Digital Learning Now
Blended Speech Therapy: Q&A with Clay Whitehead
PresenceLearning delivers more than 10,000 online speech therapy sessions a month to schools in 25 states. The company, formed by two recent Stanford MBAs, is a good example of two translational innovations--synchronous online instruction and distributed workforce--now deployed in education to meet widespread special education challenges.
NanoProfessor Increases Access to Front-Edge STEM Learning
Nanotechnology is the next boom in science. It explores material science (chemistry, physics, biology) at the scale of one billionth of a meter, such a low level that it’s invisible to the human eye. It includes everything from nanotechnology patents that are making L’Oreal face creams more penetrable to composites used on airplanes and aerospace that are making steal simultaneously stronger and lighter. It’s revolutionizing products across all industries by making them more efficient and durable than ever before.
Digital Technology Brings Global Collaboration Between High Schools
By: Jaclyn Norton. Jennifer Bevill knows how to create a global classroom. The “Peace Project” bridged geographic borders between high school students at LSU Laboratory HighSchool in Baton Rouge, LA and Odori High School in Japan by utilizing digital technology to build cultural understanding and bring awareness to issues surrounding tolerance and peace at both schools.
Michael & Susan Dell Foundation Releases Blended Learning Case Studies
The Michael & Susan Dell Foundation (MSDF) today released "Blended Learning in Practice: Introduction to Case Studies from Leading Schools" and its first feature on KIPP Empower Academy.
Edtech Startup Leaders Host Virtual Fireside Chat Tonight at 5p.m. PT
Founder Dating, Inc., NewSchools Venture Fund, and Teach for America join together tonight to host a virtual fireside chat to consider wide-ranging questions around education and edtech, a discussion that erupted from a noticeable disconnect between the number of people interested in the space and the access to entrepreneurs building companies on FounderDating.
Q&A: WriteToLearn Enriches Students’ Understanding of Writing
Seventh-grade English Language Arts teacher at Dean Rusk Middle School in Canton, Ga., Jeff Pence, shares how he blends WriteToLearn with other writing and Language Arts tools his classroom to teach writing evaluation, organization, conventions, sentence fluency, word choice, voice and more.
Q&A: How A Top Educator Drives Innovation and Social Change In His Classroom
By: Jaclyn Norton. Last month, Microsoft awarded the nations top educators who are bringing technology and project-based learning to their classrooms in innovative and interactive ways. Greg Witkin of Boynton Continuation High School in San Jose, Calif. won first place in the Educator as Innovator and Change Agent category for his project, "Finding Youth Voice." This project made students creators and visionaries behind a multimedia project that addresses a social problem.
6 Powerful Google Docs Features to Support the Collaborative Writing Process
Google Docs is an online suite of digital tools that provides teachers with some powerful features to help students develop 21st century writing skills. Since Docs are collaborative and available 24/7, the tool is well-suited for facilitating digital writing workshops that combine peer editing with cooperative grouping and small group fine-tuned writing instruction.
What Information Should Show Up Day One With Students?
Students went back to school last week (or will next week) but most did not arrive with any information. Teachers get to know a lot about their students but there is no systematic way to share that when students move from grade-to-grade or school-to-school. As a result, most teachers start from scratch, trying to unlock the student-learning puzzle.
EdLeaders Need to Find & Empower Mr. T
Every district needs a Mr. T. Not the enforcer from the 80s TV show, more like Justin Talmadge, a Teacher on Special Assignment (TOSA) in the Snoqualmie Valley Public Schools in the Cascade foothills.