future of learning
Personalized Learning
The disruptive power of learning technology
Had a little sidebar in the NYTimes Magazine this morning. There were supposed to be a dozen short responses to “What is the most important – or hardest – thing to change in education today and how would you change it?” Sounds like the piece got axed…
Personalized Learning
Spiky Palo Alto and other VC reflections
Palo Alto is one of those spiky places that Richard Florida writes about—an extraordinary caldron of talent and money. My wife and I attended a reception on tree lined University Avenue in a building where a hot data company now occupied space that once had been leased…
Personalized Learning
Online learning news & views
1. Met the management team of Provost last week and was impressed with their plans. They’re the first 2nd gen virtual provider that I know—they’re developing their content as learning objects with the ability to customize the curriculum for each learner by level and modality. Also…
Personalized Learning
EdNet (and Chicago) reflections
With the biggest crowd ever, the mood at EdNet was much different than last year. There were lots of start-ups and more funders and investment bankers than ever. The agenda was all about digital learning (we may finally be moving past thinking about EdTech on the periphery and…
Personalized Learning
What will be the ‘shipping container’ of Edu2.0?
Forty years ago the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) adopted a standard size container and it revolutionized shipping—investment in common infrastructure went up and the cost of goods shipped went down. Wal-Mart and globalization happened. We need a digital content standard to launch the second…
Personalized Learning
Rock-Solid Hunches
I received a mailer from a research firm suggesting that innovation must be based on “rock-solid evidence.” They were obviously offering to conduct this research and were quoting Jim Shelton in a recent webcast where he was discussing i3 grant criteria. Jim was speaking specifically about grant requirements…
Personalized Learning
The role of the private sector in edu
The WSJ reported that “The US government doled out $502 million for a dozen wind and solar energy projects.” The big winner was Iberdrola, a Spanish wind giant. Coming in second was Horizon, a subsidiary of a Portuguese firm. Third place went to a UK owned firm.
Personalized Learning
$3.5B for school improvement will benefit charters/services
This EdWeek blog is a good summary of the USED guidance $3.5B Title 1 school improvement fund. Each state will receive an allotment and will distribute it to districts that agree to enact one or more of the four prescribed strategies: · Turnaround: replacing at least…
Personalized Learning
Talent, money, innovation moving off shore
Newsweek has an important short on globalization featuring IBM. My friend Rob Wuebker, a recently PhD specializing in the internationalization of venture capital, pointed out the article. Think about the implications of these three quotes: The fact that IBM is headquartered in Armonk, New York, matters much…
Personalized Learning
RttT Handicaps: CA & NY, etc
Great to have Gov Schwarzenegger late to the EdReform party, but his RttT-incentivized proposal, outlined in the LA Times, has little chance of passing the dysfunctional CA legislature. Some observers expect “the grand-daddy of fights.” But do you recall the Gov’s sensible proposal to change tenure-granting from…