Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category

I continue to marvel at the power of the Web and the way it has completely transformed how we transact business and conduct our lives. We connect and communicate, we buy and we use content (books, music, movies, information, etc.) in completely new ways. In that brief second after you click the mouse, just consider how personalized and targeted the response is to your purchase on Amazon, music selection on iTunes, flight scheduling on Expedia, restaurant reviews on Yelp, friend connections on Facebook, and searches on Google.

A recent newspaper article on drafting Common Education Standards had me thinking about screws, widgets, standard gauge railways and whether even those politicians with the best of intentions really get what it means to provide a child with an appropriate - and timely - education.

The genesis of how DreamBox does assessment, and one of the reasons I am with the company, occurred over 30 years ago when one of my relatives was diagnosed with a learning disability.

This surprised us and shocked his teachers, who considered him to be in the upper middle to top third of the class for math. His test scores consistently supported this. In many areas he was significantly ahead of his peers. Yet a detailed examination with an expert showed that for him division just didn't compute. Put another way, his brain simply wasn't "wired for division".

I came across a short but compelling interview with MIT professor Henry Jenkins at the recent interactive conference SxSWi. He heads the comparative media studies program at MIT (soon to be USC he says), where he studies the convergence between games, learning, and the web. In the clip he describes a session with 2 game [...]

Does your child have trouble using the mouse? There are a number of things you can do that can greatly reduce the frustration and significantly raise the chances of mousing success for your little ones.

As a teacher I often used software in the classroom. Much of this software relied on me to determine the appropriate starting place in the curriculum. Every year I’d add my class list and determine which objectives I wanted to address for each student. Often I’d do this in August as part of my preparation for the new school year, which means I hadn’t even met the kids. Plus, we all know about the loss of knowledge retention that occurs over the summer. How was I supposed to know what each student did and didn’t need?

There is nothing like the excitement of launching a new product after years of work. I enjoyed the privilege of joining the celebration lunch with the DreamBox team.

Dear Mr. President, A week ago you stood in front of the nation and spoke the following words: “That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood . . . our schools fail too many . . . [But] we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do.” We at DreamBox Learning welcome your words.

Today’s blog round-up is dedicated to the burgeoning field of EdTech. For those who haven’t heard, “EdTech” is the portmanteau of “education” and “technology,” and explores ways the two are being meshed. As such, EdTech bloggers represent a new genre of educators, academics, and enthusiasts who are interested in using technology to fuel a more [...]

I was at conference recently discussing DreamBox with a pretty savvy industry insider when she asked “what makes your product so unique?” My response was “It’s incredibly effective, fun, and highly individualized to a child’s particular learning needs.” That’s when she said it. “Individualized?! That’s what they all say!”

I’ve had variations of the following conversation with relatives a couple of times in recent months. Has something similar happened to you? “She loves playing DreamBox and was doing fine. But now the questions are too hard and she’s getting frustrated.” “Hmm… Have you perhaps been helping her with her answers?”

I just got back from a great three day "Dust or Magic" conference run by Warren Buckleitner for people who create children's technology products. (The title is a quote from a 17th century philosopsher named Matsuo Basho: "An idea can turn to dust or magic, depending on the talent that rubs against it.")