EdPolicy
A Case for Certification
The U.S. needs more college grads or more preciesly a more job ready workforce. A portion of that need will be meet via informal learning strategies and recognized by certification and badging systems.
Strategic Collaboration Yields Great Options for All Students
School district and charter collaboration is obviously a good idea. When collaboration leads to strategic coordination, it has the potential to create a single portfolio of quality educational options. Jim Shelton and I wrote about this in a 2004 paper—Good Urban Schools: A Portfolio Approach—that still holds up pretty well.
Riverside Virtual School Takes a Competency-Based Approach to Online Curriculum
Curriculum is personal. When created, teachers are essentially deciding what information is valuable enough to share with others. Will it challenge, engage, and inspire? Online curriculum allows for flexibility. One of the greatest things about online learning is that students work at their own pace, even with deadlines, the "when to work" is usually determined by the student. This is also one of the biggest challenges with online learning.
Can Apple Technology Save Education?
Apple has proven a successful disruptive innovation in business and life with its iPhone, iTunes, and iPad technologies. Now, is it ready to disrupt education?
Why States Should Require Online Learning
Graduation requirements translate society's expectations to the young. It's our collective best guess at the knowledge and skills they will need to participate in the society they will inherit. If we did not require algebra, not many students would take it. Low-income, minority, and struggling students would be steered away from advanced math. Setting minimum education requirements promotes equity and participation.
iNACOL Webinar to Guide Teachers to Optimize the Online Classroom
The International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) will host a webinar on Thursday, January 19 for online teachers looking to create an enriching virtual classroom experience to encourage higher order thinking for their students.
Balancing Young Learners’ Media Consumption: Is There an App for That?
America's preschoolers spend about four hours a day consuming media, ranging from television (still No. 1) to Internet, digital video, and young gamer favorites such as Club Penguin, SesameStreet.org and Little Big Planet. Start with the recent explosion of touchscreen tablets and apps, add a healthy dose of new 'i-tot' products now marketed to parents with young kids, and presto -- we have a whole new media ball game that has parents and educators in a tizzy.
Is Online Education for K-12 Really Wrong-headed?
The real answer is that we don’t know – yet. Recent investigative journalism by papers as diverse as The New York Times and Arizona Republic have left the impression that online education is underperforming, costly, and misguided. A careful look at the way respective journalists made their cases leaves parents and the public asking for more incisive and scientifically-based investigations. Here is how some of the criticism was constructed and what we need to answer the question about the value of online education.
Khush CEO Asks, ‘Can Tech Transform Education?’
This week on TechCrunch, Khush CEO Prerna Gupta joined us in scratching our heads over the questions: Why has education fallen so behind other industries in technology adoption? Why is higher education overvalued?
iCivics Creates a Powerful Blend of Civics Knowledge and Engagement
An unintended consequence of the intense focus on English and math standards and assessments in the NCLB decade is that civics took a back seat. “We believe it is a great mistake to push civics to the sideline in schools,” says former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. “Unfortunately, a staggering number of Americans today know dismayingly little about the basic history and traditions of our democracy. Nationwide, more than a third of all high school seniors today lack even basic civics knowledge and skills.”