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Schools To Get Their Own DARPA

Posted by Soulskill on from the hall-monitor-death-robots-here-we-come dept.

Julie188 writes "A decade ago, Lawrence Grossman, former president of both NBC News and PBS, and Newton Minow, former chairman of the FCC, proposed that the government set up a multi-billion dollar trust that would act as a 'venture capital fund' to research educational technologies for schools, libraries and museums. Congress has finally approved the idea, and grants could start rolling by this fall. Dubbed the National Center for Research in Advanced Information and Digital Technologies, it should be to education what the National Science Foundation is for science, and DARPA is for national defense."

14 of 151 comments (clear)

  1. Oh, man! I wish I had a DARPA by thomasdz · · Score: 5, Funny

    When I was growing up, all the other kids on my block had a DARPA, but I didn't.
    I had to do with some stupid National Science Foundation

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  2. Finally? by spydabyte · · Score: 5, Insightful

    About time someone in government considers education as important as military "defense" and scientific breakthroughs.

    1. Re:Finally? by StubNewellsFarm · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Do you really think that improving education doesn't fall under "promote the general welfare"? It has just as much justification as "provide for the common defense". Especially since Jefferson and other founders believed so strongly that a representative government would fail without educated citizens, you could also argue that support for education is necessary to "secure the blessings of liberty."

      "I have indeed two great measures at heart, without which no republic can maintain itself in strength: 1. That of general education, to enable every man to judge for himself what will secure or endanger his freedom. 2. To divide every county into hundreds, of such size that all the children of each will be within reach of a central school in it." --Thomas Jefferson to John Tyler, 1810. ME 12:393

  3. Total waste of money by Alexpkeaton1010 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    No amount of money is going to get parents in failing schools to care about their kid's education.

    1. Re:Total waste of money by mcgrew · · Score: 3, Interesting

      If a parent doesn't care about a kid's education then no, there's no way to get them to care. The trouble is the educators themselves talk up a good "parental involvement" but the fact is the only involvement they want from parents is fund raising.

      As a parent who cared about his kids' education this was an immense frustration to me.

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  4. I'm a bit dubious... by mcgrew · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The reason is two experiences: one me in school, and the other my youngest daughter in school.

    When I was a kid they came up with the "new math". Basically, it was a different way to do long division. The theory was that this new way better explained how numbers work, but in reality it did no such thing. All it did was to prevent my parents from helping with my homework, since I couldn't do long dividion like they did and they couldn't do it like I was taught. I was at a disadvantage for years, until I learned how to use a slide rule, which actually did teach me how numbers worked.

    When my daughter was in kindergarten they had a new thing called "invented spelling", and it was an unmitigated disaster. She still misspells many words the same way she misspelled them before she learned to read (she's 22 now).

    The truble with new teaching technologies is that unlike medical experiments, you can't do them on animals first. Test them on real kids and if the experiment fails, so do the children.

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    1. Re:I'm a bit dubious... by jimbobborg · · Score: 3, Funny

      When my daughter was in kindergarten they had a new thing called "invented spelling", and it was an unmitigated disaster. She still misspells many words the same way she misspelled them before she learned to read (she's 22 now).

      The truble with new teaching technologies is that unlike medical experiments, you can't do them on animals first.

      I see you have truble spelling, too.

    2. Re:I'm a bit dubious... by jgtg32a · · Score: 3, Funny

      Oh the irony

    3. Re:I'm a bit dubious... by vlm · · Score: 3, Interesting

      "Invented spelling" is now a failure directly because of technology.

      The idea was good. Following a strict step by step procedure and stressing out and getting stuck is the right way to go math (?) but miserably fails for language arts. If you can't figure out one word, get on with life and finish the rest of the task. Its also a great way to learn to read, if you can't figure out one word, don't chuck the book across the room and go play donkey kong, just work around it, you'll figure it out later by osmosis or whatever. Its like solving an equation by successive approximation vs simple plug and chug.

      Now, before BBS leet speak, email, SMS, myspace, kids had good osmosis sources. I never learned anything in English classes in school, I learned English solely by osmosis from Clarke, Asimov, and whomever wrote the Tom Swift and Hardy Boys Mysteries.

      The bad news, is now kids learn English by osmosis from illiterate morons on myspace, youtube, rap videos, text messages, etc. That directly leads to:

      She still misspells many words the same way she misspelled them before she learned to read (she's 22 now).

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inventive_spelling

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    4. Re:I'm a bit dubious... by dwandy · · Score: 5, Funny

      Turns out mcgrew's daughter is an excellent speller.

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  5. it will if it breaks the monopoly by xzvf · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Technology has the potential to break the monopoly of school districts and classrooms. Right now kids are taught primarily one way. In groups of 20-30 they sit in classrooms and get education from a teacher. The quality of the teacher in process and as fountain of knowledge gos a long way in determining the success of the student. With proper infrastructure each kid can be taught in the way they learn best from the best instructors with the local teachers being facilitators of finding the knowledge. In addition to no child being left behind, we can get no child held back.

  6. I nominate... by Jonah+Hex · · Score: 3, Informative

    I hope they allocate some money for existing projects, personal favorites are LTSP and FOG Project; both of which are used in schools and my own personal computer lab for fun.

    I'd hate to see the money dumped into new projects that cost way too much, and don't do half of what already exists out there.

    Feel free to add your own, I can always use more bookmarks.

    Jonah HEX

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  7. Re:Oh, man! I wish I had a DARPA by TubeSteak · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When I was growing up, all the other kids on my block had a DARPA, but I didn't.
    I had to do with some stupid National Science Foundation

    When I was growing up, all the other kids in the country had the National Science Foundation, but I didn't.
    I had to make do with the Texas Board of Education.

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  8. NCRAIDT - acronym sucks by d474 · · Score: 3, Funny

    It will never last with an acronym like that. Should have called it National Education by Research Department.

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