Education

Boku is a programming development "game" for children that comes out of Microsoft Research (we took a look at Boku at TechFest '07.) It allows children, ages 5 and up, to apply programming elements and rudimentary scripts to characters in the Boku world. Jon Udell spoke with Matt…

I'm from an education family. My mother was a teacher and my wife is a teacher. But in my family teaching is not just a women thing. I have a male cousin who is a kindergarten teacher. My son teaches special education students in an elementary school. And while I taught high school for 8 years I…

I read a very interesting take on the Teach For America program today. (Article here) Briefly Teach for America recruits some of the top US university graduates and gets them to make a 2 year commitment to teaching in resource poor schools. Most of them do rather well but leave teaching after two…

Earlier today (on my Computer Science Education blog) I reported on a teacher who was seeing some interesting and positive results by letting students use tools (computer software tools) that are often blocked or banned in schools. As the day wore on though I heard…

The job of schools, in my opinion, is to educate and to enable. So I don't like a lot of rules especially when they consist largely of lists of things not to do. Rules all too often prevent thinking. Telling students "don't do" is the opposite of enabling them to actually do things.…

Every so often we do a program in my House Calls for Healthcare Professionals series of audio and video-casts that really seems to hit the mark in demonstrating the value of Microsoft technologies in the healthcare industry. I want to draw your attention to one such program. Arkansas Children’s…

They may be called Schmall Science but it's definitely a big idea. This group has decided to make science and learning hands on and fun for everybody. Honestly it made me want to be a kid again just so I could take apart my brothers broken down Chevy sitting out in the back yard and put it back…

Microsoft is going to start testing a new education PC called IQPC as well as launching an education channel on its MSN Portal.  They will be testing the PC in India sometime next month. This is all part of Microsoft's "Unlimited Potential" program that Bill Gates announced in…

  Arkansas Children’s Hospital Every so often I come across organizations and people that truly blow me away. Pediatric hospitals have always been known for innovative ideas in the care of their young patients. So, it comes as no surprise that a pediatric hospital would rise to the occasion to…

At this morning's NECC keynote discussion Elizabeth Streb noted that students who come to her workshops have time to play before the lessons start but that the line between when play ends and learning begins is very often blurred.  Mitchel Resnick at the MIT Media Lab's Lifelong…