The Future of Podcasting Is Educational
James McWilliams, Pacific Standard, 2018/09/14
Now we need to understand that the headline does not mean that 'the future of education is podcasts'. Though really valuable, podcasts play a niche role in the wider educational ecosystem. Having said that, education is definitely a primary application for podcast. More...
Is Scientific American a Trustworthy Periodical?
Justin Weinberg, Daily Nous, 2018/09/14
If Scientific American is publishing really low-quality articles on things we know about, asks the author, how trustworthy is its reporting on other subjects. And 'low-quality' isn't really a judgement call here: " imagine an article on football in which the author uses “touchdown” to refer to a kind of tackle, or wonders how a “field goal” is possible since the crossbar of the goal is not on the field but 10 feet above it, and you’ll get the idea of what has been going on." I don't tknow how (or whether it's even relevant) to judge Scientific American as a whole. More...
Can Cats Read Minds?
Ali Boyle, iAi News, 2018/09/11
I've thought a lot about the mental states. In the current case, we're not asking whether cats have ESP. Rather, if a cat does something, is it because the cat thinks we're thinking something, or is it simply reacting to behaviour. This article raises what is called 'the logical problem', because we can't change the evidence for our thinking something without also changing our behaviour. But it becomes odd and hard to explain a cat's actions without assuming they know what we're thinking. More...
From Weird to Wired": MPs, the Internet and Representative Politics in the UK
If elected representatives only used the internet, one might suppose, then they would see the benefit of online activities. But do members use the internet? This study is a fascinating exploration of the websites offered by British Members of Parliament. More...
FDA Approves Trial of Brain Implants
I get so tired of having to hit the keys on my keyboard; I want one of these. Also, it would be nice to have a place to store my memories. More...
The Future of Work: An 'Apprentice'-style Office?
This is something I have been advocating as long as I have been advocating things: "Democracy and freedom are coming to business." My view is that a nation is not democratic unless its institutions are demcratic, and these institutions include businesses and institutions (which are currently run as dictatorships or fiefdoms). More...
Tipping Point: From Feckless Reform to Substantive Instructional Improvement
I really liked this paper, which is in essence a condemnation of centralized (and frequently top-down) 'strategic planning' and 'school reform'. The author notes that there is widespread recognition that this sort of process fails, and that a more distributed type of short-term programs and learning communities does more to promote learning. More...
National Parks as Classrooms
I don't emphasize this as much as I should - online learning will succeed when it gets students out of the classroom and into the communities about which we are trying to teach them. In this regard, programs such as the National Parks Program play an increasingly significant role, as students, supported by mobile e-learning, get out into the forest to study the trees. More...
Une école et son cybercarnet
Or, a school and its blog. This post, in French, announces the new blog system for the Centre d'Apprentissage du Haut-Madawaska. Accessible here, the project is the result, in part, of work by the NRC's Seb Paquet and Todd Bingham. More...
Be Afraid - Very Afraid! Be Excited - Very excited!
Do you use web tools at home because they won't work through the school firewall? Do you spurn the corporate LMS, opting to work with open source instead? Do you turn your back on pre-structured content, allowing your students to build their own learning? Do you play with mobile learning technology? If you do, then you're disruptive, and your innovation is described and celebrated in this useful article. More...
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