Archive
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Personalized Learning
Competency-Based Progress
Susan Patrick, iNACOL (where I'm a director) and Chris Sturgis teamed up on a great new site, CompetencyWorks. While the shift to digital is key, and extending the reach of great teachers is important, the shift from age-cohorts to to a show-what-you-know system will prove to be the most profound--and challenging--educational change of our time. That's why the conversation and community on CompetencyWorks is so important.
EdTech
11 Tools to Turn Your Students Into Academic Superstars
I remember as an undergrad, I looked forward each August to the release of the official university student planner. That planner represented a fresh start: blank days to be filled with color-coded due dates, study group get-togethers, my work schedule at the bakery in the mall, and football tailgate details.
Personalized Learning
Q&A: WriteToLearn Enriches Students’ Understanding of Writing
Seventh-grade English Language Arts teacher at Dean Rusk Middle School in Canton, Ga., Jeff Pence, shares how he blends WriteToLearn with other writing and Language Arts tools his classroom to teach writing evaluation, organization, conventions, sentence fluency, word choice, voice and more.
Personalized Learning
What Information Should Show Up Day One With Students?
Students went back to school last week (or will next week) but most did not arrive with any information. Teachers get to know a lot about their students but there is no systematic way to share that when students move from grade-to-grade or school-to-school. As a result, most teachers start from scratch, trying to unlock the student-learning puzzle.
Personalized Learning
Ed-Fi: Data Standard Gains Traction, Releases Version 1.1
Lori Fey directs policy initiatives including the sponsorship of the Ed-Fi data standard for the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation. The Ed-Fi solution is a universal educational data standard and tool suite (unifying data model, data exchange framework, application framework, and sample dashboard source code) that aligns with Common Education Data Standards. The Ed-Fi tool suite is designed to integrate information from a broad range of existing education data sources. It facilitates data comparisons and interoperability, and allows vendors to develop reusable products across multiple states.
EdTech
5 Apps to Lower Teacher Anxiety & Raise Student Voices
The art of teaching sure has changed since I nervously stepped into my first class of thirty-two, energetic students fourteen years ago. I remember feeling pressure from the prescribed sage-on-the-stage pedagogy. Fortunately, I soon discovered that not only was I far from an academic scholar, but I also wasn’t the most important factor. The students demanded they be a vital part of the classroom and curriculum creation. That was okay with me. Opening up the pressure valve a tad never hurt anyone.
Personalized Learning
Better Learning Online
Learning online is rapidly becoming part of every student's day whether it's a game on a smart phone, a workstation in a classroom, or an online course with a teacher at a distance. As full and part-time online learning becomes more ubiquitous, critics have become more vocal. Reports have criticized mixed results on traditional measures. State leaders press for effectiveness and efficiency.
Personalized Learning
Big Data: Like Sunshine For Parents
Does school performance data really matter to parents? And does it facilitate parent-driven school accountability? As GreatSchools CEO Bill Jackson put it during his testimony before Congress in late 2011, “School performance data is like sunshine for parents. Parents need data to make good decisions about their children’s education.”
EdTech
3 Free Cool Tools to Curate Content
Content curation is a great way to find, organize and share useful knowledge efficiently. There are many free digital tools available to help manage web content in flexible ways allowing us to quickly share resources that are accessible online. Use of curation tools is social and will connect us to the ideas of others and help build our professional learning networks. Here are three efficient and effective content curation tools that can help educators manage web content and embrace technology.
EdTech
Q&A: Visualize Learning Concepts
Conceptboard, a German-based technology company, hit the market in early 2011 and has caught the attention of high school educators and students in the U.S. Taking a few cues from the popular social media platform Pinterst, Conceptboard has harnessed the creation of visual boards for learning and productivity.