Forms of Attention: Distant Reading & Discipline from Laura Mandell

This keynote lecture by Laura Mandell discusses the different forms attention can take.  The lecture was taken from the first ever Texas Institute for Literary and Textual Studies symposium, and features an introduction from Lisa L. Moore. Watch the keynote below, or see our post on UniversityWebinars.org.

Methods for Teaching Science with Carl Wieman

Carl Wieman, a physicist who won the Nobel prize in 2001, shares his insights on teaching science.  In this presentation at the University of Virginia, Wieman presents his thoughts in an overarching presentation, and then leads workshops for faculty and students. Watch the video below, or see our post on UniversityWebinars.org.

TED: Child-Driven Education with Sugata Mitra

Sugata Mitra is an educational scientist studying the difficult problem that the best teachers and schools don’t exist where they’re needed most.  By giving students around the world “self-supervised access to the web,” Mitra saw amazing results. Watch below as Sugata Mitra (winner of the 2013 TED Prize) shares his dream.  Or, see our post […]

Dropout Nation: America’s Public Education Reform

Today, on Wisconsin Public Radio, I heard the term “Dropout Nation” for the first time.  After checking out the Nation Center for Statistics, it’s clear to see that even though dropout rates have lowered in the last 10 years, we’re still leaving 7-12% of those aged 16-24 without a high school degree or equivalent.  Interestingly, […]

Tablets As Multi-Purpose Instructional Devices

Schools in Brunswick, Georgia will soon begin testing a set of 60 brand new iPads to see if the devices can be successfully utilized by students and teachers to further their educational goals.  Though studies in the last decade have shown little or no benefit to having laptops in the classroom, schools are looking to […]

TechDirt: Judge Rules Demanding Students’ Facebook Password Violation of First Amendment Rights

After increasing reports of schools violating their students’ privacy by searching through their phones, facebook messages and other personal areas of the digital world, a judge has recently re-affirmed 20 years of decisions by ruling that requiring a student to give up their Facebook or email passwords is a violation of first amendment rights. A […]

SparkEd: Lowering the Drop-Out Rate in San Antonio

The city of San Antonio is building itself up as the “City of Innovation.”  To get started, the city is focusing on building up their youth.  New efforts spawning from the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce economic outlook conference are aimed at lowering San Antonio’s 27% high school drop-out rate (which is almost 20% […]

TED: Aaron Reedy Teaches Us How We Know About Evolution

Previously, we discussed Aaron Reedy’s innovative introduction of meaningful academic research into high school science classes.  I thought it would be interesting to touch on another area of his expertise.  Earlier this year, Reedy gave a TED talk about teaching high school students about evolution.  More specifically, Reedy discussed his approach to teaching how we […]

Case Study: Innovative Education in Fall River, MA

We’ve mentioned in the past the importance of giving teachers flexibility to develop innovative coursework for their students.  Today, we’ve got two examples of exactly that happening in Fall River, Massachusetts. The first is The Edmond Talbot Innovation School, which will present students in Fall River with career-based education in the areas of science, technology, […]