"Minimally Invasive Education"

Hard to believe that education can take place through a hole in the wall, but here is a great story to show the potential of presenting technology to people in new ways.  It takes advantage of the innate curiousity people have with new things.
Sugata Mitra: Catalyst of Curiosity | Edutopia

technorati tags:education, technology

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Orion magazine

I've been really impressed with the articles I have read at Orion Magazine today. Their articles are often touching, educational, and thougth-provoking all at once, a certain awe of the beauty of life ebbing below the surface.

One article I read today spoke of the vastness of the ocean that seems to hide its dire problems from us. Take a minute to read the article.
Think Like an Ocean | Orion magazine

Here is one of the many thought-provoking quotes:
"And yet, mysterious though they may be, our oceans sustain us. As renowned marine biologist Sylvia Earle says, “Without the ocean, life on earth would simply not be possible. Should we care about the ocean? Do we care about living?” All told, the health of the oceans affects our livelihood as much as our farms and forests do. The connection just isn’t as apparent."

The other article that impressed me was A Place-Based Malady. Those place-based malady are allergies. The author mentions Mr. T, which gave me a quick kick, but what he did is pretty disturbing and underlies the sad reality of how he grew up.

Here is a quote about the drugs we are offered to cope with allergies:
"As consumers, we buy into the idea of escape from place. Drugs let us get on with our lives, to work and play without regard to our environment. It is an alluring solution, easier than moving to the mountaintops or lakeshore or desert—so much easier than addressing issues of land use, rethinking building construction, or confronting structural inequities in housing and health care in American society. We take a pill or a puff, feel better, and conveniently ignore how that chemical moving inside our bodies connects us to a larger political economy and ecology of allergic disease."

And larger issues there are. Orion often offers a great and inspiring take on these issues that touch us all. I am considering subsribing to a paper issue of Orion, so as get that enrichment every month that I felt today.

Amazing technology from Japan

I've been talking about this kind of device for awhile, and here it appears.
Amazing technology from Japan . .. . . but can you guess what it is?! « 361degrees
A virtual keyboard and monitor projected from a mini-pen computer. The future looks amazing.