EdTech

Adobe Announces the 2012 Adobe Educators’ Choice Awards

Every year educators create outstanding lesson plans to help students learn, understand and uncover their passions. We want to ensure that the hard work does not go unnoticed. Starting this week, educators can win great prizes by simply submitting their best projects, lesson plans, curricula and tutorials to the 2012 Educators’ Choice Awards.

Personalized Learning

Building the Digital Learning Superhighway

Next month there will be a lot of U.S. students holding an iPad looking at a spinning wheel. Cheaper devices, powerful apps, successful school models, and preparation for online assessments is boosting student access to technology. But in most places, the pipes won't be ready for all the traffic.

Personalized Learning

TheraWeb Meets Students’ Individual Learning Needs

By: Jaclyn Norton. Special education departments in schools throughout the country - namely in rural communities - experience a struggle betweenproviding immediate on-location support to students, while combating challenges that inhibit these counseling resources. Factors such as budget cuts, client distance, and shortage of counselors hinder students access to this specialized support, creating a significant demand for therapy in schools.

Personalized Learning

DIY: Finding a Co-Founder

I hadn't given much thought to the challenge of finding co-founders until Jessica Alter announced the education version of FounderDating, a partnership with Teach For America. We profiled the effort to match up interested and talented edupreneurs on Getting Smart last week and I called Jessica to learn more about what problem she was trying to solve.

EdTech

We Need to Develop Expert Screen Readers

Isn’t it odd that the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for reading does not introduce electronic reading until fifth grade? Since children increasingly read from screens on computers, eReaders like iPods or Kindles, and smartphones, shouldn’t they learn to read from day one on the very media they have comfortably used since they were toddlers?

Personalized Learning

A New Bumper Sticker: My Student is More Proficient Than Your Student!

How do we serve the parents like my neighbor who want to be involved in their student’s education but don’t understand the changes that are occurring? Some say it will take a minimum of three generations before the changes we are proposing become the expected classroom culture. Regardless of whether it takes a single school year or several generations, what we need to remember is that we are on this course for a long time.

EdTech

Infographic: Are You Going BYOD?

As another school year begins many leaders will again question whether or not to implement a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) or Technology (BYOT) policy in their classrooms. The infographic below highlights many of the pros and cons to letting students use personal devices in the classrooms.

Personalized Learning

Project RED Paves the Digital Learning Path

Tom Greaves is an edtech expert, especially school laptop programs. He has visiting more than 400 and surveyed about 1000. Project RED, housed at One to One Institute, is the first major study to considered two important issues: the impact of technology on student achievement and the financial impact of technology on budgets.

Leadership

Good Work: Making Tough Decisions

Decisions define an organization. Before you fill an open position, step back and look at the decision. It is often a great opportunity to reconsider the structure, to ensure that the organization still meets the challenges at hand. Avoid budgeting processes that assume that everything should be allocated the same way that it was the year before. Spending money and hiring people are often important crossroads.