digital learning
How Technology Can Improve Online Learning—and Learning in General
As president of a nonprofit, online university I am often asked about the quality of online learning. The answer is that the quality of education is largely independent of the mode of delivery. Other variables are far more important. There is high-quality online learning, and there is high-quality classroom learning, just as there is low-quality learning in both settings.
Infographic: Textbooks of Tomorrow
Online Education published another great infographic! This week, the focus is on the Textbooks of Tomorrow: Digital Textbooks Will Take Off as Print Dwindles. The infographic points out many evident truths about textbooks in education today and the ways that digital technologies provide increased benefits.
Getting the Plumbing Ready for the Flood of Data
Personal digital learning will helping more students achieve higher standards. The shift will require prepared teachers, effective communications, smart tools--and really good plumbing. The initiatives mentioned above are helping to create the data infrastructure for smarter education options. But for adult learners like you and me it often feels like drinking from a fire hose.
Are you ready for the era of ‘big data’?
“Radical customization, constant experimentation, and novel business models will be new hallmarks of competition as companies capture and analyze huge volumes of data. “ The McKinsey Quarterly ran a great article last month calling the question, Are you ready for the era of ‘big data’? Their five big questions are adapted here for education.
Digital Age Teacher Council Outlines Teaching Transformation
The Digital Age Teacher Preparation Council released today the report Take a Giant Step, which details a multi-sector action plan to enhance teacher education with a higher quality, 21st century teaching approach for today's tech savvy students.
Indiana School District Replaces Textbooks With 1:1 Laptop Program
The New York Times published an article this week on the traditional Indiana School District's switch to a 1:1 laptop program, which replaced textbooks for 2,600 students in Muster, Ind. The school district replaced all its math and science textbooks for students in grades 5-12 with a $1.1 million project for digital learning infrastructure in a new 1:1 laptop program.
It’s Complicated
From the movie It's Complicated An early reader of my book, Getting Smart, didn’t think I described the practical difficulties of using technology to improve education. Fair enough. I didn’t set out to write about the problems, I wrote about the promise. Â I attempted to simply state…
The race to platform education
Across the full spectrum of education – primary, secondary, and higher – we are witnessing a race to develop platforms for content, learning, teaching, and evaluation. As liberating as the web is, tremendous centralization of control is occurring in numerous spaces: Google in search/advertising/Android, Amazon in books/cloud computing, Facebook in social networks, etc. I use a smaller range of tools today than I did five years ago. And the reason is simple: companies are in a landrush to create platforms that will tie together previously disconnected activities and tools.
6 Reasons EdLeaders Should Let Kids Bring Devices to School
Bans on student use of mobile devices exist for some good reasons—kids use them inappropriately at school and there are safety and security concerns. So why bother considering a change?  There are six reasons to consider BYOD. Digital natives learn and live with technology. Most have and bring devices…
2011 Excellence in Action: A Climate of Change
Education leaders, policymakers and lawmakers convened at the 2011 Excellence in Action National Summit on Education Reform in San Francisco, Calif. this week to discuss personal digital learning, new innovations in education and the future transformation of education reform in the U.S.