Online University at the Forefront of Education?

It seems fitting that an online university points out the 21st Century deficiency of our current educational system.

Mountains and Mountains of Data

Nate Silver is known in baseball circles as the stat guru. He takes seemingly unrelated data and predicts hits and season records. He is taking his data analysis talent to political polling. His predictions of state results in the Democratic Primary were often very close to the outcomes. He often beat established polling companys offering a critique of them on his website fivethirtyeight.com. How does this relate to Educational Technology? I would argue that a skill needed for the 21st Century is the ability to analyze data. Nate wrote algorithms to make predictions from available data. This ability made him successful in the baseball and political worlds.

Read about Nate in Newsweek.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/140469

In a related story Bill James a life long Celtics fan is being credited with the Celtics playoff birth last year for his analysis of seeming unrelated statistics. Bill does statistical analysis of common stats but is also able to tag game footage to easily enable players to bring up all instances a player is at the top of the key to see if they go left or right. Bill's expertise in math and computers has made him a go to guy for the front office, players, and coaches.

Tina Fey Phenomenon?

When I first started teaching math I would often come across articles talking about the gender gap of achievement. Boys were suppose to be out performing girls in the classroom. I taught in a middle school and I found the opposite to be true. A similar technology gender gap has been researched. Newsweek took a look at the issue in their Revenge of the Nerdette article. The article takes a look at girls that are smart, good looking, and popular. They are succeeding in areas of math, science, and technology.

Not all woman are being well received in the tech world. It seems some woman bloggers are hitting a glass ceiling.

Make a Long Story Short

Attention English teachers Spark Notes is the Cliff Notes of the 21st Century. Students can get abbreviated versions of books online. Could this be incorporated into the classroom?

In a related article "The Dumbest Generation? Don't Be Dumb." Newsweek wonders if Generation Y's ignorance of facts like history and geography reflects a dumbness or just an attitude that if it can be looked up I don't have to remember it. IQs have been rising since the 1930s, technology is changing how information is processed. It is still yet to be determined if it is changing for the better or worse. Are multitasking and video games helping or harming our kids? Could these be increasing our thinking ability?

"When Computers Hurt instead of Help" is the NYTimes take on how helping poorer students buy laptops may not be improving their achievement but becoming a distraction.

Daily Newspaper Publishes Online

The 90 year old Capital Times has stopped printing a hard copy of its newspaper for Madison, Wis. It is offering the daily exclusively online.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/28/business/media/28link.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin