Archive for the ‘Learning (general)’ Category

On my mathematics website, Interactive Mathematics, I have a "Comments or Questions?" feature on every page. Some of the questions are, well, difficult to answer: how to work out mathematics? Others are much clearer: What is the degree of differential equation? Is differential equation has unique degree or not? But most, like the one above, […]

An interesting report from the US Depts of Commerce and Education, Visions 2020.2 Student Views on Transforming Education and Training Through Advanced Technologies (no longer available) outlines the results from asking 160,000 US, K-12 students "What would you like to see invented that will help your learning?". Some of the key outcomes (with my comments […]

Kincheloe, JL (Editor) ©2005, Peter Lang Publishing, NY. Summary Review Kincheloe's introduction is not your usual introduction for this kind of book. It is dark, brooding and cynical, especially regarding education in America. It talks of a "coup" around 1980 that changed the landscape of American education (and society) from one of healthy discussion and […]

A very common complaint among computing students is that they hate programming. Say what? It is a fundamental of so many computing jobs, so there is something wrong... Programming should not be taught via lectures and should not be assessed via written examinations. Sure, there are practical issues with this when you have large classes. […]

No point trying to fight religious fundamentalism (the so-called War on Terror) with religious fundamentalism. But that's what Dubya is doing. The Americans are still debating evolution and some schools require... ninth-grade students to hear a brief statement about ID [intelligent design] before biology classes on evolution (from a report in eSchool News). Intelligent design […]

How should we improve teachers who are, errr, not very good at what they do...? I don't think Arnie has the right approach: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign posted a form on its Web site asking Californians for stories about inferior teachers to support the ballot initiative to lengthen teachers' probationary period. (from "Schwarzenegger seeks 'bad […]

by Bitter, GG and Pierson, M (©2005, Pearson Education) Summary Review Using Technology in the Classroom has been around for a while (first edition 1984, revised every 5 years or so). The book appears to be aimed at an undergraduate teacher-trainee level, with advice on how to select software & Internet resources and how to […]

I was involved (as MC) in an interesting blogging seminar this morning. Four well-known Singapore bloggers (Xia Xue, Popagandhi, dsng.net, mr brown) answered my not-so-tricky questions about free speech in Singapore, how to avoid being arrested for sedition, how blogging improves your writing, how they get 5000+ hits per day and that kind of thing. […]

This is a summary review of Robert L. Fried's book "The Game of School". I agree with the majority of his points - the game gets in the way of the education.

Sudbury Valley school is an independent school, with some really interesting approaches. There are 210 students at the school, ranging in age from 5 to 19. Key concepts: There are no structured classes, unless students request them. Students are not grouped by age. They naturally undertake activities with others (including the adults) who have the […]