Ethiopian kids hack OLPCs in 5 months with zero instruction | DVICE
I LOVE Diamond Age. And the initiative is incredible, given no one cheated here. Enter Nell, protagonist in Diamond Age and OLPC teaching software:
(…)
If this all reminds you of a certain science fiction book by a certain well-known author, it’s not a coincidence: Nell’s Primer in Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age was a direct inspiration for much of the OLPC teaching software, which itself is named Nell. Here’s an example of how Nell uses an evolving, personalized narrative to help kids learn to learn without beating them over the head with standardized lessons and traditional teaching methods:
Miles from the nearest school, a young Ethiopian girl named Rahel turns on her new tablet computer. The solar powered machine speaks to her: “Hello! Would you like to hear a story?”She nods and listens to a story about a princess. Later, when the girl has learned a little more, she will tell the machine that the princess is named “Rahel” like she is and that she likes to wear blue—but for now the green book draws pictures of the unnamed Princess for her and asks her to trace shapes on the screen. “R is for Run. Can you trace the R?” As she traces the R, it comes to life and gallops across the screen. “Run starts with R. Roger the R runs across the Red Rug. Roger has a dog named Rover.” Rover barks: “Ruff! Ruff!” The Princess asks, “Can you find something Red?” and Rahel uses the camera to photograph a berry on a nearby bush. “Good work! I see a little red here. Can you find something big and red?”
As Rahel grows, the book asks her to trace not just letters, but whole words. The book’s responses are written on the screen as it speaks them, and eventually she doesn’t need to leave the sound on all the time. Soon Rahel can write complete sentences in her special book, and sometimes the Princess will respond to them. New stories teach her about music (she unlocks a dungeon door by playing certain tunes) and programming with blocks (Princess Rahel helps a not very-bright turtle to draw different shapes).
Rahel writes her own stories about the Princess, which she shares with her friends. The book tells her that she is very good at music, and her lessons begin to encourage her to invent silly songs about what she’s learning. An older Rahel learns that the block language she used to talk with the turtle is also used to write all the software running inside her special book. Rahel uses the blocks to write a new sort of rhythm game. Her younger brother has just received his own green book, and Rahel writes him a story which uses her rhythm game to help him learn to count.
Read more about Nell in this paper, and if you haven’t read The Diamond Age, do so at once.
Via MIT
6 Reasons Why Tablets Are Ready for the Classroom
Since the debut of the iPad, tablets have captured the imagination of consumers. In just one year, the iPad surpassed even the most optimistic of projections to define a brand new product category and become the best-selling gadget of all time, and Forrester analysts project that in 2011, tablet sales will more than double.
But are tablets ready for the classroom? Though tablets have caught on with consumers, the higher education market has been slower to adopt, and understandably so. From grades to degrees to job placement after graduation, the devices that are used in classrooms are tied to important outcomes.
As a result, colleges and universities must proceed carefully when considering whether to adopt a new technology on a large scale. However, reports from recent iPad pilot programs at schools across the country have been positive, and some colleges have even begun distributing tablets to all of their students. As we wrap up the first post-iPad school year, do we know enough to make the “fad, fail, magical” call? I think so.
By looking at all that tablets offer in the context of student behavior and some of the recent trends in education, it’s clear that tablets are ready for the classroom. Here’s a look at the top reasons why.
1. Tablets Are the Best Way to Show Textbooks
2. Classrooms Are Ready for Tablets
3. Tablets Fit Students’ Lifestyles
4. Tablets Have the Software to Be Competitive
5. Tablets Integrate With Education IT Trends
6. Tablets Are Becoming More Available
Thanks, Mashable, I totally agree. Please include a fully digitized library, I’m so fed up with not being able to read a book for my exams, because it’s conferred all the time.
To know helps to feel.
So we installed cables and satellites and created a global network of which we would like to think it covers the whole planet, whereas in reality, there is still lots of divides, such as the knowledge and digital divides. So we globalized our economy, we say “think global, act local”, we interconnected our national networks for the internet, the network of networks and we thought we could realize this imaginaire, this utopia of the information society, the collaborative global internet community, growing together as one cultural sphere with a free economy and the partnership of equals.
