EdTech 10: Warming Up

With New England, much of the midwest and now the south experiencing a record breaking winter, this week’s EdTech news was anything but cold as stories were hot off the press as ever. From the forging of new tools from folks like Fedora, to bigs like BetterLesson boosting their offerings beyond basic boundaries, or learning platforms like PowerMyLearning providing proven programs to everyone from practitioners to policymakers… Alliteration aside, Team Getting Smart was has been staying warm this week with EdTech news that would make everyone in the ed space warm inside with excitement.

Blended Schools & Tools

1. Fueled Up. Fuel Education (FuelEd), in partnership with Getting Smart, launched How to Successfully Scale Personalized Learning: Six Key Lessons from Effective Programs. This new white paper explores how districts and schools successfully scale online and blended programs by highlighting the stories of leaders in six districts. We’re also excited to report that FuelEd announced their highly anticipated Summer School solution.

Blended & Online summer school solution from @FuelEducation now open to districts! http://t.co/BCsJjEYets #blendedlearning #edtech10

— Carri Schneider (@CarriSchneider) February 24, 2015

6 key Lessons from effective #personalizedlearning programs http://t.co/CwvWvD7F05 via @FuelEducation & @Getting_Smart #BlendedLearning

— tyler (@post_west) February 25, 2015

2. Learning Platform World Series. We’re honored to work with amazing advocacy partners such as Agilix, Instructure, and FuelEd. That’s why we’ve launched a new series where we are profiling these greats and their learning platforms that impact the learning and teaching of thousands of students and educators everyday.  

We’re launching a series on #LearningPlatforms including a series of #ProductReviews. Anything we should check out? http://t.co/SgQ7RNQjdH — Tom Vander Ark (@tvanderark) February 22, 2015

Digital Developments

3. I’ve Got The Powah. PowerMyLearning users from more than 35,000 schools nationwide will experience new formative assessment capabilities called Playlist Tasks and Checkpoints. Educators can now increase playlist rigor, gauge student understanding, and provide feedback through the platform.

.@PowerMyLearning Launches Next-Generation Formative #Assessment Capabilities to Drive #DeeperLearning http://t.co/yfdhQibrPJ #EdTech10

— Jessica Slusser (@Jess_Slusser) February 25, 2015

4. Seeing Is Believing. After hearing from numerous teachers new to blended models, that what they really need is to see real-world examples of blended learning instruction, BetterLesson has released videos from 11 of their Blended Master Teachers practicing techniques in action.  

. @LearningAccel and @BetterLesson announce new Blended #MasterTeacher Project! http://t.co/8on5otjTb5 #BlendedLearning #EdTech10 — Jennifer Aalgaard (@JenLAalgaard) February 24, 2015

5. Skills To Pay The Bills. Digital fluency will continue to contribute to a student’s readiness for career and college. Knowing this, Learning.com’s new Project NextTech is designed with a goal to develop the tech proficiency and information and media literacy skills students need to succeed in our increasingly digital world.

Great #access requires great responsibility. Enter @learningdotcom‘s #ProjectNextTech http://t.co/ew9mA3Z9PJ #EdTech10 #highschool

— Jennifer Aalgaard (@JenLAalgaard) February 23, 2015

Dollars & Deals

6. Far East In Reach. Pole position in education on the Apple App Store with over a million downloads is the LocoMotive Lab’s Todo Math app. The CA-based game developers have received $4 million in support as they set their sights on Asian markets and US classrooms.

.@LocoMotiveLabs raised $4M http://t.co/SDpHTEaYMf @K9Ventures @nsvfSEED @mkapor @SLP_EDU @shannonrosa #EduVC #EdTech10

— Tom Vander Ark (@tvanderark) February 25, 2015

Smart Parents

7. YouTube Kids. When it comes to screentime, it’s important to be choosy and chatty about the content that children consume. As we’ve explored how parents can impact their children’s learning in our recently launched series, we were elated to learn that YouTube is releasing an app for kids to support parents as they decide what their children watch.

YouTube is releasing app for kids called YouTube Kids #edtech10 #parents @tvanderark @CarriSchneider #SmartParents http://t.co/95KtW6I9CV — Bonnie Lathram (@belathram) February 23, 2015

Policy Pieces

8. Self Paced Wins The Race. Getting Smart Advocacy Partners, The Foundation for Excellence in Education and Instructure have teamed up with the release of free self paced MOOCs for policymakers dubbed EdPolicy Leaders Online.

New from @ExcelinEd – free self paced #MOOC for policymakers https://t.co/8H6yUdMh0E @instructure #policy #edpolicy #EdTech10 — Jessica Slusser (@Jess_Slusser) February 20, 2015

Let’s Get Personalized

9. Caution: Roadblock Ahead. 89% of educators surveyed by KnowledgeWorks and Nellie Mae Education Foundation said they are interested in CompetencyEd implementation, but 63% said they haven’t been able to take action. A new report by the two leading orgs has identified this divide and suggests policy areas that must be addressed to increase CompetencyEd.

Survey on K12 #CompetencyEd Policy Barriers from @KnowledgeWorks @NellieMaeEdFdn http://t.co/OqlQQdItXy via @Issuu #cworks #cbe — Carri Schneider (@CarriSchneider) February 23, 2015

Teachers & Tech-ers

10. Full Control. NYC-based startup, Fedora, is offering a new platform to teachers to create online “schools” to sell courses directly to students. The platform who recently landed $2 million in seed funding empowers teachers with the capability to build, manage, and market courses however they want.

Armed With $2M, Fedora Hopes To Create The Next Million Dollar #Teachers http://t.co/8GYUpd5OOG @techcrunch #edtech10 #teaching #edtech

— Carri Schneider (@CarriSchneider) February 20, 2015