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EdTech
51 Essential EdTech Tools By Category
Technology and education are pretty intertwined these days and nearly every teacher has a few favorite tech tools that make doing his or her job and connecting with students a little bit easier and more fun for all involved. Yet as with anything related to technology, new tools are hitting the market constantly and older ones rising to prominence, broadening their scope, or just adding new features that make them better matches for education, which can make it hard to keep up with the newest and most useful tools even for the most tech-savvy teachers.
EdTech
Should Your School Replace Textbooks With Ereaders?
This February, President Barack Obama and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan challenged the nation to transition to digital textbooks in the next five years. Only a month prior, Apple announced the ever so controversial iBooks 2 for iPad, which partnered the biggest leaders in publishing, put textbook writing in the hands of many, and drove down the cost of classroom reading (with the exception of the cost of the iPad). As the shift to digital picks up momentum, administrators and educators have rushed to adopt 1:1 programs with iPads, Chromebooks, and netbooks. Yet, what about ereaders?
EdTech
Staff Picks: RTT-D, Digital Tools
Tom Picks “RTT-District: Scaling Personalizing Innovations“ Tom says, “The $383 million school district federal grant program will help two dozen US districts make the shift to personal digital learning.” Karen Picks “20 Schools Innovating With Digital Tools” Karen says, “It is good to see the…
Ed Policy
RTT-District: Scaling Personalizing Innovations
Last week the Department issued the final guidance on Race to the Top District(RTT-D) competition. It's a big opportunity to improvement for underserved kids.
EdTech
Learning Untethered: Conclusions From a 5th Grade Tablet Pilot
Learning Untethered is a “collaborative exploration” that introduced 7 inch Samsung Galaxy tablets running Android 2.2, a mobile data plan, and using Internet filtering from Kajeet into an Oregon fifth grade classroom. The report made important observations about writing and mobile device management.
EdTech
SMARTtech Roundup: Blended Learning, STEM & Apps
Blended Schools & Tools RTT-D pushes for personalized learning. RttT-D kicked off the $400 million competition for increased personalized learning. CRPE says portfolio schools have the advantage. Tom comments, adds a list of 10 questions for districts, and contributes a list of 35 blogs lends help…
EdTech
20 Schools Innovating With Digital Tools
Hans Renman in Stockholm (@tankom_hans) asked on Twitter, "Do you know any US schools that are REALLY using digital tools in an INTERESTING way for communication, marketing, or learning?" That tweet kicked off a few days of snooping around. Here is the list of 20 we came up with. We look forward to your additions!
EdTech
ClassDojo Lands $1.6M to Improve Student Character & Behavior
Today ClassDojo, the first free digital character building and behavior management service for teachers, is officially launching out of beta and announcing $1.6 million in seed funding from some of the most well known start-up investors in the world. The company is also announcing exciting milestones including viral growth to more than 3.5 million teachers and students in more than 30 countries in just 10 months, solidifying its place as the fastest growing education company ever.
Personalized Learning
Pearson’s 1:1 Learning Framework Furthers Personalized Learning & Common Core
"The Huntsville City School district is ditching textbooks and passing out laptops instead," reported a Huntsville TV station. Huntsville Alabama is one of many districts making the shift to digital learning this fall. Students from fourth to twelfth grade will receive laptops starting this week.
Personalized Learning
Texas Welcomes a New Disruptive Innovation & Vision: Prime Prep Academy
In a recent blog post titled “A Hope for Future Irrelevance,” Michael Horn reflects on a book which discusses the tenets of American teaching technique – including ensuring every student answers the critical questions of a lesson plan, answering the question of “What exactly do I want my students to master?” and choosing challenging curriculum. He posits the challenges a blended-learning environment, particularly infused with technology, will cause for these traditional techniques.