Personalized Learning

The 3×5 Learning Revolution

Tom Vander Ark

Twenty years after technology began transforming every other sector, there is finally enough movement on a sufficient number of fronts—15 to be precise—that, despite resilience, everything will change.   New and better learning options are inevitable, but progress will be uneven by state/country and leadership dependent. The 5 Drivers.

EdTech

Entrepreneur Thinking: What It Is, What It Ain't

Getting Smart Staff

My superintendent in the East Village apartment I rent would like me to believe that his solution for the cracks around the somewhat faulty plumbing in my bathroom ceiling and wall is entrepreneurial in its deployment and conceptualization. It most certainly is not. It is not Entrepreneur Thinking to “patch”…

Personalized Learning

Postcards from 2015

Tom Vander Ark

Here’s a couple snapshots of high school a few years from now using currently available tools and a few in development.  These pictures are student-centric; there are obviously a number of teachers and learning professional involved in the success of each of these students.  Comments, suggestions, alternatives welcome.

EdTech

Rodel-Backed Plan Wins in DE

Tom Vander Ark

There were lots of people scratching their head about Delaware’s phase one Race to the Top win yesterday.  It was not a last minute consultant generated application, it was the result of a decade of leadership from the Rodel Foundation–one guy that leveraged a small checkbook and a lot of…

EdTech

The Book is an Artifact

Getting Smart Staff

Those of you in the education innovation space will know what I am talking about when I say that the era of the book has come and gone. The book is an artifact. It’s a holdover from an era where knowledge was plentiful (relatively) but access to knowledge was limited.

Personalized Learning

RttT: The Work Ahead

Tom Vander Ark

With only two winners (thanks for holding the bar high Arne), there are two different paths to resubmission: 1. Support. FL & LA clearly had the most aggressive plans but got dinged for lack of support.  They need a little Barb O’Brien (Lt. Gov CO) style barnstorming to build…

EdTech

Online Learning Saves Education

Getting Smart Staff

The only way online education companies can respond to concerns about quality and age-appropriateness is if they are given the chance to experiment and win over students and parents. Government policies need to be tweaked, and companies need investment to grow. But for online education to really take off, we need to let the chalkboard in the little red schoolhouse go, and learn to love the glow of a child’s face lit by a laptop screen. -- Katherine Mangu-Ward, Washington Post

Personalized Learning

Virtual Portfolio Overlay

Tom Vander Ark

Virtual courses are quickly becoming an important overlay to portfolio strategy (last post) as Paul Hill pointed out yesterday at Yale Edu Leaders Conference. Virtual schools offer full school and course alternatives.  In the next year I think we’ll get to the point where every student in America has…

Personalized Learning

10 Ways Faith Congregations Can Improve Edu

Tom Vander Ark

Peter Groff, the Director of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships for the Department of Education, will be headlining a Teachers College conference on the role of faith congregations in education.   This afternoon, I’ll be outlining these 10 specific ways that congregations can make a difference: 1.  Youth/Family Services: Communities…