Personalized Learning
What I’m Seeing: Show What You Know
It’s the beginning of the end of pointless post-secondary. Thousands of young people accumulated mountains of debt from college degrees that aren’t worth much–they didn’t learn much and they aren’t employable. The last two days in GettingSmart.com I’ve discussed the increased focus on outcomes and the development…
Leadership
Staff Picks: Early College, Friday Films, Technovation Challenge, Jeb Bush
Karen says, "Couldn't pick just one, these two are great. First pick is Friday Films by SchoolTube: Educator Demonstrates STEM Concepts With Origami. I was completely entranced with this project. Great fun! Second pick is Breaking News Alert: Bloggers Are Getting Smart from our blogger Adam Renfro. Nothing says it better, glad to set it straight".
Personalized Learning
What I’m seeing: anything, anytime learning
This is the second in a series of ten (or more) blogs on edtech startup categories where there seems to be strong activity. Yesterday I wrote about productive post-sec--folks serious about academic outcomes as well as cost. Today we’re exploring the dynamic category of Informal learning, mostly--non-degree seeking “I need/want to learn something” category. In some cases these options are an alternative to formal post-sec. What I’m seeing is activity in three categories: peer, now, do.
EdTech
Breaking News Alert: Bloggers Are Getting Smart
News broke out late Thursday that there's some discrepancy over the real role of Getting Smart Bloggers. The blog's team of teachers hold strong with the statement that they're spending their time "getting smart." Yet, other sources claim that the bloggers are simply putting their feet up, wasting their time with 140 characters.
Uncategorized
Educator Demonstrates STEM Concepts With Origami
An educator at Jersey Shore Middle School in Jersey Shore, PA published a video on origami hang gliders that float on waves of air. The video explores the ways that the paper hang gliders model the same concepts as hang glider pilots, surfers and more to create lift to carry weight over a wave of air or water.
Personalized Learning
10 impact opportunities for donors and sponsors
Are you looking for investment opportunities to improve equality and equity in education? This week, we’ve compiled a list of 10 great philanthropic and sponsor opportunities: Make new state tests as good as possible by sponsoring a design prize for innovative math and logical reasoning assessment items. The first two…
Personalized Learning
How to Leverage Backchanneling & the Long Tail of Learning
We’ve all been there. Two colleagues across the room tap away at their phones, while the principal describes the rationale for cutbacks in funding for new technology initiatives. (Or switch out the colleagues for students while you are delivering an essential lecture on freedom of speech.) Their jabbing thumbs are punctuated by muffled giggles, as the digital text flies across the room. Is this a rude disruption or an extension of learning?
Personalized Learning
What I’m Seeing: Productive Post-Secondary
Wow, the edtech space seems to have exploded. The number and quality of startups is remarkable as is the inflow of talent and investment. Over the next weeks I’ll discuss some of the emerging capabilities I’m seeing in these ten categories: Productive post-secondary: taking outcomes and value seriously…
EdTech
Apps: Students Tap Into Video for Physics Learning
We experience concepts of physics daily. Whether we're walking, playing sports, driving a car, the concepts are naturally occurring all around us. What if we could capture the movement around us to learn and evaluate basic physics so that we could then learn to identify it daily in our lives?
EdTech
Edupreneur Inspires Artistic Creativity With Math as a Medium
Meet Eli Luberoff. He skipped out of kindergarten, took a month off from sixth grade, dropped out of eighth grade, and then left high school altogether two weeks into tenth grade before graduating from Yale University. Yet despite these early challenges in the education system, he’s decided to devote a career to improving the experience for others by becoming one of the market’s newest entrepreneurs.