geekosystem

Sometimes it seems that no matter how well an idea is accepted by the scientific community, there's someone out there not willing to believe it. That's why Jonathan Osborne, professor of education at Stanford University, says we should be teaching students how to argue based on evidence, not just cram facts into their head. The challenge, Osborne says, isn't in getting students to argue -- it's getting teachers on board with teaching "argumentation." Why not just argue with them until they agree?

Fly larvae -- fine, maggots -- that are raised on food spiked with alcohol grow up into flies who can't learn normally without the aid of a little booze juice, marking yet another way in which maggots are pretty much just like college students. A study demonstrating the difficulties maggots experienced while trying to process new information without the aid of a morning beer to take the edge off things appears this week in the journal Current Biology, which reminds us that keg stands are not always recreational choices -- sometimes they are educational tools.

A childhood filled with Reader Rabbit and other educational doodads appears to be the key to improved cognitive development later in life. Everything else, including whether your parents were loving or not, has no discernible effect. At least, that's what Martha Farah, Director of the Center for Neuroscience & Society at the University of Pennsylvania, and her colleagues have concluded after a twenty-year study.

When we think of students using social media, it's hard not to imagine the college freshman holed up in the library spending hours on Facebook when they should be studying for exams, but maybe there is a little more value in social media for students than you would think. An interesting infographic by Masters in Education suggests that being involved in social media is actually good for students' grades. However, the graphic doesn't really get into the nuts and bolts of how they established a correlation. Still, some of the claims seem pretty believable, like students using social media to organize themselves into a study group when one wasn't organized by a professor. Even if the social media addict is unlikely to be at the top of the class, it is still good to note that there are positive ways to use social media for educational purposes. It doesn't have to be a brain sucking vortex of wasted time, in fact, it could provide some great new ways for students to learn.

The South Korean Ministry of Education is investing a hefty $2.4 billion into making the country's school system completely digital. The plan is to abolish textbooks and replaced them with digital learning materials stored in a centralized database, which students would access with tablet PCs. Of course, there is still much to do before this plan can get off the ground. Digital textbooks still need to be developed, the centralized digital storage system for schools currently does not exist, and many of the schools will need to have WiFi networks installed. There is currently no word on how the tablets will interact with the system, but South Korean reports say that tablets will be provided to low-income school children. Though some digital education pilot programs have been attempted in the U.S. and other countries, few can rival the scope of the South Korean plan. While it will certainly be interesting to watch unfold, an entirely paperless school system will surely stand as a useful test case for other countries to emulate. Perhaps the digital learning revolution will have its start in Seoul. (image and story from The Chosunilbo via Engadget)

These kids today. Back when I was in school, simply having a cellphone in the school could be enough to land you in hot water. Now, the New York Times is reporting that a growing number of teachers are using Twitter and other digital communication systems as a "back channel" through which students can ask questions and engage in discussions. Educators who have embraced the new approach say that it brings more people into class discussions. From the NYTimes:

Nicholas Provenzano, an English teacher at Grosse Pointe South High School, outside Detroit, said that in a class of 30, only about 12 usually carried the conversation, but that eight more might pipe up on a backchannel. “Another eight kids entering a discussion is huge,” he noted.

Some students seem to echo this belief. One 17 year old interviewed by the Times said that he never felt the need to speak up during discussions. He adds that when typing, however, he feel like he can better express himself. Beyond boosting participation, some educators say that modern children respond better to more modern teaching methods. Again, from the Times:

In Exira, Iowa, Kate Weber uses the technology for short periods almost daily with her fourth graders. “You’d think there’s a lot of distraction, but it’s actually the opposite,” she said. “Kids are much quicker at stuff than we are. They can really multitask. They have hypertext minds.”

Bold changes to traditional teaching like this are bound to beg the question of whether or not they work.

Armenia is a country mad for chess, having won a number of world chess competitions in recent years. Now, the country will impart a love of chess to the next generation, committing $1.43 million to an educational program that will see chess taught as a school curriculum subject for children six and above, who will study chess in classrooms for two hours per week. While the country is framing the program in terms of Armenia's world competitiveness in chess, it's fair to expect that there will be broader educational benefits: Education ministry official Arman Aivazian said that chess lessons would "foster schoolchildren's intellectual development" and teach students to "think flexibly and wisely." (news.com.au via Neatorama. pic via Shutterstock.)

Canadian researchers have found that, despite educator worries that comics are "unsuitable reading material... associated with poor quality, cheapness and disposability," young boys who read comics are more likely to read literature in general, and more likely to enjoy reading.

This should come as news to all the middle school teachers I had who wouldn't let me count Maus or Tintin books on my reading list.

Social media can do a lot of cool things, like launch wee babies from post-college obscurity into weblebrity stardom, but we won't likely be seeing the Twitterversity of YouFace issuing a Bachelors of Micro-Marketing anytime soon. Last week's Social Media Week panel on "The Future of Social Media in Higher Education," was a lot like watching an awkward blind date.  Sure, social media and higher ed might have a lot of common interests like "iPhones" and "Facebook", but they probably shouldn't be planning on having internet babies anytime soon: