More news of professors banning laptops from class in The Washington Post this week:

"Standards are critically important. Standardization is a waste of time and money."

David and I are thinking ahead to our address on "The Future of Thinking:  Learning Institutions in a Digital Age."   We will have a bicoastal conversation, and then a live chat, still in the planning stages.   So we'd love you to send us questions that might form the basis of that conversation on any aspect of our educational futures.   You can use the Comments section below for that purpose.  We'd love to hear from yo

This is a reblog of political science professor  Wendy Brown's important piece on the relationship between public education and democracy, given on the CA capitol steps during the "Educate the State" rally.  Pass it on!

The National Economic Council and the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) are asking for public input for a new initiative intended to address the challenges of the 21st century. The initiative, which would be similar to the National Academy of Engineering's (NAE) Grand Challenges for Engineering program, would help catalyze innovations to spur economic growth, encourage multidisciplinary collaborations and improve STEM education. Responses are needed to help identify specific challenges, potential partners and models for the program.

We’re good at learning from authority, but how do we learn to question authority? That’s an invaluable skill in this collaborative, Internet age, says a professor of interdisciplinary studies.

Let’s try a thought experiment.   Let’s assume we live in a culture where all forms of educational achievement tests have been banned and no one is allowed to assign a letter or numerical grade for anything.   How would we evaluate what students are learning?

This year the Department of Education, as provided by their 2010 appropriations legislation, will make available the initial funding required to launch the National Center.   In the words of the Center’s authorizing legislation, “The purpose of the Center shall be to support a comprehensive research and development program to harness the increasing capability of advanced information and digital technologies to improve all levels of learning and education, formal and informal, in order to provide Americans with the knowledge and skills needed to compete in the global economy.”
 

Thought I'd take a break from my thesis to post a video that always gets me thinking about the education side of digital humanities...