Over the years I have read many articles written by Larry Cuban. I have often disagreed with his point of view regarding computers in education. In essence, I was in favor of use of computers and he was suspicious of or against use of computers. However, I fully agree with the following article

Cuban, Larry (11/29/2011). Challenging Reformers’ Conventional Wisdom about Structures and Classroom Practice. Retrieved 2/4/2012 from http://larrycuban.wordpress.com/2011/11/29/challenging-reformers-conventional-wisdom-about-structures-and-classroom-practice/.

Quoting from the article:

Is there a difference between a successful online learner and a successful “off line” learner?  The following article addresses this question.

Wolpert-Gawron, Heather (2/1/2012). Seven Digital Learning Tips for Students. Retrieved 2/1/2012 from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/digital-learning-seven-tips-heather-wolpert-gawron.

Quoting from the article:

Currently I am writing a short book based on my very popular iae-pedia page Good Math Lesson Plans (http://iae-pedia.org/Good_Math_Lesson_Plans). I started to think about the role of Advance Organizers in a good lesson. The idea of an advance organizer is attributed to David Ausubel. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ausubel. Quoting from this Wikipedia document:

An advance organizer is information presented by an instructor that helps the student organize new incoming information. This is achieved by directing attention to what is important in the coming material, highlighting relationships, and providing a reminder about relevant prior knowledge.

Advance organizers are helpful in the way that they help the process of learning when difficult and complex materials are introduced. This is satisfied through two conditions:

We want students to understand what they are learning—not just memorize, regurgitate, and forget. The following article describes a successful approach in physics education.

Simon, Beth and Cutts, Quintin (February 2012). Peer Instruction: A Teaching Method to Foster Deep Understanding. Communications of the ACM. Retrieved 1/30 2012 from http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2012/2/145404-peer-instruction/fulltext.

Quoting from the article:

I recently listed to a 15-minute interview with Yong Zhao. The (audio) interview is available at http://bcove.me/3ftbh7c0. The interview presents powerful and well reasoned ideas on how to improve our educational system. I strongly recommend that you listen to the interview ad/or read Yong’s book:

Zhao, Yong (2009).  Catching Up or Leading the Way: American Education in the Age of Globalization Availability. ASCD.  

Here is a brief introduction to the book, quoted from the ASCD site http://shop.ascd.org/ProductDetail.aspx?ProductId=1095&Catching-Up-or-Leading-the-Way:-American-Education-in-the-Age-of-Globalization.

In terms of academics and research, MIT is a world-class university. In addition, it is playing a leading role in a major change that is going on in higher education. This IAE Blog entry draws on the following article:

Carey, Kevin (1/22/2012). MIT mints a valuable new form of academic currency. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved 1/28/2012 from http://chronicle.com/article/MIT-Mints-a-Valuable-New-Form/130410/.

The following quoted material summarizes what MIT is doing in terms of making its academic course offerings available to the world:

Today I spent some time looking for research literature on the effectiveness of using computerized white boards (CWB) in education. I did this because I had just read an article about many teachers and their students liking the $5,000 CWB and believing it improved education. My probe into the research on actual effectiveness of CWB use indicated that substantial staff development in its use may be a major factor in whether student learning is improved in a CWB environment. It may be, for example, that extensive staff development on how to facilitate interactive teaching is a key issue in effective use of CWB. In any event, this thought led me to looking at some of the literature on staff development. That, in turn, led me to the following report:

Darling-Hammond, Linda; Wei, Ruth Chung; Andree, Alethea; Richardson, Nikole; and Orphanos, Stelios (2009).  Professional learning in the learning profession: A status report on teacher development in the United States and abroad. National Staff Development Council. This 36-page report was retrieved 1/24/2012 from http://www.srnleads.org/resources/publications/pdf/nsdc_profdev_short_report.pdf.

Here is a quote that I consider to be the good news from this report:

Quoting from the Wikipedia:

Dyscalculia (or math disability) is a specific learning disability involving innate difficulty in learning or comprehending arithmetic. It is akin to dyslexia and includes difficulty in understanding numbers, learning how to manipulate numbers, learning maths facts, and a number of other related symptoms (although there is no exact form of the disability).

The following newspaper article contains some interesting findings about dyscalculia.

Many people have ideas on possible incentives that will lead to improved teacher performance. One of the most common ideas is financial rewards for the teachers of students who perform well on state and national tests. Here is an article that discusses various incentives.

National Education Policy Center (1/12/2012). Tapping into what makes teachers tick. Retrieved 1/12/2012 from http://us4.campaign-archive1.com/?u=b4ad2ece093459cbf2afb759f&id=fd055b1f4f&e=f5144fcf99.

Brief Summary: Research shows that incentive programs that merely pay teachers for student test scores produce limited results; other incentives are more popular with teachers, produce better outcomes, and can be used to spread expertise to colleagues.

I enjoyed reading the article cited below. However, I think the title is quite misleading. The errors were in engineering design and implementation. All of the examples were deadly serious errors.

Radomile, Chris (1/9/2012). Six Small Math Errors That Caused Huge Disasters. Cracked.com. Retrieved 1/11/2012 from http://www.cracked.com/article_19623_6-small-math-errors-that-caused-huge-disasters.html.

Here is one of the six examples: