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Personalized Learning
K12 Statement on the NYTimes Hit Piece
The New York Times article featuring K12 Inc. is unfair and one-sided, and advances an anti-parent choice policy agenda. Instead of presenting a factually accurate look at K12's online and blended learning products and education programs, the writer mostly editorializes, selectively picking and choosing some facts and omitting many others to satisfy a pre-determined narrative. The article omitted important information on the structure of online schools, student performance, teacher training and professional development, and the full scope of education programs and services provided by K12. It liberally quotes well-known critics but gives no room for leading voices supportive of technology-based education reforms.
EdTech
From the Source, the Potential of Personal Digital Learning
Earlier this month, the Pacific Research Institute released a video that showcased the power of personal digital learning and the challenges that the parents, students and educators face in realizing its full potential. The following video, directed by Nick Tucker and produced by Lur Films and Ozymandias Media, looks at the tools that are generating the tipping point in an educational technology revolution.
EdTech
Infographic: Open Courses for All
At Getting Smart, we've been contemplating the power of open education resources (OER) or open courseware (OCW) in education for several months. While the cost of K-20 education creeps up to new heights, OERs are sweeping across classrooms. Teachers can provide quality, free content to students with effective use of personal digital learning tools.
Personalized Learning
Times Misses the Mark–Again
The New York Times is running a series attacking innovations in learning. Today's tirade blames K12, Inc. for public policy problems, portrays parent interest in choices as a sham, and relies on questionable sources. Here's five specific problems with today's attack piece.
Leadership
Staff Pick: Getting Smart, Vocational Education
Karen picks the top 10 headlines from Getting Smart this November. Sarah picks a Q&A from Nancy Hoffman's recent book on vocational education around the world.
Personalized Learning
Building a Thoughtful Blend
Innosight Institute’s report The Rise of Blended Learning defines it as “any time a student learns at least in part at a supervised brick-and-mortar location away from home and at least in part through online delivery with some element of student control over time, place, path, and/or pace.” To their definition, I add a requirement that the shift to an online environment for part of the student is intended to boost learning and operating productivity. Here's a description of rotation and flex schools and tools.
EdTech
Why Google Is The Most Important Learning Tool Ever Invented
Tom Vander Ark is an edu-futurist par excellence. He's chair of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, author of the new Getting Smart: How Personal Digital Learning is Changing the World, and an investor in startup technology and entrepreneurship school General Assembly (see this month's Life in Beta) through his education-focused venture fund Learn Capital. Here, he shares some of his views on the importance of "just-in-time learning" and the "plummeting" value of traditional education.
EdTech
Webinar: National Trends In Online & Blended Learning
The International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) announced Wednesday that it will provide a webinar with highlights on the latest developments, policies and practices in online and blended learning from the recent Keeping Pace With K-12 Online Learning by the Evergreen Education Group.
Personalized Learning
HULK’s Thoughts on E-learning
Last week I had a guest in my social-media war room. He is a . . . let’s say . . . a rather misunderstood figure. Most of us think of him as a brute who is emotional and impulsive. He’s been described as part Golem and part Frankenstein monster. I’m referring to none other than THE INCREDIBLE HULK.
EdTech
Edmodo, Facebook for classrooms, lands $15 million, top advisors
Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, and Matt Cohler, an early employee at Facebook, are joining the board of Edmodo. Their respective venture capital firms, Greylock Partners and Benchmark Capital, are leading a new $15-million funding round. Edmodo is a free social learning platform that makes it easy for teachers to make an manage assignments.