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EdTech
Q&A: Students Take a Social Science Stance & Leverage Tech
This July and August, educators and students from around the U.S. participated in the Microsoft Partners in Learning 2012 U.S. Forum, which showcases and celebrates innovative teaching. Ericha Anderson and Alicia Cast from Chinook Elementary in Vancouver, Wash. participated in the forum and shared their "Snake River Dam Removal? You Decide!" project, which required students to research, track, and develop opinions around the local Snake River Damn Proposal.
Personalized Learning
4 Ways to Empower Students Through Collaboration
If you want students to collaborate it is imperative that educators establish this as a norm at the beginning of the school year. Great teachers leverage group work and collaborative activities and projects in their curriculum and instruction, but oftentimes teachers “push-back” with the difficulties of having their students collaborate. I agree, it is a daunting task, but I always respond, “How have you taught them to collaborate and providing scaffolding of that skill?” This is the key! If you want your students to collaborate effectively, you must give the opportunity to do so, as well as give the necessary instruction in skills and scaffolding.
Personalized Learning
35 Blogs for Districts Planning for Personalization
This week the Department of Education released guidelines for the Race to the Top District Competition. As a result, hundreds of districts are contemplating personalized learning plans. Here are 35 recent and relevant Getting Smart blogs.
Personalized Learning
New Visions Builds On New School Success With Innovation Agenda
New Visions for Public Schools has probably been the most effective intermediary of the last decade. By launching 135 new secondary schools and helped to develop other intermediaries that developed hundreds more, they dramatically improved the quality of high school options in New York City. Thousands of students each year graduate from high school and go to college because New Visions created high schools.
EdTech
SMARTtech Roundup
Blended Schools & Tools Fuse Boost. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt announced that the results from a year-long pilot of their Algebra Curriculum for iPad stimulated a near 10 percent boost in Math scores. The HMH Fuse platform encourages the use of personalized lesson plans by combining direct instruction, ongoing…
EdTech
Cornerstone Anchors Detroit’s Blended Future
Tom Willis isn't playing golf this summer. In a few weeks, Willis will open two new schools in Detroit, an elementary (opening K-4) and a high school (starting with ninth graders). CEO of the Cornerstone Charter Schools, Willis is a construction manager this month.
Personalized Learning
Investing in Education Innovation
Ask yourself, would the next Rocketship Education or Goalbook grow in your backyard? If not, what would it take? One thing is for sure: education innovation does not happen by accident.
EdTech
10 Things I’d Do Right Now as a High School Principal
At the Moorseville edtech conference (#Connection12 on Twitter) this week a Midwest high school principal serving about 700 students asked me for some advice on the shift to digital learning. Borrowing from advice to superintendents, here's 10 things I'd do right now as a high school principal.
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
Building the Digital Learning Superhighway
Next month there will be a lot of U.S. students holding an iPad looking at a spinning wheel. Cheaper devices, powerful apps, successful school models, and preparation for online assessments is boosting student access to technology. But in most places, the pipes won't be ready for all the traffic.