Latest Posts

Is technology stealing your memory?

October 7, 2015 11:00 am
Published by

The wealth of information available through technology acts as a crutch and results in the deterioration of memory. A study of 6,000 adults residing in Europe found that over a third of participants relied on technology as their first source... View Article

How effective is technology in the classroom?

September 15, 2015 11:00 am
Published by

The Register’s Simon Sharwood discusses whether the use of technology truly improves student achievement. Following the release of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) scores in 2012, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) discovered that an increase... View Article

Turning classrooms on their head

August 16, 2015 11:00 am
Published by

The growing presence of technology in education allows schools to develop new and innovative approaches to student learning. One of the new methods is called “flipped learning.” Liam Casey explores this method of learning in this article. How it works... View Article

French Scrabble champion cannot speak French

July 22, 2015 11:00 am
Published by

In a stunning turn of events, Nigel Richards, it turns out that the new French Scrabble champion, can barely speak a word of French. In preparation for his participation in the World championship for Francophone scrabble, Richards memorized all 386,000... View Article

Trounced by a brain-training octogenarian

May 11, 2015 11:00 am
Published by

An article by Adam Shaw in the BBC explores whether brain-training exercises are really the hoax people claim they are. While brain-training has received a lot of criticism in the past, including a 2009 BBC study suggesting they are “no... View Article


Success Academy experienced its humble beginnings in 2006, as a charter school in Harlem for economically disadvantaged students who could not attend the wealthier elementary schools because they lived outside the appropriate school zone. It provided these students with the... View Article

Perceptual learning and recognizing abnormalities

March 29, 2015 6:00 pm
Published by

Writing in The New York Times, Benedict Carey identifies some areas in which perceptual learning has been applied: visualizing high-dimensional genetic data (e.g. as has been done, at least implicitly, at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine) training pilots to... View Article

Are students getting bang for their buck?

March 28, 2015 6:00 pm
Published by

An article in the Economist brings into question the actual value of a university degree, a seemingly popular commodity in modern society. In recent years, a degree has become synonymous with “a decent job and an entry ticket to the... View Article

Education policies intrude on classrooms

February 1, 2015 6:00 pm
Published by

Writing in the Washington Post, Valerie Strauss criticizes the US Department of Education’s overbearing reach into classrooms with policies and programs that provide no real benefit to teachers or students. Federal programs, such as Race to the Top and NCLB... View Article

Technology causes decline in student performance

January 30, 2015 6:00 pm
Published by

In an article in the New York Times, Susan Pinker questions whether the rise of technology in education will actually improve student learning. In a study conducted in the early 2000s at Duke University, economists Jacob Vigdor and Helen Ladd... View Article

Common Core testing expands to more states

January 30, 2015 6:00 pm
Published by

The Smarter Balanced Assessment (SBA) is a new standardized assessment created last year which covers mathematics, reading and writing. This test is taken by students in grades 3 to 8, as well as grade 11. It is intended to be... View Article

Learning from the Los Angeles edtech failure

January 29, 2015 6:00 pm
Published by

In June 2013, the Los Angeles School Board of Education signed a $30 million iPad deal with Apple, with the intent of providing iPads to all of the students in the district.  As Weiss says, the program was “envisioned as a... View Article

Is standardized testing taking up too much time?

January 20, 2015 6:00 pm
Published by

There has been an increase in talk to reduce standardized testing in grade school across North America. Ohio reduces standardized testing hours In Ohio, it was recommended by the Ohio Department of Education to reduce testing by roughly 20%. According... View Article


The teenage brain continues to be a topic of contention among neuroscientists as they attempt to account for behavioural differences between teenagers and adults. Dr. Francis Jensen, chair of the Department of Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School... View Article