Some of the articles that have caught my eye this week: Male modesty is a turn off for women (and men), at least in job interviews. From Rutgers University http://news.rutgers.edu/medrel/special-content/summer_2010/rutgers-study-finds-20100726 Send a picture of your face on the final shuttle missions. https://faceinspace.nasa.gov/index.aspx Cambridge study suggests that education reduces the risk of dementia http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/133/8/2210 (pdf). Here’s […]
Archive | July, 2010
Google Brain
I recently saw this on Facebook: Written by Matthew, an 11 year old boy. He’s not being ironic. It’s an attitude that is permeating society, particularly among the young. In a sense I think Matthew is right. We’ve never had access to such large amounts of information before so the majority of school activity suddenly […]
The Game Continuum
I spend a lot of my time discussing the efficacy of games for learning. I think all games offer us something for the real world but the crucial aspect for transferability is representation of the game world. I believe that we can map games on a scale ranging from reality to abstraction; I call this […]
Raoul Moat’s Facebook Page
There’s been all sorts of hoo-haa about the ‘RIP Raoul Moat you Legend’ Facebook page and its 30,000 fans. Now it’s been removed by its creator, Siobhan O’Dowd. What the media hasn’t reported is that one needed to be a fan in order to comment. And most of the comments were virulently anti-Moat. Evidently most […]
Social Media in Education (Part 3) – Learning
This is my last blog of the thoughts I shared at the recent Social Media in Education podcamp. In my previous two posts, I’ve suggested that educational initiatives using Facebook et al have often failed to appreciate user behaviour or offer any genuine social value to their audience. I end with the thought that for […]
Social Media in Education (Part 2) – Value
In my previous post, I suggested that for learning providers, simply having a presence on social media networks is not enough to engage students: not only are teens fabulously fickle, they are wary, resentful even, of authorities encroaching into their personal space: “Facebook is more a ‘personal’ thing and i don’t really want to get […]
Social Media in Education (Part 1)
I was fortunate to participate in the recent Social Media in Education podcamp at Doncaster College. In the midst of many people highlighting the benefits of social media, I speculated about the reasons so many initiatives from educational establishments fail to engage. Not to ridicule or condemn but to improve. This is about learning, after […]