Chromebooks for education - a KIPP case study

With the introduction of the new iPads (mini and regular sized), Nexus and a whole range of tablets it's easy to start thinking that this is the way that schools must go with education.

However, here's what looks to be a viable (and very cheap!) alternative that requires very little IT support and management; the Chromebook.  Check out this brief case study from a KIPP school in California.

iPad Mini for Education

This is an excellent post from tech.pinions on the potential of the iPad Mini for education.  The post starts:

'I have long been a skeptic about the role of personal computing in education, especially for K-12 schools. Yes, the internet has made a wealth of information accessible to students. But the instructional revolution promised by technology optimists seems to hover forever on the horizon. The tablet—and for now, at least, that really means the iPad for reasons I will get to—could be the tool that finally makes the difference. And the new iPad mini could greatly accelerate the trend'.

To read the post in full, click here.

Learning Mandarin (or anything else) online

It's so easy to set up a means of learning just about anything using an online environment.  To emphasize this point, click here and you will have access to the Mandarin language learning blog that I set up in just a few minutes this morning.

Salman Khan | The One World Schoolhouse: Education Reimagined

This is a fantastic Google Talk Presentation with Salman Khan. 

Homework - How much is too much?

This MP3 from The National Radio 9 to Noon show discusses the issue of homework and how much is too much.

Preparing children for the workforce of the future

This Ted presentation, titled 'Are droids taking our jobs' is worth a look.  The blurb for the 14 minute video is:

'Robots and algorithms are getting good at jobs like building cars, writing articles, translating -- jobs that once required a human. So what will we humans do for work? Andrew McAfee walks through recent labor data to say: We ain't seen nothing yet. But then he steps back to look at big history, and comes up with a surprising and even thrilling view of what comes next'.

One point that the presentation makes very clear; we need to encourage our students of today to be creative and innovative.

Improving education - lessons from the Finnish

I've included You Tube presentations of Pasi Sahlberg sharing information on the success of the Finnish education system on this blog in previous posts.  This podcast (below) is for an interview on the Radio New Zealand Saturday morning show in which Kim Hill interviews Mr Sahlberg on the topic of improving education. 

Thi impact of poverty on education

Have a listen to this podcast to hear Radio New Zealand's education correspondent, John Gerritsen, exploring why poverty is so closely linked in NZ to poor grades.  It doesn't necessarily have an answer to addressing the issue, but it does give you a lot to think about.