Posts by Guest Author
EdTech
Virtual Field Trips Rise in Popularity: How Educators Can Host Their Own
A small group of fearless fifth graders are sent to outer space to help NASA locate and rescue a lost spaceship orbiting one of the universe's revolving planets. It's a dangerous mission, but these young children are NASA's only hope.
Personalized Learning
Portland Entrepreneur Innovates LEP High to Inspire Students’ Futures
100in100pdx is a Challenge to consult and coach with 100 Portland-based businesses in 100 days, while donating 50 percent of the fees to non-profits that plant and nurture the seeds of entrepreneurship. LEP High, the Leadership and Entrepreneurship charter high school in Portland, will be one of these non-profits and I had the pleasure of interviewing entrepreneur and co-founder, Adam Reid.
EdTech
5 Wireless Considerations When Introducing BYOD at Your School
In this blog we will cover the top five wireless considerations in introducing BYOD to your school and they are defining BYOD policies; growing client densities; managing the different devices; managing the classroom; and understanding the impact BYOD has on supporting classroom applications.
EdTech
51 Essential EdTech Tools By Category
Technology and education are pretty intertwined these days and nearly every teacher has a few favorite tech tools that make doing his or her job and connecting with students a little bit easier and more fun for all involved. Yet as with anything related to technology, new tools are hitting the market constantly and older ones rising to prominence, broadening their scope, or just adding new features that make them better matches for education, which can make it hard to keep up with the newest and most useful tools even for the most tech-savvy teachers.
Personalized Learning
Common Core: Blended Learning Solves Math
The two Common Core assessment consortia, Smarter Balanced and PARCC, have both recently released material giving us an insight into the upcoming Common Core math tests.
Personalized Learning
Big Data: Like Sunshine For Parents
Does school performance data really matter to parents? And does it facilitate parent-driven school accountability? As GreatSchools CEO Bill Jackson put it during his testimony before Congress in late 2011, “School performance data is like sunshine for parents. Parents need data to make good decisions about their children’s education.”
Personalized Learning
Escalating Tuition Costs Aren’t in Anyone’s Best Interest
Colleges and universities provide a critical service to our society. However, institutions of higher education are also businesses. In our current economy, our attention is increasingly drawn to the business side of education. Rising costs, and a scarcity of funds to help those students who cannot afford them, are hurting our bottom lines – and those of many families across the country.
Personalized Learning
Texas Welcomes a New Disruptive Innovation & Vision: Prime Prep Academy
In a recent blog post titled “A Hope for Future Irrelevance,” Michael Horn reflects on a book which discusses the tenets of American teaching technique – including ensuring every student answers the critical questions of a lesson plan, answering the question of “What exactly do I want my students to master?” and choosing challenging curriculum. He posits the challenges a blended-learning environment, particularly infused with technology, will cause for these traditional techniques.
Personalized Learning
The Transformative Power of Education & the Imperative to Educate Our Children Well: Pratham’s Footprint in India
I grew up knowing my family’s history through repeated narratives by my grandmother. She was, as I came to realize, an incredible woman. My own conviction in the transformative power of education derives directly from her experiences and commitments; my life as an Indian-American who has made the United States her permanent home and my professional life as Executive Director of Pratham USA also derive from my memory of her unfulfilled aspirations.
Personalized Learning
4 Ways to Empower Students Through Collaboration
If you want students to collaborate it is imperative that educators establish this as a norm at the beginning of the school year. Great teachers leverage group work and collaborative activities and projects in their curriculum and instruction, but oftentimes teachers “push-back” with the difficulties of having their students collaborate. I agree, it is a daunting task, but I always respond, “How have you taught them to collaborate and providing scaffolding of that skill?” This is the key! If you want your students to collaborate effectively, you must give the opportunity to do so, as well as give the necessary instruction in skills and scaffolding.