student engagement

Personalized Learning

Teaching with Comics

Have you ever used a comic strip in class? Have you ever turned to a comic for your own education? (If you’ve ever read the flight safety pamphlet on a plane, the answer to that question is “yes.”) Despite their historical reputation as “low brow” non-literature (they were even blamed for juvenile delinquency back in the ‘50s) comics have proven useful for everything from motivating kids to read to instructional manuals for the military.

Personalized Learning

Book Review: Self-Driven Learning

I am an informal educator. That is, I’m an educator with a focus on informal or “free choice” learning and public engagement with science. So it is a pleasure to say that, regardless of my informal education focus, Larry Ferlazzo’s new book on encouraging intrinsic motivation in students is an insightful and worthwhile sequel to his 2011 book Helping Students Motivate Themselves.

Personalized Learning

Six premises, seven ideas for better teacher training

At the Twitter Town Hall with Education Secretary Arne Duncan (related: the full transcript of that dialogue is online) on August 24, he promised some new initiatives regarding schools of education. In the hope that the suggestion box is still open, I have a suggestion — not for the Secretary but for schools and colleges of education.

Personalized Learning

Motivational Profiles

Mining the combined data from home and school will yield rich and powerful motivational profiles that will power smart recommendation engines--and that's when we'll see the real power of customized learning.

Personalized Learning

Boredom Dampens U.S. Achievement

I'm in India this week observing education innovations and styles. Newsweek's Samuelson claims lack of motivation in US high schools results in lost elementary gains. Hard to change society, but we can add cool learning games to the daily student playlist.

EdTech

Students Are Motivated to Take Online Courses

Susan Patrick writes: "Despite what critics say, there is no evidence that children in online or hybrid classes are any less socially adjusted than those children who attend brick-and-mortar, traditional schools."