Posts by Guest Author
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
Changing the World One Mind, One Song at a Time
Grammy-nominated indie-jazz singer Carolyn Malachi teams up with The School Fund to keep students in school with the power of music.
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
Digital Learning Helps Students ‘Where They Are and Not Where We Want Them to Be’
“Digital Learning Helps Students ‘Where They Are and Not Where We Want Them to Be’” by Star Kraschinsky, Director of Communications for Florida Virtual School, was first seen on redefinED. Florida Virtual School® (FLVS®) opened its virtual doors in August 1997 as…
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.