Competency-Based Education
Personalized Learning

Is Competency Based Learning the Future of Education?

Guest Author

French President, François Hollande, is short and spectacled. Oh, and he wants to abolish homework. Whatever his arguments (youths from poorer backgrounds are at a disadvantage to their more affluent peers, etc), children across the country must be dancing at their desks.
Personalized Learning

12 Must Read Papers of 2012

Tom Vander Ark

The 12 papers I most frequently cite (or plan to cite over the next few months) cover blended learning, online learning, competency-based learning, and edtech. They come from our friends at SETDA, iNACOL, Digital Learning Now, and the Department of Education.
Personalized Learning

New Paper on Student Supports in Competency-Based Environments

Chris Sturgis

In December 2012, CompetencyWorks released The Learning Edge: Supporting Student Success in a Competency-Based Learning Environment. The paper delves into the fourth element of the definition: Students receive timely, differentiated support based on their individual learning needs.
Personalized Learning

Q&A: A Split Screen Strategy Drives Proficiency-Based Learning

Getting Smart Staff

Ananth Pai, an elementary teacher in Minnesota, turned to game-based learning and a "split screen strategy" to engage and motivate students in the classroom. Today, Mr. Pai shares increased insight into his shift to a "split screen strategy" and how his efforts to personalize learning through proficiency-based learning model fit into a predominantly traditional school setting - with seat time, grades, and more.
Ed Policy

Answers For & Lessons From Critics of Competency-Based Learning

Tom Vander Ark

I'm trying to square two things that happened last week. The Nellie Mae Foundation issued a great report called Making Mastery Work: A Close Up View of Competency Education (MMW), a visit to 11 cool schools. The other event was a Facebook dialog with unschoolers that think competency-based schemes are more testing in a fancy package.
Leadership

e-Learning Leadership: 10 Strategies

Tom Vander Ark

The 17th annual Educational Technology Leadership Conference will take place this week in Roanoke, Virginia.  The conference is sponsored by Virginia Tech’s Center for Instructional Technology Solutions in Industry and Education.  Given the theme of e-learning leadership, I’ll be leading a conversation about these ten practices: 1.Conversation: lead…
Ed Policy

Utah Digital Learning Summit: Blending Learning, Penguins & Dopamine

Tom Vander Ark

There would be more and better education options in this country if every state had a Robyn Bagley. She sat on the board of two online schools and is working on a blended high school. She was instrumental in the development and passage of SB65, the nation’s most innovative online learning bill. Bagley’s Parents for Choice in Education and Digital Learning Now! (DLN) co-hosted a summit in Utah this morning bringing together local and national experts in online and blended learning.
Personalized Learning

Competency-Based Progress

Tom Vander Ark

Susan Patrick, iNACOL (where I'm a director) and Chris Sturgis teamed up on a great new site, CompetencyWorks. While the shift to digital is key, and extending the reach of great teachers is important, the shift from age-cohorts to to a show-what-you-know system will prove to be the most profound--and challenging--educational change of our time. That's why the conversation and community on CompetencyWorks is so important.