Archive
component:what.competencies
Quick Guide to the Common Core: Key Common Core Expectations Explained – Mathematics
A lot of people (including some educators) have a lot of anxiety about math: How do we teach it? How do we learn it? How do we remember it all and use it correctly in real life? Math actually is a logical, accessible, and useful subject, but not enough people know or experience that.
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.
Quick Guide to the Common Core: Key Expectations Explained
Since the Common Core State Standards were introduced, there has been much discussion about what they mean for educators and students and how they will impact teaching and learning. While the standards have been adopted by 45 states and 3 territories so far, there is a lot of concern, anxiety, and debate around what is best for students, potential challenges for teachers, and what implementation should and can look like.
SMARTtech Roundup: What’s the word of the week?
Blended Schools & Tools Alabama Digital Boost. The Superintendent of Huntsville City Schools spoke to the district’s successes with digital learning, noting a shift to digital textbooks and plans to boost distance learning to allow teachers to interact with students via internet for extra help. CMS goes BYOT.
What the Learning Sciences Tell Us About Competency Education
At a recent meeting sponsored by iNACOL to think deeply about competency and assessment, we talked about what impact the last few decades of learning science should have on doing the best job planning and using competencies for learning.
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.
10 Must-Haves to Lift Us from the Grading Quagmire
Converting existing schools to a competency-based environment can be a monumental challenge. At the top of the list of controversial items is grading—the old A-F system imprinted in our brains. There are 10 edtech advances that will help make the competency-based environments easier to manage.
From Chronology to Competency
This competency-based stuff sounds logical—kids should learn what they’re supposed to learn and show what they know—but tradition runs pretty deep. Parents that want their kid to have the best shot at a good college believe grade point is everything and they want junior to have the ability to earn that A with a little extra credit. The shift to competency rather than chronology as the foundational element of our education system is a more complicated shift than the tradition to digital. Here’s ten blogs on the subject of competency-based learning from the last 8 weeks.
10 Elements of Competency-Based Learning
Students should meet learning expectations and show what they know. Competency-based systems are fundamentally different than traditional batch processing by birthday. Here's 10 elements of a blended and performance-based system.
Improving Urban Education Options: A Digital Portfolio Approach
There are three key strategies to improving urban schools: bring high expectations to life, create and portfolio of quality options, and phase in personal digital learning