Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eSchool News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

How augmented reality enhances the classroom — even without technology

Several years ago, I made one of those foolish Dad choices. Despite my wife’s better judgment, I let my six- and seven-year-old sons watch Men in Black. What I thought would be a cool evening of fighting aliens turned into one of those nights ending with two kids afraid of going to sleep under a wife’s “I told you so” glare.

Miraculously, I stumbled onto a solution when my elder son came into our bedroom around midnight saying he kept waking up scared because he was afraid a giant bugman would get him. In the moment, a solution arose. I told my son that I kept special, super strong anti-bugman powder in the bathroom, so strong it could only be used in emergencies, but that it could keep bug monsters out of the house. With that, I went into the bathroom, filled a small plastic bag with talcum powder, and spent the next thirty minutes walking around the house throwing the powder about the place while chanting “Go away bugmen!” with my son. He slept the rest of the night.

The point of the story is not about showing myself to be a good parent (I abandoned any pretense to that title when I said to my wife, “The boys might be scared at first, but by the end they’ll be laughing”). What this incident demonstrates is a kind of teaching technique that too often is underutilized or even forgotten.…Read More

When will assessments finally test deeper learning?

Technology means assessments can focus on more than just multiple-choice. Can testing keep up?

 

When we imagine the future of assessment it’s easy to envision all sorts of impressive ways to help gauge what students know and what they can do. Gaming and simulations, especially, create all kinds of possibilities.

But the major focus of assessment technology in recent years, of course, has been on efficiency of test delivery and administration—with little true innovation making it to students’ test booklets or computer screens.…Read More

Acer launches no risk laptop seed program

K-12 schools can test cloud-based Windows or Chrome OS products for free, with no obligation to purchase

Acer has launched its new Acer Education Seed Program, which offers K-12 schools across the United States an opportunity to test either a cloud-based Acer TravelMate B117 notebook with Windows or an Acer C730E Chromebook with Chrome OS for free, with no risk, since there is no obligation to purchase.

This offer enables schools to explore the advantages of cloud based solutions – either Windows or Chrome – using award-winning Acer products designed specifically for education and determine which solution is the best fit for their school.

“Education has changed rapidly over the last decade, as schools have been working diligently to integrate technology across their curriculum, into their classrooms, and throughout administration to improve the education of students,” said Richard Black, vice president, marketing communications, Acer America.…Read More

Expert invites more black students to science

There are far too few black students in science, math and technology programs, according to a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, GPB reports. Dr. Cardinal Warde spoke Tuesday to a group of students at Fort Valley State University, a historically black college in middle Georgia. Warde, an MIT engineering professor, said black students lag behind others in science, technology, engineering and math programs also known as STEM education. “It’s a good news, bad news story,” explained Warde. “The bad news is that there are not enough of us in the STEM disciplines and while we’ve had some very prestigious innovators in STEM going all the way back to the turn of the century, we continue to lag behind minority groups in the number and the percentage of our people who are going into the STEM disciplines.”

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