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.
From Place to Service
The shift from print-based learning to digital learning is a big deal, but more fundamental is the shift from institution-centric education to student-centered learning. Rich Halverson spoke about Rethinking Education at SREB last month. Below is a list adapted from Rich’s book about the10 shifts that…
States Need to Plan the Shift & Close the Divide
Bob Wise, DLNCo-Chair Over the last ten weeks this blog and video series has featured the Digital Learning Now state policy framework. Co-chair Gov. Bob Wise explains in the final video the importance of infrastructure to deliver on the promise of digital learning. Element #10…
Good Evaluation Requires Good Data—And Sound Judgment
The superintendents and school district human resource officers I spoke this week said they are struggling with the political and technical aspects of linking student achievement data to teacher evaluation. The policy analysts and labor economists that discussed incorporating data into teacher evaluation at PIE-Net this week admitted…
Change Your School’s Culture and Save the World Part 2
In my last blog, we built the game room at your school. Not just a game room, but a gamers’ room, replete with treadmills and recumbent bikes to maintain superior gamer fitness. Now we’re going to help save the world, and it’s going to happen right in that new gamers’ room.
10 Things States Should Do Now
The 2012 election season is in full swing. I listened to a great gubernatorial campaign speech this week suggesting that jobs and education were the priorities—and I couldn’t agree more. I spent a day with Policy Innovators in Education (PIE-Net), a great network of state policy groups. The…
School Will Change, With or Without Following Rules
Public education is, by its very nature, tangled with policy, dependent on rules and regulations set by federal, state, and district mandates. What most students do in school at any given moment has been prescribed by legislation passed years before they — or their parents — entered kindergarten.
Teaching Math Without Words—And Getting Big Gains
Mathematical thinking is a problem-solving skill but we use a lot of abstract symbols and words to try to teach kids math procedures. Just look at a textbook or observe a middle school classroom. Our text-based approach works for some students but is confusing and complicated for too many,…
Building with Rammed Earth
This year I had the great fortune of getting to know some thoughtful charter school leaders from across the country. They were convened by the Partners forDeveloping Futures, a group that makes grants to promising charter schools who are led by people of color. I just returned from a trip to New York City where our group visited three schools that were in their early stages of development and exemplars of school design.
Funding that Creates Incentives for Performance, Options & Innovation
Doug Potter, Austin Chronicle “How money is spent is as important as how much money is spent in education.” The Digital Learning Now report offers guidance to state policy makers on the technically and politically difficult subject of school finance in a video released today on…
Customizing Without Computers
I saw the future of high schools yesterday. It wasn't about cool digital aps, laptops, or talking to other young people on the other side of the world. It was re-engineering schooling around young people and their lives. Only in its second year,ACE Leadership High School, a charter school in Albuquerque, has the key to to unlocking our young people's hearts and minds.