The world that today's fourth-graders will be launched into, when they begin their adult lives, will be different in ways we can't hope to guess now. Along with math, science and English, today's students are learning another entire subject — technology. They've absorbed it from birth, their brains are wired to handle it and they are able to swim naturally in the digital ocean in a way their elders never will. It's a fair bet that a major component of that brave new world will be virtual, with electronic avatars standing in for actual human beings. And that means the students in Tammie Mihet's fourth-grade class at First Baptist Academy here have a head start in the race to conquer the future. A lot of kids play with the Microsoft Xbox, a computer gaming console, at home, but in...   more

The more modern American classrooms would be hardly recognizable to a teacher of the 19th century. Gone are the one-room buildings, the long benches, the pieces of slate, and the sticks of chalk. The most modern classrooms have SmartBoards, some even have personal iPads for each child. And along with the classroom gadgets, has come a wave of education technology. This technology is revolutionizing education, but it is also throwing a wrench in many time-honored canonical classroom excuses. Here are just a few well-used excuses that will have to be retired: 1. The Dog Ate My Homework: For years now the proverbial "dog ate my homework" excuse has garnered decreasing respect in the classroom. Putting aside the seemingly statistically disproportional frequency of paper consuming canines,...   more

In 2009 a 19-year-old graduating senior from Hong Kong's International School named Charles Watson, armed with a rudimentary computer, took a year off from starting university to journey to Nepal to work on a project he came up with while still in school – providing schools off the grid with solar-linked computing power. "Once I got to Nepal, I was running a blog, taking photos and so on, saying ‘We need computers,'" he says. "I did a fundraising run in Nepal and that raised enough to buy 30 computers at US$300 each – US$10,000 if you include the solar panels." Watson, an American who grew up in Hong Kong, is now 23, still hasn't started university despite being accepted at the University of Illinois and doesn't plan to any time in the foreseeable future. Instead he...   more

A passion for games and travel led retired principal Michael Gifford to design and create an educational computer game for learning about the ‘New 7 Wonders of the World’.   What is your game about? The ‘New 7 Wonders of the World’ (www. new7wondersgame.com ) is a new, innovative, fun-filled computer game, in which up to four players travel around the world. They can choose to be James Cook, Marco Polo, Francis Drake or Christopher Columbus and vie to be the first to reach all new 7 Wonders of the World – The Great Wall of China, Machu Picchu, the Statue of Christ the Redeemer, the Taj Mahal, the Colosseum, Petra, and Chichen Itza.   Who is it designed for? It’s suitable for students of most ages, as they learn about...   more

A report by the Education and Science Committee into digital literacy in schools made 48 recommendations. Here Associate Education Minster Nikki Kaye talks to INTERFACE about the Government’s response. The Government has given the go-ahead to six of the 48 recommendations in the Education and Science Committee’s digital literacy report. The remainder are “helpful and worthy of further consideration”, says Associate Education Minister Nikki Kaye. She’s also announced a digital literacy reference group will be established this month to ensure they’re implemented successfully “We have progressed six recommendations covering initiatives such as improved design templates for 21st century school buildings; a review of 21st century skills and...   more