personalized learning
EdTech 10: Spirit of Youth
Shakespeare, who would’ve celebrated his 449th birthday this week, famously noted that April puts “a spirit of youth in every thing.” The Bard was right. (One of our Smart Teachers even celebrated Shakespeare’s birthday with her class.) We’re seeing lots of new ideas springing forth in k-12 and…
Looking for a Few Good Schools
In order to showcase schools who exemplify deeper learning the Getting Smart team is collecting examples from around the country. Great teachers and innovative schools are finding ways to foster deeper learning for their students, Getting Smart is interested in identifying these excellent schools to profile their achievements.
Silverback Links with Linkit & Gooru
“We call it an instructional improvement system,” said Jim Lewis. As Blaine, Idaho superintendent, Lewis got fed up with the lousy systems designed for tracking student interventions and progress, so he built his own. Other districts asked to use his Mileposts tracking software and he realized they were solving a widespread need. He formed Silverback Learning Solutions in 2010 to make it better and share it more broadly.
Book Review: The Leader’s Guide to 21st Century Education
Ken launched the Partnership for 21st Century Learning a decade ago to add the 4Cs--critical thinking and problem solving; communication, collaboration; and creativity and innovation--to the 3Rs. He was successful at gathering corporate support for the agenda but it was slow to be adopted by school districts preoccupied by state testing programs.
Changing How We Think About Student Choice in Learning: Recombinant Education
An explosion of innovation has been transforming how we think about learning, and how we organize talent and resources to support learning experiences. School as we once knew it has become ‘unbundled.’ While Ohio has been debating charter schools, vouchers, and e-schools for years, emerging digital and blended learning models have created additional opportunities and new paradigms for thinking about student choice, and with them some demands for navigating this new learning ecosystem.
Shared Learning Collaborative Launches inBloom Inc. for Personalized Learning
The Shared Learning Collaborative (SLC) today launched inBloom Inc., a nonprofit provider of technology services aimed at connecting data, applications and people that work together to create better opportunities for students and educators.
6 Vectors Advancing Personalized Learning
Personalized learning will significantly improve achievement levels, boosting completion rates in both K-12 and postsecondary education. That claim is based on six recent developments.
Digital Learning Now! Releases Competency Education Paper
Digital Learning Now! (DLN) today released “The Shift From Cohorts to Competency,” the fourth DLN Smart Series white paper in collaboration with Getting Smart®, that explores the shift from seat time to demonstrated mastery.
Q&A: Connecting to Community
Building frameworks around community and student needs is essential. In simple terms, identify resources and needs in the communities and tie projects to the classroom learning. Make the curriculum real.
Despite Bad News, Progress is Possible
I have a hard time watching evening news--especially in the last few weeks--the headlines are hard to swallow. You can’t help but assume that things are getting worse. It’s depressing. But the news doesn’t give you an accurate picture of the long term trends that are making life better for more people on this planet.