Academics vs Fortnite

Academics vs Fortnite

Hours after her son returned to school, April McElrath of Smyrna, Delaware, posted to a Facebook group she’d joined for help and support.   “He tried to start a game before school!!!” McElrath wrote, posting a picture of her sheepishly smiling son Marcus, 11, to the group for parents of children obsessed with the video…

The math teacher and drill based math instruction

The math teacher and drill based math instruction

A math program that endorses drills and pain as the foundational element of math instruction (rather than a supporting element) and as a prerequisite for creative mathematical thought (rather than a co-requisite) inhibits the student and the teacher both, diminishing the student’s interest in producing that creativity and the teacher’s ability to notice it. Source: Drill-Based…

Where in the world is… The Learning Company?

Where in the world is… The Learning Company?

…Both Reader Rabbitand Cluefinders were the work of The Learning Company (TLC), a dominant player in the realm of educational software during its peak in the late 1980s and ’90s. At a certain point, TLC owned pretty much every computer game that mattered to millennials: The Logical Journey of the Zoombinis, Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?, even Oregon Trail….

Study Reconfirms that Internet Content Filters are Expensive and Don’t Work

Study Reconfirms that Internet Content Filters are Expensive and Don’t Work

In a paper entitled Internet Filtering and Adolescent Exposure to Online Sexual Material, Oxford Internet Institute researchers Victoria Nash and Andrew Przybylski found that Internet filters rarely work to keep adolescents away from online porn.   “It’s important to consider the efficacy of Internet filtering,” said Dr, Nash. “Internet filtering tools are expensive to develop and…

Does edtech improve or harm education?

Does edtech improve or harm education?

Multimedia technologies penetrate into various spheres of educational activity. The spread of innovations is facilitated by external factors associated with the ubiquitous informatization of society and the need for appropriate preparation of schoolchildren, as well as by internal factors related to the popularization of modern computer equipment and software in schools, the adoption of state…

5 Unbiased Fact Checking Sites

5 Unbiased Fact Checking Sites

Fact checking has its origin in the early 20th century when magazines began to verify statements made in non-fictional texts prior to publication. But the impact of fake news has soared in recent years. This means that ordinary people are increasingly skeptical of what they read online and hear from others.   So in the…

Without the why, PD fails

Without the why, PD fails

No matter what sort of change is going on in your industry, if you don’t teach people why to do things differently and what to do differently, they will do the same old stuff. Effective training doesn’t just happen once. It doesn’t just cover theory. It explains exactly what to do, and it reinforces these…