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I’ll be moderating a discussion with Joel Levin, “The Minecraft Teacher” of Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School; Alice Wilder, on PBS; and Annie Murphy Paul, an incoming fellow here at the ¹ú²úÊÓƵ Foundation who is writing a book, . We will also hear a pre-recorded interview with Scott Traylor, founder of research and development company , and examine the research of Reed Stevens, co-lead of the , a multi-institution Science of Learning Center funded by the National Science Foundation.

 

To seed the conversation, Slate is running a series of articles this week on chidren, technology and learning. In one piece, I divulge , an online, multiplayer building-block game that has changed the dynamic of my household for better and worse. The game is becoming such a hit with kids (as well as teens and adults) that several teachers are experimenting with it in their classrooms. In the article I introduce “Minecraft Teacher” Levin, who has been using Minecraft as an educational tool since before it was officially launched last year and who was the subject of a recent video produced by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center. Levin is co-owner of a company developing .

 

Also on Slate, Michael Levine, executive director of the , and Alan Gershenfeld, founder and president of , write about the via social media and games. Adam Sneed, researcher for Future Tense at ¹ú²úÊÓƵ, highlights some social robotics research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Yale University and the University of Southern California that triggers questions about . And Katherine Mangu-Ward, editor of Reason magazine, reports on how KIPP Empower, a charter school in Los Angeles, uses (computer time and face-to-face small group instruction) to keep teacher-child ratios low in the wake of budget cuts.

As we look for answers to the question of “how will schools change?” we should be also watching , a charter school company that has turned heads with its record of improved test scores, unorthodox (and cheaper) approach to teacher scheduling, and reliance on computer-lab work for two hours of the school day. Don’t miss Lyndsey Layton’s article in the Washington Post last week, ““

 

UPDATED 8/7/12: Added a description of Slate article on KIPP Empower.