Thursday, August 28, 2014

Thoughts about Smartphones at Dinner, Edcamps, and other Good Stuff

Why you should (really, seriously, permanently) stop using your smartphone at dinner
Well over half of all American adults own smartphones. One-third of them use their phones during dinner, that most fundamental of social encounters. 

Why Schools Must Move Beyond One-to-One Computing
As many schools and districts are now rushing to buy every student a digital device, I’m concerned that most one-to-one implementation strategies are based on the new tool as the focus of the program. Unless we break out of this limited vision that one-to-one computing is about the device, we are doomed to waste our resources.

Addressing "The War on Learning"
“University professors are focusing on MOOCs and clickers and iPads instead of on how people actually get to know each other through digital learning environments and how they learn, often informally,”

Amazon offers unlimited reading with new Kindle subscription
Startups like Oyster (disclaimer: a CultCast sponsor) have already been offering this ‘Netflix for books’ subscription, but now the biggest ebook seller in the world is doing the same thing. Popular titles like Water for Elephants, Life of Pi, and series like Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and The Hunger Games are available through Kindle Unlimited.

5 Ways Edcamps are a Culture of Learning
A critical element in a culture of learning is choice.  Learners should have the ability to take charge of their learning. Edcamps do just this.  We spent almost 30 minutes in the morning and again after lunch brainstorming topics that we wanted to learn about.  These topics were turned into sessions and added to the session board. . . .Our choices continued in the sessions.  If we joined a room and found that the topic wasn't for us, we could move on to another room. Autonomy at it's finest.


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