Digital Learning Now
Personalized Learning
10 Things School Board Members Should Do in 2013
Set a high bar. Adopt the EPIC definition of college/career ready knowledge, skills, and dispositions. Insist on evidence of real college and career ready standards. Showcase examples of student work at board meetings.
EdTech
6 Top Free eBooks for English Literature Students
It’s becoming increasingly straightforward for English Literature students to read and make notes on their set texts through eBooks and devices. Books can be downloaded and read on tablets, or even on smartphones, while PDFs and computer readers mean that students can make notes and highlight particular passages when revising.
EdTech
SMARTtech Top 10: Change Urgency
As we head into the holidays and think about the New Year, edtech happenings are in full speed ahead. At the Excellence in Action summit leaders spoke urgency to change for the economic demand of the future. News this week reflected a shift toward competency-based learning, common standards, literacy rates, and more.
Personalized Learning
More than Words Alone Can Say: Writing with Images in the Digital Age
Last week, on the day before Thanksgiving vacation, several of my fifth-graders voluntarily stayed after school with me to work on a project for which they would receive no grade: producing calendars based on poems and illustrations they had created for a class project.
EdTech
Google Presentation for Collaborative Learning
One of my professional goals is to help teachers use technology as an efficient and effective tool for student learning instead of using it as an add on to the end of a traditional unit of study. The Google Docs Presentation is well-suited for use as a starting point to help teachers begin to break the barriers of traditional methods of tech integration and design student driven learning experiences that require students to construct knowledge as they create, an idea supported by the Common Core State Standards (CCSS).
Ed Policy
Bush-Sponsored Summit Calls for Excellence at Scale
The fifth annual Excellence in Action National Summit on Education Reform, was held in Washington DC the last two days. Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush chair of the host organization, kicked off the event Tuesday by urging state policy makers to hold firm on college and career ready standards.
Personalized Learning
No, You’re Not Doing Blended Learning
When our consulting team approaches educators about a new blended learning implementation, we typically hear three reasons for why they won’t engage: blended learning costs too much, teachers won’t like it, and we’re already doing it.
Ed Policy
DOE Announces Digital Promise as a Race to the Top-District Finalist
The U.S. Department of Education announced Monday that a consortium of school districts in the Digital Promise League of Innovative Schools is a finalist for a Race to the Top-District (RttT-D) grant.
Ed Policy
Education Leaders & Policymakers Meet in D.C. for FEE National Summit
Education policymakers and leaders meet in Washington D.C. November 27-28 for the Foundation for Excellence in Education's (FEE) fifth annual Excellence in Action National Summit on Education Reform.
Personalized Learning
Holiday Reading: Top 10 Articles This November
Happy Thanksgiving Getting Smart readers! We appreciate your readership, support, contributors and input. It's your engagement that makes it all worth while to the Getting Smart Team. Here are 10 great reads from November to catch up on while you're enjoying an afternoon of family, friends, turkey and football.