Archive
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EdTech
SmartTech Roundup: eTexts, Smart Tutors, & Venture Funding
After a long drumroll, Apple launched an authoring tool. Some claimed revolution but we were a bit underwhelmed. After writing a book, authors will find they are trapped in the iPad universe (Audrey Watters was really bummed).
EdTech
MIT Media Lab Is Innovating Its Way to the Future
The graduate program at MIT Media Lab, where new technology is born, is creating unexpected combinations to discover unique applications of technology in our daily lives.
Personalized Learning
Ohio Is Getting Smart On Digital Learning Day
KnowledgeWorks, Ohio Education Matters, The Ohio State University College of Education and Human Ecology and the Ohio Resource Center are co-hosting the event "Getting Smart Book Chat With Tom Vander Ark" on Digital Leraning Day in Columbus, OH.
Personalized Learning
Strategic Collaboration Yields Great Options for All Students
School district and charter collaboration is obviously a good idea. When collaboration leads to strategic coordination, it has the potential to create a single portfolio of quality educational options. Jim Shelton and I wrote about this in a 2004 paper—Good Urban Schools: A Portfolio Approach—that still holds up pretty well.
Personalized Learning
Riverside Virtual School Takes a Competency-Based Approach to Online Curriculum
Curriculum is personal. When created, teachers are essentially deciding what information is valuable enough to share with others. Will it challenge, engage, and inspire? Online curriculum allows for flexibility. One of the greatest things about online learning is that students work at their own pace, even with deadlines, the "when to work" is usually determined by the student. This is also one of the biggest challenges with online learning.
EdTech
Can Apple Technology Save Education?
Apple has proven a successful disruptive innovation in business and life with its iPhone, iTunes, and iPad technologies. Now, is it ready to disrupt education?
Personalized Learning
Why States Should Require Online Learning
Graduation requirements translate society's expectations to the young. It's our collective best guess at the knowledge and skills they will need to participate in the society they will inherit. If we did not require algebra, not many students would take it. Low-income, minority, and struggling students would be steered away from advanced math. Setting minimum education requirements promotes equity and participation.
EdTech
Apple Joins the Digital Textbook Game
Today Apple announced a suite of products aimed at creating and publishing digital education textbooks during an Education Event in New York City at the Guggenheim Museum.
Personalized Learning
Parents Choosing Teachers? Try Blended Solutions
Andy Rotherham wrote a provocative Time blog suggesting that parents should take great care in choosing their child's teacher. He suggests that teacher choice is more important than school choice because differences within schools are often more pronounced than between schools. Online and blended learning expand the world of options for students, parents--and teachers.
Ed Policy
SOPA and PIPA Polling Lower than the BP Oil Spill
How will SOPA and PIPA affect online education? It will be the collateral damage. On the surface, both bills seem reasonable. Both bills seek to give power to law enforcement to stop access to “rogue” websites that abuse copyright and exchange counterfeit goods. The bills focus on foreign websites; however, U.S. based Internet companies and technology leaders fear the bills are over-reaching and will have chilling effects on Internet freedoms in the U.S.