iNACOL

Leadership

e-Learning Leadership: 10 Strategies

The 17th annual Educational Technology Leadership Conference will take place this week in Roanoke, Virginia.  The conference is sponsored by Virginia Tech’s Center for Instructional Technology Solutions in Industry and Education.  Given the theme of e-learning leadership, I’ll be leading a conversation about these ten practices: 1.Conversation: lead…

Leadership

Good Work: Sector Advance People

Association leaders don't just serve their members, they try to advance the sector by deliver value while leading them to a better place. It requires understanding and corralling lots of different views, building and maintaining a Rolodex of connections, and developing and executing multi-faceted change strategy. These folks travel constantly and don’t make as much as they could in the private sector. Their commitment to advancing the field and improving outcomes for kids is inspiring.

EdTech

Trends, Opportunities & Worries About Blended Learning

The directors of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning are an amazing group of system heads, school operators, philanthropists, and advocates. On Sunday we spent an hour discussing trends, opportunities and areas of concern for the rapidly world of online and blended learning. Following is a quick recap:…

Personalized Learning

Why the Next Four Years Will Be Better

The shift to digital learning is a bigger deal than the printing press and it will happen in a decade rather than a century. It’s the best shot we have at boosting achievement and access to quality. And, behind the scenes, it’s rapid and efficient learning that is driving a new wave of corporate competitiveness that make the economy of the next four years better than most people think.

EdTech

SMARTtech Roundup: What’s the word of the week?

Blended Schools & Tools Alabama Digital Boost. The Superintendent of Huntsville City Schools spoke to the district’s successes with digital learning, noting a shift to digital textbooks and plans to boost distance learning to allow teachers to interact with students via internet for extra help. CMS goes BYOT.

EdTech

SMARTtech Roundup

Blended Schools & Tools Fuse Boost. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt announced that the results from a year-long pilot of their Algebra Curriculum for iPad stimulated a near 10 percent boost in Math scores. The HMH Fuse platform encourages the use of personalized lesson plans by combining direct instruction, ongoing…

EdTech

SMARTtech Roundup: Blends, Tabs, STEM, Common Core & More

Blended Schools & Tools Cool kit and course. BlendKit2012 has been announced – an open, online course focused on blended learning – from September 24 to October 29.The Blended Learning Toolkit was prepared by the UCF and the AASCU with funding from the NGLC. The Good,…

Personalized Learning

Policy Implications of Online & Blended Learning

At the National Charter School Conference (#NCSC) in Minneapolis yesterday, I participated in a discussion of the Policy Implications of Online & Blended Learning with Jim Griffin, Colorado Leage of Charter Schools, Mickey Revenaugh, Connections Learning, and David Hanson. I told the audience of school heads, authorizers, network leaders and district…

Personalized Learning

10 Must-Haves to Lift Us from the Grading Quagmire

Converting existing schools to a competency-based environment can be a monumental challenge. At the top of the list of controversial items is grading—the old A-F system imprinted in our brains. There are 10 edtech advances that will help make the competency-based environments easier to manage.