Marli Mesibov's Blog

Amid all the jokes and insincere comments on the new Apple iPad, Jenny Williams has written a great analysis of how the iPad will affect the younger generation. Check out her column, GeekDad, on Wired:
http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2010/01/how-will-the-apple-tablet-change-ou...

There's a new Alphabet Book out, and this one's based in the game Mega Man. Now, I've never heard of Mega Man before, but the illustrations are fantastic, and the review which led me to the video was well written and brought up many good points.

The review: http://www.destructoid.com/the-art-of-once-upon-a-pixel-mega-man-160168....

Once Upon a Pixel: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/mega-man-once-upon-a/60433

Catch Sarah White, President of Six Red Marbles, and Jacques Driscoll, CEO, at BETT in London this week! A short article in The Guardian discusses BETT's theme this year: http://www.guardian.co.uk/resource/games-take-leading-role

and for more information on BETT, check out http://www.bettshow.com/

Schools have been slowly but surely moving away from lecture-style classrooms for the past two decades. The results are clear - the more students are actively engaged in the learning process, the more they retain. But what about the students who can't seem to concentrate on the material, no matter how active they are? The students labeled as ADD and ADHD?

According to the New York Times, Nickelodeon's new show "Team Umizoomi" will be bringing math to preschool students. Aside from having a fantastic name, the show's creator is Blue's Clues' writer Soo Kim and features songs reminiscent of Schoolhouse Rock. Intruiged? I certainly am. A few of the show's aims include:

-Bringing math to the preschool group, a feat accomplished by no other current television shows, excepting Sesame Street
-Looking at the world through the perspective that children are naturally good at math, and sending this message to preschoolers

I've come across yet another article, extolling the virtues of classrooms using video games to help students teach. This time, the students are learning to create their own educational games, which younger grades will then use.

My personal favorite quote from the article: "When you teach other people, you strengthen 90 percent of what you know.”

Read more, at http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6712738.html?industryid=47075

About 10% of K-12 learning takes place in the formal school system, according to a study at University Preparatory School in Redding, California. Homework is a wonderful tool to encourage bridging the gap between formal learning and learning in the home, and educational video games are doing their part to further connect the two. In addition, video games can bring an educational focus to the informal, exploration-based learning that takes place at play.

Interested to read up on this?

On December 5th, the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) set 10 red balloons in various locations around the US. Teams proceeded to use social networks (primarily Twitter) to pass along information on where the balloons were moored. DARPA planned to test out how accurately social networks could pass along information.

Responses were originally to be accepted until December 14th. How well do social networks pass along information? Well enough that a team from MIT determined the locations of all 10 balloons by Saturday afternoon.

Impressive!

For months the headlines have read variations on a theme... "is your child safe on Facebook?" Now Facebook is answering with the "Panic Button," in the UK. Soon there will be a way for children and parents in Great Britain to instantly report online abuse and illicit activity directly to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre. Can the US be far behind?

Oxford English Dictionary has chosen "Unfriend" as the word of the year. The news came out almost exactly one month ago, but the debates on "unfriend"'s merits as a word continue.

The OED offers their process here, which is a good read - http://blog.oup.com/2009/11/word-of-the-year/ The word must be widespread (certainly, "unfriend" fits the bill), but somehow previous year's words seem slightly less colloquial and more relevant... take 2008's "hypermiling" and 2007's "locavore."