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.
How We Increased Teachers’ Data Use Without Data Overload
By: Debbie Clark and Stephanie Williamson. The problem is not that schools aren’t collecting enough information about student performance. It’s that teachers have too much data. It’s overwhelming for them. They don’t know what data points to focus on—and they don’t have time to be combing through massive amounts of data to figure out what students need.
Data Interoperability: Applying Playground Principles to EdTech
Share. Play nicely together. Get along with others. For most of us, these lessons are imparted at a tender and impressionable age in order to lay the groundwork for our development into successful adults. Why doesn't data work this way?
A Lean Approach to Literacy Technology
By Janine Caffrey - Eric Reis, who wrote the business bestseller The Lean Startup, says there are five principles behind the lean process--each has a correlate that can be adapted to the education community’s adoption of literacy technology. Learn more here.
Tools for Project-Based Learning: The Landscape Today
The spread of access to low-cost devices holds great promise for giving more students high quality project-based experiences, but tech has yet to become a panacea for the challenges of PBL. In this post, we look at the recent history of PBL-oriented edtech, and draw some predictions about where it’s headed.
Leveraging Digital Depth Technologies in Education
Because of the hype surrounding wearable, augmented reality and virtual reality technologies, it is important for educators to have a frame for thinking through the various ways that they might be employed for learning and what the implications of using them might be.
Using Popular Motivational Theories to Evaluate Digital Tools
By Dr. Rachel Schechter - Edtech providers are rapidly developing and launching programs. That is potentially great news, but not when that rapid development reflects quantity over quality. Keeping best practices in mind when deciding on digital tools puts both educators and students on surer footing.
Microsoft Inclusive Classroom Adds Picture Dictionary
Today, Microsoft announced the addition of a visual dictionary to its suite of inclusive classroom tools to make it easier for teachers and students to change text size and spacing to accommodate reading differences. Learn more here.
A Simple, Free, Powerful Badging System
Badges occupy an interesting space in education. Everybody knows what they are, most people have at least one or two, and they hold a lot of promise for improving education. But they still don't see the widespread use one might expect. Here, we look at a company trying to change that.
InquirED Combines Curriculum and PD To Support Inquiry-Based Learning
InquirED is an unusual EdTech startup in several ways. It combines curriculum and professional learning in ways that support teachers. It’s female-led. Shanti Elangovan is a scrappy entrepreneur with three master’s degrees (education, business and health).
Can Learning Management Systems Help Student-Led Learning?
By: Breanna Reynolds. When given the space and freedom to implement personalized learning in your dream classroom, how does one navigate scaling implementation for the masses? We need good learning management systems and we need them now.