Author Archives: Audrey Watters

Redefining “Cheating” With Homework

January 5, 2012 | 9:45 AM | By

B. Gilliard

Technology is often blamed for encouraging bad behavior, particularly when it comes to academic dishonesty. There’s the notion, for example, that it’s much easier to plagiarize now thanks to the ability to copy and paste information from the Web into a term paper.

So at first blush, the new homework help Web site Slader might be accused of fostering just this sort of cheating behavior. The site offers the answers to homework questions in most major high school level math textbooks, and depending on how much you use it, there’s a fee. Students can pay for answers. Answers to all the questions, not just the odd ones. And answers with explanations and “proofs.” But it’s not as straightforward a transaction as it looks.

Though the site was originally launched with answers written by math tutors and teachers, the plan going forward is to use the peer-to-peer model — students helping each other on the site. The most useful answers will be rated with stars to distinguish them.

Of course, students have long shared their answers the old fashioned way –  turning to one another for help, sharing their answers and solutions — whether over the phone or face-to-face, whether transcribed word-for-word from another student’s paper or solved thanks to the help and support from a peer. And that will be the model used for Slader: homework answers for students written by students.

These are homework answers for students written by students.

Anticipating the criticism, the New York-based startup believes it’s a mistake to dismiss this simply as cheating; rather they say the aim is to provide real-time help to students to work through their homework — an online study hall, if you will. The startup is providing the tools for students to share their work and teach and learn with one another.

That teaching element is important to recognize, and co-founder Scott Kolb says the site is much more of a tutoring resource than simply a place to go look up and jot down the right answer. It’s a type of “microtutoring,” he says.

That “micro” element doesn’t just mean simply that Slader offers help on a specific math problems rather than, say, hiring a math tutor for more generalized help with the subject. The Web site also features “microtransactions.” In other words, there’s an intellectual and a monetary exchange per Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Culture, Learning Methods, online tutoring, Slader

12 Education Tech Trends to Watch in 2012

January 3, 2012 | 9:43 AM | By

Getty

Looking ahead at some of the education technology trends we’ll likely see in 2012, many are already underway.

But here are 12 areas where we believe we’ll see significant adoption and innovation in the coming months.

MOBILE PHONES: Mobile learning is hardly a new trend, but we have now reached the point with near ubiquitous cellphone ownership among adults, and growing ownership among children. More than three-quarters of teens own a cellphone, and about 40% own a smartphone. As such, these mobile devices will help unlock some of the promise of “anytime, anywhere” learning opportunities.

BYOD (BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE): A related trend to mobile learning. More schools will grapple with their policies surrounding students bringing their own devices to school. They do so already, of course, although cellphones in particular are often required to be turned off or stowed in backpacks or lockers. It isn’t just cellphones that are brought from home now either. There are iPod Touches, tablets, laptops, e-readers, and netbooks, and schools will weigh whether or not students will be permitted or even encouraged to bring their own devices to school.

BANDWIDTH ISSUES: The FCC has made broadband access the focus of some of its efforts over the last few years, arguing for its importance to the U.S. economy and education. It’s pushing for better access across the board, but also recognizing the importance of high-speed Internet specifically at schools and libraries. Even those schools with broadband access may find their Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Culture, Learning Methods, Teaching With Tech

Awesome Apps for Science Experiments, Storytelling, Coding and More

December 30, 2011 | 1:00 PM | By

Every month, we review some of our favorite educational apps that have been released or updated. You can find all the posts in our series here. Below you’ll find a mixture of iOS, Android and Web-based apps.

SCRIBBLE PRESS

Scribble Press is an iPad app that lets you build and illustrate your own e-books. The app offers numerous story templates and drawing tools, guiding you through the story-writing and book layout process. The books that are written with Scribble Press can be shared with others — either via Facebook or Twitter or email. They can also be posted online on the site’s gallery, although books remain private unless shared there. (iTunes link). iOS, Free.

SQUAD

Squad is a collaborative code editor. In other words, it’s a tool designed to make it easier to share and work together on programming projects. Squad’s tools can be used by both experts and learners, and the company recently launched Squad for Education, a version designed to be used with large groups in a computer lab classroom setting. Squad supports over a dozen programming languages, including HTML, PHP, JavaScript, Python, C, and C++. Web, licensing costs depend on number of students.

