I have long been disappointed by a basic contradiction–my own research and that of others has shown that 1-to-1 laptop programs are very valuable educationally, but such programs have nevertheless been slow to spread in the US. For that reason I became quite interested in the potential of low-cost netbooks using open source software in [...]
Archive for the ‘general’ Category
Has the $200 Educational Laptop Arrived?
Posted in general on October 26, 2011 | 1 Comment »
About that Silicon Valley Waldorf School
Posted in general on October 24, 2011 | 3 Comments »
You’ve got to hand it to the New York Times. They always come up with provocative articles about technology in education that really get people thinking and talking. The latest one was, entitled A Silicon Valley School That Doesn’t Compute, interviewed a number of technology firm employees who choose to send their children to the [...]
What were Steve Jobs’ test scores? A response to the NY Times
Posted in general on September 4, 2011 | 1 Comment »
As the United States newspaper of record, the New York Times helps shape the national debate about a lot of issues, including those related those to technology and learning. That certainly happened a few years ago, when the Times published an article by Winnie Hu suggesting that school districts across the country were abandoning one-to-one [...]
Report from Tokyo #5: Not Losing to the Rain
Posted in general on April 12, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
“Not Losing to the Rain” is a remarkable poem written by Kenji Miyazawa sometime before his death at the age of 37 in 1933. Miyazawa lived in the Tohoku region of Japan, site of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The poem was written in a small black notebook found posthumously in one of Miyazawa’s trunks. Always [...]
Report from Tokyo #4: Rebuilding Begins
Posted in general on March 29, 2011 | 2 Comments »
The effects of the March 11 tragedy have proven more severe than anybody imagined. The death toll. The death toll is now approaching 11,000 with the total number almost certain to top 20,000. Just to put this in perspective for Americans, the total death toll of both September 11 and Katrina was less than 5,000. This [...]
Report from Tokyo #3: Life on the Ground
Posted in general on March 18, 2011 | 4 Comments »
I arrived back in Tokyo on Thursday, March 17. Sailed through customs and immigration. Fastest train from the airport wasn’t running, but plenty of others were. Made it home easily. Great to see wife and kids. Life in Tokyo is much calmer, and safer, than what is being portrayed in the media. Here’s a basic [...]
Report from Tokyo #2: Humanity at its Finest
Posted in general on March 15, 2011 | 1 Comment »
The situation in Japan is certainly much more dire than when I wrote my report from Tokyo last week. Though Japan’s earthquake defense system proved magnificent–not a single building tumbled in Tokyo and there is little evidence of buildings falling even in the areas close to the epicenter–the tsunami proved deadly and destructive. The death [...]
Report from Tokyo
Posted in general on March 11, 2011 | 10 Comments »
Our family (American husband, Japanese wife, three children ages 5, 5, and 6) are living in Tokyo this year. I was in L.A. for a short visit when the earthquake hit (and still am). It took me a while to reach my wife, but I’ve communicated with her several times since then by Skype, Google [...]
The New Cool
Posted in general on March 1, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Robotics has all the elements of education that everybody loves—problem-solving, team-work, hands-on learning, and mastery of technology, all in the service of authentic projects. Unfortunately, robotics is typically offered on an extra-curricular basis, and thus available only to small numbers of students in places where there happen to be either volunteer teachers or commercial classes. [...]
Review of Google’s CR 48 notebook and Chrome OS
Posted in general on December 17, 2010 | 3 Comments »
A week ago I was one of the lucky recipients of a Google CR 48 notebook. The detail of the CR 48′s hardware failures have been well documented, as any Google search for CR 48 will reveal (lack of Home, End, Delete, Caps Lock keys; faulty touchpad; etc) so I won’t both reviewing these aspects. [...]
