Archive: 2012
How to Work Together to Build Capacities for Collaboration
Having challenged, in my previous post for Getting Smart, some of the common notions we educators share about collaboration, I acknowledge that it is only fair that I take some time to wrestle with what collaboration really means and why it is so important as we prepare our students for the future.
An Innovation Ecosystem Meets in Austin for SXSWedu
Key leaders in Austin will be meeting this week as part of SXSWedu to develop strategies for expanding Austin’s role as a national leader in ed tech innovation.
10 Conversations at COSN
The COSN conference is underway in Washington DC. School district edtech directors find themselves in a very dynamic situation these days. Here’s 10 of session and hallway conversation topics from yesterday:
Education Must Move Center Stage in the Presidential Election
Joel Klein had a great oped in the Washington Post this morning. Like Joel, we're disappointed with the lack of focus on education on the campaign trail, "Until former senator Rick Santorum called President Obama “ a snob ” last month for wanting all Americans to attend college, education had been practically invisible in this presidential campaign."
FLVS Offers Leadership & Professional Development Training for Online & Blended Learning
Florida Virtual School (FLVS) plans to offer a two-day Virtual Leadership Training (VLT) workshop April 25-26, 2012 to give school administrators expert feedback and training on the blueprint of its award-winning virtual school program. The FLVS Professional Learning Team also plans to offer FLVS Professional Development courses through the Custom Professional Development service year round and on demand through online webinars and face-to-face workshops.
10 Open & Free Educational Resources
In honor of Open Education Week, the Getting Smart team has compiled ten great open and free educational resources for students and educators.
California Student Bill of Rights: Access for All Students
Led by David Haglund, a group of California districts drafted The California Student Bill of Rights to ensure that every student has access to a well-taught college prep curriculum.
Pearson Launches New Guide to Strengthen Teacher/Principal Performance
To assist states and school districts as they undertake the critical task of developing and launching next-generation educator effectiveness systems, Pearson today unveiled a new guide, “Evaluating Teachers and Principals: Developing Fair, Valid, and Reliable Systems.”
First-Ever Open Education Week Launches Today
The first-ever Open Education Week kicks off today online and at locally-hosted events around the globe. The event, which will run through March 10, 2012, is intended to raise awareness around the benefit, impact, and success of open education resources (OER) around the world. The open education movement strives…
SmartTech Roundup: 1:1 Reading/Writing, Hardware & Schools
Better Reading & Writing StudySync hooked up with MetaMetrics to provide Lexile measures for its entire curriculum of 350 classic and modern texts. Florida adopted Pearson’s social studies eTexts. When a state adopts the program, it gets its own website. Ginger Software, a contextual grammar…