common core
Good Work: Impact Takes Vision, Values, and Good Timing
Making a difference takes a compelling vision, productive values, and good timing.
Christensen’s Curve & The Digital Learning Revolution
In the prophetic Disrupting Class: How Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns (2008, 2011), Clayton Christensen argued that innovations in technology will proliferate in the 21st century, generate “student-centric” forms of digital learning, create customized learning for the individual, and provide innovative alternatives to traditional teaching and learning tools.
SmartTech Roundup: From Blended Learning to Justin Bieber
Three minute foray into the future. Intel’s three minute video provides a peek into the blended classroom of the future. In response to the video, Tom noted on Getting Smart that the video shows a good partial picture of blended learning but leaves out some of the more compelling reasons for the shift such leveraging teaching talent with technology.
What I Believe Right Now
Some opinion writers are critics. I’m an advocate. I’m less interested in stale reform debates and more interested in the potential of innovation. Like other sectors (energy, health care) new technology allows us to reframe gnarly old problems.
Teaching Authentic Writing in a Socially Mediated World
I need to confess. As an English/Language Arts teacher with nearly three decades of experience teaching writing in her professional backpack, I am supposed to know what I am doing. But the radical changes in the way we communicate in contemporary society have led me to dive deep into an existential crisis.
Common Core PD Goes Open Source
Educator engagement in the implementation of Common Core State Standards is critical if we really want to see a quantum leap in college readiness. The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), which is one of two groups creating assessments for Common Core, recently awarded a contract to the National Math + Science Initiative’s Laying the Foundation program to create an Educator Leader Cadre to ensure greater expertise in the new standards at the classroom level.
Common Core Will Save Not Cost Billions
Common Core State Standards lift expectations and create opportunity to compare results and share tools—a terrific set of benefits that America will reap for years. Fordham released a report today on the Cost of Implementing the Common Core. They concluded that states could save about $1 billion if they take full advantage of digital assessments and materials.
Transitions: When Hope & History Rhyme
David Coleman will replace Gaston Caperton at College Board in September. Chad Wick turned over the reins at KnowledgeWorks Foundation.
Teaching & Testing the Common Core
“If we get this right, we’ll put our students on the path to a better future.” Gene Wilhoit, CCSSO, was talking about implementing Common Core assessments during closing panel of the Technology Enhanced Assessment conference. “Assessments are one element in the ecology of schools and school improvement,” David Conley said, “The whole system needs to be addressed.”
An Odd Couple of Measuring 21st Century Skills
The morning session at the Technology Enhanced Assessments conference hosted by the K12 Center at ETS and CCSSO featured what Michael Russell, Measured Progress, called a formative assessment odd couple—a messy science virtual world and a math homework helper.