Quick, quick! – spell “yacht” New research on spelling and the brain English spelling and pronunciation are renowned for complexity and quirks. Spelling still matters and we all know how computer spell checkers can mislead**. So what goes on in our brains when we spell a word or try to? New research about exactly what happens in our brain when…
When dealing with bunkum like the unsubstantiated and most unlikely claim of the 14,000 parachuted cats it would be good to have a handy little tool like the Quackometer. This tool provides an instant service for checking a website for obvious signs of fraud, quackery and pseudoscience. (I tested this site – my personal quack report below.* Clean (duck) bill…
We are all very fond of talking about critical thinking. But what does it actually mean? In the classroom, in reality, in our lives? And how is such a skill developed? Awash with information, how do we determine truth, integrity and merit? The skills of discernment and discrimination are more crucial than ever as we all sort through what we…
What struck me about Operation Cat Drop – the flying cats of Borneo story – was not the unintended chain of events but the detail about the cats. Fourteen thousand cats! Where on earth would they be able to round up 14.000 cats? Could it possibly be true? And how could I find out? In addition to the wide circulation…
Let’s Abolish High School – it’s a link to an article in Education Week (April4, 2007) by Robert Epstein. Epstein provides some historical context to the educational warehousing of teenagers. Teenagers, he contends, are not inherently incompetent and irresponsible and we should stop treating them as if they were. To give you a taste: In today’s fast-paced world, education needs…
Gary Stager came to Poughkeepsie Day School at the end of March and he began with a lively Vassar College/ PDS presentation Ten Things to do with a Laptop. His title is a deliberate nod to a groundbreaking 1971 article by Seymour Papert and Cynthia Solomon “Twenty Things to Do with a Computer.” They had twenty on their list but…
Does this Jerry King cartoon from FNO strike a chord? It’s easy to say “less is more” but not always so easy to see the sentiment translated into the practical of everyday life where the pressure seems on for more stuff in less time. Here is Carl Honoré – author of In Praise of Slowness explaining how to get more…
El externado de Poughkeepsie desarrolla a ciudadanos educados con una pasión para aprender y vivir. Nuestra comunidad exige integridad, responsabilidad y respecto mutuo. Poughkeepsieの昼間学校は学び、生存のための情熱の教育がある市民を開発する。 私達のコミュニティは完全性、責任および相互点を要求する。 Пугхкеепсие Day School разрабатывает образованных граждан, имеющих страсть к обучению и жизни. Наше сообщество требует честности, ответственности и взаимного уважения. A former colleague – a wonderful Spanish teacher – has a sign by her desk…
What’s next for computers? Here’s a demonstration of a multi-touch interface. Pretty amazing.Imagine the classroom or the workplace where everyone has access to this technology.
Gary Stager with PDS faculty March 30th Here’s a story that Gary related at Vassar on Thursday. It’s about his seven year old nephew and a truly ridiculous reading assignment. Schlock and Awe
It was a great day in the James Earl Jones theater at PDS yesterday. Dan Gold – a member of the PDS class of 1978 – was there for the first public screening in the Hudson valley of the film he co-directed: Everything’s Cool – a hot documentary about global warming. This is a film that informs and entertains. It…
Earth…a poem by the the children in the Pre- K. These are their words – the places they know, the animals they know and their request to us. Their words and pictures became a book that they made together. It is now back in their classroom. Outstanding.
In an earlier post, I mentioned the prescient Marshall McLuhan who saw decades ago that we were living in an era of connectivity and communications In that interview, he commented that most of us think in the past. For artists, he says, it is different. They live in the present, they think in the present, and it can be terrifying.…
Take a look at this fascinating video about web 2.0 from Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University. The machine is us. The machine is using us. The machine will not stop. According to Professor Wesch we’ll need to rethink a few things including: copyright authorship identity ethics aesthetics rhetorics governance privacy commerce love family ourselves.…
The Age of Industry – that is what Mary Ellen calls kindergarten and this industry was certainly on display in the playground today. There was a potentially poisonous bug to be investigated in the playhouse, milk crates and logs to be hauled uphill in defiance of gravity and surface friction on the snow, and tree displays to be created on…