IAE Blog

The MIT Technology Review is on my regular “must read” list of magazines that I subscribe to. Every issue contains articles that challenge my current knowledge and insights into how the world is changing.

The first issue of 2018 is certainly no exception. Antonio Regalado’s article about gene editing, These Are Not Your Father’s GMOs, caught my attention (Regalado, January/February, 2018). In brief summary, gene editing that merely changes a gene without inserting “foreign matter” is legal in the United States. For example, it is legal to insert an extra copy of a small piece (a snippet) of a plant’s DNA strand into the DNA strand, or to remove a snippet. This can be done with current technology, and it is being done.

I was one of the founders of the Math Learning Center (MLC) and have served on its Board of Directors since this 501(c)(3) organization started 40 years ago. During these 40 years, I have advocated for increased use of calculators and computers in math education. Several hundred of my math education and computer education publications are available free online (IAE, 2017). Three of my more widely read math education articles are (Moursund, 2017a; Moursund, 2017b; and Moursund, 2017c).

One of my contributions to the MLC was getting it started in developing some online Math Manipulatives programs (Moursund, 4/19/2013). A catalog of the MLC’s current collection of 11 free online math manipulatives is available (MLC, 2017).

Larry Cuban is Professor Emeritus of Education at Stanford University. He was a high school social studies teacher (14 years), district superintendent (7 years), and university professor (20 years). He has published a very large number of op-ed pieces, scholarly articles, and books on classroom teaching, history of school reform, how policy gets translated into practice, and teacher and student use of technologies in K-12 and college.

Over the years, I have read many of Cuban’s articles. While I have not always agreed with what he was saying, I am always impressed by the quality of his thinking and clarity in expressing his ideas.

Technology Use
in Manitoba, Canada Schools

a new free book by

Today’s children have grown up routinely viewing computer-generated video and playing computer games. The state of the art in computer graphics includes animated animals and people who are indistinguishable from the “real things.” In recent years, there has been considerable progress in the development of research-based computer games for use in education (Moursund, 2016).

Many companies are developing computer simulations and other computer materials designed to help learners learn. I use the term Highly Interactive Intelligent Computer-assisted Learning (HIICAL) in discussing this type of instructional materials (Moursund, 2002). Quoting from this 15-year old article: