Getting Smart Staff

EdTech 10: Marching On

Share

As many educators, EdLeaders and Edupreneurs return from SXSWedu (check out the news you missed while you were out), the work to create better learning experiences for students continues. This week’s EdTech 10 is in the spirit of marching on, picking up where you left of, and continuing the important work to move the needle.

Blended Schools & Tools

Sentenced to learn. A judge in upstate New York sentenced an offender to complete free online courses on ALISON as opposed to a term in jail. This is the first time an offender has been ordered by a court anywhere in the world to complete MOOC’s as part of their sentence. Perhaps we could add this recidivism prevention method to the 8 Online Learning Trends that are Changing the Learning Landscape.

March Math Madness. Think Through Learning, authors of Think Through Math, announced the 16 finalist schools in its biggest contest of the year: “March Math Madness” or MX3. Since March 1, more than 12,500 schools and more than 1.2 million students from around the nation have been competing in the bracket-style, MX3 contest. Challenging students with math at home is also very important in ensuring student success, as discussed in Parents: Children’s First Math Teachers.

Digital Developments

Queen ELSA. The SXSWedu Conference & Festival named the English Language Speech Assistant (ELSA) mobile app as the winner of the SXSWedu Launch startup competition. English language learners (ELL) can use it to improve pronunciation and reduce accent, utilizing in-house speech recognition, automated feedback and deep learning technology.
Join Getting Smart as we also investigate Next-Gen Personalized Learning for ELL Students by contributing your story and ideas through a guest blog, and/or sharing your favorite ELL tool, tip or strategy by tweeting us @Getting_Smart using the hashtag #SupportELL.


Turn up the volume. Listen Current and NPR have partnered to bring public radio to the classroom. Storytelling is a powerful tool for deeper learning. Check out Power of Podcasting for Student Learning, by Listen Current CEO Monica Brady-Myerrov for more.


Even more math madness. TenMarks, an Amazon company that offers free online math programs for second through twelfth graders, is kicking off its fifth annual Math Madness competition to get kids excited about math through some friendly competition. Students all across the United States compete to answer millions of math questions with grand prizes awarded to the top three classes in each group. Want more ideas on getting students involved in math? Check out this infographic containing 100 Questions That Promote Mathematical Discourse in the classroom.

Dollars & Deals

Pictures worth hundreds of thousands. A new app from Volley that empowers students to use to their mobile camera on a textbook page or homework to instantly view resources, facts, prerequisites, and supporting links, received $2.3 million in support from Reach Capital and Zuckerberg Educational Ventures. Zuckerberg also went into detail on his interest in personalized learning in an interview on Education Week.


When it all comes together. The recent acquisition of Performance Matters from Weld North Holdings will mean the merger of Truenorthlogic with Performance Matters to create the first SaaS platform that integrates PD, assessment tools with analytics capabilities. We recently wrapped a comprehensive review of next-gen learning platforms — check out Getting Smart Next-Gen Learning Platforms.

Policy Pieces

Charting the course. It’s been a big week for the charter movement. In California, the LA Unified school board approved a new charter high school, while Washington state legislators passed a measure that would changed the funding source for charters for lottery money and not local levy dollars.

Let’s Get Personalized

Quote unquote. In an interview on YouthToday.org, Susan Patrick, President and CEO of iNACOL, shares the impact of personalized and competency-based systems and the importance of common language. iNACOL just published a blog for those making sense of the many definitions is a piece titled What is Personalized Learning.


An easy SEL(l). New Vision for Education: Fostering Social and Emotional Learning through Technology is a new collaborative report between the World Economic Forum and The Boston Consulting Group that explores the benefits and best practices in SEL, the promise of EdTech, what’s holding back adoption of SEL tech and the path forward for SEL. Here’s how two minutes of SEL can change the tone in your classroom.


For more EdTech 10’s, check out:

Stay in-the-know with all things EdTech and innovations in learning by signing up to receive the weekly Smart Update. This post includes mentions of a Getting Smart partner. For a full list of partners, affiliate organizations and all other disclosures please see our Partner page.

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]

Discover the latest in learning innovations

Sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Related Reading

0 Comments

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. All fields are required.