Good morning and happy Monday! As we begin our Monday morning routine here at Saylor, we are bringing some different ideas over onto you. This week different opinions, visions, and thoughts come from varied sources.

We begin today with one radically different school of thought, a Hackathon. Former Microsoft CEO, Bill Gates and Facebook are teaming up to create contests around the country, encouraging students to put their hacking, programming and devolopping skills to the test. The goal? To gain fresh perspectives on ways to aid K-12 students. These contests will occur in Facebook’s California and England offices this month, with the first being tomorrow on April 9. The first task for these budding ed. techies will be to create Facebook apps focused on various learning populations at the university level, as they vie for the $5000 prize.

Gates and Facebook Sponsor Education ‘Hackathons’ (Ed. Week)

Engineering Building a Foundation in K-12 Curricula (Ed. Week)
In another set of opinions have been focused on “putting the ‘E’ back in STEM.” The letter, “E” in the acronym stands for engineering, an often overlooked part of the K-12 STEM curricula. However, new national assessments for eighth graders, an AP course, and combined units that come from math and science class are just some the ways that this school of thought is coming about.

Google Glass chooses Franklin HS for beta test (Indy Star)
Another school of thought is brought to you by none other than Google. The search engine giant has chosen Indiana’s Franklin High School to give some new technology a try. What is this new technology? An eyeglass computer that you can wear, and use your voice to access the internet.

A Radically Practical Vision of Education (Ed. Surge)
Sometimes we can get all caught up the different advancements in technology that are swimming around us daily, that we might forget the big picture. This editorial illustrates a certain opinion of what the future of inquiry-based education could look like in 2025. It features a story about a boy named Jason who is trying to colonize Mars and just how this seemingly science fiction story might just become a reality.

US MOOC Platforms’ Openness Questioned  (Times Higher Ed.)
Is the creation of OER and/or MOOCs always an ‘open’ process? A forum in Nottingham, England voiced answers to this question and others, as some professors have found it difficult show what they have created to the general public. Some pessimists are pointing out that MOOCs tend to be taken by those who already have access to many different forms of education. So this school of thought wonders is the original purpose for the creation MOOCs lost in the process?

Essay-Grading Software Offers Professors a Break  (NY Times)
“Imagine taking a college exam, and, instead of handing in a blue book and getting a grade from a professor a few weeks later, clicking the “send” button when you are done and receiving a grade back instantly, your essay scored by a software program.” This alludes to to a new school of thought, originating from edX, to give professors a break. Yet many critics are still skeptical about the notion of an automated essay grading program.

Well? Which of these schools of thought do you agree with the most? Do you have a totally different opinion on where ed. tech. should go? Please feel free to let us know and comment below.

Have a great week! In other news…
Education Portal Adds Free AP College Prep Courses for High School Students (T.H.E. Journal)
Udacity’s Sebastian Thrun On the Future of Education (Ed. Surge)
Sweating the Details of a MOOC in Progress (Chronicle of Higher Ed.)

Photo Credit: kateplee via photopin by NC 2.0 CC