Former New York Times technology reporter John Markoff used to think robots taking jobs was cause for alarm. Then, he found out that the working-age population in China, Japan, Korea and the U.S. was declining.
When I was a child in small-town West Virginia, there weren’t many options for entertainment after school or on weekends: I could walk to a friend’s house. I could watch TV on our 13 fuzzy channels. Or I could read. And so I read, and read, and read—hours and even whole days would pass with…
You don’t need to be a Dickens scholar to understand that for many teachers it is both the best of times and the worst of times. Let’s start with the good stuff. Digital innovation is inspiring imagination. Educators from all over the world are learning how to responsibly blend technology into their teaching, while sharing…
What do you do when you are stuck working the overnight shift at a hospital reception desk? You become an expert in Microsoft Paint. Turns out, sometimes our resistance to learn something new and master a new skill can lead to something pretty amazing. Pat Hines, who couldn’t be bothered to learn Photoshop and illustrated…
This month, I saw an amazing idea posted on Twitter by one of my favorite edtech gurus, Eric Curts. His thoughts were to use Google Keep to provide students feedback within Google Docs. This idea inspired me to think how I could use Google Keep to make the process of adding standards to my lesson plans less cumbersome….
We recently spoke with three inspirational educators about their experience in the Innovator Program and the ideas they brought to life: Charlie Shryock, who created eThanks, an online gratitude site for teachers; Matt Wigdahl who designed a makerspace project called SolverSpace; and Carrie Anne Philbin who created Geek Gurl Diaries to inspire girls to pursue…
Turing Tumble is a new type of game where players (ages 8+) build mechanical computers powered by marbles to solve logic puzzles. It’s fun, addicting, easy-to-learn, and while you’re playing, you discover how computers work. I’m all about teaching kids to code. When I was a professor at the University of Minnesota, I saw how valuable…
