Posts by Tom Vander Ark
What Do Virtual Schools Cost?
Teachers make the difference. Virtual schools & courses can offer some cost savings, but they should receive full funding for a robust academic program with a full complement of trained teachers.
Making College/Career Ready Real
Grades are are a relic of the sorting-machine age-cohort model. Standards-based feedback is a small but critical step toward a personalized competency-based system that makes standards real on a daily basis.
Dawn of the Edupreneurial Revolution
Steve Blank suggests we're in the early stages of an entrepreneurial revolution; I'm quite sure we're in the early stages of an edupreneurial revolution
Does Heroic Leadership Work?
Heroic leadership isn't sustainable, but getting to a high functioning decentralized system takes a hurricane or a hero.
Credit Recovery Goes Mainstream
Online credit recovery helps thousands of students graduate from high school and is an important entry point for personalized digital learning and competency-based education.
Best of Fall
Here's a dozen blog posts I enjoyed working on this fall; take a look if you missed them the first time around. Happy Thanksgiving.
Certification Promotes Quality, Colleges Play a Role
Lisa Dawley, Boise State, responded to an October 6 story about states adding certification for online learning and a hallway chat at iNACOL’s VSS2010. She makes a case below for certification and school of ed training. The Digital Learning Council is likely to recommend path-speicific performance-based certification after demonstrated…
Tapscott Refutes Richel: Smartest Gen is Multi-tasking
Dan Tapscott posted a brilliant rebuttal of Richel's NYTimes 'the Internet is making kids dumb' article
Guardians of Tradition Shun Inventiveness
Public education exhibits the Guardian Syndrome which values loyalty, seeks exclusivity, and adheres to tradition.
Leadership by Any Means
Comments on Larry Cuban's two part series; big districts should consider non-traditional leaders.