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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."

There could be some real potential here for use of grants beyond the television screen. I'd be interested to track how this money is allocated across platforms, especially emerging ones like apps for phones/iPads.

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.

The public school district in St. Louis, Missouri was awarded an Innovative Technology Education Fund grant to buy iPads for all students with autism in six autism-specific classrooms. This seems to be an example of utilizing an emerging technology in an excellent way with proper teacher training, rather than using technology for technology's sake. The schools will be advised on how to implement the iPads by an autism science and advocacy organization and have two full days of professional development planned.

This is great news on the autism-rights front! I know a severely autistic 21-year-old who is highly communicative because of the technology he has used since he was young.

Map showing the amount of education technology grants received by different states

Boston area Landmark High School received a Lemelson-MIT InvenTeam grant, which seeks to foster innovation and focus on STEM fields. These students will work on creating a water desalination system for countries with low rainfall. This type of project has a lot of potential to develop 21st century skills and teach complex problem solving skills.

Time to take action!

Even with state budget crises, schools are funding the money to purchase tablets through a variety of sources: grant funding, voter-approved ballot measures, reallocation of money that used to go to computer purchases, and reallocating textbook funds. Interestingly, unlike for computers, Apple offers no education discount on the iPad...

Has anyone seen this group? Seems like they are doing what we have been talking about re: blended learning. I am going to dig in for more info....

Steve, I used to work on the external evaluation of the first round of NGLC grants, which focused on colleges and community colleges applying these guiding principles. I know less about their K12 grants and present work but am happy to talk about what I know.

Taking the next step towards credentialing through MOOC's and establishing greater value for these online classes.

Interesting decision to address a number of common criticisms of online learning: the potential for cheating, the failure of enrollees to complete the course and the lack of certification.

The City University of New York's Graduate Center has announced a project to expand the social-media reach of academics working on social-justice issues. The project, called JustPublics@365 and supported by a $550,000 grant awarded this month by the Ford Foundation, seeks to train professors and graduate students to use social media to make their social-justice research more visible to a wider audience and to measure its impact.

His ideas is to empower teachers and students to experiment with learning software by giving small grants to teachers.The point is to incentivize the use of technology at the teacher, student and classroom level.

Article on how the government and philanthropies can support innovation in education.

What's the big barrier (besides government reluctance to spend money on education) to this? Historically, I thought that education funding was left to states as "states rights", hence the fact that the Federal government has even put up any money should be a step forward. I would be interested in hearing what people think are the levers for getting the Federal government to invest more...should education research be treated like NSF or NIH "basic research" and get core government support?

I believe that the federal government used to spend more dollars for basic research in education, but that number has been reduced dramatically over the years. I agree 100% that we need to increase this type of investment, and the federal government is the natural source. These social innovation funds are a separate type of investment, distinct from basic research. These grants are "translational" in that they seek to help commercialize promising research, but are not intended to fund the basic research. For a healthy and dynamic ecosystem of innovation in education, we need both.

Really cool concept of using technology to match educators to experts to enhance learning experiences for students. I wish I had this tool when I was teaching.

I did some searching of this site to understand the transactions here. I could only find about 5 or 6 volunteers, although maybe there are more. The site says they have "granted" more than 29,000 wishes. I wonder if this is a counter of visits to the site. I love the idea, but I wonder how big the pool of volunteers and projects has to be in order to make it come alive.

Invoking a decades old law that requires any degree granting academic institution to obtain a license to operate in state (and pay a hefty fee for said license), Minnesota has banned universities from offering free online courses through education site Coursera, prompting the site to issue this notice to all Minnesota users: Coursera has been informed by the Minnesota Office of Higher Education that under Minnesota Statutes (136A.61 to 136A.71), a university cannot offer online courses to Minnesota residents unless the university has received authorization from the State of Minnesota to do so.

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.

Professor Dede had pointed out that mobile phones may hold the key to improving access to educational technology. One of the bottlenecks seem to be access to power in remote areas. This invention seems to be promising in renewable 'human powered' energy. Granted that any new invention has to go a long way before it becomes commercially viable, but I was a bit disappointed at the flippant tone of the author towards the end of the article.