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.
Good Work: Inspiring a Shared Vision
The future always holds something for the individual who keeps her faith in it. Being a leader puts you in some pretty awkward situations. As a public school superintendent, I work for five elected board members. They seldom agreed on where we had been or…
Tertiary Education in the US is Broken
Nicholas Kristof After the host announced that student debt in the U.S. topped $1 trillion, columnist Nicholas Kristof told CNN this morning that “Tertiary education in the US is broken.” Sal Khan explained how the old formula—get a degree, get a good job, have a good life—is…
Stumbling around in the dark
Rocky Point, Poverty Bay WA The last few nights have been cool and clear with a bright moon, but not this morning. The tide was low at 5am, an invitation to run on the beach instead of the boardwalk, but it was really dark. To reach a…
Automated Essay Scoring in a High Stakes Environment
Dr. Mark Shermis One of our goals here is to begin to create the data abundance mindset in U.S. K-12–prepping for policies and practices informed by big data surrounding anywhere anytime learning. To that end, we like to highlight interesting projects and proposals–and we have a good one…
Getting Smart: How Digital Learning is Changing the World
A Getting Smart book that makes the case for a blend of online and onsite learning, shares inspiring stories of schools and programs that effectively offer “personal digital learning” opportunities, and discusses what we need to do to remake our schools into “smart schools.”
It’s Complicated
From the movie It's Complicated An early reader of my book, Getting Smart, didn’t think I described the practical difficulties of using technology to improve education. Fair enough. I didn’t set out to write about the problems, I wrote about the promise. I attempted to simply state…
The race to platform education
Across the full spectrum of education – primary, secondary, and higher – we are witnessing a race to develop platforms for content, learning, teaching, and evaluation. As liberating as the web is, tremendous centralization of control is occurring in numerous spaces: Google in search/advertising/Android, Amazon in books/cloud computing, Facebook in social networks, etc. I use a smaller range of tools today than I did five years ago. And the reason is simple: companies are in a landrush to create platforms that will tie together previously disconnected activities and tools.
6 Reasons EdLeaders Should Let Kids Bring Devices to School
Bans on student use of mobile devices exist for some good reasons—kids use them inappropriately at school and there are safety and security concerns. So why bother considering a change? There are six reasons to consider BYOD. Digital natives learn and live with technology. Most have and bring devices…
Finance For Future Generations
Brian Page By Brian Page “All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation, nor from want of honor or virtue, so much as downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit, and circulation.” – John Adams On the…
Bay Area Leading the Learning Revolution
Computers, then smart phones, then tablets changed how we engaged the world. Medical technology extended and entertainment technology enriched our lives. Energy saving technology made our lifestyles more sustainable. Bay Area entrepreneurs developed many of these disruptive technologies. New York and Boston are home to the publishers; metro…