[Investblogger]

I'm sure you have no problem winning friends and influencing people with your excellent personality and enthralling charisma.

You are being sarcastic, I know -- but you have no idea HOW TRUE THAT ACTUALLY IS.
I think some of my recommendations on LinkedIn from managers and co-workers state that, actually.

I see. So when your career is over, your fondest dream is to have as much influence over education as a pencil? You're not even making sense any more. The product I lead and develop and design reaches something like 40 million students every day around the world. It's been proven to increase student achievement and engagement, and it's the ONLY thing many special needs teachers report work for them. You can't understand the impact that will have on people.

Most of the really intelligent people I know learn from everyone. The last thing they would say is what you just said there. This is hilarious because you clearly didn't comprehend what I just said.

[Ecurrexchangess]

These 54 teachers were hand-picked from a pool of 5,000 applicants to come to the building and meet with the people who create the software. It's a yearly event they do. They're hardcore, award-winning teachers. Right, well, colour me skeptical. Did they all get their crackerjack boxes?

There are massive, massive achievement gaps, and at least in the US - the best schools in terms of bang for their buck are the Catholic schools, who routinely outperform public schools that spend 4-5x as much as we do.

So if your program manages to halve that gap, congratulations. You've made an amazing contribution to learning, so that the public schools are falling behind less slowly than before.

Probably a dildo and duct tape. Pencil, paper, whiteboard, whiteboard eraser, whiteboard markers. I think my overall school budget comes out to around a couple bucks per student. How much again does your toy cost?

[Z2sc8gEz]

Thanks Slowwy, but we're quite happy with what we have

It is felt that in some cases the use of ICT, particularly in secondary schools, is pushing towards being directive, routine and lacking in imagination.

Going through a random one of Asher's studies....

"Lack of autonomy, just implementing other ideas"

"Teacher intervention is required to ensure that pupils do not become distracted by the technology"

"Glossy computer graphics are used with no real purpose"

"Teacher exposition > actual time teaching"

"reliance on visual media for learning"

[EarnestKS]

One of the better beat downs of Ben. Every post just made him look worse. What a tool.

[kjanyeaz1]

Pencil, paper, whiteboard, whiteboard eraser, whiteboard markers. I think my overall school budget comes out to around a couple bucks per student. How much again does your toy cost?

It's well known that the US underfunds education.

Smartboards are expensive. In many US school districts, the parents actually band together to buy them for their child's classrooms or lobby for corporate donations. The effectiveness is so clear that it's a no brainer.

Just to be clear, we do more than make interactive whiteboards. We also make interactive response systems (so teachers can gauge students' understanding very quickly), classroom audio solutions (just in case there's, say, a deaf student...), remote learning tools (for, say, people who live in the middle of nowhere in BC), tablet software (iOS & Android), etc.

[CtEkM8Vq]

MY DEGREE FACTORY OF A LAW SCHOOL Didn't you go to Georgetown?

[jisee]

I would say administration costs, since it is usually not the teachers who are highly paid.

JM

[rsdefwgxvcfdts]

And DON'T SAY A MAN WHO LIES ABOUT WALKING IN FRONT OF A TRACTOR AND STEALS A UNIVERSITY PARKING BOOT DESERVES WHAT HE GETS? NO! NO! I PAID THEM TUITION AND NOW THEY ARE SICKING (SIC) GAY CANADIAN ARCH PROGRAMMERS ON MY INBOX TO FIND ALGORITHMS TO DEFEAT MY SPAM FILTER :MAD: :MAD:

[TagBahthuff]

Ben, I'm not going to bother trying to explain to you what you should already know as a teacher in 2012. Sorry.

FWIW, yes they do perform better. There's all kinds of studies. The most recent one I saw showed a ~16% improvement in student achievement with IWBs all else being equal. That is, if a student scored 50% without, they scored 66% with.

It all depends on teacher competence, though. IWBs can hurt student achievement if the teacher doesn't care to learn how to use them appropriately. They can become a distraction or just a static slide machine, depending on how inept the teacher is.

Look, even Texans love them.

[larentont]

I think we can all agree that the teacher and the student are the two most significant inputs.

JM

[googlopharm]

What do you call someone with an anti-technology bias so strong that they proclaim a new technology useless even though they have no experience with it and the people with experience say it's useful? A Luddite?

[galaktiusman]

They can do it in high school do, it's just harder to teach yourself physics than basic grammar and math.

Teachers' job before that level is to give students structure and an imposing authority figure.

[infinkPoode]

My cousin was being home schooled, and when visiting from college one time I tried to help.

So I have a bit of experience.

JM

[Grorointeri]

That acceptance rate isn't even that low, and it'd be far higher if Georgetown didn't have a popular basketball team or location.

[t78VPkdO]

Just put it on the president's car, like you wanted to.

[quorceopporce]

I will try to place the boot on Obama's car this weekend.

[Klavalala]

The president's motorcade went by today when I was on my way back from work at the Fed. It was while I was crossing the street. I decided to stand in the middle and stare blankly at them until the secret service started shouting at me. I hope I delayed Obama's campaign trip by a minute or so.

You're a well-adjusted human being.