Posts by Tom Vander Ark
Leadership
Good Work: Commitment to Place
It's a blessing to work in a place you love--a place where you feel connected, grounded, rejuvenated. but I really appreciate the teachers & leaders that have deep commitment to place.
Ed Policy
PARCC Provides Advice on Access and Test Administration
The 22 state assessment consortia PARCC issued administrative guidelines this week and they included more advice about access. Previously, PARCC issued updates the design of both the assessments and released item prototypes. District and school administrators should pay attention to the The PARCC Assessment Administration Capacity Planning Tool.
EdTech
Juan Lopez-Valcarcel: Bridging Islands
The app explosion of the last two years is arguably the most notable education event of this new decade. The guy tracking that at Pearson is Juan Lopez-Valcarcel from Pearson’s London office. We visited with his team at BETT in January and caught up with Juan last week. Here’s the summary of our conversation.
Personalized Learning
Rocketship to Open 8 Blended Learning Schools in Nashville
Rocketship Education announces its plan to open and operate eight public charter schools in Nashville, starting in the fall of 2014, under its charter authorized by the Achievement School District (ASD). Rocketship has been approved by the ASD to open an additional eight schools in Memphis.
Leadership
Fund Raising for Education Innovation
Last Wednesday, we led a #SXSWedu conversation about funding and fund raising in education. Yesterday we discussed the investing side of the equation. Below we tried to quickly answer 15 questions we received at the end of the session.
Leadership
Investing in Productivity: How to Pay For Blended Learning
We’re seeing more CapEx thinking in education (as I first pointed out in 2010). You may recall from Finance 101 that capital expenditures are funds invested to produce future benefit--positive cash flows (costs savings or net revenues) resulting in a return on investment higher than the cost of capital.
Leadership
Investing in Education Innovation
Last Wednesday, we led a #SXSWedu conversation about funding and fund raising in education. The first of two blogs outlines the conversation we led on investing in innovation.
EdTech
Book Review: The Leader’s Guide to 21st Century Education
Ken launched the Partnership for 21st Century Learning a decade ago to add the 4Cs--critical thinking and problem solving; communication, collaboration; and creativity and innovation--to the 3Rs. He was successful at gathering corporate support for the agenda but it was slow to be adopted by school districts preoccupied by state testing programs.
Personalized Learning
Next Generation Professional Training, Blending For-Me & For-Degree
Combining the benefits of anywhere, anytime interest-driven learning with standards-based learning is the design opportunity of our time. The explosion of anytime, anywhere learning is making new thought experiments possible. Even in professional education resulting in certification, it is possible to create pathways that are more active and work-based with more just-in-time learning rather than just-in-case learning.
Ed Policy
Leading Edge Certification
The system of education certification is badly out of date and benefits schools of education more than K-12 schools. The rise of blended and online learning has accelerated the obsolescence of traditional employment barriers.