Leadership

Content that enables educators, edleaders, organizations and families to increase capacity, apply a growth mindset and implement what’s next in learning on behalf of those entrusted to them.
Leadership

Good Work: Embracing Paradox

Tom Vander Ark

Most jobs today require you to think for yourself and the questions are getting tougher. Many jobs seem to be rich in paradox, two things that cannot both be true but must be. Paradox offers no easy answers for managers or organizations but it does guide learning.
Leadership

Staff Picks: Opportunity Gap, Resilience & Learning Apps

Getting Smart Staff

Karen and Carri Pick “The Education Response to the Opportunity Gap” Karen says, “There’s still lots of work to do to improve the opportunity gap. I really appreciate all of the groups mentioned here. Not time to slow down on equity.” Carri says, “Tom does a great…
Leadership

Staff Picks: EdTech, Blended Learning, Summer Learning

Getting Smart Staff

Karen Picks “Book Review: Born to Rise“ Karen says, “Deborah’s heart warming story of turning a painful life event into a chance to make a difference is powerful. She was relentless in her pursuit to open schools in tough neighborhoods for students that needed them most. She built schools…
Leadership

Staff Picks: Philanthropy, EdWeek, Online Education, & Blended Learning

Getting Smart Staff

Tom Picks "Blended Learning Can Improve Working Conditions, Teaching & Learning" Tom says, "Blending the best of online and onsite learning has the potential to personalize learning for students and teachers with more collaborative and flexible environments." Karen Picks "How Philanthropy Can Improve & Accelerate the Shift to Digital Learning" Karen says, "The exact focus of monetary amounts and targeted funding is so important to fundraising making this article a highlight to read."
Leadership

Good Work: Freedom and Virtue

Tom Vander Ark

Father Robert A. Sirico, author of Defending the Free Market: The Moral Case for a Free Economy, argues that a free economy promotes charity, selflessness, and kindness. He argues that free-market capitalism is the best way to ensure individual success, broad prosperity, but also the path to a moral society. Sirico suggests we’ve explore alternatives to free markets and they kill individual freedom, dampen incentives for enterprise, and quash creativity and innovation.
Leadership

Staff Picks: Blended Learning, Higher Ed, ISTE, DigLN

Getting Smart Staff

Tom Picks “Who Governs the Child?” Tom says, “The central tenant of Digital Learning Now!, a framework for state policy, is expanded access to the world of digital learning. The North Carolina struggle that Jeff writes about is emblematic of our time–the shift from a time when…
Leadership

Good Work: The Abundance Mindset

Tom Vander Ark

There are two kinds of change agents—angry ones and hopeful one. The hopeful ones work toward new solutions. A subset of them approach the world with the ‘abundance mindset’ knowing that we’re riding an exponential curve that promises innovation. Abundant mindsets have mapped the human genome and launched space flights; they will expand access to quality education and extend life. They might even fix Washington DC.
Leadership

Good Work: Quality Products

Tom Vander Ark

You may have had the good fortune to have an encouraging teacher or a demanding boss that helped to create an indelible life-long image of quality results. Most adults are preoccupied with effort and activity rather than results. When that image is internalized, you begin holding yourself to a high standard of performance even when it seems that others do what they can get by with. Quality work, and the quality effort that goes into it, is its own reward.