Group items tagged

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and four nonprofit education organizations are investing to accelerate the development online learning tools. According to Mr. Gates, "Innovation is our only hope", and "And the nly new game in town is Technology."

The link within the article to the hybrid education 2.0 article really speaks to the new "badge" movement online. What they say makes sense in support for these. Will be interesting to see how this evolves.

Principles of networked learning, constructivism, and connectivism inform the design of a test case through which secondary students construct personal learning environments for the purpose of independent inquiry. Emerging web applications and open educational resources are integrated to support a Networked Student Model that promotes inquiry-based learning and digital literacy, empowers the learner, and offers flexibility as new technologies emerge. The Networked Student Model and a test case are described in detail along with implications and considerations for additional research. The article is meant to facilitate further discussion about K-12 student construction of personal learning environments and offer the practitioner a foundation on which to facilitate a networked learning experience. It seeks to determine how a teacher can scaffold a networked learning approach while providing a foundation on which students take more control of the learning process.

The American Council of Education will review some Coursera classes to see if they will recommend them to other universities as "acceptable." This involves a review by existing professors for course quality. Other interesting tidbits: looks like Coursera will pilot remote-proctoring to verify identity of students; Gates Foundation just gave away $3 million to study MOOCs and create remedial / introductory classes.

Related to our design exercise from section this week--check out what new blended learning models caught the eye of the Gates Foundation. "Next Generation Learning Challenges (NGLC), an initiative dedicated to improving college readiness and completion, today announced grants totaling $5.4 million for 13 new models of personalized, blended learning at the secondary and postsecondary levels."

Twitter founder Biz Stone talks about his foundation which focuses on education and conservation.

I was struck by the city government question. Seems to be a parallel of how the government can interact with the people they represent using technology and how teachers can interact with their students using technology. (People centered government and student-centered learning.)

"This publication, developed by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in collaboration with IDEO, details a human-centered approach to evolving the system of early education for the needs and possibilities of the 21st century." - The ideas presented in this publication are interesting, but I found the presentation of information particularly compelling.

In 2006 - The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (the folks that seem to sponsor everything on PBS and NPR) launched its 5 year initiative to explore how youth are engaged in digital media.

In 2006 - The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (the folks that seem to sponsor everything on PBS and NPR) launched its 5 year initiative to explore how youth are engaged in digital media.

Title says it all.

A look at how some classrooms are leveraging gaming like Minecraft to teach some of the foundations of digital citizenship.

Just thinking about Professor Dede's experience with the Bush Foundation, I found this interview with Jeb Bush interesting. He talks some about the Bush Foundation's recent Education in Excellence conference and what kinds of issues are at stake for education reform to stick. Obviously a little bit political, but not too much. Building on some of the previous posts, politics does impact change in education so I think it's important for us to keep these things in mind.

Pretty relevant to what we've discussed in class so far--Verizon is launching a couple of initiatives to encourage mobile ed tech development. One is to encourage students to create educational apps relevant to their communities, while the other is to train teachers on how to use technology and mobile tech in their classrooms. Third part is an online portal for sharing knowledge and materials between teachers.

The Michael and Susan Dell Foundation just released their first in a series of case studies about what blended learning can "look like." The cases will break out the schools' instructional, operational, and financial models, which I find very helpful. This first case profiles a K-1 KIPP school in Los Angeles using computer-based stations to make a rotational small-group differentiated instruction model feasible with a smaller budget for instructional staff. As the authors state, "online programs enable [KIPP] Empower's model but do not integrate with teacher-led instruction" (11).

Looks like there is some funding available to scientifically evaluate MOOCs for remedial education! I think the results will be interesting to see, since I remember from discussion or a reading that some ed tech seems to work for autism and special needs students...so maybe MOOCs also have a niche.

The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation is offering ten grants for MOOCs that reach lower achievers in schools.

Here is the link to the archived version of the SIIA webinar I posted about a few days ago: "The Learning Resource Metadata Initiative (LRMI) is working to create a standard metadata framework for tagging educational resources on the web to enhance search, discovery and delivery of educational content. The project is funded by the Gates and Hewlett Foundations, administered through AEP and Creative Commons, and builds on the broader Schema.org project by leading search engines Bing, Google, and Yahoo! This webinar provides an overview of the LRMI goals and deliverables, an update on progress and timelines, a look at the technical specifications, and a discussion of its implementation and impact with a focus on content publishers, aggregators and other digital learning providers."

As a foundational pillar in Affnet's Education business, the DotSchools portal is a free online resource that can assist prospective students in search of top online colleges and campus schools find degree and certificate programs best suited to advancing their professional and personal goals.

"President Obama will launch the "Educate to Innovate" campaign, a nationwide effort to help reach the administration's goal of moving American students from the middle of the pack to the front in science and math achievement over the next decade. The President will announce a series of partnerships involving leading companies, universities, foundations, non-profits, and organizations representing millions of scientists, engineers and teachers that will motivate and inspire young people across the country to excel in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)."

Khan Academy gets a boost of $5m. This grant helpto expand Khan Academy's faculty from one to five, expand range of subjects to arts and humannities.

Per our discussion in class about crowdsourcing, here is an article about the work of MIT Media Lab Director Joi Ito using crowdsourcing to create maps of radiation after the disaster in Fukushima in Japan