Digital Learning Now
Personalized Learning
Second $100k Hewlett Prize Takes on Short Answer Challenge
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation is sponsoring the Automated Student Assessment Prize (ASAP) to improve the quality of student assessment in America and, as a result, increase the quantity and quality of student writing.
EdTech
60+ Top Articles On Blended Learning
Blended learning buzzed at conferences this year and across the education market. iNACOL, the leader in the blended learning space, created a new definition for the term. We've seen it in classrooms, heard it from teachers, and talked about it at Getting Smart. Featured in the articles below, Getting Smart highlights the new ideas and innovations surrounding blended learning.
EdTech
Integrating Computer Science Into Everyday Subjects
Information technology is the fastest growing field of our age and is predicted to remain so for decades to come. Unfortunately, computer science teaching is not keeping up. Increasingly, schools and colleges are teaching students how to use particular pieces of software, but neglecting to teach them about how computers actually work or how they are programmed.
Personalized Learning
Free School Reforms in Sweden Boost Quality, Innovation, and Choice
Barbara Bergstrom takes a look at "free school reform" in Sweden and its effects on the classroom. She shares critical observations around quality and reputation, looking at the Swedish Knowledge Schools as a primary case study.
EdTech
SMARTtech Roundup: Blended Learning, STEM, Common Core
Blended Schools & Tools HBCU blends. The Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF) and Connections Education will launch TMCF Collegiate Academies a blended learning program that will allow students to individualize their education and work at a personalized pace. More than “just add water.” PBS/Media shift provides two questions to guide technology integration:…
Personalized Learning
The Talent & the Agent: My Desired Class
Leaning on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s famous “frightening conclusion” quotation, I am Zen-like in my focus on the classroom atmosphere and I intend to create - the talent and the agent this upcoming school year. By developing flexible lesson plans, implementing interactive learning structures, and engaging the customers with passion-based projects, the class of my dreams will be a reality.
Personalized Learning
The Education Response to the Opportunity Gap
Robert Putnam's data is really disturbing. The Harvard sociologist is at it again. Like Bowling Alone, Putnam's new data (discussed recently at the Aspen Ideas Festival) suggests the opportunity gap is widening. More than race and poverty, class and a lack of social mobility are widening gaps that reduce opportunity.
Personalized Learning
3 Market Observations of Virtual Classrooms Today
You’ve heard about them—your friend, your friend’s mom, your friend’s cousin’s neighbour—people who you’ve heard graduated from online courses. There were some who used to laugh at the idea of online courses before, given the concept’s relative new-ness as well as the unproven quality of the academic institutions behind them. Does the same still hold true today? How have virtual classrooms improved?
Personalized Learning
How to Leverage Tech to Keep Students Focused
Technology has the potential to dramatically change the role of teachers, especially when it comes to secondary and higher education. Students no longer need instructors to pass along facts when they have access to the internet and other data gathering sources that they can use to learn the essentials. Teachers, then, must transition to take on more of a “guiding” role in students’ education—they should suggest materials and assign exercises to help students think deeply about and synthesize information.
Leadership
Staff Picks: EdTech, Blended Learning, Summer Learning
Karen Picks “Book Review: Born to Rise“ Karen says, “Deborah’s heart warming story of turning a painful life event into a chance to make a difference is powerful. She was relentless in her pursuit to open schools in tough neighborhoods for students that needed them most. She built schools…