The app in the video above shows how augmented reality can help give you the answers to a Soduko quiz in your local newspaper. You can also ask it just to give you a hint. Now, imagine that this device, primed for heating, were constrained to solely giving you the interesting question, the clue or hint. We begin to see how augmented reality contributes towards Dan's mantra of "be less helpful" to make learning better.
Can you imagine holding the app over a French language text or physics problem and getting that little contextual nudge that great teachers have always offered? What would that free the teacher up to do? How could it add to the learning experience in homes where parents take less of an interest in (the learning of) their children?
Tip of the hat to my favourite polymath, Noah Brier.
The old reason for banning mobile phones and the use of 'always on' internet-enabled devices in schools was that children 'cheated'. We're beginning in some places to see over the top of that particular mountain, but how about this for a contentious question: should we allow smartphones and internet-enabled computers into examinations?
I'd argue it's worth thinking about. I was a French and German teacher, subjects which, when I was at school, did not allow the use of a dictionary in the examination. For some time now, students have been able to use dictionaries, something that tends to bring lower results to students who have not been taught well in specific dictionary and reading skills.
If we were to teach students how to effectively use the web, search, social search and shared bookmarking techniques within a pressure environment, in much the same way as we've done for decades in languages and dictionary tuition, what would we be left with?
My guess is that many educators and examination bodies would still not be happy, since too many of the answers sought could be machine programmable or searchable.
So, we need to change the way we ask questions, we need to change the way we test and assess. The remaining question is therefore: how?
Well, in a lovely example or two of truly higher order thinking, analytical and creative thinking, Bill Boyd mentioned two things.
First Dan Meyer's talk on how we should teach mathematics to be "less helpful", and construct a creative rub against which students can learn. His talk is a superb 20 minutes for any teacher:
But further still, and totally new for me, is the concept of Fermi Questions. These are questions named after the Nobel Prize-winning Italian physicist Enrico Fermi, who was well known for solving problems which left others baffled. There is no searchable answer, and no one way of answering them. They are the true meaning of "there is no right way to answer this".
Update: Had they not already written a blog post which is now Googleable, I'd have said that finding out how to play the world's shortest possible game of Monopoly would make a great Fermi question. But they did, and it is, so it's not.
Bing have offered up some lovely 'sketchy' maps as part of their Destination Maps project. Seemingly covering just the US for the moment, these maps reduce the complexity of a city grid or LA sprawl into a back-of-the-napkin sketch outlining the main routes and turns.
I think these would be great for students (or playful adults) wanting to make pirate treasure maps, 'olde worlde' effect documents or simplified materials for prospective elementary students coming to high school etc etc... If we ever get formalities sorted out (it seems some days like a real uphill struggle) this would be an ace way to map out the BeCuriousTour.
I smile at the juxtaposition between these sketches and the complexity of the 3D-scapes of Bing Maps, the ability to map inside buildings and see user generated photo content and live in-map video streams that Blaise Aguera y Arcas demo-ed at TED earlier this year, below.
edinburghmsc: via @speedysnail: (via @timbuckteeth) Second Life’s greatest asset, and how it was squandered http://www.sonic.net/~rknop/blog/?p=272
edinburghmsc: via @speedysnail: fleep (via @timbuckteeth) Second Life’s greatest asset, and how it was squandered http://www.sonic.net/~rknop/blog/?p=
edinburghmsc: via @jar: Profile of @sbayne talking about online teaching and what sparks her creativity as a teacher. http://bit.ly/dbOqKS
edinburghmsc: via @speedysnail: 5 Issues That Will Shape the Internet's Future http://bit.ly/cONXtt (via @copyrightgirl)
edinburghmsc: via @flittleton: Call for research participation for UoE staff/students into online experiences of using UoE library: https://www.survey.ed.
edinburghmsc: via @sbayne: PhD studentships in e-learning (in English) at Universitat Oberta deCatalunya in Barcelonahttp://bit.ly/ctOcWk
Strategy is putting a vision into practice, so "practical strategy" is an aphorism if ever there were one. But so few education strategies actually lead to the intended outcome on the ground, and the series of blog posts and audio discussions I'm facilitating on the GETinsight platform is intended to help school leaders become better translators of vision into action.
So far I've done three blog posts with two of our live webchat discussions now live to hear back. As more get published, I'll update and repost this blog entry to keep you up-to-date:
Next week will be a follow-on from Open Professional Development, where we look at how to crowdsource policy and planning. If you have any ideas, examples or contributions you'd like to make to the blog post, please feel free to add them as a comment here or send an email.
Pic from Dave.
I'm reading Scott Belsky at the moment. One phrase strikes me on page 188 of the US edition. I've worked on a couple of these types of projects. What about you?
"Consensus-driven teams run the risk of settling on what offends noone and what satisfies noone."
I sometimes get told that I've 'shaken things up again'. I'd almost rather be doing that than satisfying noone.
Pic from Ian Usher
I'm using my regular monthly webchat on GETinsight to talk about how teachers and school leaders can create more informal, more worthwhile forms of professional development along the TeachMeet model. It starts on Wednesday, May 26 - 12:00 p.m PST, 3:00 p.m. EST, 8:00 p.m. British Summer Time.
Given the post yesterday from many of those who have hosted them in the past, discussing how we meet some of the challenges in getting things off the ground for a TeachMeet (including the pain of teachers having to invent headed notepaper to pay for venues or refreshments), the platform will be an ideal one to take some of the discussion off Twitter and into some live chat and discussion, talking about how formal things need to get in terms of pulling an event together, the tricky elements and the parts that work best left to local groups.
If you want to learn more about the background of TeachMeet there's a great article written by Iain from the GTCS magazine.
The 45 minute format will be:
If you can join us it would be great. Sign up a little bit in advance and make sure you're near a phone and computer at the time of the event. Wednesday, May 26 - 12:00 p.m PST, 3:00 p.m. EST, 8:00 p.m.
edinburghmsc: via @speedysnail: BECTA, UK body promoting technology in learning, to be closed as part of govt cuts: http://bit.ly/c4Y29L
edinburghmsc: via @sbayne: CFP for special journal issue on 'Social Computing for Learning' for http://bit.ly/dAsYuY
