Anti-evolution forces gain ground in Texas
The Texas Board of Education has sparked controversy in the world of science with a move last week that would require students to evaluate the “sufficiency or insufficiency” of ideas about natural selection and the common ancestry of different species–two key components of modern evolutionary theory.
Key concepts: Texas board of education, evolution, creationism, science curriculum
Virtual Worlds Almanac is a handy guide to exploring virtual worlds
The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) recently unveiled a wiki called the Virtual Worlds Almanac, an online catalog of virtual-world environments that allows users to edit and contribute information. Educators and students can refer to the site for information about a host of virtual environments, including Second Life, as well as education-specific virtual worlds such as Whyville. “We hope this will make it easier for the community to collaborate and to keep abreast of innovations and new product offerings,” said FAS President Henry Kelly in a press release.
Dreambox to help elementary-age students learn math through games
After nearly three years in development, Dreambox Learning this week officially unveiled its first online education product, TechFlash reports: a new adventure game designed to teach five- to eight-year-olds math skills.
New Smithsonian chief eyes ed tech
Warning that American education and research have fallen behind, the new head of the Smithsonian Institution has launched an ambitious effort to digitize its 137 million artifacts and use social-networking tools to reach a new generation of learners.
Key concepts: Smithsonian, social networking, G. Wayne Clough, Georgia Tech
Copyright settlement leaves questions
A closely watched copyright-infringement lawsuit with important implications for schools, newspapers, and other organizations that aggregate news content from other sources on their web sites or in eMail newsletters ended in a settlement Jan. 26–leaving open, for now, the question of how much content news aggregators can post from stories they link to from other sites.
Key concepts: copyright infringement, GateHouse, The New York Times, Boston Globe, scraping
“This all sounds great … but does it work?”
That’s the question that John Mergendoller, executive director of the Buck Institute, hears often. His response is a resounding "yes." But measuring project-based learning can be a challenge. If an…
A sample project-planning form
1. Begin with the end in mind. Summarize the theme for the project. Why do this project? Identify the content standards that students will learn in this project. Identify key…
Helping project-based learning take hold
The Buck Institute for Education, which focuses on professional development and materials to support project-based learning, believes that, as with most complex instructional approaches, there are many conditions that need…
Open source question for schools
With Open Source Software (OSS) freely available, covering almost every requirement in the national curriculum, a question has to be asked why schools do not back it more fully, possibly saving millions of pounds, reports BBC News.
Administrators share vision to change schools
Skip the piecemeal education reform. A group of Texas school superintendents are calling for a complete transformation of public schools to better prepare students for the future in ways that aren’t boring, according to the Houston Chronicle.