SMARTtech Top 10: Happy Thanksgiving
We hope you’re enjoying the long holiday weekend. We know you’re eager to get back to your turkey sandwich leftovers and that backyard game of tag football, which is why we’ve worked to condense the news highlights to just 10 quick items. Here’s your small talk points for early Monday morning back at the office.
Reason TV: The Ed Reform Mainstream
Watch the first thirty seconds of this video. This is worth revisiting again, after Education Nation media storm passes over.
Video: PISA Top Performer, Shanghai, China
Pearson Foundation and OECD showcase Shanghai, China's efforts in teaching Math and Science. This work has made them one of the highest performers in the PISA study released today. In this city, higher-performing schools help struggling weaker schools.
Boot Camp Parents Shape Up to Impact Ed Policy
Seventy-five such parents joined PublicSchoolOptions.org’s 2013 Annual Parent Advocacy Boot Camp, where they explored the national education debate and learned how to impact reform in their own states.
How Leaders Inspire Groups to Innovate
Success in today’s global marketplace demands innovation. The world has watched the likes of Jack Welch (General Electric), Steve Jobs (Apple), Bill Gates (Microsoft) and Bill George (Medtronic) as they inspired their businesses to innovate. Each possesses varying degrees of the key characteristics and leadership styles known to result in innovation. The same styles translate to innovation in education.
New Anywhere Anytime Site Wants to Help You LearnBIG
LearnBig launched last week. It’s an anytime anywhere learning site seeking to build communities around open and proprietary content. LearnBig wants to help you organize your learning.
Video: Aneesh Chopra at Ed Sector: "We Need Data"
U.S. CTO Aneesh Chopra noted at an Ed Sector event Tuesday that a continued emphasis on improving education is a key component of President Obama's innovation strategy, and data has a crucial role in this. He stressed the importance of building out the nation's digital infrastructure. "We can't have a conversation about the value of data if you can’t produce the data in the first place."
Are Bad Schools Immortal?
If you care about equity of opportunity, the chronic failure of schools predominantly serving low income and minority students must be job one.
Let’s Meet Up at SXSW EDU!
This year we’re excited to be a media partner for SXSW EDU, and as part of that we’ll be on the ground live reporting on Twitter and recording audio for upcoming podcast episodes. Here are some of the panels we're most excited for--we hope you'll join us!
Two Sisters Improve Reading Online
When I was superintendent in Federal Way, two of our best reading teachers happened to be sisters, Gail Boushey and Joan Moser. Â I had the good fortune to run into them on a flight this week. Â They’ve published two great books, The Daily 5 most recently, and run an…