Noteworthy stories on notes-sharing software and websites and self-paced, quiz, based online instruction. I don’t suppose that either of these heralds the new, jetpack-included, hyper-ultra-definitive Wave of Future Education, but both show people responding to a new technology by using it (well) to do what it’s good at. No, online quizzes do not replace seminars (“replacement panic” again) — but they provide a functional, apparently effective way of improving users’ recollection of particular sorts of knowledge. That’s a good thing.
Speaking of out of the box education, one site I’m a fan of is LiveMocha. They host user designed foreign language instruction. It’s really quite good, though there’s always the risk of getting a sloppy or poorly designed unit. But you run that risk with textbooks anyhow.
I bookmarked this post for the phrase “replacement panic,” then went on to find via Google that (as is lamentably common), there was a whole conversation that I had missed along the way somewhere.