Archive
element:for-whom
Personalized Learning
GSV Launches American Revolution 2.0
GSV Advisors released the white paper "American Revolution 2.0: How Education Innovation is Going to Revitalize America and Transform the U.S. Economy," which takes a close look at the climate of education and the latest trends on the horizon of innovation, this week.
Personalized Learning
How to Build a Basic Toolbox for 21st-Century Learning
I remember exactly how I felt when I put together my first real toolbox. The gray no-nonsense plastic container, made by Rubbermaid, would house the essential tools I needed now that I was twenty-something and on my own. I bought a hammer, of course, two kinds of screwdrivers (one with a Phillips head and one with a flat head), a foldout miniature saw, some nails and screws, and a measuring tape. I mainly used the toolbox to hang pictures in my apartment, but oh my, did it make me feel empowered!
Personalized Learning
10 Ways to Ensure Parents Won’t Need to Ask ‘What Did You Do at School Today?’
I think parents don’t like it, or, at the very least, get annoyed when they ask their children, “what did you do at school today?” and the answer is “nothing.” (I actually know this to be true, not from statistics or action research, but because I am a mom and this is usually what my kids answer when I ask and I get annoyed).
Personalized Learning
A New Bumper Sticker: My Student is More Proficient Than Your Student!
How do we serve the parents like my neighbor who want to be involved in their student’s education but don’t understand the changes that are occurring? Some say it will take a minimum of three generations before the changes we are proposing become the expected classroom culture. Regardless of whether it takes a single school year or several generations, what we need to remember is that we are on this course for a long time.
Personalized Learning
Life Is Writing: 2 Apps for the Reluctant Writer
I can’t even begin to quantify how many times I have been blessed with the challenge of working with a reluctant writer. Taking natural writers to the next level is also a daunting task, but I will forever be grateful for those who stare at the paper with confusion and anxiety while hoping words will magically fill up the empty lines. Their apathy for writing shakes me to the core in such a way that leaves me scratching my hairless head and searching for any angle to prove how essential self-expression is to living. To me, life is writing.
Personalized Learning
It’s Student in Action, Not Inaction
The natural state of children is “in motion.” They are not simply pictures, they are motion pictures. A classroom full of third graders is a lot like a pool of sharks, except scarier. We are all aware of this natural state of activity yet we’ve managed to take our adult cubical workspace and force it upon the classroom.
EdTech
Braincandy: Healthy Food for Ill Conceived Minds
Even experienced teachers lack good resources for discovering and documenting the common scientific misconceptions held by learning minds. Braincandy.org, a nonprofit born from a Stanford research study, aims to change that.
Personalized Learning
Online Learning Studies Must Evaluate Individual Student Trajectories
The “gotcha” research on charter schools and innovation continues, with the latest aimed at K12 Inc.’s online schools. There are plenty of important policy and oversight research questions around the performance of charter schools and online schools, but unsupported claims like the latest from the National Education Policy Center (NEPC) are frustrating and unproductive.
EdTech
NAF Launches Student Certification Assessment System
National Academy Foundation announced a new certification system today. We think it signals a real commitment on NAF's part to getting serious about outcomes. We are bullish on certification systems as market signaling strategy that will grow in importance over time. We like the way NAF approached the design of this system. They are one of small handful of organizations that has the reach to do this at scale. In other words, we think this is a pretty big deal.
Personalized Learning
5 Essential Questions About ePortfolios
You have - no doubt - tuned in to the buzz about ePortfolios. Digital portfolios certainly were the talk of ISTE 2012 in June. Although it was written in 2005, “An Overview of E-Portfolios,” by George Lorenzo and John Ittelson for Educause, paints a pretty good portrait, even now, of where we stand with ePortfolios for students, especially if you skip the part about CDs. As I decipher the ongoing conversation (for an example, the Twitter #Edchat summary by Shelly Terrell from 2009), I get the impression that many educators view ePortfolios as the ultimate solution to our complex assessment dilemmas.