DOE is major venture investor (but not ED)
The WSJ reports that the Department of Energy has quietly become the biggest venture capital investor: The DOE hopes to lend or give out more than $40 billion to businesses working on “clean technology,” everything from electric cars and novel batteries to wind turbines and solar panels.
Blog premise (or a TOC if you will)
With over 300 posting, I think I‘m getting closer to figuring out what this blog is about. Here’s a summary of the logic chain (or as my friends at Bridgespan would say, my theory of change): Excellence and equity in education is the most important issue for the America economy…
Celebrate Mandela; go see Invictus
While predictable and occasionally plodding, Invictus is worth seeing simply to celebrate Nelson Mandela’s moral fortitude and “unconquerable soul.” Â It’s hard to imagine spending 27 years in a small cell and emerging with clarity of vision and a a heart full of forgiveness. Â Clint Eastwood’s new movie also illustrates that…
What a state with no online options should do
There are still a few states where students can’t all or part of their learning online. Here’s three reasons it makes sense to adopt online learning policies: With the push for high common standards including advanced math and science, there simply aren’t enough qualified teachers to fill needs in many…
Lapoesia, Neruda
I spent a couple hours this week thinking with a friend about how kids (and adults) decide what to do–where to go to college? Â What to do for a living? Â I reminded me of David Whyte’s work. Lapoesia (Poem), as David Whyte points out in a Heart…
Learning platforms to come
The next generation of transformative learning platforms will include personalized instruction, social learning, and related services.  They will integrate the functionality of learning management, student information systems, and longitudinal data systems.  They’ll take advantage of the explosion of data that will come along with assessment embedded in digital content (e.g., score…
PTO: could Preferred Teacher Org provide blended services?
For years, Ted Kolderie has been talking about teacher ownership. Â After writing the nation’s first charter law in MN in 1991, Ted helped teacher in Henderson set up a coop and apply for a charter. Â Ted thinks educations should have a variety of professional options like doctors, lawyers, and…
Homework: play a game
eSchool News ran a fairly extensive piece on serious games. Here’s a few excerpts: Moving Learning Games Forward: Obstacles, Opportunities, and Openness,” by Eric Klopfer, Scot Osterweil, and Katie Salen of the Education Arcade, an MIT research division that explores games that promote learning through play,…
Learning a la carte (and how to make it coherent)
Rick Hess has laid out a market-friendly education agenda at American Enterprise Institute, something I appreciate, and recently hosted a form on the demand side of quality education.  I participated on a panel; everyone else wrote a paper; I got off easy as ‘discussant’. Kim Smith, founder of…
There is no Frigate like a Book
Robert Weisbuch, president of Drew University, and a big fan of poetry. Â Someday I’ll join him at the Dodge Poetry Festival. Â A few years ago he sent me this Emily Dickinson poem: There is no Frigate like a Book To take us Lands away…