Good Work: Get Involved
If there is only one work, the great work of the universe going on, then, the universe itself is sacrament; it is a sacred place, and it is bestowing graces on us. Our work, if it is tapping into the great work, is tapping into this bestowal of grace. Therefore…
Something In Common: The Common Core Standards
Robert Rothman wrote the first definitive book on new national standards last year:Something in Common: The Common Core Standards and the Next Chapter in American Education. It provides a history of what, with new online assessments, will prove to frame the next decade of American education.
Staff Picks: RTT-D, Digital Tools
Tom Picks “RTT-District: Scaling Personalizing Innovations“ Tom says, “The $383 million school district federal grant program will help two dozen US districts make the shift to personal digital learning.” Karen Picks “20 Schools Innovating With Digital Tools” Karen says, “It is good to see the…
RTT-District: Scaling Personalizing Innovations
Last week the Department issued the final guidance on Race to the Top District(RTT-D) competition. It's a big opportunity to improvement for underserved kids.
Learning Untethered: Conclusions From a 5th Grade Tablet Pilot
Learning Untethered is a “collaborative exploration” that introduced 7 inch Samsung Galaxy tablets running Android 2.2, a mobile data plan, and using Internet filtering from Kajeet into an Oregon fifth grade classroom. The report made important observations about writing and mobile device management.
Big Data: Like Sunshine For Parents
Does school performance data really matter to parents? And does it facilitate parent-driven school accountability? As GreatSchools CEO Bill Jackson put it during his testimony before Congress in late 2011, “School performance data is like sunshine for parents. Parents need data to make good decisions about their children’s education.”
SMARTtech Roundup: Blended Learning, STEM & Apps
Blended Schools & Tools RTT-D pushes for personalized learning. RttT-D kicked off the $400 million competition for increased personalized learning. CRPE says portfolio schools have the advantage. Tom comments, adds a list of 10 questions for districts, and contributes a list of 35 blogs lends help…
Poverty: High on the Edu Agenda, Not a Campaign Issue
Frank McCaughey is a teacher in the Bronx where 80 percent of the students in his school live in or near poverty. Frank posted a blog today, “The Biggest Challenge I Face in my Classroom,” where he urged policy makers to take on “the devastation that extreme poverty…
20 Schools Innovating With Digital Tools
Hans Renman in Stockholm (@tankom_hans) asked on Twitter, "Do you know any US schools that are REALLY using digital tools in an INTERESTING way for communication, marketing, or learning?" That tweet kicked off a few days of snooping around. Here is the list of 20 we came up with. We look forward to your additions!
3 Free Cool Tools to Curate Content
Content curation is a great way to find, organize and share useful knowledge efficiently. There are many free digital tools available to help manage web content in flexible ways allowing us to quickly share resources that are accessible online. Use of curation tools is social and will connect us to the ideas of others and help build our professional learning networks. Here are three efficient and effective content curation tools that can help educators manage web content and embrace technology.