MINDSNACKS – LEARN CHINESE (MANDARIN)

The mobile language learning startup Mindsnacks launched its Mandarin iPhone app this month. As with all the Mindsnacks titles, the app offers various games to help learners review and boost their vocabulary knowledge. While the app is initially free, you do need to upgrade in order to unlock all 50 of the levels. Mindsnacks’ Spanish language learning app was chosen by Apple as Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Learning Methods, Teaching With Tech

Will Informal Learning Carry the Same Weight as College Degrees?

December 23, 2011 | 9:31 AM | By

Dave Herholz

You can learn anything you want on the Internet, so the adage goes. But even if that’s true, even if it’s now easier than ever to learn about almost any subject online, there are still very few opportunities to gain formal recognition — “credit,” if you will — for informal learning done online.

In September, the Mozilla Foundation launched its Open Badges Project, an effort to develop a technology framework that would make it easier to build, display and share digital learning badges. These badges are meant to showcase and recognize all kinds of skills and competencies — subject matter expertise as college degrees are meant to indicate for example, as well “soft skills” that aren’t so easily apparent based on traditional forms of credentialing. (We examined some of the technology infrastructure of the Open Badges Project in a story earlier this year.)

Having some way to highlight other skills, competencies, and experiences is important in setting one potential hire apart from another.

When the Mozilla Foundation announced the Open Badges Project, it was in conjunction with the MacArthur Foundation and HASTAC, as “Badges for Lifelong Learning” is the theme of this year’s Digital Media and Learning Competition, an annual contest that supports research of how digital technologies are changing the way we learn and work. On stage at the formal unveiling of the Open Badges Project were representatives from not just Mozilla and the MacArthur Foundation, but from the Departments of Education, Labor and Veterans Affairs, from NASA as well as from other businesses.

When the Open Badges Project was first announced, some educators questioned whether “badges” were a form of gamification of education, just another way, they said, to force learners to Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Culture, Learning Methods, badges, DML, Higher Education, Open Badges Projects

Is Lego Stereotyping Girls with New Product Line?

December 22, 2011 | 11:42 AM | By

Legos remain one of the world’s most popular and most beloved toys, and for more than 60 years, children of all ages have played with the plastic bricks. But starting January 1, a new line of Legos called Lego Friends will appear on store shelves, introducing what Lego’s CEO calls “the most significant strategic launch we’ve done in a decade.”

From all appearances, the new product line is aimed directly at girls, a huge shift from their current product offerings.

“They might as well have a No Girls Allowed sign,” says author Peggy Orenstein in the BusinessWeek article about the new Lego products. Orenstein wrote Cinderella Ate My Daughter, about the toy industry’s leveraging young girls’ fascination with princesses.

Toy store shelves clearly reflect Lego’s strategy, aiming products squarely at boys. Sure, girls play with the Ninjago, Alien Conquest, or Star Wars sets, but the themes all revolve around battles, no matter what the brick-building potentials might be.

Does Lego Friends just reinforce some of the stereotypes that already exist?

Those themed sets have been wildly successful, and since Lego started building these types of sets in the mid-2000s (often associated with movie brands like Star Wars or Pirates of the Caribbean), Lego’s revenue has soared. The company topped $1 billion in sales for the first time last year, according to NPR.

So with the new Lego Friends product line, the company wants to “reach the other 50 percent of Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Culture, Lego, Lego Friends, LEGO Mindstorms

Should Computer Science Be Required in K-12?

December 15, 2011 | 11:26 AM | By

TB

Computer science is not widely taught, even though programming may be one of the most important skills of the 21st century. While most schools do recognize the importance of helping students learn how to use new technologies, you’ll still find scant opportunities in K-12 classes for students to learn how to actually build those very technologies.

A report issued last year by the Association of Computing Machinery found that very few states offer K-12 computer science education at all. Just nine states allow CS courses to count towards graduation requirements for math or science. And no states require computer science for graduation.

Teaching computer science isn’t simply about learning to program. It’s about computational thinking, logic, reasoning, and problem solving too.

Why the absence of CS courses from elementary and secondary schools? A recent article in Technology Horizons Journal points to a few obstacles to teaching computer science: questions about teacher certification, debates about what a CS curriculum should contain, and concerns about where CS fits into the curriculum and/or the schedule. Is computer science math? Is it Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Culture, Learning Methods, computer science, K-12