As the chair Professor of Pervasive Computing at City University London and founder and director of the Mixed Reality Lab in Singapore, Dr. Adrian Cheok research is focused on a multi-sensory platform that will enable new ways of communication. He envisions a near future where smell, touch and taste information enrich virtual environments. In the meantime, […]
The Games For Change Student Challenge in New York City is a competition for middle and high school students to build games that have a social impact. These kinds of competitions are important not only for the products that result and the learning experiences they provide, but also because they empower students. Students know that […]
When I was a classroom teacher taking professional development (PD) classes, I remember feeling trapped in a room with my coworkers, listening to yet another lecture on how to teach better using a strategy that didn’t always apply to my classroom (the result of one-size-fits-all PD). While some sessions were helpful and engaging, many weren’t. […]
Last time I wrote on the blog, I explored equity and technology in classrooms with a focus on students; this week, my focus is on teachers. Outside of just having access to tech, teacher expectations of students and technology as well as teacher support around implementing the technology in their classrooms greatly impact student […]
Digital Learning Day was launched in 2012 by the Alliance for Excellent Education, and has been supported by other groups and corporate sponsors. The purpose is to showcase how technology can “improve student outcomes and support teachers.” There will be a number of events, including one in Washington D.C. that will be live-streamed. Individual schools, […]
Colombia may be on the brink of the future but can only go as far as the education system will allow. However there are gaps such as access to quality digital content, this gap is being addressed by a new Colombian initiative to provide over 900.000 tablets for students and teachers. Nearly half of the […]
This week, President Obama announced that he would be proposing legislation to increase protections on the data privacy of students. The actual legislation is expected to be submitted by the end of February. There is an abundance of research that shows gathering and analyzing data on student performance can greatly enhance educational outcomes. As students […]
Meaningful family involvement in schools can make a huge difference for a child’s learning and for driving improvement in the school system as a whole. Extensive research has shown that students with involved parents have higher attendance, social skills, grades, test scores, and graduation rates. We learned a lot more about this topic when […]
After visiting the coffee farm on our recent expedition, some of the Mobility Labs team went out to meet a woman who works in the river panning for gold. We learned a lot about this part of the Colombian economy which employs thousands of people. Several of our team members gave this task their best […]
A big part of the Mobility Labs retreat involves reviewing our processes. We took a look at almost every aspect of the business to better understand how we do what we do for clients, for projects, and for ourselves. We subscribe to the belief that often the best way to understand something is to explore […]
We have already talked about how teachers are using digital games in classrooms, but we didn’t touch on how prevalent this new trend has become. A new report from the Games and Learning Publishing Counsel takes a look at how kindergarten through eight-grade teachers are actually using games in classrooms. Disclosure, the study was based […]
Recently, three members of the Mobility Labs team went to the CTA (center of science and technology of Antioquia) to meet with the director and find out more about the major programs administered by the CTA. Our team was especially interested in the educational activities of CTA, including the ALIANZA program. We met with Mr. […]
This past week Mobility Labs attended the first National Education Summit in Medellin, Colombia. The summit, titled “Primera Cumbre Nacional de Educación,” brought together over 11,000 educators, administrators, service providers, and government officials to discuss the future of education in Colombia. Four main topic areas were covered: the importance of policy in education, redefining the […]
Data privacy is frequently discussed at the intersection of internet companies, websites, app-builders, and the consumer. Visiting a website or using an application produces data. Data gives us insights into how the world works. But not all consumers are comfortable with companies, institutions, or other individuals collecting and using that data. Even with all the […]
Ed Tech Friday is a weekly look at the issues, trends, and conversations that are important in the world of education technology. This week we are doing a broad overview of the field in order to introduce this new series. Wikipedia defines Education Technology this way: “the study and ethical practice of facilitating learning and […]
We expect computers to know the answers to questions. In fact, many of us grow frustrated when a computer doesn’t seem to understand what we’re asking. We Google phrases and we get results that are pretty astounding, really. Those of us who grew up watching Star Trek are familiar with the computer’s supporting role. You […]
Education in America seems to be at one of those tearing points in time. A quick look at recent headlines asks how we can choose between option A or option B. Or can we have both? This theme seems to emerging in several different areas. For instance: This article asks: Can Games and Education Play […]
[Edit Note: we were contacted by the author of the original article. He points out that the product they provide was developed by a team of teachers. We believe the article itself provides a good starting point for this discussion, however.] Not to pick on this guy, but… This article is titled “10 Ways to […]
As a technology company approaching the classroom, Mobility Labs is concerned with three things: How are things being done? Can they be done better? Who should lead the change? Currently, in the press, there is a lot of optimism and enthusiasm for the adoption of technology in the classroom. For instance: Here is a story […]
Today begins Teacher Appreciation Week in the United States. Or, as Wikipedia explains, Teacher’s Days. Around the world, Teacher’s Days, Teacher Day, or Teacher Week are celebrated on many different days. Tomorrow, Tuesday the 6th of May, is Teacher Day, intended to be part of the whole week’s activities. From Wikipedia: The origins of Teacher Day […]
The early days of the Internet was full of promise. Disruption seemed possible in almost every industry, and people poured millions into emerging technologies that nobody really understood. Then 2000 came along and the so-called Internet bubble burst all over everyone’s expectations. Some of the ideas that bubbled to the surface then were really good, […]
I was born into the tribe of people who carried backpacks full of books everywhere we went. We are the ones who are always reading two or three different books, plus we’re usually studying some issue that might require a major reference book. When laptops came along, that only added to the weight we bore […]
The model that sent settlers streaming across the continent and led to the gold rush in California then to Alaska is not that different from start-up culture. There is a whole bunch of opportunity out there, but the risk is high and a lot of it is buried in places that are hard to find. […]
Since around 2010 the term gamification has been widely used to describe the trend of incorporating game mechanics and elements in other environments, such as work, health-habits, and education. The idea is that games have created complex incentive structures and rewards that can motivate people to be more productive or effective at tasks they might […]
There are a lot of online tools available to teachers, and we thought we’d begin our series by rounding up a few. We would love to get some feedback from teachers and others on which of these you prefer, and on any major ones we might be missing. Here is our first list: Sketchlot is […]
The 21st century isn’t shaping up to be a cakewalk. Though it’s unlikely we’ll see the massive brutal wars that defined the first half of the last century, the economic rivalries are increasing—along with challenges to the economy, environment, and the great cultural transformation resulting from the near-universal access to information. One of the best […]
If you frequent the technology blogs and websites you probably saw a report, recently, telling us that an army of smart refrigerators had been taken over and were now working in the service of evil. A closer read might tell you that the actual story is just about a bot-net, this time one which included […]
One consequence of the government shutdown is that some popular federal agency websites have disappeared. Others are still available, though every one we tried at least had some kind of notice about the shutdown in place. The shutdown of many of the websites was predicted online. This Washington Post article is a good summary. Taking a […]
This video, which put together as part of our submission to the Whitehouse hackathon, explains a bit more about our approach to solving the National Veteran Data Challenge. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbjWyyvBXAM&feature=youtu.be
When Mobility Labs joined the team working on the National Civic Day of Hacking, we were looking for an interesting challenge that might have a real impact on social issues. We did not know how deeply we would get drawn into the project however. As a result of our challenge approach, we have: Met with […]