Education

Experts Debate the Schools of 2021

Happy Labor Day, America! You better not be working! Speaking of work, what will school work be like in 10 years? New York Times, do you have an answer? What’s that? You spoke with a bunch of experts and educators and asked them that very same question? What a wild Labor Day miracle! Let’s sample…

Tech News Jack Loftus Sep 5

People who doodle learn faster

New research published today shows that doodling helps you learn. In fact, say scientists, students should be encouraged to doodle while they take notes in class. If you’re anything like me, your notes from about the age of seven all the way through postgraduate research are filled with doodles and scribbles in the margin, usually…

io9 Tim Barribeau Aug 25

The Push-Button School of Tomorrow (1958)

The May 5, 1958 edition of Arthur Radebaugh’s Sunday comic, Closer Than We Think, showed off the high-tech school of tomorrow. With hordes of baby boomers flooding into public schools in the 1950s, it makes sense that this strip would focus on different solutions for overcrowding with that technological optimism we identify as being uniquely…

Tech News Matt Novak Aug 24

This Children’s Science Book Could Help Save the U.S. Economy

It’s Alive! is the story of how things got alive on earth, written for children, comic style. But most adults could probably stand to read it – and would enjoy it – just as much as any kid. A 2009 survey conducted by the California Academy of Sciences found that most adults flunked the most…

Tech News Kristen Philipkoski Aug 22

BART Idiots, Drunk Idiots, and Other Stories We Didn’t Post

So much news passes before our collective eyes every day that we couldn’t possibly cover it all. Mostly because much of it isn’t worth covering! But here are a some borderline tidbits we passed on, just in case. Annoying BART Protester Oh hey, look at me! I have assertive facial hair and a bowtie and…

Tech News Brian Barrett Aug 16

Android App Inventor Will Live On At MIT

Last week, we shared the news that Google’s Android App Inventor was being shelved, despite its popularity as an educational tool. Last week’s bad news is this week’s good news as App Inventor has found a new home at MIT. https://gizmodo.com/google-could-make-app-inventor-open-source-5829382 Using a gift from Google, MIT will be opening a new Center for Mobile…

Tech News Kelly Aug 16

Google Could Make App Inventor Open Source

Google hinted its educational tool, App Inventor for Android, may become an open source project for classroom teachers. App Inventor was part of Google Labs, a group of research projects recently shut down by the search giant. Some of these projects will be moved into Google’s mainstream projects, but most will be shuttered. Because of…

Tech News Kelly Aug 9

Apple Just Released Those Cheap iMacs for Students

Did we say August 16th? Yeah, uhm, we meant today. According to 9to5 Mac, Apple is releasing those scaled-down student-friendly iMacs right now. Still no word on the pricing, but you’ll want to get on that soon Check them out for $1000. [9to5 Mac] https://gizmodo.com/cheap-scaled-down-imac-being-readied-for-students-5828596

Tech News Kwame Opam Aug 8

Cheap, Scaled-Down iMac Being Readied For Students?

Apple failed to introduce a new educational discount for iPads, but that doesn’t mean they’ve forgotten about students altogether. 9to5Mac has heard that a new, more affordable iMac aimed at students will be released this month, maybe on August 16th. https://gizmodo.com/rumor-apple-to-discount-ipads-by-200-for-students-5806282 According to their sources, it’ll be a basic machine with a 3.1GHz dual-core processor…

Tech News Kat Hannaford Aug 8

Adults may be better at learning languages than children

The accepted wisdom is that kids under the age of seven have a better chance at fluently learning a language than adults do. That may not be the case. In fact, it may be no more than a flimsy excuse. In some respects, adults may be better at learning languages than children. As we Americans…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell Jul 23

Students program a saber-wielding “Jedibot,” accelerate the creation of General Grievous

Remember those dueling lightsaber robots? Robotics students at Stanford University have taken things one step further and taught a mechanical arm to spar with human opponents. Fortunately, the “Jedibot” isn’t mobile, so a cowardly retreat is still an option. https://gizmodo.com/shanghais-robotic-lightsaber-battles-are-very-lovely-th-5800988 The students programmed the robot to duel for Professor Oussama Khatib’s Intro to Robotics class.…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar Jul 18

Letters to the Year 2076 (from high schoolers in the Year 1976)

The 1970s was a tough decade for America. As we saw in the second episode of paleofuture.tv, many people were predicting apocalypse. But in 1976, it seems Americans were determined to hold their heads up high and celebrate 200 years of a country that was experiencing some major growing pains. If there’s one thing Americans…

io9 Matt Novak - Paleofuture Blog Jul 9

Faculty action figures = academia’s hot new trend?

