In this talk by Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the MIT Media Lab, the idea of learning by ones self is explored.  From the Solving for X site, this background on the talk is provided:

Few people question that education is the most critical problem for to solve – both in the developed and in the developing worlds. The temptation is to see this as a social engineering questions and not as a technology challenge though. What if you just asserted it was possible for a device to be smart enough, cheap enough, rugged enough, and connected enough that it could be dropped into any village square and could not only teach children how to read, but teach them how to learn and inspire them that learning was fun. What would that take?

A week ago, I saw a great graphic on a design blog by Hyperakt.  They were hired by Design 360 to redesign the images that the word ‘teachers’ or ‘teaching’ bring to most peoples mind.

What they came up with is a whole set of brilliant graphics that, to me at least, describe school as a networked, collaborative and connected learning ecospshere.

They did a great job of thinking things through and dispelling with the ‘old-school’ ideas of an apple, ABC blocks and other items that bring back the idea of the one room schoolhouse.

If you don’t ask, you won’t get.  I noticed that their works did not specify any type of licensing, so I sent a tweet asking if they could consider putting a Creative Commons license on the art.  They did.

So, Hyperakt folks – thanks for doing this, and thank you for sharing your talent with the community.

I came across an interesting IOS application called Nearpod. This platform is a bit unique, in that I’ve not seen anything that aggregates presentation, feedback, collaboration and assessment tools into one application.

Here are a couple of video clips explaining what it is and does.

Nearpod Education: Pilot program Fall 2011 from Nearpod on Vimeo.

Nearpod NY Pilot from Nearpod on Vimeo.

Nearpod is a classroom collaboration tool. Learn more at www.nearpod.com

Samsung was showing off their Smart Window technology at CES in Las Vegas.  This looks very interesting for ambient information displays or perhaps in the classroom…. or maybe just checking Twitter on the bathroom mirror

It’s been quite a while since I’ve seen anything in the news about CTL and the Classmate laptops.  Well, CTL is back via the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, and has released two new models – the 2go Classmate PC NL3 convertible tablet and the 2go Classmate PC E12.  The former with the twist-flip screen and the latter which sports a more traditional laptop form-factor.

Each of the new entrants feature a 10.1-inch screen.  The NL3 has a resistive touchscreen that can be used with a stylus. Each of the laptops have very similar specifications to include a 1.6GHz Atom N2600 processor and 1GB of RAM. Interesting is that you can choose either a standard hard drive or Solid State Drive (SSD) for storage.  

CTL says both will be available in early February, with the NL3 starting at $499 and the E12 coming in at $349.

The School at Columbia University with a project called Tools for Schools facilitated a great example of what goes into PBL. Forty-four eighth grade students were immersed in the entire design process, from research to ideation to 3D modeling and ultimately launch. Their work was showcased at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF). 

Take a look at the project web site and a couple of examples of the process and products created through PBL, creativity, collaboration and real-world learning.

Tools at Schools : Introduction to Project from Tools at Schools on Vimeo.

Rethinking the Desk from Dana Chivvis on Vimeo.

I’ve used and taught with quite a few Learning Management Systems (LMS) over the years – WebCT, Blackboard, Moodle, Sakai, Angel, Canvas – and wonder why I’ve not yet seen a workflow model that allows the facilitator of the course to do some sort of round-trip grading without having to download documents and other artifacts to the local machine.

This is what I would like to do: (a) Create the assignment and accompanying rubric, (b) assign it to the learners via the LMS, (c) students view the assignment, (d) students complete and upload their response, (e) the facilitator gets a notification of the submission, (f) the system renders all of the uploaded artifacts in the browser.

At this point, the facilitator can add annotations to the learners work as overlaid comments – and these overlaid comments become part of the feedback for the student. 

The only thing I have found that allows this sort of ability is the web application from Crocodoc.  With Crocodoc you can add highlights, draw objects and add comments to a students uploaded work. 

Now, how can we get something like this to be built as part of the document handling system in an LMS? 

In addition, the rubric for this assignment would appear as an overlay or popup window.  This would allow the facilitator to assess the work while they are viewing and making comments on the student work.  Once all of the comments have been recorded and the rubric filled in, the facilitator submits the assignment to the LMS.  The LMS then records the grade and notifies the learner that they can view their assignment.

All of the feedback given by the facilitator is presented to the learner as layer that can be toggled on and off.  The learner could then use that feedback to inform their learning for the future.

Here’s a rough idea of the workflow in a swim lane chart.  I wonder – does this sort of thing exist in an LMS somewhere that I don’t know about?  If someone builds it, I’m sure it will make quite a few people happy.