Room With A View

I’ve not been very linear today. What started out as a quick check to see what’s happening at NECC turned into a session on brain based education.

I’ve alway been a bit skeptical about brain based education. I think the brain research that’s going on is great and needs to continue it’s just that most of the links people make when they apply it to classroom practice are not links so much as they are leaps of faith. Often, they use a “brain study” to suggest some kind of classroom practice that we already know to be good. We don’t need a “brain study” to tell us that.

Here’s a video by Dr. Daniel Willingham who teaches at the University of Virginia. He sums things up much better than I do.

Brain based education: Fad or breakthrough–high quality

Here are the links I followed to get to the video and a link to Dr. Willingham’s website.

Stephen Downes
George Siemens
Daniel Willingham

I did a little poking around on eBay and found a Rogers SIM card for $7.49 which includes shipping. I’ve never bought anything on eBay before and I have no idea if the card will work but I thought for $7.49 what the heck. I’ll give it a try. I’ve made the purchase. It’s wait and see time now.

I’m in Canada for a couple of months and checked into getting a SIM card for my cellphone. I was surprised to find that only two companies–Rogers and Fido–offer SIM cards. (To use other providers I’d have to buy a phone.) After asking a few questions at a local shop I learned that I really only have one provider that offers support where I’ll be living–Rogers.

I was shocked when I learned that a Rogers SIM card will run me $40 and doesn’t come with any airtime! When traveling in Thailand last December I bought a SIM card for $4 and half the money was airtime!!

For more on Canada’s wireless situation give Michael Geist’s post a read.