Posts by Guest Author

Personalized Learning

Why My Six-Year-Old Students Have Digital Portfolios

Guest Author

From the first week of school, the six-year-olds in my classroom begin to create an online presence in the form of a blog and digital portfolio. We use a blogging platform to do this, and include artifacts that show their progress in writing, reading, math, social studies, and science.
Personalized Learning

Protecting Your Career: Why Virtual School Teachers Need Liability Insurance

Guest Author

More than a year ago, Sarah Walters* was a well‐liked virtual school teacher living in a small community in Colorado. Sarah had taught at a suburban school in its close knit community for more than five years before transferring to a new, virtual school for increased career flexibility where she received many awards. It was in this position that the rug was swiftly pulled out from under her after she was fired for contact deemed “inappropriate” by school administrators.

Personalized Learning

Digital Portfolios for Primary Students

Guest Author

“Mrs. Cassidy, I showed my blog to my parents last night. I showed them everything on my blog. I showed them all the things on the computer!” That was my morning greeting from one of my six-year-old students not long ago. He had received a surplus computer1 from my school division the day before, and had suddenly been able to show his parents all of the learning artifacts he’d been adding to his digital portfolio through the course of the school year.

Personalized Learning

Technically Speaking: How Common are the Common Core?

Guest Author

How common are the CCSS really, and who is systematically tracking state-specific CCSS modifications and additions? Doug Levin asks important questions about the Common Core. How much variation in state-specific CCSS standards language can be tolerated at a technical level to ensure interoperability across states? What is the process for ongoing governance of CCSS implementation at the technical level?

Personalized Learning

Alliance President Bob Wise Addresses the Common Core Naysayers

Guest Author

Following up on Alliance Senior Fellow Robert Rothman's blog post from last week, Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education and former governor of West Virginia, responds to individuals who are skeptical of the impact that the common core state standards will have on student achievement.

EdTech

Want to Prepare Your Kids for the Singularity? Read Jonathan Mugan’s The Curiosity Cycle

Guest Author

In the future your children won’t just be competing against other children, they’ll be pitted against robots and computers too. What’s a parent to do? Teach them about the best parts of being human: curiosity and creativity. Researcher Jonathan Mugan is bringing his specialty in machine learning to the nursery. His book, The Curiosity Cycle helps parents find simple ways of inspiring children to have the flexible thinking and boundless interest they’ll need to stay competitive in the 21st Century marketplace.

EdTech

ProProfs Training Creates Advanced Web-Based Courses

Guest Author

ProProfs launched ProProfs Training, a new tool aiming to make online training much easier for non-tech-savvy teachers and educators. ProProfs Training is a brand new web-based software that allows anyone to easily create advanced multi-media online courses.

EdTech

Webinar: Digital Learning Beyond School

Guest Author

It’s time to ensure that as teachers and schools find ways to use technology to advance learning, so do community organizations like Ys, libraries and cultural institutions that provide informal learning opportunities to millions of our least-advantaged kids.

Personalized Learning

PBL in Primary: Making Up the Rules

Guest Author

This year, I have been using PBL (passion or project-based learning) in my classroom. Although language arts and math have certainly been involved, I have mainly been using the outcomes of my science, social studies and health curriculum as the focal point of my backwards-by-design planning.