Posts by Tom Vander Ark

Personalized Learning

MA "Innovation" Regs Block Innovation

Disastrous online learning regs considered in MA provides no waivers, limits enrollment to local districts and limits size to 500 students. This is one place where small schools is a dumb idea.

Personalized Learning

Build a Flexible Frame for Teacher Eval

Teacher effectiveness should be based largely on performance but we need to build flexible systems and evaluation language to incorporate new data from better sources including content-embedded assessment.

Personalized Learning

Credit Recovery vs. Dropout Recovery

EdWeek made it seem like online credit recovery is something new, but folks have been at it for 15 years. New dropout recovery models like AdvancePath and PLC build a web of support that gets kids back on track.

Personalized Learning

The Internet is What We Make It

David Brooks rehashs Carr's 'the Internet makes us dumb' argument but ends in the right spot--it's up to us to build powerful learning experiences that harness the web.