By making so much information so accessible, social media has drastically changed the way we consume information and form opinions in the modern era. The danger, however, is that social media creates an “echo chamber” that filters the information people receive so that it largely supports their existing opinions.
A recent study published in PNAS examines this phenomenon and finds that social-media users show marked focus in the types of news that interests them. These social-media participants tend to develop strong and well-defined communities around the news outlets they support, and they tend to make connections with like-minded people regardless of the geographic distance between them.
Technology is playing a bigger role in classrooms and schools in this country and around the world. Here are a few thoughts to keep technology in perspective. Share them with your team and discuss how to best implement technology in your learning culture. I hope these ideas help guide you to more effective use of…
We’re all accustomed to the typical assortment of core classes at universities: math, language, English 101. While the “real-world value” of core classes is often debated, one university is introducing a core class requirement that undoubtedly adds value to graduates’ post-college portfolios—a coding course. The school is Miami University’s Farmer School of Business, and the…
When Mike Bloomberg, ex-mayor of New York, said he’d like to fire the lower-scoring half of the city’s teachers and give their students to the better-scoring half, doubling the size of their classes but paying them twice as much, he was affirming his belief in a particular theory of learning. For a short demonstration of…
See how families live around the world with Dollar Street Dollar Street is a project where Anna Rosling Rönnlund interview families around the world and photographed the families. This photos are used on the website to show a fictional street, where the poorest families are on one end of the street and the richer families live at…
She’d laid out the assignment clearly, but student after student was calling her over for help. They were all getting the same error message: The program couldn’t find their files. Garland thought it would be an easy fix. She asked each student where they’d saved their project. Could they be on the desktop? Perhaps in…
As kids head back to school this fall, which class should they enroll in? French — or programming? Apple CEO Tim Cook told a company conference this year that computer programming should be taught in schools as a second language. Others have echoed that view, arguing that programming should be considered a necessary skill for the 21st century, right alongside…
