Posts by Guest Author

Personalized Learning

Student Warns “Doing Technology” Isn’t Enough

A guest blog this week at edweek.org gave a student the chance to tell us what he thinks is important about technology in the classroom. The perspective of the learner doesn't often get much air time. What this learner has to say deserves attention.

EdTech

Steelcase Invites Students to Imagine Their Future

This year, Steelcase launched the 100 Dreams Classroom Project as a part of our “100 Dreams, 100 Minds, 100 Years” centennial celebration. Steelcase is a company dedicated to providing great environments where employees can do their best work. To commemorate its 100th anniversary, the company is looking to the leaders of tomorrow to see what dreams they have and how they hope to achieve these advancements. For the project, we designed a simple lesson plan for teachers to download online and implement in their classrooms, which invites children to use crayons to envision the future.

Personalized Learning

5 Steps to Getting the Most Out of Online Education

For a countless number of people all over, online classes are one way to get ahead while still maintaining some flexibility in daily life. But, in order to get the most out of those online classes and make sure the experience is as rich as possible, you need to be able to know just what kind of mistakes to avoid.

EdTech

Who Governs The Child?

North Carolina is host to the latest battle over expanding digital learning, charter schools, and parent choice. It involves attempts by the State Board of Education (SBE) and the NC School Boards Association to block a proposed online public charter school, North Carolina Virtual Academy (NCVA) from serving students this Fall. Yet, beyond the details of this one new charter school, this issue has sparked a renewed debate over governance, and whether the principal virtue of “local control” in education is district control or parent choice.

EdTech

Adobe Foundation & Discovery Education Host a ‘Day of Discovery’

In coordination with the 2012 ISTE conference, the Adobe Foundation and Discovery Education hosted a ‘Day of Discovery’ and kicked off the event with an announcement on a partnership between the two. With a shared passion for the power of technology in enhancing teaching and learning, the Adobe Foundation and Discovery Education partnered to provide a first look at free media making curriculum and resources for educators.

EdTech

3 Signs of Quality You Should Look For In Instructional Content

The future will bring amazingly better instructional content for teacher and student use. If the market notices key signs of this, then more effective, comprehensive content will be broadly and rapidly adopted, to the benefit of teaching and learning. I believe there’s three signs the market should be looking for.

EdTech

Informal Learning for a Better World

nformal learning should not be seen as a threat to the formal education system, but as a challenge, model, and important counterpart. With the rise of the open content movement, some of the world’s best educational content — from TED talks to MIT’s OpenCourseWare — is now freely available online.

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.