Graham Glass, etc.

IT Revolutions in Venice

I just accepted an invitation to be the theme-chair for education at the IT Revolutions conference this year. It's going to be held in Venice, Italy on Dec 17-19, so it will be a little cool but without the crowds.

Here's a description of the education theme, taken from their web site:

From school to the virtual classroom, eLearning is fueling one of the most radical revolutions in education, replacing the traditional teacher-driven supervised learning environment by the self-directed web-based individualized content. By 2020 almost all the knowledge will be available on-line. Several issues arise, which need to be addressed if we want to unleash the power of eLearning: Is school as a physical place important or, shall we regard learning as a universal right, thus make all the content available online to enable access to everyone from everywhere - with self-imposed limits dictated strictly by individual interest? What can governments do to sponsor such efforts?

Should be fun!

Cat By Computer

This is my kind of Pair-Programming:

BBC Knowledge

I'm a big fan of the New Scientist and The Economist, so I was happy to read about the launch of yet another British magazine for the intellectually curious. BBC Knowledge will cover a broad range of topics and has just been launched in the US; I subscribed today.

Eliasson’s New York Waterfalls

I'm a big fan of Olafur Eliasson's artwork, so I was happy to see that he's just installed 4 cool waterfalls in New York City. It's being billed as the city's biggest such project since "The Gates," the $20 million effort by the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude that I visited in 2005.

Uncle Albert in the Car

I've done this many times:

Disrupting Education

In the article "How do we Transform our schools?", Clayton M. Christensen and Michael B. Horn look at how computers are currently being used in the education system and how they could be used in the future.

The bottom line: computers are currently being used to support the current teacher-in-classroom model of learning whereas in the future they will likely be able to deliver personalized instruction directly.

I agree with this completely, and it's the focus of my new "Pirate Math" initiative on edu2.0.

New Desktop Background

Here's my latest desktop background; an awesome shot of the International Space Station.

Lanterns

I recently purchased a couple of fun solar-powered lanterns for my balcony. They charge up during the day and turn on automatically at night. Here's a picture of them glowing this evening:

Smile at Matt

I dare you to watch this and not smile. And in the final analysis, isn't that really what life is about?

Hilarious Japanese Game Show

I'm a huge fan of Japan. I think their sense of humor is just great, as demonstrated by this clip from a game show: