personalized learning
It’s Always Been Personal For Kelly Tenkely
It was Kelly and her iLearn Technology blog that truly opened up the world of Educational Technology for me. I knew when I couldn’t wait for her next blog update to arrive in my email, that her enthusiasm was contagious and I was catching the Edtech bug. She not only shares and then describes great tools but always gives ideas for integrating them. Her posts ignited my own passion for using technology to reach students and provide them with the tools so that they could not only learn but feel excited and successful in school.
Vittra International: Personalized Swedish Network on a Mission
Vittra International is a network of high tech elementary schools in Sweden. Vitta has 12 schools were every student has an Apple laptop. Architecturally and academically it's clear that there is an underlying design--a clear intellectual mission that makes these schools a great place to learn and work. Vittra expresses the design principles through six promises.
Grouping, Tracking, & Personalizing
An international educator told me his school community was discussing the "ethics and educational validity of streaming -- deliberately dividing students up into class/work groups based on ability, i.e., a strong and weak group." He asked for my thoughts.
RTT-District: Scaling Personalizing Innovations
Last week the Department issued the final guidance on Race to the Top District(RTT-D) competition. It's a big opportunity to improvement for underserved kids.
Learning Untethered: Conclusions From a 5th Grade Tablet Pilot
Learning Untethered is a “collaborative exploration” that introduced 7 inch Samsung Galaxy tablets running Android 2.2, a mobile data plan, and using Internet filtering from Kajeet into an Oregon fifth grade classroom. The report made important observations about writing and mobile device management.
35 Blogs for Districts Planning for Personalization
This week the Department of Education released guidelines for the Race to the Top District Competition. As a result, hundreds of districts are contemplating personalized learning plans. Here are 35 recent and relevant Getting Smart blogs.
NRC Report Highlights Importance of Deeper Learning
While the NRC definition of deeper learning purportedly shifts from "21st century skills" to broader "21st century competencies" including skills, knowledge, and expertise, the definition seems accurate - but a bit shallow.
Resilience Monitoring Tool Could Be Good for Troops–and Students
DARPA is working on a psychological resilience monitoring tool for the troops. A similar monitoring tool for students could also be part of a comprehensive learner profile. DARPA participated in a a conference for i3 grant managers in Washington DC today.
Digital Learning Leads to Deeper Learning
We think digital learning can lead to deeper learning. We’re writing a paper with a framework of evidence. A little brainstorming led to a list of ten benefits we’ve seen: Engagement: media that grabs attention Motivation: encouragement to go deeper Persistence: capturing more learning hours per day Production: ability…
SCE Launches Digital Learning Challenge
SCE, a Chicago-based social investment organization, launched a “Digital Learning Challenge” by inviting letters of inquiry that could lead to up to $250,000 in grants. The announcement is worth reading just because it is an interesting premise--that shifting even a portion of the out-of-school media time of low income youth to productive learning activities can make a big difference.