EdTech

Education Technology is a multi-billion dollar sector of companies innovating in both software and hardware for teaching, learning, and running schools, districts, and state and federal education departments. We document some of the most essential technical innovations and companies that support learning, teaching and more.
EdTech

SMARTtech Roundup: Common Core and More

Carri Schneider

Blended Schools & Tools Duncan on Digital. Education Secretary Arne Duncan called Tuesday for the nation to move rapidly from printed textbooks and toward digital ones, citing global competition among the chief reasons for doing so. The New Frontier. The Center for Digital Education and Converge released…
EdTech

Hewlett Foundation Awards $100K to Winners of Short Answer Scoring Competition

Getting Smart Staff

The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation awarded $100,000 today in a competition to develop innovative software to help teachers score student written responses to test questions. The prize was divided among five (5) teams. The competition compared the ability of software to score short-answer student essays in a way that was similar to human graders. The results showed that the software is not yet able to achieve the same scores as human graders.
EdTech

JFF Sponsors Team Teaching For Rapid Credentialing

Getting Smart Staff

"What's new and different is bringing in an adult ed instructor and teaching elements within the [vocational] program," said Dr Jay Box, Chancellor of Kentucky Community & Technical College System (KCTCS) where eight colleges are involved in Accelerating Opportunity. "All of the general education type of teaching is contextualized to the technical program."
EdTech

Game Change: How Game-based Learning Helps Common Core

Guest Author

One of the exciting things that leaps out to me when reading the new Common Core standards for Mathematics is that the spirit of inquiry and curiosity is back, hardwired into a document that will likely form the basis for mathematics teaching and learning for a long time. My attention is drawn for example to the Standards for Mathematical practice where it emphasizes that students need to become persistent problem solvers, plan solution pathways, and ask themselves, “does this make mathematical sense?”
EdTech

Staff Picks: Childhood Learning, ST Math, iPads, Branding

Getting Smart Staff

Tom says, "It's been a rich week of discussions about How Children Succeed on NPR, at EdNation, and in person with experts like Dr. Pamela Cantor, Turnaround for Children. We spend most of our time on academic smarts, but it's clear that 'non-cognative' skills are at least as important and areas ripe for innovation."
EdTech

Google Ventures Backs Math Education Startup Desmos

Getting Smart Staff

Google Ventures joined investors Kapor Capital, Learn Capital, Kinder Capital, and Elm Street Ventures today in funding more than $1 million for hiring, growth, and expansion of Desmos, Inc., an education technology company devoted to inspiring and engaging the next generation of math students.
EdTech

What to Expect When You’re Expecting … iPads

Alison Anderson

All this iPad talk is leaving many parents very nervous about this all really means for their children: Are these devices really worth the money? Will their children’s learning truly benefit from these tools? Will iPads only add to “screen time,” hinder social skills and, ultimately, disconnect them from their peers? What is the magic the iPads create for students?
EdTech

DIY: Sweat Equity Brand Building

Tom Vander Ark

It has never been easier and cheaper to build brand equity--a favorable impression with an audience that matters to you. Sure, it's noisy out there, but with a little sweat equity you can build support for your school, project, or product.