Learning Ecosystem: Technology

Where: Learning Ecosystem

Getting Smart Resources

Unbundled Learning: Technology Enabled

Unbundled Learning: Technology Enabled” from Getting Smart examines how digital tools and platforms are reshaping the traditional structure of schooling by disaggregating learning from fixed time, place, and pace constraints. The resource explores how technology makes it possible to separate and recombine learning components—content delivery, credentialing, mentorship, and assessment—allowing students to access education through multiple providers and pathways rather than a single institution. It highlights emerging models where learners draw from online courses, competency-based programs, community experiences, and digital platforms to construct personalized learning ecosystems. For practitioners and school leaders, this resource matters because it challenges conventional assumptions about what a school must be and offers a practical framework for reimagining how technology can expand access, increase relevance, and support more equitable, learner-centered education systems.

AI in Education

Getting Smart’s “AI in Education” resource provides practitioners and school leaders with research, commentary, and practical guidance on integrating artificial intelligence into K-12 and higher education settings. It covers a broad range of AI-related topics including personalized learning, intelligent tutoring systems, administrative automation, and the ethical implications of AI adoption in schools. The resource draws on expert voices, case studies, and emerging trends to help educators move beyond surface-level awareness toward informed implementation. For leaders navigating education transformation, it serves as a critical touchstone for understanding how AI is reshaping teaching, learning, and institutional decision-making in real and immediate ways.

Town Hall: Back to School with AI

Town Hall: Back to School with AI” is a community dialogue hosted by Getting Smart that brings together educators, school leaders, and practitioners to examine how artificial intelligence is reshaping the start of the school year and broader instructional practice. The resource offers candid, expert-driven conversation around practical AI integration strategies, emerging tools, and the questions schools must grapple with as AI becomes embedded in daily learning environments. Rather than presenting a polished lecture, the town hall format invites real-time exchange, surfacing diverse perspectives on readiness, equity, and implementation from voices across the education ecosystem. For practitioners and leaders navigating the pace of technological change, this resource matters because it grounds the AI conversation in immediate, school-level realities rather than abstraction, helping teams move from awareness to informed action.

Podcast: Amanda Bickerstaff on AI for Education

This Getting Smart podcast episode features Amanda Bickerstaff discussing the intersection of artificial intelligence and education, offering practitioners and school leaders an accessible entry point into understanding how AI tools are reshaping teaching and learning. Bickerstaff, a prominent voice in the AI-for-education space, shares practical perspectives on how schools can responsibly adopt and integrate AI to support both educators and students. The conversation addresses emerging opportunities, potential risks, and strategic considerations for building AI-literate school cultures. For leaders navigating technology decisions, this episode provides grounded insight into how AI fits within a broader educational ecosystem rather than treating it as an isolated tool, making it a relevant resource for anyone working to align technology adoption with meaningful learning transformation.

Colorado Integrates LERs Into Workforce and Education Initiatives

State of Colorado
Colorado’s statewide initiative to integrate Learning and Employment Records (LERs) into its workforce and education systems offers practitioners and school leaders a real-world policy and implementation model for how verifiable digital credentials can connect learners to economic opportunity. The resource details how Colorado is aligning educational institutions, employers, and workforce agencies around a shared infrastructure that recognizes skills, competencies, and credentials beyond traditional transcripts and degrees. For education leaders pursuing innovation, this initiative demonstrates how LERs can reduce credential inequity, increase transparency in skills recognition, and create portable learner records that travel with individuals across institutions and career transitions. It matters because Colorado’s approach provides a concrete, government-backed example of ecosystem-level transformation—showing how technology, policy, and cross-sector collaboration must work in tandem to make competency-based and alternative learning pathways viable at scale.

Indiana Explores LERs to Support Skills-Based Pathways

State of Indiana
Indiana’s initiative to explore Learning and Employment Records (LERs) examines how verifiable digital credentials can document student skills, competencies, and achievements beyond traditional transcripts. The resource details how Indiana is piloting LER infrastructure to connect learners’ demonstrated skills to workforce pathways, enabling employers and postsecondary institutions to recognize competencies in a standardized, interoperable format. For practitioners and school leaders, this work offers a concrete state-level model for understanding how technology ecosystems can support skills-based hiring and credentialing pipelines. It matters because it addresses a critical gap in education-to-workforce alignment, showing how digital records can make learning visible in ways that traditional grades and diplomas cannot, ultimately expanding opportunity for learners whose skills might otherwise go unrecognized.

