Posts by Guest Author

EdTech

Is the Flipped Classroom the Right Tech Approach for Teachers?

By Charles Perry “Flipping” a classroom refers to a reevaluation of a standard classroom environment where the teacher functions as a “sage on the stage” and the students as passive receptacles for knowledge. Teachers who flip their classrooms instead serve as a “guide on the side” who introduce new…

Personalized Learning

Online Learning Keeps Sisters Together

Two sisters from Nevada, Kaleigh and Danielle Fair, graduated from high school together the other day. As this touching video shows, the odds against these young women were extraordinary. Their school, Nevada Virtual Academy, and the teachers there evened those odds and made their journey together across the commencement stage and through their high school experience possible.

EdTech

Common Core PD Goes Open Source

Educator engagement in the implementation of Common Core State Standards is critical if we really want to see a quantum leap in college readiness. The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), which is one of two groups creating assessments for Common Core, recently awarded a contract to the National Math + Science Initiative’s Laying the Foundation program to create an Educator Leader Cadre to ensure greater expertise in the new standards at the classroom level.

Personalized Learning

Why I Teach On Udemy

I teach the way I like to learn, by completing a task. My style of teaching varies from traditional curriculums in that I show the steps necessary in completing a project, regardless of the academic structure of the task as a whole. My courses are constructed to offer a cross-section of the main principles, then offer tangents that people can explore on their own. This method ensures that people get to ‘touch’ and ‘experience’ all aspects of a project, while sparking additional interests in particular aspects.

Personalized Learning

Teachers and the Push for Online Education

Educational use of Internet technology is on the rise in school districts across the country. But its effectiveness depends on more than just access, to be truly useful, teachers must understand how it works. Technology in schools started slowly, first with email access and then with more regular computer use in classrooms.

EdTech

The 25 Best Smartphone Apps Developed By Students

By the end of 2012, paid mobile apps are projected to be an $8 billion a year market. To put that in perspective, that’s how much money the entire National Football League brought in in 2010. So if you can’t throw a 70-yard pass or tackle a 250-pound running back, it might be wise to explore a career in app design. Many enterprising and creative students have already begun making waves in this still-new industry. Here are 25 of the best products they’ve come up with.

Personalized Learning

What’s Your Main Purpose For Blended Learning?

What's your main purpose for blended learning? Is it improving learning resources efficiency/cost and time/access? Or is it improving the learning itself? Much of the attention and excitement about blended learning is on the former, with time-and-motion descriptions of where the teacher, the student, and the computer exist during the day.