Sunday, August 11, 2013

The Educated Reporter: EWA Innovation Showcase: New Classroom Technology Aims to Inspire, Motivate Students

The Educated Reporter: EWA Innovation Showcase: New Classroom Technology Aims to Inspire, Motivate Students:

EWA Innovation Showcase: New Classroom Technology Aims to Inspire, Motivate Students


EWA's 66th National Seminar was recently held at Stanford University, and we asked some of the education reporters attending to contribute blog posts from the sessions. Today's guest blogger is Linda Shaw of the Seattle TimesStream any session from National Seminar in your browser, or subscribe via RSS or iTunes. For more on classroom technology, visit EWA's Story Starters online resource. 

A two-foot high robot crouches on a desk, close to a student seated nearby. They both look at a computer screen that displays math puzzles. The robot, a white-and-orange machine named Projo, confesses he is worried about making mistakes and asks the students to make sure he doesn’t.

In one of the sessions on innovations at EWA’s annual conference, USA Today reporter Greg Toppo promised that Sandra Okita’s research into robots as learning tools would blow our minds. And it was indeed mind-bending to watch her video, in which Projo greets students by name and gives them hints when they get stuck— but not too many.

We often think of robots as the potential perfect assistants who would make no