Future of education
Learning the WHY of the blackouts
Minority Report for Learning
(YAWN) … that’s my summary of the most recent CES show that seemed to have more iPhone and iPad cases on display than any really new or innovative technology. I’m always looking for “high tech stuff’ that we can use for learning. This year was not a great year with one exception that knocked me out … maybe it was a standout because everything else was so not innovative, but I think it really would have been exciting even in a great year for new products. It was especially hot since the plans to go into production this year are real.
Take a look …
[youtube+http://youtu.be/m5rlTrdF5Cs]So you’re probably wondering why I think it’s such a potentially great product for learning?
Use your imagination … since the enormous growth of elearning online and in a virtual classrooms, place one in your kitchen and learn how to cook great scrambled eggs or manage a families diet. Put one in the kids room and let them go learning crazy.
The more learning we can do on the Internet, Skillshare being just one terrific example, the more Samsung’s ‘Smart Window’ will become a mirror for the mind.
The Numberlys are iPad Learning Rockstars!
I first read about “The Fantastic Flying Books of Morris Lessmore” last summer in an article in Fast Company by John Pavlus. I was to say the least ‘gobsmacked’. It was an amazing look into the future of ebooks for learning, admittedly aimed at a much younger audience than you usually see in the workplace. It ignited my imagination when I started to envision ways it could be used for educating learners who had entered their age in double-digits. Take a look …
I thought after that ebook, produced by Moonbot Studios, there there would be years of copycats and catching-up before the work was excelled.
Boy was I was wrong. And never more happy to be that way …
Moonbot Studios has not done it again. Actually, they have outdone it again. The new ebook on the iPad is called “The Numberlys,” about a group of amazingly adorable out-of-the-numbers-box characters who create ” The Alphabet” in a spreadsheet boring and rigid universe ruled only by The Numbers. They build it from parts and pieces of the numbers.
Before I say another w..o..r..d, take a look at the video.
The ebook takes about 15-minutes to read through if you skip the games that are part and parcel with the story. I especially like the game “V” which is the letter V spinning faster and faster until you spin it fast enough to make it a “W”. It may sound like Sesame Street but it’s not. It’s a beautiful example of a direction that learning can take when the lessons are taught by bright, creative and very talented teachers, aka ebook creators, who obviously love what they are producing and are pushing the boundaries of the new technology to a new level.
PS. The added pieces on Vimeo about how the ebook came together are entertaining and interesting on theor own. Kudos to Moonbot Studios.
This Says It All …
In the future all learning experiences will be flipped …
“Will the teacher please step to the front of the room.”
The Best 100 of 2011
Jane Hart is one of my great “go-to” resources for all things learning. Every year she posts a great review of the Top 100 Tools. Here it is and Thanks, Jane!
“Yesterday, I finalised the Top 100 Tools for Learning 2011 list. In the last few days of voting there was a surge of contributions (both online and by email) that brought the number of contributions to 531. Many thanks to everyone who took the time to share their Top 10 Tools and help me compile this, the 5th annual survey of learning tools.” Jane Hart
THE Future of Education is Blended Learning
This is a MUST WATCH for anyone interested in the future of what we today call the K-12 grades. And if the past gives us any signage on the road to the future, it also is about the way we will learn in colleges, universities, corporations and other organizations.
There are not many people today who have a clear crytal ball on the future of education. Not surprising since the past has become something of a mashup of approaches, methods and ideas. The majority of which do not work if you know the stats.
I believe Tom Vander Ark is the exception. He is the leading education futurist and chair of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning. If you want more than you’ll get from this great video – and I know you will – you can read his new book Getting Smart: How Personal Digital Learning is Changing the World. Tom is also investor in General Assembly (see this month’s Fast Company Life in Beta) through his education-focused venture fund Learn Capital. I also recommend the Fast Company article.
David Grebow KnowledgeStar 