Lit Instructor, Stafford
In The Courage To Teach, Parker Palmer uses this Bill Stafford (former poet laureate of Oregon) poem to open a chapter titled A Culture of Fear. Lit Instructor Day after day up there beating my wings with all of the softness truth requires…
Platform deal flow
Seeing more platform plays these days including social learning, adaptive content, and blogging. Â Powerful application development platforms are making it so much easier to develop new apps–you can see the difference in 09 code compared to older vintage. Guaranteach was incubated by Christensen-inspired Innosight. Â They have more than…
DigiPen prepares gamers for jobs
My wife and I visited DigiPen Institute of Technology in Redmond today. Â It’s a private college located between Microsoft and Nintendo in Redmond WA. Â They offer associate, bachelor, and masters degrees in game development. Â The curriculum is no game–it’s packed with math and science. Â An MS degree requires 154…
How will digital learning replace print?
A consultant working for an instructional materials vendor called today to discuss market dynamics around the shift from print to digital. Â We discussed eight forces of change: 1. Cheap access devices. When I was a superintendent, laptops were $2500; now you can get a more powerful netbook for a…
Rocketship takes off
Rocketship Education was a prize winner at CSGF‘s Innovation Competition last month (I served as ajudge).  My friend Gisele Huff has been trying to get me to visit them for years because of their interesting blended model that incorporates online learning.  The first school of San Jose nonprofit is in the…
Transitional times
We’re in between times—in between print and digital and in between age cohorts and personalized learning. I visited with two very different groups today, both making the best of the old model. The first group writes software for smartboards—they automated the overhead. I’m not a fan…
Bloomberg lays out exciting charter vision
Bloomberg’s Plan lays out an exciting vision for 100 more NYC charters including new Children’s Zones in Brookly and the South Bronx. He asks for chancellor chartering authority (and having recently completed the NYC DOE review, I can vouch for the rigor of the process). He also…
Indian education heats up
India PE reported that Kaizen Management Advisors is raising a $150-200M  education fund. Over the next few years we’ll see public expenditures climb from 3% to 6% and more openness to private school managers.  The combo makes the market hot for private investment. Look for innovations from the bottom…
Super cheap online higher ed
Altius raised $8M from Spark and Maveron. Â It’s an online community college that partners with 4 year colleges. Â This week I also talked to two new $99/mo online schools that offer GenEd courses. Â If colleges think they’ve got budget problems, wait until 20-30% of underclassmen are knocking off most…
California dreaming; school budget woes
This summer, we moved our venture fund to Texas and my wife and I moved back to Washington. Apparently I’m not the only one that left California this year. With high combined personal and business tax rates and an incapable Assembly, California has become a terrible place to…