Personalized Learning
Blended Rumi
Coleman Barks, a poet in his own right, is the primary translator of Rumi’s 11th century Persian wisdom. In an interview with Bill Moyers, Barks said that he thought about this poem in relation to teaching, “it doesn’t really matter what the teacher talks about…what we remember were a few…
Personalized Learning
Edu-Policy Priorities for Congress
National Journal kicks off the new year by asking about congressional policy priorities. Â My brief on the run (after red eye) response follows. Congress should take advantage of the tremendous reform momentum that RttT has created by…
Personalized Learning
What's a Superintendent to Do?
This all gets interesting when you consider the merged capabilities of: School of One, a personalized playlist of tailored learning objects, adaptive content and virtual learning environments, virtual and blended school models, a smart back end that tracks learning (an LMS with visual student profile), competency bundles (like…
Personalized Learning
What I’m Most Worried About
Some time ago, perhaps during Clinton, we passed an inauspicious point where the challenges we face outstrip our civic problem solving capacity. The money and partisanship infecting congress make it largely impossible to attack problems in a long term, creative, and bipartisan manner. The Bush presidency appeared more interested…
Personalized Learning
Naughts Not So Bad for Education
The papers have been full of editorials expounding on why the past decade was disastrous for America. There is much to forget and regret about the last decade but it wasn’t so bad for education. We should have made more progress than we did, but here’s 10 big advances that…
Personalized Learning
The Best of School: Lawrence & Zolynas
M. Scott Peck defines love as, “The will to extend one’s self for the purpose of nurturing one’s own or another’s spiritual growth.” When I read that sentence on a beach after my first year as superintendent, I scribbled ‘teaching’ in the margin.  What could better describe the work of teaching.
Personalized Learning
Best of 2009: 10 blogs you may have missed
Still think Investing in Innovation is important for the economy, 2/23; follow up on 3/3 quoting Reid Hoffman Thought a Brooks column on Fryer’s study of HCZ, 5/10, would be the most important of the year given definitive evidence of the power of good schools to…
Personalized Learning
Fix or Replace Federal Education Policy?
The Department of Education has an assignment that’s about five years late: reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA, called No Child Left Behind by 43). It’s a difficult assignment that requires collaboration of the contentious—to have good chance of passing Summer 2010, it would require the unions…
Personalized Learning
10 US education reformers that will impact 2010
Arne Duncan is taking advantage of an unbelievably large budget and pushing a tough reform agenda targeting low-income kids and struggling schools. While he’ll have his hands full with reauthorization, he has assembled a top notch team. Joanne Weiss leads the mother of all grant program—Race to…
Personalized Learning
Augmented Reality will improve field trips
eSchool News posted a update on Augmented Reality. Here’s a couple snippets: This computer-enhanced view of the world is not just available to cyborgs in science-fiction movies. Increasingly, it can be found on cell phones, for free or on the cheap, through programs that provide “augmented reality.”…