STEM

Personalized Learning

NCTAF Learning Studios: The Future of Learning

Every once in awhile, we see pictures of the future -- a graphic image, a set of relationships, new tools at work, the buzz of a culture that feels remarkably productive. For me, site visits to Big Picture and Edvision schools were really influential 12 years ago -- and why I'm still enthusiastic about flex school models that engage and empower students.

EdTech

SMARTtech Roundup: Common Core and More

Blended Schools & Tools Duncan on Digital. Education Secretary Arne Duncan called Tuesday for the nation to move rapidly from printed textbooks and toward digital ones, citing global competition among the chief reasons for doing so. The New Frontier. The Center for Digital Education and Converge released…

EdTech

Game Change: How Game-based Learning Helps Common Core

One of the exciting things that leaps out to me when reading the new Common Core standards for Mathematics is that the spirit of inquiry and curiosity is back, hardwired into a document that will likely form the basis for mathematics teaching and learning for a long time. My attention is drawn for example to the Standards for Mathematical practice where it emphasizes that students need to become persistent problem solvers, plan solution pathways, and ask themselves, “does this make mathematical sense?”

EdTech

Google Ventures Backs Math Education Startup Desmos

Google Ventures joined investors Kapor Capital, Learn Capital, Kinder Capital, and Elm Street Ventures today in funding more than $1 million for hiring, growth, and expansion of Desmos, Inc., an education technology company devoted to inspiring and engaging the next generation of math students.