Bill Gates Talks Tech

Posted on April 1, 2014 by Mike

I have been a fan of Bill Gates for many years now, every since I met and chatted with him on a couple of occasions in 1986 and 1987 at the First Microsoft International Conference on CD-ROM. Work I did at a company that friends and I started, as well as some of my writing from 20 years ago wound up with Microsoft’s lawyers bringing me to New York to be deposed by in one of the large anti-trust court cases that opponents brought against the company.

In any case it is fun to see Gates talking once again about technology: Microsoft’s Tech Advisor Bill Gates is talking about tech (again) | ZDNet.

That piece references an interview he did with Rolling Stone: Bill Gates: The Rolling Stone Interview | Culture News | Rolling Stone.

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The Flipped Classroom: Getting Serious

Posted on April 1, 2014 by Mike

For various reasons the flipped classroom is of particular interest to me. While accountability in any enterprise is one of the key elements of success. what students do outside of the classroom is one of the least accountable aspects of education today. Getting a handle on the impact of the flipped classroom could contribute to that particular gap in our knowledge of how students learn.

This research project seems to hold excellent promise in exploring the value of the flipped classroom: Assessing the Flipped Classroom’s Impact on Learning — Campus Technology.

This report on the flipped classroom at several institutions provides several interesting insights: How to Make the Most of the Flipped Classroom — Campus Technology.

 

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The S-Curve of Educational Video

Posted on March 31, 2014 by Mike

I just posted the most recent piece in my series of columns, “Educational Technology Points of Inflection.” It explains where educational video is in its development life cycle.

The machine Thomas Edison said would replace the textbook.

The machine Thomas Edison said would replace the textbook.

Thomas Edison exclaimed as early as 1913 that “It is possible to teach every branch of human knowledge with the motion picture.” He also predicted that motion pictures would replace the textbook and that schools would change drastically. Despite the incredible advances in digital video of the past 25 years, which meet or exceed the exponential increases of Moore’s Law, Edison’s pronouncements remain unrealized. Furthermore, the time of exponential increases in basic capabilities might well be coming to an end, “the significant positive slope of the linear portion of the development curve suggests that significant, even amazing, advances likely lie ahead for video as an effective educational technology.”

You can read the entire piece here: “Educational Video on the S-Curve of Video Technology Development.”

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A Love Letter to Educational Technology

Posted on March 30, 2014 by Mike

I just discovered this “love letter to technology” that Roxanna Elden, a Miami school teacher, wrote for Rick Hess’s blog. She makes some great points in a very creative way.  The Relationship Status of Teachers and Educational Technology: It’s Complicated – Rick Hess Straight Up – Education Week.

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