Personalized Learning

5 Learning Breakthroughs of the Next 10 Years

I’ve written about what are likely to be the biggest developments of 2010 here, but a philanthropic service asked a really hard question, “What will be the 5 big breakthroughs in education during the decade to come?”  Here’s a first pass: 1. Adaptive content & assessment and data…

Personalized Learning

What I’m Seeing: Coding Schools

This is the fourth post in a series of ten on categories where I’m seeing strong edtech startup activity. We’ve looked at productive post-sec, informal learning, and credentialing. A specific subset and application of the trends discussed so far is the rush to coding. The rash of coding startups suggests that everyone wants to learn to write computer code.

Personalized Learning

Turning the textbook world upside down

Flatworld, a start up company that just raised $8 million, is launching a free line of college textbooks. Like Wireless Generation, which distributes www.FreeReading.net, they make money by selling related services. For the last 15 years, textbook publishers have given away CDs and digital assets to sell textbooks.

EdTech

SMARTtech Roundup

Blended Schools & Tools Fuse Boost. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt announced that the results from a year-long pilot of their Algebra Curriculum for iPad stimulated a near 10 percent boost in Math scores. The HMH Fuse platform encourages the use of personalized lesson plans by combining direct instruction, ongoing…

Leadership

Good Work: Iterating & Innovating At Scale

Four leaders had, by eight years ago, achieved a career crowning accomplishment of running a great school. None were satisfied. Each saw more opportunity to help boost youth success. They viewed blended learning as an chance to innovate and iterate. Unlike superficial Tinkering Toward Utopia, these leaders are engineering powerful learning pathways. Driven by a passion for impact at scale, leaders like Diane, Marcy, Tom and JoAnn are transforming U.S. education.

Leadership

Good Work: Coming to Grips With Standards of Quality

When I was a superintendent, a group of 40 students ranging from six to eight years old asked me to visit their classroom for a presentation on quality. One after another, teams of students described quality teachers, quality schools, and quality students.