The CCSI is NOT about using CogSci to develop instructional techniques. It is about developing instructional techniques for teaching CogSci.  However, I do keep an eye on coverage of the first topic, even if just as an exercise in tracking whackery. The NY Times had a 'blog debate' on why school tests have shown so little improvement since the 1970s. Bloggers include Howard Gardner, Sandra Tsing Loh, amoung others.

Bill Evers, argues that:

What We Learn From School Tests - Room for Debate Blog - NYTimes.com
Teachers should adopt instructional practices that have the support of rigorous cognitive science.

Amoung other things. The problem here is not that Evers has made this claim. The problem is the TOTAL LACK of detail or data backing or supporting his claim. It demonstrates my central concern with this field: it seems that anything that can be called 'cognitive science'--no matter how far that can be stretched--will be suitable for educational theory.

Far, far more useful than those iRoombas - it's the iTomato!DVICE: MIT introduces networked plants tended by robot gardenersI, for one, welcome our new robot overlords gardeners

Woohoo! Now I have something to do during those long faculty meetings!

Analyze This: ELIZA Artifical Intelligence App for the iPhone | Cult of Mac

DARPA has funded IBM's SyNAPSE program to "investigate innovative approaches that enable revolutionary advances in neuromorphic electronic devices that are scalable to biological levels."
Here's the grant release at DARPA: Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics (SyNAPSE) - BAA08-28 - Federal Business Opportunities: Opportunities
 
And here's the Press Release at IBM:

IBM Press room - 2008-11-20 IBM Seeks to Build the Computer of the Future Based on Insights from the Brain - United States
 
Someone with a better understanding of electro-chemical-nano-engineering than me has to tell me if this has any actual impact on the theory of computability, or if this is just going to be a significant increase in the speed of computation. Gualtiero over at Brains?

I've actually been avoiding instances of this story, as I wrote my dissertation on color perception, and spend a great deal of time telling people that I do NOT study color's affective qualities.Anyway, the story has legs, so here are the links:

• Color Study Looks at Effects of Red and Blue - NYTimes.com
• VOA News - Study Finds Color Boosts Brain Performance
• Color your world: Hues have influence on mood, choices : Editorials : Anderson Independent-Mail

More on the way, no doubt.

Tony's review of Wallach & Allen's recent book Moral Machines: Teaching Robots Right from Wrong is on Philosophy Now:
Philosophy Now - Moral Machines: Teaching Robots Right from Wrong by Wendall Wallach and Colin Allen

Reported by Boing Boing:
Hollywood film about amnesiac H.M. may happen - Boing Boing

Much press coverage of this one. Here we go:

• Ray Kurzweil to head futurology school backed by Nasa and Google | Science | guardian.co.uk
• Wired Campus: Founder of Singularity University Talks About His Unusual New Institution - Chronicle.com
• Kurzweil to found 'Singularity Uni' in Silicon Valley • The Register
• Singularity U.: No Frats, Just Breakthroughs - BusinessWeek
• Unique university coming to Bay Area this year