Archive
component:what.learner-portraits
Blended Learning That Is Truly Blended
Even though blended learning is erroneously becoming synonymous with online, digital learning, it is arguably the most intriguing and perhaps the least mastered of all current buzz words.
Powering Lifelong Learning Relationships
We give lip service to the idea of lifelong learning but I don’t see an organization really executing against the idea. That’s about to change.
Flip a Class & Create a Movie: A Dream Come True
Recently, one of my dreams became reality. Our literature class, affectionately dubbed Studio 113 by students years ago, was granted our wish. In fact, the goal for next year’s American Literature Honors students is to flip a class and create an original movie. It’s a dream come true.
New Ideas On What Colleges Want to See Out of Prospects
We all remember the students from our own graduating classes who did it all. Their GPAs were at the top of the class, or very near to it. They might have played two or three different sports, and served as captain in one or two of them. They were members of two or three clubs, with a leadership position in student government or National Honor Society. They were the ones who we viewed as “well rounded,” likely to get into a highly selective college.
The Transformative Power of Education & the Imperative to Educate Our Children Well: Pratham’s Footprint in India
I grew up knowing my family’s history through repeated narratives by my grandmother. She was, as I came to realize, an incredible woman. My own conviction in the transformative power of education derives directly from her experiences and commitments; my life as an Indian-American who has made the United States her permanent home and my professional life as Executive Director of Pratham USA also derive from my memory of her unfulfilled aspirations.
The Online High School Graduation That Was: My View From The Trenches
Utah Connections Academy (UCA) Inaugural Graduating Class of 2012 - eight eager faces, eyes sparkling with a sense of pride and accomplishment - for many of them an accomplishment that would not have happened without the transforming powers of digital learning.
Graduation Reflections From an Edreform Pioneer
Back in 2003, my family took a chance. It was a big one. Not like changing to soy milk or getting a pet snake. Not anything like that. We put our kids in a new school.
College Bound Data
Combining big data sets and building and utilizing new applications will likely take philanthropic support, some app developers, and some guys like Don Munce that have been around the block a few times. Some incentive engineering like a prize could help focus and accelerate progress that would boost college completion rates and improve connections with the labor market
Like Fish to Water: Virtual Learners in 2012
I have worked as an online educator since 2005 – facilitating learning in a two-year online program that equips current educators with Master’s degrees in Educational Leadership and signifies their formal readiness to take on positions of leadership inside their schools or districts. Getting to know these professionals through weekly interactions over the course of two years allows me to maintain an important connection to “real” schools and the students they serve as I fulfill other professional roles as an education policy researcher and consultant.
The Learning Mindset: Winning in the Civilian Sector
The 1% and 99% are making headlines. But I'm more worried about the 20%, the 50% and the 75%. The 20% of Iraq and Afghanistan vets age 18-24 who are unemployed, the 50% who are underemployed, and 75% who don't graduate from the programs of study that they start after they get out.