Notes on additional links from the "Young Minds" article

(1) Early elem. teachers using Wii games to collect data for analysis, and a Wii geography activity. Kids very engaged! Most popular gaming platform right now -- inventive and intuitive.

(Each of these articles then has a box of links to related articles! Cool way of organizing info., but how am I going to stop reading and go to bed?)

(2) VOISE Academy High School (Chicago) -- based upon online opportunities used in school as a foundation of learning. "With tech as the backbone, designers say, VOISE will make learning what it should be: student directed, project based, rigorous, and relevant." 150 students per grade level 9-12 to maintain a small-school environment, but kids can take classes in tons of subjects through online providers! Some (me included) worry about how human connections will be maintained within the school if everyone is studying different things online. The principal is seeking teachers with experience in coaching or SPED, who presumably would be used to building close personal relationships.

Part 2 of article describes the curriculum as "all digital". Lots of tech and social issues at first. Many students entered with little or no computer experience. (Seems surprising. Due to poverty? . . . Oh, OK: 99% free or reduced lunch. ) Small class sizes are fostering a supportive academic community. (Article is written by edutopia.org.)

Need DSL or cable at home to access the school's networks, but where to get the money? So school is open Saturday mornings, and 40% of students come then by choice! (Interestingly, it says that they still "complain about school as much as any other kids", though. Maybe partly to seem "cool"?) Many had never used a computer before! (Wow, talk about a socioeconomic divide compared to Sharon, where I think even the kindergarteners go to the Computer Lab, and probably almost everyone has a computer at home.) Oh -- they did have Computer Lab once a week in elem. school, but it sounds like that didn't do much for them. (Interesting applications to my own family. I'm a parent of a five-year-old, and have been feeling that she has more important learning tasks at this age than those that could be accomplished on a computer -- so she never uses ours at home. I figured school exposure would be enough for a while. Maybe not?)

25% of their class time so far has gone to "establishing appropriate online behavior!" Students drift off task into online social interactions not related to their studies.

Self-paced learning, for ex. in math. Everyone keeps learning when the teacher has to focus on helping a particular student for a while. Also, more engagement when everyone is working at the level appropriate to them. Read-aloud feature is useful to low readers.