Posts by Guest Author
NYTimes Misses the Mark
Gail Collins uses her column to question the validity of online public schools for everyone except middle class homeschoolers and tries to make her case using some flimsy arguments, and familiar critics.
Fund the Child, Not the District
Mike Pettrelli and the Fordham Institute should be commended for starting the conversation on “school governance.” Mike’s two important posts on the topic can be found here and here. This triggered comments from the grande dames of the status quo, Randi Wiengarten and Diane Ravitch,. The discussion brings an important question into focus. Why do we even need “school districts?”
Is Your School Preparing Learners for Success? 5 Questions to Consider
This post by Shane Krukowski first appeared on Innovative Educator on 11/23/11. Shane is CEO of Project Foundry, a great project-based learning platform. “The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of sixty minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.” ~C. S. Lewis Redesigning education involves much…
How the Best Math Software Avoids the Worst Teaching Mistakes
Like many of us in the education community, my first year of teaching was a disaster. Five periods of Algebra I with 10th and 11th graders at an urban Los Angeles high school was a tough start, and on top of it I made pretty much every mistake in the book. Classroom management was one thing, but the bigger frustration was that I knew I was making no headway in actually teaching math to my students.
Equal Access to College Preparatory Curriculum
By: David Haglund. The California Student Bill of Rights Initiative, a project of Education Forward, seeks to remedy this inequity in access through an initiative slated for the November 2012 ballot.
SKYRIM: How far r uu??!!
Pretty far, compared with typical learning environments. Not just for kids either: according to the Entertainment Software Association, the average age of video-gamers these days is 37, with 29% over the age of 50! (You know who you are.
Uniting Online Learning and Self-Directed Learning – A New Relationship
The concept of self-directed learning has long fascinated researchers in the field of education for quite some time. Becoming a self-directed learner is found to be most important as we develop into adults. It is often cited as being one of the most important functions of education. However, research has shown that there needs to be a readiness for self-directed learning that comes with maturity.
Five Things Students Want Their Teachers to Know about Online Learning
Kids love having the opportunity to learn online but it’s not merely the medium or the technology that students enjoy. At the recent iNacol Virtual Schools Symposium I listened to high school students who have experience learning this way as well as teachers who have experience with these students, share some advice for making this type of learning even better.
How Technology Can Improve Online Learning—and Learning in General
As president of a nonprofit, online university I am often asked about the quality of online learning. The answer is that the quality of education is largely independent of the mode of delivery. Other variables are far more important. There is high-quality online learning, and there is high-quality classroom learning, just as there is low-quality learning in both settings.
The race to platform education
Across the full spectrum of education – primary, secondary, and higher – we are witnessing a race to develop platforms for content, learning, teaching, and evaluation. As liberating as the web is, tremendous centralization of control is occurring in numerous spaces: Google in search/advertising/Android, Amazon in books/cloud computing, Facebook in social networks, etc. I use a smaller range of tools today than I did five years ago. And the reason is simple: companies are in a landrush to create platforms that will tie together previously disconnected activities and tools.