Learning Edge- Observations

Edtech finally getting some attention:

As Kaplan’s new TechStars-powered ed tech accelerator recruits its first class, Don Burton, the program’s new managing director, talks about the developing industry and opportunities ahead.

A little self promotion ;-)

TechStars is sweetening the deal for edtech startups to join its first Kaplan EdTech Accelerator class in New York this summer. Running the new program is a guy with a boatload of experience in the business of kids and education, Don Burton

Another wonderful niche in the world of Edtech opportunity:

Though schools have beefed up their career services in recent years, students still fear they lack the practical skills they’ll need after graduation, such as deciphering a balance sheet or leading colleagues on a project. So-called bridge programs, which offer liberal-arts majors crash courses on business skills, war stories from executives and nuts-and-bolts tips to make it in the corporate world…

One idea that is gaining popularity is around the notion that education has to encourage and reinforce kids’ natural curiosity. Unfortunately, conventional education does a very efficient job of beating kids’ natural curiosity out of them. This year’s TED prize winner, Dr. Sugata Mitra—the first to step up to $1 million in prize money—tackles this issue head on.

Code.org, the new non-profit aimed at encouraging computer science education launched last month

The Obama administration is planning a decade-long scientific effort to examine the workings of the human brain and build a comprehensive map of its activity, seeking to do for the brain what the Human Genome Project did for genetics.

Chris Lehman of the Science Leadership Academy is always provocative, from this article: “There’s a group of a teachers who are out in front of you. In fact, they’re so far out front that one of their biggest worries is that most of education technology is building software around exactly the kind of practices they would like to see schools abandon.

Small group of edtech advant garde try to provoke discussion with a learner online/digital “Bill of Rights”

This phenomenon of bright young minds exploring engineering through games hasn’t gone unnoticed by experts in two important fields: international development and education. At the beginning of September, Mojang announced a project in cooperation with the UN Habitat called Block by Block, which will engage Minecraft players in an effort to redesign 300 different public spaces over the next three years in locations such as Nairobi’s Kibera slum.