IBM’s Holodeck-style classroom tech makes language-learning apps look primitive

Whether it’s apps like Duolingo or the ease of travel, there are plenty of ways technology has made it more straightforward to learn a second (or third or fourth …) language. Now, IBM Research and New York’s Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have come up with an entirely new high-tech approach — and it totally reminds us of the Vulcan school from 2009’s Star Trek movie.

Called the Cognitive Immersive Room (CIR), it pairs an A.I.-powered chatbot smart assistant with a 360-degree panoramic display system to place users into a variety of immersive locations to try out their language skills. Currently, it’s being used for Mandarin, which is widely considered to be among the more difficult languages for Westerners to learn. The CIR setup drops students into scenarios like a restaurant in China and a tai chi class, where they can put their Mandarin to the test.

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Study: Online classes really do work

 

.Online Classes

Online classes really can teach as effectively as traditional classroom courses.

Two years ago, a New York Times article declared it the “year of the MOOC,” short for “massive open online courses.” For the first time every, researchers have carried out a detailed study that shows that these classes really can teach at least as effectively as traditional classroom courses—and they found that this is true regardless of how much preparation and knowledge students start out with.

 

 

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No Homework! Why Finland’s school system is the best in the world

schoolwork

Homework is rarely given until students are teenagers.

Our education system is failing our students. There are also a lot of different options presented on how to ‘fix’ it. Everyone has an answer, a promising new way of thinking, a potential magic bullet. Inevitably, we also examine school systems that are working as a part of investigating what to do or not to do with our own. (Infographic)

 

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Technological advances and privacy concerns clash in the classroom

tech in the classroom

The amount of data collected is expected to swell as more schools use apps and tablets that can collect information.

With the shift to computerized testing, tablets in the classroom and digitized personal records, schools are collecting more data than ever on how children are doing. Now, some educators believe, it’s time to put that data to use.

 

 

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IBM unveils top 5 technology predictions for the next 5 years

This year’s ideas are based on the fact that everything will learn.

IBM reveals its five big innovation predictions that will change our lives within five years. This is the eighth year now that IBM has made predictions about technology, and this year’s prognostications are sure to get people talking.

 

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Designing classroom ‘makerspaces’ to transform learning in schools

The Maker movement emphasizes products and processes born from tinkering, playing, experimenting, expressing, iterating and collaborating.

Learning in our schools is poised to be transformed by the Maker movement. This fresh approach emphasizes creation and creativity and counteracts educational standards, testing and uniformity. Its emphasis is on products and processes born from tinkering, playing, experimenting, expressing, iterating and collaborating — and exploits new digital tools to make, share and learn across space and time, DIY style. Museums, libraries, community centers and after-school programs have designed physical and virtual “makerspaces” to host communities of supportive peers and mentors invested in creating everything from nail polish design and webpages to jewelry and robots . . . and now, even school curriculum.

 

 

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Why high schools should start thinking of computer programming as a fundamental skill

Coding is just a fundamental tool, the same way writing in English and algebra are.

There’s a good chance that your kid’s classroom will be remodeled by the tech industry. After years of more or less resisting the pull of the web, both college and K-12 seem ripe to be remade for the digital age. There’s political buy-in. There’s investor buy-in. There’s a pervasive sense that it’s just time.

 

 

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The ‘flipped academic’ in higher education – inform first and publish later

Turning the education model inside out.

The concept of the ‘flipped classroom’ in schools is when pupils complete course material ahead of lessons to free up time with their teachers and apply the knowledge they have just learned. Now a related philosophy is developing in higher education. Can we also flip academics – or even academia itself?

 

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New movement in the classroom to put play back in education

The new PlayMaker school in Los Angeles is using gaming technology to teach curriculum.

Maybe play isn’t the opposite of work but synonymous with it.  There is a growing body of scientific evidence, reviewed here by the University of Georgia, showing education is not the same as disinterested drudgery: For children and adults, “play is an important mediator for learning and socialization throughout life.”

 

 

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Technology won’t kill a college education but it will transform it

University study time will look radically different than it does today.

Because of the economic pressures on higher education, somewhere this year a university hired its last tenured professor.  And because of the technological pressures on higher education, next year a university will hire its last faculty member expected to teach in a classroom.

 

 

 

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