Brent Sordyl's blog

iOS devs pay $50,000 for collecting children’s info in apps

September 29, 2011 by Brent Sordyl 0 Comments

Parent company W3 Innovations was targeted with an FTC lawsuit on Friday; the settlement was announced Monday morning. In its complaint, the FTC alleges that W3 “collected, maintained, and/or disclosed personal information” entered into its various kid-targeted apps—for example, the complaint claims that the company collected and maintained a list of more than 30,000 e-mails as well as personal information from more than 300 Emily’s Girl World App users and 290 Emily’s Dress Up users.

(Full Story: iOS devs pay $50,000 for collecting children’s info in apps)

coppa, e-learning, kids

OPEN – a tool for teachers to create and share lessons with their studenrs

September 29, 2011 by Brent Sordyl 0 Comments

OPEN, a free tool used by teachers to create digital lessons for their own students. Instead of learning content in the classroom, students will take lessons created by their own teacher at home and spend the class period working on homework-style problems.

(Full Story: OPEN – a tool for teachers to create and share lessons with their studenrs)

collaboration, e-learning, opensource

class.io | your class everywhere

September 19, 2011 by Brent Sordyl 0 Comments

Class.io is a web-based communication platform that helps teachers share course resources with students in a simple and direct way.

(Full Story: class.io | your class everywhere)

e-learning

Alison.com Talks About The Future of Online Education

September 19, 2011 by Brent Sordyl 0 Comments

WA – How are you different from the Khan Academy or other players in this space?
MF — There are very few people doing what we’re doing. I’m trying to prove you can do this from the bottom up – asking for as little money as possible for what we do. If you can’t access scale, then this doesn’t work. The amount of money we make per learner is actually very small. It is increasingly difficult for 90% of incumbent players who want to charge huge margins and employ a sales force. We dispense with all of that. It’s just straight on the web. You either like it or you don’t. It’s a freemium model. There’s a couple of distinctions of how we work. If you’re an individual, nearly all the services we offer you are free. What you “need” to learn online is free, what is “nice” for you to have, you pay. When an organization gets involved, we do charge. When an organization comes to us and says, “we don’t have a budget,” we work with them. Our social mission is important to us.

(Full Story: Alison.com Talks About The Future of Online Education)

e-learning, Education

e-learning, education

Math Games – games-based K-12 math teaching resource

September 19, 2011 by Brent Sordyl 0 Comments

(Full Story: Math Games – games-based K-12 math teaching resource)

e-learning, games, kids, math

Launchpad Toys Looks To Create The Next Generation Of Early Learning Toys

August 31, 2011 by Brent Sordyl 0 Comments

Launchpad wants to bring toys into the digital age. The startup is building a suite of apps for the iPad that allow children to create, learn, and share their ideas through games — in an effort to become “the Lego of digital play”. Through its apps, the startup aims to bring classic toys (and toy makers) like Play-Doh, Crayola, and Erector Sets to the iPad, but with an educational backdrop that is standardized and meets national educational requirements.

(Full Story: Launchpad Toys Looks To Create The Next Generation Of Early Learning Toys)

e-learning

iOS devs pay $50,000 for collecting children’s info in apps

August 17, 2011 by Brent Sordyl 0 Comments

Parent company W3 Innovations was targeted with an FTC lawsuit on Friday; the settlement was announced Monday morning. In its complaint, the FTC alleges that W3 “collected, maintained, and/or disclosed personal information” entered into its various kid-targeted apps—for example, the complaint claims that the company collected and maintained a list of more than 30,000 e-mails as well as personal information from more than 300 Emily’s Girl World App users and 290 Emily’s Dress Up users.

(Full Story: iOS devs pay $50,000 for collecting children’s info in apps)

coppa, e-learning, kids

OPEN – a tool for teachers to create and share lessons with their studenrs

August 17, 2011 by Brent Sordyl 1 Comment

OPEN, a free tool used by teachers to create digital lessons for their own students. Instead of learning content in the classroom, students will take lessons created by their own teacher at home and spend the class period working on homework-style problems.

(Full Story: OPEN – a tool for teachers to create and share lessons with their studenrs)

collaboration, e-learning, opensource

How Khan Academy Is Changing the Rules of Education | Wired

July 18, 2011 by Brent Sordyl 0 Comments

Khan Academy is an educational website that, as its tagline puts it, aims to let anyone “learn almost anything—for free.” Students, or anyone interested enough to surf by, can watch some 2,400 videos in which the site’s founder, Salman Khan, chattily discusses principles of math, science, and economics (with a smattering of social science topics thrown in). The videos are decidedly lo-fi, even crude: Generally seven to 14 minutes long, they consist of a voice-over by Khan describing a mathematical concept or explaining how to solve a problem while his hand-scribbled formulas and diagrams appear onscreen. Like the Wizard of Oz, Khan never steps from behind the curtain to appear in a video himself; it’s just Khan’s voice and some scrawly equations. In addition to these videos, the website offers software that generates practice problems and rewards good performance with videogame-like badges—for answering a “streak” of questions correctly, say, or mastering a series of algebra levels.

(Full Story: How Khan Academy Is Changing the Rules of Education | Wired)

e-learning

e-learning, khanacademy