Education reform: unbundling the university

KaplanInternational.com

A revolution in education is coming. This article from The Atlantic discusses alternate higher education. 

For a long time now, universities have flourished by offering a bundled package of knowledge and credentialing. People attended university in order to learn stuff that they couldn't learn elsewhere -- because the experts weren't elsewhere -- and to be certified by those experts as having actually learned said stuff. The bundle has been a culturally powerful one.

Studying teenager web use

The NYT has a piece about a 34 year old Phd who is studying children's use of social media. I'm glad someone is doing it. 

Dr. [Danah] Boyd — a senior researcher at Microsoft, an assistant professor at New York University and a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard

“The single most important thing about Danah is that she’s the first anthropologist we’ve got who comes from the tribe she’s studying,”

News Flash: PE teachers are dumb

The Education Testing Service (ETS) keeps all kinds of stats and apparently PE teachers come from the low end of the already low average that make up teaching majors.

about Apple's textbooks

From Engadget: "What you need to know"

Motivation and Talent

Two interesting articles about personal development and expertise:

To Develop Expertise, Motivation is Necessary but Insufficient

Sorry, Strivers: Talent Matters

Video: History of the Modern World

Niall Ferguson's TED talk: the 6 Killer Aps of prosperity

A better way to teach science

An interesting article from Discover Mag:

“overwhelming” evidence that lectures are an ineffective way for universities to achieve the educational objectives they set.

Facebook for Scientists

From the Freakonomics blog

Open-sourcing the scientific process

"Dear Student...

...I don't lie awake at night thinking of ways to ruin your life."

An economist, and Forbes contributor, wrote this letter to students everywhere. I like his point.

Maryland Schools #1

I had no idea. I don't know if this is good for MD or bad for the country.

Be curious...

...like the Tako!

"Young children are like sponges, full of optimistic curiosity that fuels their confidence to be creative. But as they get older, they lose that magical openness, and, for many, the door to creativity closes very early."