Very few universities have had realistic “action figures” made of their faculties and staff. One exception is the University of the Ozarks in Arkansas, where Dr. Jesse Weiss (Associate Professor of Sociology and Environmental Studies) has produced a collection of them. The professor hatched the idea via his hobby of customizing action figure models from…

io9 Martin Gardiner - Improbable Research Jul 4

Meet your new robotic kindergarten teacher

Remember how South Korean classrooms have been experimenting with integrating robots into their curriculums? A robot called KIRO recently completed a three-week test run as a kindergarten aide. It’s unclear how much the robo-teacher actually taught, but he seemed enthusiastic. https://gizmodo.com/robots-teach-korean-students-english-5478311 KIRO, which is built by a company known as the Robot Research Institute, was…

io9 Cyriaque Lamar Jun 20

The Magic School Bus Reaches Its Final Destination

Come aboard the Magic School Bus, children, and unlock all the wonders of our fair universe! Except due to budgetary constraints and redundancies (and my goodness, have you seen what gas costs lately?), we’re only gonna pull into Wikipedia Station. You’d think they could at least Qwiki it to add a little punch, you know?…

Books & Comics Brian Barrett Jun 13

The First Smart Cover App Makes Studying Perhaps Nerdier

The iPad 2 has plenty of educational apps going for it. But Evernote Peek is the first one to take advantage of the Smart Cover that comes with it. All you have to do is fire up the app and close the cover. Lift the cover just a bit and it’ll pose a trivia question…

Tech News Kwame Opam Jun 8

Someone Will Pay You $100,000 to Drop Out of School and Start a Tech Company

There are several problems, of course. One: you’d be mentored by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, who’s only one of the most impressive (and likely scariest) web 2.0 people in all the land. Two: of 400 applicants, only 24 were picked. The 24 ex-students, all under 20 years of age, presented their tech company ideas to…

Tech News Kat Hannaford May 25

Zuckerberg Wants Kids Under 13 on Facebook

Facebook’s already pretty inane. The only thing that could make it worse is, oh I dunno, having 10 year-olds running wild on it. Luckily, it’s against the law for sub-13 year-olds to join data-collecting sites. Unless The Zuck changes that. At a recent symposium on education reform, Zuckerberg argued that Facebook could, and should, play…

Social Media Sam Biddle May 20

Oh God, No: Twitter Now an Acceptable Replacement for Raising Your Hand in Class

Twitter is a good thing as long as it allows us to do things we couldn’t do without it. Such as: organizing democratic change in the Middle East! But Twitter is really sad when it’s used as a classroom crutch. The New York Times gets its trend piece on, revealing that a small (but growing!)…

Tech News Sam Biddle May 13

Why Women In Computer Science Matter

Last week, Harvard celebrated a record number of female students declaring a computer science major. But the school – and the field – may still have a ways to go. [Jezebel] https://jezebel.com/why-women-in-computer-science-matter-5795775

io9 Jezebel Apr 26

Experts Debate the Schools of 2021

People who doodle learn faster

The Push-Button School of Tomorrow (1958)

This Children’s Science Book Could Help Save the U.S. Economy

BART Idiots, Drunk Idiots, and Other Stories We Didn’t Post

Android App Inventor Will Live On At MIT

Google Could Make App Inventor Open Source

Apple Just Released Those Cheap iMacs for Students

Cheap, Scaled-Down iMac Being Readied For Students?

Adults may be better at learning languages than children

Students program a saber-wielding “Jedibot,” accelerate the creation of General Grievous

Letters to the Year 2076 (from high schoolers in the Year 1976)

Faculty action figures = academia’s hot new trend?

Meet your new robotic kindergarten teacher

The Magic School Bus Reaches Its Final Destination

The First Smart Cover App Makes Studying Perhaps Nerdier

Someone Will Pay You $100,000 to Drop Out of School and Start a Tech Company

Zuckerberg Wants Kids Under 13 on Facebook

Oh God, No: Twitter Now an Acceptable Replacement for Raising Your Hand in Class

Why Women In Computer Science Matter

Lucasfilm Keeps Telling Authors Not to Bring Back Mara Jade

As Mass Drownings Add Up, Emperor Penguins Officially Join the Endangered List

OpenAI: Hey, We Also Have a New Tool That Is So Scarily Powerful We Can’t Release It

Razer’s Wireless Gaming Earbuds Are Back With Upgraded ANC

How ‘The Testaments’ Uses Voiceover to Add Layers to Its Characters

The Trump Regime Really Wants You to Know About Its Cool Secret Agent Gadgets

Artemis 2 Day 9: Follow the Mission With Our Live Updates 🔴

Chimpanzees Are Murdering Their Former Friends, and Researchers Can’t Wrap Their Heads Around It

Asus Zenbook A16 Review: Start Considering Snapdragon on PC, for Real

Aqara Thermostat Hub W200 Review: Almost Better than My Ecobee

HP Omen Max 45L Review: 4K60 Gaming Has Never Been So Easy

Ecovacs Winbot W3 Omni Review: Window Cleaning Robots Have a Long Way to Go

AirPods Max 2 vs. Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen): Which ANC Headphones Win?

The Best Gadgets of March 2026

AirPods Max 2 Review: Still Ridiculously Expensive and Ridiculously Nice

DJI Osmo 360 Review: The Best 360 Camera for the DJI-Pilled

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