tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36650018175120728962011-11-12T19:33:52.523-08:00News and thoughts about Distributable Educational Material Markup Language (DEMML) with occasional thoughts about education thrown in.Grant S. Robertsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15076081539709128340noreply@blogger.comBlogger121100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3665001817512072896.post-42438551732333150932011-04-29T20:23:00.000-07:002011-04-29T22:40:23.021-07:00

I wrote this essay for my Educational Psychology class. We were assigned to take a movie about teachers and "reflect" on how one of the educational theories we were learning about had been applied within the context of the movie. Not being a big fan of movies about teachers, I asked if I could use an episode of Star Trek the Next Generation instead. Star Trek and Vygotsky: How Vygotsky's

Grant S. Robertsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15076081539709128340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3665001817512072896.post-40794783679545569952009-12-31T11:18:00.000-08:002009-12-31T11:19:07.854-08:00

To any developers interested in contributing to DEMML: I am currently still working on the XML schema. It will be relatively involved and I am currently working entirely alone, so it may take me a while. If you already know about XML and designing schema then, yes, I would really love some help with that right now. If you do not know about XML Schema then I suggest you learn. I firmly believe

Grant S. Robertsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15076081539709128340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3665001817512072896.post-63571652873651353552009-10-27T18:53:00.001-07:002009-10-27T19:00:38.836-07:00

I like to read the One Laptop Per Child News blog. It is not an official blog of the OLPC project but the author often posts interesting things related to education in addition to just the latest news about the XO laptop or the OLPC project. The other day I read a post about whether it was practical or beneficial to distribute XO laptops in areas that don't have internet connections. I

Grant S. Robertsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15076081539709128340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3665001817512072896.post-81304916699512603242009-10-23T10:44:00.000-07:002009-11-23T16:51:51.037-08:00

Somewhere in a small village in some underdeveloped country there is a young boy. Let’s call him Hidarth. Like over 121 million young children worldwide (1), Hidarth cannot go to school. There is no school in the village where he lives and it would take him far too long to walk to the nearest school several villages away. His village has no phones or internet connections. However, Hidarth

Grant S. Robertsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15076081539709128340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3665001817512072896.post-9144295809323144802009-10-23T10:13:00.000-07:002009-10-24T16:39:10.455-07:00

Of the 2.2 billion children worldwide there are anywhere from 33 million (1) to 121 million (2) who are not even enrolled in school. Countless more are enrolled but don't or can't attend. The average adult has spent only 6.2 years in school (3). Only 44% of people get to their senior year of high school (4) and only 28% even make it to college (5). Closer to home, the high-school drop-out rate

Grant S. Robertsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15076081539709128340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3665001817512072896.post-88456644331178406912009-07-08T14:09:00.000-07:002009-11-22T14:04:56.218-08:00

When discussion turns to "educational technology" many consider only those "technologies" that can be used to augment a typical American classroom. Thoughts turn to digital projectors, computers, software, and the internet. All of these technologies can be quite beneficial. They allow teachers to illustrate principles that would be very time-consuming or difficult to illustrate using only a

Grant S. Robertsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15076081539709128340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3665001817512072896.post-69727167466386814062009-07-08T13:51:00.000-07:002009-07-08T14:00:14.934-07:00

Writing-instruction software is designed to analyze the text of an essay and either give it a simple grade or feedback as to what could be improved. Some find it indispensable for improving the skills of beginning writers while others are skeptical as to its efficacy. The primary benefit seems to be the speed with which results can be returned. When students are able to get feedback within

Grant S. Robertsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15076081539709128340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3665001817512072896.post-24217688189998597372009-07-08T13:40:00.000-07:002009-07-08T13:50:02.308-07:00

Way back in the late 1980s, just after I had left the USMC and was working at CMSI, the museum hired a new curator named Joseph Deken. This guy had written a book called "The Electronic Cottage" in which he extolled all the virtues of the dawning computer age. In the book he explained how the world was getting smaller and that people would soon be able to do any number of things right from home

Grant S. Robertsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15076081539709128340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3665001817512072896.post-83398403716701214802009-07-08T13:22:00.000-07:002009-07-08T13:31:41.895-07:00

In 1988 Bill Moyers did an interview with Isaac Asimov about his (then) recently released book, As Far as the Eye Can See. In this interview, Asimov predicted that we would all eventually be able to have computers in our homes that could connect us to vast libraries of information. The interview is up on YouTube in three parts which I have embedded here. I have also included a few notes that took

Grant S. Robertsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15076081539709128340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3665001817512072896.post-85648497076076565482009-07-08T13:19:00.000-07:002009-07-08T13:21:19.651-07:00

There is a conference that is put on every year called the TED conference (for Technology Entertainment and Design). This is an invitation only conference for only the best minds in the country. The best scientists, designers, and activists as well as quality artists, static and performing. These are the most creative minds in America giving lectures to each other about their craft or simply

Grant S. Robertsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15076081539709128340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3665001817512072896.post-52195649779357471482009-07-08T13:14:00.000-07:002009-07-08T13:17:17.176-07:00

There is a group of people from several different universities who have started an organization called Playpower.org to create free educational games that will run on a type of computer that is already being manufactured and sold in India for only $12. The computer is based on the same chip that used to be in the old Apple II computers but is all contained within just the keyboard. It plugs into

Grant S. Robertsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15076081539709128340noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3665001817512072896.post-74762513482724642612009-07-08T12:57:00.000-07:002009-07-08T13:02:40.771-07:00

Well, this is my first real post for DEMML blog. I finally got Blogger set up to show the header the way I want it. I will need to edit the www.demml.org web site to point here. Heck, that site needs a lot of updating. I guess I have been pretty busy with school and stuff these last few years. Not that I haven't been working on DEMML off and on during that time but I just haven't had time to

Grant S. Robertsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15076081539709128340noreply@blogger.com0