Advancing Digital Equity for All

Office of EdTech, US Dept of Ed
Advancing Digital Equity for All” is a policy and practice resource from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology that addresses the systemic barriers preventing equitable access to digital tools, connectivity, and the skills needed to use them effectively. The resource provides frameworks, data, and actionable strategies for school leaders and district administrators working to close persistent digital divides across racial, economic, and geographic lines. It draws on federal priorities and real-world examples to guide decision-making around infrastructure investment, device access, and digital literacy programming. For practitioners pursuing learning innovation, this resource matters because meaningful technology integration is impossible without first ensuring all students have reliable access to the foundational conditions that make it possible, making digital equity not a side conversation but a prerequisite for any serious transformation agenda.

Where Human-Centered Learning and Personalized Learning Intersect

KnowledgeWorks
This resource from KnowledgeWorks examines the relationship between human-centered learning and personalized learning, exploring how these two frameworks connect and reinforce each other within educational ecosystems that increasingly rely on technology. It offers practitioners and school leaders a conceptual lens for understanding how technology can be deployed not simply to individualize pacing or content delivery, but to keep learner agency, relationships, and wellbeing at the center of design decisions. The resource likely addresses the risk of personalized learning becoming overly mechanistic or data-driven in ways that lose sight of the whole child, positioning human-centered principles as a necessary counterbalance. For educators navigating decisions about edtech adoption and instructional redesign, this matters because it provides grounding language and a values framework to guide implementation choices that are both innovative and deeply student-focused.

Leveraging Technology to Support the Needs of Elementary and Middle School Students

Edutopia
This Edutopia resource examines how technology can be strategically integrated to meet the diverse academic and social-emotional needs of elementary and middle school students. It offers practical guidance on selecting and deploying digital tools that support differentiated instruction, student engagement, and personalized learning across grade bands where foundational skills and developmental transitions are most critical. The resource likely draws on classroom examples and research-informed strategies to help educators move beyond surface-level tech adoption toward purposeful implementation. For practitioners and school leaders pursuing learning innovation, this resource is relevant because it connects technology decisions directly to student outcomes rather than treating tools as ends in themselves, making it a useful reference for building coherent, student-centered technology ecosystems.

Artificial Intelligence in Education

Digital Promise
Digital Promise’s “Artificial Intelligence in Education” resource examines how AI technologies are reshaping teaching, learning, and school operations, offering practitioners and leaders frameworks for understanding and implementing AI tools responsibly. It addresses key considerations around equity, data privacy, and pedagogical effectiveness, helping educators move beyond hype to make informed decisions about AI adoption. The resource connects AI integration to broader goals of personalized learning and student agency, making it relevant for schools navigating rapid technological change. For education leaders driving innovation, it provides grounding in both the opportunities and risks of AI, supporting strategic planning that centers student outcomes rather than technology for its own sake.

	Beginning	Piloting	Implementing
From Fixed Standards to Competency-Based Mastery	BeginningFrom Fixed Standards to Competency-Based Mastery Beginning	PilotingFrom Fixed Standards to Competency-Based Mastery Piloting	ImplementingFrom Fixed Standards to Competency-Based Mastery Implementing
From One-Size-Fits-All to Adaptive Learning	BeginningFrom One-Size-Fits-All to Adaptive Learning Beginning	PilotingFrom One-Size-Fits-All to Adaptive Learning Piloting	ImplementingFrom One-Size-Fits-All to Adaptive Learning Implementing
From Prescribed Knowledge to Innovation & Inquiry	BeginningFrom Prescribed Knowledge to Innovation & Inquiry Beginning	PilotingFrom Prescribed Knowledge to Innovation & Inquiry Piloting	ImplementingFrom Prescribed Knowledge to Innovation & Inquiry Implementing
From Subjects as Silos to Transdisciplinary, Real-World Learning	BeginningFrom Subjects as Silos to Transdisciplinary, Real-World Learning Beginning	PilotingFrom Subjects as Silos to Transdisciplinary, Real-World Learning Piloting	ImplementingFrom Subjects as Silos to Transdisciplinary, Real-World Learning Implementing
From Schools as Self-Contained to Schools as Embedded in Communities	BeginningFrom Schools as Self-Contained to Schools as Embedded in Communities Beginning	PilotingFrom Schools as Self-Contained to Schools as Embedded in Communities Piloting	ImplementingFrom Schools as Self-Contained to Schools as Embedded in Communities Implementing
From Standardized Testing to Meaningful Assessment	BeginningFrom Standardized Testing to Meaningful Assessment Beginning	PilotingFrom Standardized Testing to Meaningful Assessment Piloting	ImplementingFrom Standardized Testing to Meaningful Assessment Implementing
From Institutional Ownership of Student Data to Student-Controlled Learning Wallets	BeginningFrom Institutional Ownership of Student Data to Student-Controlled Learning Wallets Beginning	PilotingFrom Institutional Ownership of Student Data to Student-Controlled Learning Wallets Piloting	ImplementingFrom Institutional Ownership of Student Data to Student-Controlled Learning Wallets Implementing

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