future of learning
Personalized Learning
Encouraging results from Early College initiative
In 2002, a phone call from Leon Botstein, President of Bard College, and a bus ride with Cece Cunningham, a Ford funded Middle College consortium, lead to the creation of a $100M national Early College initiative. Â After assembling about 8 partners ranging from community colleges to charter networks, the goal…
Personalized Learning
The need for edu-innovation
The US won’t spend or reform its way to high and equitable educational attainment. The basic model of age cohorts slogging through print-based content with ability tracking (with equates to race and income tracking) is obsolete, expensive and unjust. Young people in emerging and developing economies (which…
Personalized Learning
Bill Gates: beginning of tech revolution
“Technology can pull the United States out of recession and help the world’s ailing financial markets work better, Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) Chairman Bill Gates told a high-level business summit at the company he co-founded” reports Reuters. “The drug companies will get back in high productivity mode.
Personalized Learning
Where is EdTech making a difference?
A friend asked me where EdTech is making a difference for kids, especially low income kids.  Here’s my quick list.  I’d love to hear more examples. 1. AdvancePath.com runs 9 blended drop out prevention centers, 8 in CA, with good results serving under credited kids.  Decidedly first gen; they use…
Personalized Learning
iTunes U is getting useful for higher/continuing edu
I love my iPod, I toggle between Patty Griffin and Physics. Maybe you received the iTunes U email today featuring engineering courses (or maybe it’s just the podcasts that I subscribe to); just some of the courses: • Stanford: iPhone applications • Open U: Design & Creativity…
Personalized Learning
Don't lock the doors to virtual schools
Read the following important post from Patrick Donaldson about limitations being proposed on online learning in Oregon.  Similar efforts to limit opportunity by placing enrollment caps or geographic boundaries around online learning are underway across the country.  These barriers will slow the development of a new generation of flexible options…
Personalized Learning
Great op-ed from great edu-govs
The two most effective education governors in recent memory, Govs Jeb Bush & Jim Hunt, teamed up for a great op-ed today on the $5B innovation fund. I made some similar points recently on HuffPost.
Personalized Learning
2020 Forecast: Last Word (3 of 3)
“You as a pupil will be placed in the centre. Personalised education means that the school and the teachers start from and adapt themselves to your goals, your ambitions and your potentials….The fundamental principle behind our method of learning is the conviction that all pupils are…
Personalized Learning
2020 Forecast: Implications
The KnowledgeWorks Future of Learning map points into the fog with the following identified implications: ·         Resilient School Communities: I’ll buy the need for better connections and more transparency ·         Amplified Educators and Learners: agreed—innovation will emerge from outside the formal…
Personalized Learning
Private Capital in Public Education-Feedback
1. Response from the Gadfly: But, of course, there’s a profound trade off. Vendors are not reformers. Consultants are not agitators. Advisors are not change agents. Okay, maybe they’re gradual change agents over the very long haul. In real political cycles, however (and in the…