The abacus counting device dates back thousands of years but has, in the past century, been replaced by calculators and computers. But studies show that abacus use can have an effect on how well people learn math. In this excerpt adapted from his new book Learn Better, education researcher Ulrich Boser writes about the abacus and how people learn.
Recent technological advances have affected many areas of our lives: the way we communicate, collaborate, learn, and, of course, teach. Along with that, those advances necessitated an expansion of our vocabulary, producing definitions such as digital natives, digital immigrants, and, the topic of this post — “21st-century teacher.” Source: 15 Characteristics of a 21st-Century Teacher…
Dr. Anna Konopka, the 84-year-old New Hampshire physician who recently lost her medical license in part due to a lack of computer skills, has an uphill battle ahead of her. In two lengthy phone interviews with Ars on Tuesday, Konopka said if she is reinstated by the state’s medical board—at this point, a big if—she would…
We live in an age of Big: Big Computers, Big Data, and Big Lies. Faced with an unprecedented torrent of information, data scientists have turned to the visual arts to make sense of big data. The result of this unlikely marriage — often called “data visualizations” or “infographics” — have repeatedly provided us with new…
Have you considered the high cost of task switching? It probably takes you a little while to stop doing one thing and start doing another with efficiency. What happens when you switch less often? Also: Consider the sprint test. If there’s a task that comes up often, challenge yourself and your team to, just this…
Imagine if you grew up around people but never learned the language they spoke to each other. Wouldn’t it be absurd? Yet, technology powers almost everything in today’s world and most children have no idea about language it speaks. This rapid growth of technology requires a rapid pace of education to follow it, but it is pretty…
As researchers in learning and text comprehension, our recent work has focused on the differences between reading print and digital media. While new forms of classroom technology like digital textbooks are more accessible and portable, it would be wrong to assume that students will automatically be better served by digital reading simply because they prefer…
