Archive
element:what
More on Motivation: Knowledge Workers like Progress
Catherine Gewrtz, EdWeek, make great observation here that the ability to see progress is a great motivator. Check out Harvard Business Review, “this is worth a look.” Catherine continues: It’s an argument for the importance of feeling that you are making progress in your work. The authors…
Emerging Vision for Learning Platforms
There are a handful of conversations swirling around about next generation learning platforms that will combine adaptive/personalized content, assessment, learning communities, with aligned student, teacher, and school services. The ones that gain wide usage will combine open and proprietary content (e.g., basic and premium cable) with a open app platform…
The Edu-Entrepreneurs bargain
The sun set at 4:22pm at latitude 47.3. It will set about a minute later tomorrow. The days are finally getting longer again. We also turned the corner on the Great Recession; at least the leading indicators look that way. That is little reassurance to the 20% of the…
Scrap credits/time as measures of progress
It’s time to scrap credit accumulation and seat time as the measures of student progress. Seat time requirements are the enemy of performance-based education. We’ve been spouting the mantra ‘vary time not learning’ for a generation but have seldom broken the mold. It’s great to see ED and CCSSO (and…
How should we prepare students for college?
The Nation Journal asked this question based on flat results in the recent ACT report. High school graduation is the most important step toward college preparation. American graduation rates remain low especially for low income and minority students. Young people should have the choice of…
Markets in everything: Standards & Assessments
Borrowing a phrase from GMU economist/blogger Tyler Cowen, there are markets for (almost) everything. In the case of educational standards and assessments, it may be worth considering a competition of ideas for the most effective way to frame and measure learning goals. I had a discussion about these…
Obama's Grad Initiative is Promising
This week President Obama called for the creation of the American Graduation Initiative, a $12 billion effort to encourage degree completion especially Associate degrees and certificates. America has slipped in high school and college completion rates to the middle of the OECD pack. David…
In favor of training and (better) testing
At the Closing the Gap rally in Washington DC , a speaker shouted, “You train dogs not children.” He went on to attack standardized testing and the resulting, “dumbed-down teach-to-the-test curriculum.” It sounded like he was in favor of open-ended discovery learning. I’ve been thinking about his…
Education—The Sexy Profession!?
Ten years of investment are paying off in a human capital shift and ecosystems of edu-entrepreneurship. We’re seeing top grads at the Ivies and professional schools considering a career in education. …