammond . I really loved the idea of this article - that schools need to let kids PLAY in order to foster their creativity, curiosity, and imagination.  It's something we have lost with the emphasis on standardized testing and assessment.  Time is short in schools, so the play (i.e. recess, music, art, etc.) is being eliminated for more time spent on practicing, testing, reviewing, and memorizing.  Check out the article - there are some great anecdotes  from Steve Jobs about the value of playing and creating.  The message here - let kids get out there, play, tinker, ...