EdTech 10: Your Holiday Travel Companion

The Holidays. Time to relax with family and friends, kick back and catch up. As soon as you get to them though. Here are this week’s top EdTech news stories for you to enjoy as catch a ride, wait at the gate to your flight home, or ride the train en route to your holiday destination. Have stories you want to add? Tweet ‘em if you got ‘em with #EdTech10.

Digital Developments

1. Big Changes in Assessment. “We are about to see big changes in the possibilities of assessment as a result of technology,” said Sir Michael Barber (@MichaelBarber9) from Pearson about the new report, Preparing for a Renaissance in Assessment. The report includes a great overview of the learning revolution and thoughtful guidance on the future of assessment.  See Tom’s review.

2. Show Me the Money. The FCC (@FCC) approved a $1.5 billion funding increase for the E-Rate program, which helps disadvantaged schools gain access to technologies and high-speed Internet. More on how this impacts learning from Modern Policy for Modern Learners.

Dollars & Deals

3. Clever News. Clever (@getClever) gets $30 million from Lightspeed to become the login layer for education apps.

.@getClever receives $30 million from @lightspeedvp for API layer for the Ed market http://t.co/HSZ33r3g9F #EdTech10 — tyler (@post_west) December 17, 2014

4. Survey Says. SurveyMonkey Inc., raised $250 million in investment funding to pursue acquisitions and work to sell directly to some of its Fortune 500 company clients.

5. New Incubator on the Block. DeVry Education Group announced its new collaborative EdTech Incubator with it’s first cohort of education technology startups.

Rolling In The Deep

6. Deep Disappointment. Jobs For The Future turned to Chris Dede (@chrs_dede) for a new report on digital learning and deeper learning, where he states quite bluntly that the results have been quite “disappointing.”

7. A Solid Foundation. Fresh from the recent Hewlett Foundation grantee convening, our very own Carri Schneider (@CarriSchneider) takes a stand on the often muddled, multi-layered learning movement environment in stating that Deeper Learning can be the starting point for common goals that all learning movements can be built from.

8. Three’s Company. In conjunction with a twitter chat (#cwrachat) on the same topic, CWRA’s Chris Jackson (@cjacksonj13) penned a blog with contributions from Colleen Broderick (@collleenbroderic) of ReSchool Colorado, and Marc Chun (@HFMarcChun) of the Hewlett Foundation and Carri (@CarriSchneider) of Team Getting Smart. Each shared Deeper Learning definitions.

Smart Cities

9. Big Moves in The Bean. With 300 EdTech and learning-focused startups in the Boston area, many of whom were featured in Smart Cities, anchor publishers are beginning to push the city’s EdTech ecosystem.

Policy Pieces

10. Got 5 On It. In order for Competency Ed to boom, the movement needs new champions: Policy Makers. Recognizing this was iNACOL in “The iNACOL State Policy Frameworks” a new report that outlines five critical issues to transform K–12 education.

Tom is a director at iNACOL. Pearson is a Getting Smart Advocacy Partner.

Getting Smart Staff

The Getting Smart Staff believes in learning out loud and always being an advocate for things that we are excited about. As a result, we write a lot. Do you have a story we should cover? Email [email protected]

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