But although we teared down the wall, revolutionize(d) all across the globe, interconnect, travel, trade, exchange, we still don’t know enough about each other. We are still too different, because we exclude groups we don’t know. We are scared of going to certain countries, because all we know about them is that there is terrorism and that people are killing each other. We suffer, but we suffer only with those we feel close to, with those we know. We have each our own reception filters, our frequence, our own channel of selective empathy through which we perceive the world and choose what touches, when sometimes there is more that should touch us.
And why? Because we don’t know each other well enough. Because no one ever told us about those who are suffering outside of our frequency. But of course it’s only us who can play with the regulators to extend our frequency. But how? Well, someone needs to tell us, teach us, give us the books to read, introduce us to the people, show us everything we need to see, so we can adjust our frequency.
But who?
I don’t know. I’d like to.
Reading science fiction for a more critical view of our society?
I am currently working on a research project where I try to prove that reading science fiction can help adolescents to develop a more critical regard of our society. What do you think?
How can science fiction serve as an educational tool for aolescents? Is it possible to analyze the dreams and fears of society with science fiction narrations? Can we encourage young people between (12-16) to develop a more critical view of society by explaining society’s problems in science fiction to them?
If you want to help me answer this question, I would like to invite you to fill out my questionary: http://bit.ly/sfqu2011 Please don’t hesitate to send me a message or to reply with your (critical) thoughts. If you want to find out more about my current research, here’s a brief explanation on my website: http://sinaspace.net/?p=368
Thank you very much!
PS: I just recognized a few typos and the question about the profession is listed twice. I am sorry about that. However, I don’t dare to edit the form, since Google already overwrote my whole survey once.
Psychology And Sociology - Random Thought
Incredibly interesting topic: The interrelation between psychology and sociology of media use. Messages and opinions which are diffused via mass media get filtered by opinion leaders and passed on to followers. When a new (technological) innovation is ready for the market, it’s pioneers and innovators who obtain the object first, before they explain its benefits and use to the “mass”.
But its the psychological concepts of attitude-behavior relations in the end which determines who will be a leader and who a follower.
School’s Out and Your Kids Are Online: Do You Know What They’ve Been Searching For This Summer?
This is kind of shocking. Sex, boobs, pussy… o well. If something like that was held here in Germany, the public would instantly vote for DESTROYING THE INTERNET TO SAVE THE CHILDREN!
Games are the new School « Or-Tal’s Writings
“Games development is slowly becoming a central and one of the largest global industries. Right after our basic human needs, where satisfaction and esteem start, and self-actualization follows, right there you will find games. It’s not news that games promise entertainment, and looking at cubs playing you can easily deduct the relationship between play and development, but it is becoming clearer that games are the key to learning and education.”
(…)
Virtual world analysis for 20 - 30 year olds. This is the segment of current and upcoming virtual worlds tailored towards 20 - 30 year olds. It is an update of the “Universe-graph” by Kzero, a virtual worlds consultancy.
This doesn’t look bad, but it makes me feel a little strange since I am in my twenties and haven’t heard of any of these worlds except for Kaneva and never even realized they existed.
Bachelor thesis hardcore - The Other Days (résumé)
I’m sitting here with a glass of red wine, trying to convince myself to finally start shortening my thesis. I finished writing today and I ended up with 95 pages (and I already threw out one point worth 5 pages) instead of the “normal” 50 and I somehow have to get down to 75. And I haven’t written introduction and ending yet, so that’ll be another 2-4 pages plus.
Writing was ok the last days. I got distracted by tumblr every now and then, I ebayed more than I ever did since I joined ebay (which was in 2006) and I wrote down a lot of stuff I have to do once the thesis has safely arrived at my prof’s desk.
Well, I guess shortening has to wait until tomorrow. Maybe the text will have thrown out the unnecessary pieces itself by then.
Everything in the Internet ist about…
- Communication
- Entertainment
- Creation
- Exploration
- and Porn.
Joking [and porn] aside, I am currently working on a text named “Integration of the Internet into the Everyday Life” and that’s one of the things I try to evidence.
