Cristobal Cobo notes that people at the Argentinian Ministry of Education, Science and Technology are taking interest in our joint knowledge seminar, offered by the University of Minnesota and FLACSO Mexico. The course blog and wiki are taking shape already… For more information, click on one of the links, below:

At Monday’s Horizon Forum meeting, Dr. Ursula Zurita (FLACSO Mexico) presented her research on social participation and educating for social participation in Distrito Federal and her plans for further investigation nationwide in Mexico. Dr. Cristobal Cobo (FLACSO Mexico) followed-up with a presentation and discussion on technologies and education in Latin America. Dr. Arthur Harkins, Garth [...]

Google hosts a “Gapminder” tool that uses Flash technology to turn otherwise tedious or boring data into readable, interactive animations. Gapminder is a foundation based in Stockholm, Sweden. Funding has been mainly by grants from Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Sida, and the data presented are gathered in collaboration with the United Nations Statistic Division. [...]

At yesterday’s Horizon Forum meeting, Chris Dede delivered a presentation via Skype on using multiple-user virtual environments in educational contexts. These environments, he argues, allows students to co-design and co-instruct their own educational experiences, allowing for guided social constructivism and learning that goes beyond what traditional schools try to accomplish through test-based assessments. Scott McLeod [...]

ZDNet is running a blog story on the Singularity Summit at Stanford University. Particular attention in the article is focused on the debate between Ray Kurzweil and Douglas Hofstader on utopian versus dystopian futures: Kurzweil acknowledged that Singularity could lead to an unappealing or cataclysmic future, but he believes his vision will have a soft [...]