Topics in This Focus Channel

• SNS: The Right Idea

  September 26, 2013

  Volume 16, Issue 33
  Week of September 23, 2013
  In This Issue
  Feature: The Right Idea
  

  • Learning to See
  • Learning to Think
  • The Right Idea

  
  Quotes of the Week
  Upgrades
  

  • Microsoft's Restructuring
  • China: Following Dumping with Retaliation
  • Two IPOs: Twitter vs. Alibaba
  • The End of Online Comments?

  
  Takeout Window
  

  • The New Surface and Surface Pro 2 Pads

  
  In Case You Missed It...
  Members Making News
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  This week's issue is the direct result of my recent speech to the incoming class of Thunderbird School of Global Management, virtually all of whom then signed up as SNS members. We welcome them to our community and look forward to their great works as they go out into the world.
  
  Almost every student today is taught that the basis of discovery, the primary tool for conducting science itself, is what's often called the "Scientific Method."Merriam-Webster.com describes it this way: "[P]rinciples and procedures for the systematic pursuit of knowledge involving the recognition and formulation of a problem, the collection of data through observation and experiment, and the formulation and testing of hypotheses" and, from Dictionary.com: "[A] method of research in which a problem is identified, relevant data are gathered, a hypothesis is formulated from these data, and the hypothesis is empirically tested. (Origin: 1850-55)" But it's even simpler than that. Take an idea - called a "hypothesis" - and test it by experiment; evaluate the results, modify your original idea accordingly, and repeat. There is only one problem with this 150-year-old program: it doesn't tell us how to get the right idea in the first place. And for those who think this is not a big issue, let me suggest that it is the most important part of science.

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• “The Technology Revolution in K-12 Education”

  August 3, 2012

  An SNS Conference Call on: what technology is appropriate for the classroom; how do we move beyond the current union/administration lock; how can we provide a national or global platform for new educational tools and software; how can we talk technology in a world of declining budgets; what does technology bring to the current financial and resource challenges of special education, English as a Second Language, and related issues; how can technology companies participate in and accelerate this obvious new mandate; and what else will it take to make this a reality?

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• “Education Beyond Technology”

  August 2, 2012

  An SNS Weekly Report on "Education Beyond Technology," including The Wrong War; Technology: The Enabler, Not the Answer; Getting Beyond Calculus; Industry’s Response; and CarryAlongs in the Classroom

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• The AORTA Manifesto: “A Movement to Revolutionize Teaching and Learning”

  May 23, 2012

  This SNS Project Inkwell manifesto will be signed by NGOs and educators around the world, with the aim of forming the basis for accelerated policy change and creation of a new platform for the revolution needed in K12 in the 21st century. www.projectinkwell.org/manifesto.php

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• “Beyond Broadband: Living AORTA”

  November 22, 2011

  An SNS Weekly Report on Living in an AORTA World; Social Issues; The Brain Extended; The Internet Assistant and AORTA; and Sensors in an AORTA World

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• “Three Drivers of the Digital Classroom”

  August 3, 2011

  An SNS Special Letter, written by SNS Education Ambassador Frank Catalano

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• “The Reformers Are Leaving Our Schools in the 20th Century”

  January 26, 2011

  An SNS Special Letter, written by SNS Project Inkwell Advisory Board Member Marc Prensky

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• “The New Education X PRIZE”

  November 11, 2010

  A brief discussion with Keith Kegley, Vice President, Alliances, X PRIZE Foundation; interviewed by Melissa Milburn, Director of Media Relations, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

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• “SNS Project Inkwell: New Achievements in 1:1 and Sister Schools Programs”

  May 14, 2010

  With David Engle, U.S. Director of Operations, SNS Project Inkwell, and Superintendent, North Platte Public School District (NE); Kathy Hurley, SVP Strategic Partnerships, Pearson Education and Pearson Foundation; and David Achim, President and COO, SkyFiber; hosted by Tom Greaves, CEO, the Greaves Group, and Member, Inkwell Steering Committee

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• “Fixing the Business Model: Affordable Higher Education Worldwide”

  May 12, 2010

  Ángel Cabrera, President, Thunderbird School of Global Management; hosted by Robert Anderson, Director, Technology Transfer and Intellectual Property, Illinois Institute of Technology

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