Personalized Learning
Personalized learning is a mindset and approach to teaching that focuses on meeting each learner where they are and tailoring a curriculum that considers their interests, prior knowledge and skill level, and pace. Such a demand on the teacher requires sophisticated usage of technology in a combination of personalized, blended and online learning.
Ohio Is Getting Smart On Digital Learning Day
KnowledgeWorks, Ohio Education Matters, The Ohio State University College of Education and Human Ecology and the Ohio Resource Center are co-hosting the event "Getting Smart Book Chat With Tom Vander Ark" on Digital Leraning Day in Columbus, OH.
Strategic Collaboration Yields Great Options for All Students
School district and charter collaboration is obviously a good idea. When collaboration leads to strategic coordination, it has the potential to create a single portfolio of quality educational options. Jim Shelton and I wrote about this in a 2004 paper—Good Urban Schools: A Portfolio Approach—that still holds up pretty well.
Riverside Virtual School Takes a Competency-Based Approach to Online Curriculum
Curriculum is personal. When created, teachers are essentially deciding what information is valuable enough to share with others. Will it challenge, engage, and inspire? Online curriculum allows for flexibility. One of the greatest things about online learning is that students work at their own pace, even with deadlines, the "when to work" is usually determined by the student. This is also one of the biggest challenges with online learning.
Why States Should Require Online Learning
Graduation requirements translate society's expectations to the young. It's our collective best guess at the knowledge and skills they will need to participate in the society they will inherit. If we did not require algebra, not many students would take it. Low-income, minority, and struggling students would be steered away from advanced math. Setting minimum education requirements promotes equity and participation.
Parents Choosing Teachers? Try Blended Solutions
Andy Rotherham wrote a provocative Time blog suggesting that parents should take great care in choosing their child's teacher. He suggests that teacher choice is more important than school choice because differences within schools are often more pronounced than between schools. Online and blended learning expand the world of options for students, parents--and teachers.
SOPA and PIPA Polling Lower than the BP Oil Spill
How will SOPA and PIPA affect online education? It will be the collateral damage. On the surface, both bills seem reasonable. Both bills seek to give power to law enforcement to stop access to “rogue” websites that abuse copyright and exchange counterfeit goods. The bills focus on foreign websites; however, U.S. based Internet companies and technology leaders fear the bills are over-reaching and will have chilling effects on Internet freedoms in the U.S.
iNACOL Webinar to Guide Teachers to Optimize the Online Classroom
The International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) will host a webinar on Thursday, January 19 for online teachers looking to create an enriching virtual classroom experience to encourage higher order thinking for their students.
Is Online Education for K-12 Really Wrong-headed?
The real answer is that we don’t know – yet. Recent investigative journalism by papers as diverse as The New York Times and Arizona Republic have left the impression that online education is underperforming, costly, and misguided. A careful look at the way respective journalists made their cases leaves parents and the public asking for more incisive and scientifically-based investigations. Here is how some of the criticism was constructed and what we need to answer the question about the value of online education.
Review: No Excuses Works But There Are Some Lousy Charters
The National Study of Charter Management Organization (CMO) Effectiveness released their final study, Diverse Strategies and Diverse Student Impacts. The factors that differentiate high performers from the dirt bags are behavior policies and teacher coaching--the high expectations, no excuses culture.
iCivics Creates a Powerful Blend of Civics Knowledge and Engagement
An unintended consequence of the intense focus on English and math standards and assessments in the NCLB decade is that civics took a back seat. “We believe it is a great mistake to push civics to the sideline in schools,” says former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. “Unfortunately, a staggering number of Americans today know dismayingly little about the basic history and traditions of our democracy. Nationwide, more than a third of all high school seniors today lack even basic civics knowledge and skills.”