Archive: 2012
EdTech
DIY: How to Build Buzz For Your Beta
You've got a great idea. Coders are turning it into reality--at least an early version. You're about ready to release a beta version of your new learning application. How do you create buzz that promotes rapid adoption? We asked some experts.
EdTech
Edtech Startup Leaders Host Virtual Fireside Chat Tonight at 5p.m. PT
Founder Dating, Inc., NewSchools Venture Fund, and Teach for America join together tonight to host a virtual fireside chat to consider wide-ranging questions around education and edtech, a discussion that erupted from a noticeable disconnect between the number of people interested in the space and the access to entrepreneurs building companies on FounderDating.
Personalized Learning
Q&A: WriteToLearn Enriches Students’ Understanding of Writing
Seventh-grade English Language Arts teacher at Dean Rusk Middle School in Canton, Ga., Jeff Pence, shares how he blends WriteToLearn with other writing and Language Arts tools his classroom to teach writing evaluation, organization, conventions, sentence fluency, word choice, voice and more.
Personalized Learning
Q&A: How A Top Educator Drives Innovation and Social Change In His Classroom
By: Jaclyn Norton. Last month, Microsoft awarded the nations top educators who are bringing technology and project-based learning to their classrooms in innovative and interactive ways. Greg Witkin of Boynton Continuation High School in San Jose, Calif. won first place in the Educator as Innovator and Change Agent category for his project, "Finding Youth Voice." This project made students creators and visionaries behind a multimedia project that addresses a social problem.
Personalized Learning
Enstitute: Apprenticeship + Cohort = Applied MBA
Enstitute is a new way to think about post-secondary learning. The two year on-ramp to the tech sector could occur before, after, during, or instead of a traditional college experience. The program combines the learn-by-doing benefits of an apprenticeship with individual and cohort learning experiences--an applied MBA.
Personalized Learning
6 Powerful Google Docs Features to Support the Collaborative Writing Process
Google Docs is an online suite of digital tools that provides teachers with some powerful features to help students develop 21st century writing skills. Since Docs are collaborative and available 24/7, the tool is well-suited for facilitating digital writing workshops that combine peer editing with cooperative grouping and small group fine-tuned writing instruction.
Personalized Learning
What Information Should Show Up Day One With Students?
Students went back to school last week (or will next week) but most did not arrive with any information. Teachers get to know a lot about their students but there is no systematic way to share that when students move from grade-to-grade or school-to-school. As a result, most teachers start from scratch, trying to unlock the student-learning puzzle.
Leadership
Good Work: Back to School Apologies
To all the educators going back to school, thanks for your commitment to kids and their academic success. Sorry it’s so hard. Tools, conditions, and career options are getting better fast. Stick with it. Don't wait for the rest of us.
Personalized Learning
Preview of Back to School Week on GettingSmart
We have a great line up of blogs for next week, join the conversation. We'll review Michael Fullan's new book, find out why Cal St asked Pearson to help expand online options, study blended learning modes, learn about online speech therapy, find out how Common Core standards are different, and contemplate new approaches to research
Personalized Learning
EdLeaders Need to Find & Empower Mr. T
Every district needs a Mr. T. Not the enforcer from the 80s TV show, more like Justin Talmadge, a Teacher on Special Assignment (TOSA) in the Snoqualmie Valley Public Schools in the Cascade foothills.