One Laptop Per Child

Recently in the news, there has been an increase in the discussion of the One Laptop per Child Project that is currently being implemented. So, what exactly is this phenomenal project? Nicholas Negroponte is the founder and chairman of the project, in which there are specially designed computers for children to enhance learning. The goal is to have residents purchase a laptop to send to a child in a third world country so that they can experience the online world and be connected with everyone worldwide. I first saw the video below as it aired live on CNN and had to share it. This is truly a fascinating project and hopefully will enhance learning for those certain children.

One Laptop Per Child

Textbook 2.0

An article recently reported on by CNN outlines a new way of learning and using the classic textbook by putting the course materials online. This Connexions website offers students a place to view electronic versions of textbooks and teachers a place to add to the information by way of the Creative Commons licensing. Each lesson is known as a "module" and those are divided up into the educational categories that they represent. Another point that should be noted, this site is not only offered in English, but has stretched to other languages, including but not limited to Spanish, Chinese, and Japanese. This website can be very useful to educators and students alike by way of the convenience it provides. If you would like to read the article, check it out here!

Educational Technology In Action

Visiting the website for our area newspaper, the Quad City Times, I came across an article that was about the application of technology in the classroom. Usually, due to the lack of funding available, some schools in the Davenport area cannot afford such interactive technologies for the classroom. This particular classroom at Neil Armstong Elementary School in Bettendorf uses an interactive whiteboard to aid student learning. In the linked video, it shows students studying a map of the northeast portion of the United States and students are to drag state names from the list to the appropriate state. Of course, this isn't the only thing that this whiteboard is capable of doing, but, it is a great asset to any classroom to enhance student learning. Read about this fascinating technology here!