digital learning

Personalized Learning

Questions About Digital Learning

I visited Wireless Generation, a leading education technology company, in Brooklyn this week.  In a discussion about Getting Smart, a couple dozen employees including teachers and technologists asked great questions about the future of learning. Your book includes a lot of “in 5-10 years” predictions, but…

Personalized Learning

Fund the Child, Not the District

Mike Pettrelli and the Fordham Institute should be commended for starting the conversation on “school governance.” Mike’s two important posts on the topic can be found here and here. This triggered comments from the grande dames of the status quo, Randi Wiengarten and Diane Ravitch,. The discussion brings an important question into focus. Why do we even need “school districts?”

EdTech

Our 10 Favorite Websites & Blogs

This week, we’d like to showcase some of our favorite websites and blogs for information around innovations and learning. Taking Note Taking Note, written by former PBS and NPR reporter John Merrow, is an extension of Learning Matters, which is an independent media production company…

Personalized Learning

The Beginning of Something

We are living through an uninspiring policy environment and disastrously bad economy but it feels like the beginning of something extraordinary.   Fareed’s interview with Walter Isaacson on Sunday made me think about periods in history where a confluence of forces create extraordinary events and lift unlikely heroes.

Personalized Learning

Is Your School Preparing Learners for Success? 5 Questions to Consider

This post by Shane Krukowski first appeared on Innovative Educator on 11/23/11. Shane is CEO of Project Foundry, a great project-based learning platform. “The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of sixty minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.” ~C. S. Lewis Redesigning education involves much…

EdTech

Infographic: The Digital Promise

OnlineSchoolg,org recently published the infographic "The Digital Promise," which highlights the Digital Promise initiative launched by the U.S. Department of Education this September. The infographic follows the projected future of a student born in 2000 and expected to graduate college in 2022. It looks at the ways that major industries are advancing in technologies and how our current classrooms are failing to meet future demand.

EdTech

Infographic: Does America Have the Right Stuff?

Knewton recently published an infographic on STEM Education in the U.S. It poses the question: Does American have the right stuff to produce to the next Pete Conrad, Steve Jobs and others? At the rate we're going with our STEM Education approach, the infographic implies that the answer is simply - no.

EdTech

Student Spotlight: Shannon O’Conner

Hello! My name is Shannon O’Connor and I am proud to be a part of the September 2010 MAT@USC TESOL cohort. I grew up in a small town in the middle of Kansas and received my Bachelor of Arts degrees in Communication Studies and Spanish from the University of Kansas. Teaching was never on my list of career choices, but I always knew that I wanted to help people and began working in the not for profit sector upon graduation. After moving around the country several times, I was relocated to Oklahoma City, OK.

EdTech

Research Shows Just How Connected Today’s Kids Are to Technology

K5 Learning Blog, a blog by the online math program K5 Learning that follows educational issues with advocacy for parent involvement, recently reported that a number of studies have highlighted how connected and digitally tuned in kids are today to technology. Check out the fun and interesting facts from the report!

EdTech

Tom Vander Ark Talks Online and Blended Learning With ChoiceMedia.TV

Getting Smart blogger Tom Vander Ark spoke with Choice Media at the recent 2011 Excellence in Action Summit, hosted by the Foundation for Excellence in Education this October. In this short interview, Vander Ark discusses the challenges states face with policies that prohibit the development of effective online and blended learning models for students.