Audience
Top 10 Stories in Education in 2011
After reflecting on the ed-tech space over the last year, I have aggregated the top 10 stories in education (technology). Where the pieces settle will be largely up to the oncoming year, but we think the following trends have the potential to hugely change the education landscape.
How EdTech Will Benefit Low Income Students
Digital learning won’t necessarily close the achievement gap between income groups, but it will lift the floor. More students will be more academically successful. Five years from now, a higher percentage of students will soon graduate from high school ready for college and careers. Most will have benefited from Common Core expectations. Some will have benefited from Race to the Top funded programs. Many will have benefited from these 10 reasons that digital learning will benefit low income students.
OER and the Achievement Gap
Justin Reich posted an interesting blog on his edtech site suggesting that Open Educational Resources will expand rather than contract the achievement gap. It caused a bit of an uproar. Where states and districts are proactive about extending learning opportunities, the preparation gap will narrow and that means more young people will have a shot at participating in the idea economy.
Staff Picks: Blended Learning, Smart Phones, EdReform, 21st-Century English
Tom picked blended learning as the topic of the year. Karen picks a review of the recent book Teaching Generation Text, which looks at the benefits of mobile learning in the classroom. Sarah picks Byron Sanders' response to the heated debate around Gene Marks' recent Forbes article, "If I Were a Poor Black Kid."
Review: Teaching Generation Text
Lisa Nielsen and Willyn Webb have spent the last few years experimenting teaching with cell phones and were thrilled with the results.
Infographic: Open Courses for All
At Getting Smart, we've been contemplating the power of open education resources (OER) or open courseware (OCW) in education for several months. While the cost of K-20 education creeps up to new heights, OERs are sweeping across classrooms. Teachers can provide quality, free content to students with effective use of personal digital learning tools.
6 Ways Digital Learning is Changing Teaching
I visited Wireless Generation, a leading education technology company, in Brooklyn this week. In a discussion about Getting Smart, a couple dozen employees including teachers and technologists asked great questions about the future of learning. Here are two more. As someone who has, within the last decade, been a…
Staff Picks: OER Impacts, Learning Online, & the GS Community
This week, Tom picks OER. Karen picks technology as an efficient tool for learning in light of recent budget cuts. Sarah and Caroline pick YOU, our Getting Smart Community.
2 Poems
Parker Palmer Parker Palmer introduces the most evocative book about teaching, The Courage to Teach, with this Rilke poem. Ah, not to be cut off, not through the slightest partition shut out from the law of the stars. The inner—what is it? if…
SKYRIM: How far r uu??!!
Pretty far, compared with typical learning environments. Not just for kids either: according to the Entertainment Software Association, the average age of video-gamers these days is 37, with 29% over the age of 50! (You know who you are.