I was reading this article about online courses on the MindShift blog today. It starts off with this image. What a horribly depressing vision of a computer lab. While it is how the lab in my high school and those at Whitman were set up it… Continue reading →
Virginia Heffernan disputes the traditional notion of an attention-span. Good to see someone confront Nicholas Carr’s notion that technology causes brain damage. I’m surprised that anyone ventures so far into this thicket of sophistry. I get stuck much earlier in the equation. Everyone has an… Continue reading →
The Atlantic surveys a recent study that focuses on how individual states compare in international math score rankings. The results are fairly surprising. It all goes to show that for schools more money brings more problems.
Fascinating story of using libraries to create safe, human environments in prison. It turns out concerns over which books inmates read are unfounded. Libraries are more about how providing a place for interaction and skill development.
A bit about school from an excellent short essay by Jonathan Harris: The class was a crash course in things that are usually picked up slowly and by accident, like lost coins, over the course of your life. This class was so memorable because it… Continue reading →
Alex Byers makes an interesting case for journalists not learning programming skills: Writers will produce the best written word, photographers will snap the best pictures, and programmers will build the best apps. That’s not going to change, so don’t give up being awesome at something… Continue reading →
http://www.r2.co.nz/clientbin/player-licensed-viral.swf Mark Pesce’s blog the human network is a must read and he just published the full video of his talk at Webstock. The transcript was posted back in February but the video is well worth watching. Here are some scattered annotations on what Pesce… Continue reading →
Looking back over four years at Whitman, I am disappointed and frustrated with a system that could be doing so much. I think that there is a severe lack of encouragement and valuation of open knowledge systems at Whitman. While disappointing for my four years… Continue reading →