EdTech
ProProfs Training Creates Advanced Web-Based Courses
ProProfs launched ProProfs Training, a new tool aiming to make online training much easier for non-tech-savvy teachers and educators. ProProfs Training is a brand new web-based software that allows anyone to easily create advanced multi-media online courses.
EdTech
STEM Education Takes Off With Fly to Learn
Students in the Fly to Learn program learn STEM fundamentals through the design, construction, flight, and performance evaluation of virtual airplanes. X-Plan incorporates realistic laws of physics found in the field, which fosters the beginnings of critical thinking and problem solving found in aviation careers.
EdTech
California Reports Charter Schools Deliver Positive Impact for Low-Income Students
The California Charter School Association (CCSA) released today its second annual Portrait of the Movement: How Charters are Transforming California Education report, detailing academic performance of California's charter schools. The report finds that low-income students continue to be well-served by charters; and confirms that charters are having a positive impact on delivering high student achievement.
Personalized Learning
Collaboration, Really?
When I think of instances of true collaboration, Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir comes to mind: a blending of individual voices, each making his or her best effort to interpret the phrasing to contribute to the breathtakingly beautiful whole, all with the common goal of rendering a beautiful piece of music together. This extraordinary accomplishment suggests to me a metaphor for what we need to be doing as educators.
EdTech
Review: Raising the Standards Through Chapter Books
Americans today are reading less. The National Endowment for the Arts reported that less than one-third of 13-year-olds read daily and 19 percent of 17-year-olds are non-readers. Even those that do read, the report suggests, aren't reading as well. Reading scores among students today have declined. While employers report the increasing importance of reading as a basic skill, many graduates today fall short.
Personalized Learning
Competency-based Approach Can Support Personalized Learning in Ohio
Nearly 40 percent of college freshmen in Ohio need to take remedial courses because they are unprepared for college-level work. The total bill for remedial classes in 2009 came to $130 million, rising to $147 million in 2010. Remediation is most costly to students who take longer to complete their degrees and are more likely to drop out.
Leadership
Impact at Scale: Contribution, Translation & Execution
I usually write about Good Work–finding and doing mission-related work–on Sunday, but I spent the last two days with a couple dozen inspiring folks sharing strategies for creating impact at scale. Using a mixture of investment and organizational, they making a difference around the world. Leila Janah, Samasource, is…
EdTech
Top 10 Reader Favorites in February
This February, Getting Smart readers enjoyed articles around personal learning networks, blended learning, digital learning, spatial intelligence, tablet applications, and student motivation.
Personalized Learning
A Turning Point for Personal Digital Learning
Fritjof Capra  is a physicist who plowed the systems thinking ground for Peter Senge and the new science ground for Meg Wheatly.  He opened his seminal piece The Turning Point by noting that man always assumes he is at a turning point.  As a pattern spotter,…
EdTech
Webinar: Digital Learning Beyond School
It’s time to ensure that as teachers and schools find ways to use technology to advance learning, so do community organizations like Ys, libraries and cultural institutions that provide informal learning opportunities to millions of our least-advantaged kids.