Group items tagged

evaluating K-12 online learning

Notes the lighter weight, cheaper price and mathematical typesetting for Apple iBooks will provide an edge in K-12 Ed market

Interesting  plan coming out of "Leading Education by Advancing Digital Commission" meeting last week.  

article on the National School Speed Test to access the quality of Internet access for K-12 schools - critical information in the conversation regarding technology integration

Keeping Pace with K-12 Online Learning: It's the latest report on the state of online learning that Christenson believes will encompass 50% of high school classes by 2018. Not sure I agree with this, but it's still interesting to see the latest data.

In the US, 250000 students are enrolled in full-time public virtual schools in 30 states, according to Susan Patrick of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, a trade association. Although that's just a fraction of the country's 50 million students, it has grown 30% each year. Some schools in Michigan already shown the advantage of digital learning.

This is an interesting article. I am just concerned that it is not unbiased or driven by an agenda other than improving education. I found this information about the Mackinac Center online: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/mackinac-center-public-policy I am starting to realize that a lot of the technology in schools rhetoric is driven by corporate and political interests, and as the industry becomes ever more profitable, I'm worried that companies are going to jump in and try to influence policy, rushing through the movement toward the wrong kind of technology in schools- i.e. sacking half of the teaching staff and replacing them with cheap computers. I think one of our most important jobs as Harvard TIE students is to education the public about the right ways to adapt technology in the classroom, and the important role that teachers will continue to play in this movement.

Edutone selects Intel's Classmate PC for K-12 education market.

While a seventh grader improves her score using online school, led by a teacher few miles away, online schools debate continues.

LearningSpace, a new tool from ePals that is also COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act) and FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) compliant, provides K-12 appropriate selective access to the applications within a protected, customizable social learning environment. Schools and districts can customize the rules and policies that determine which groups, classes and projects have access to third-party applications.

Results of an opinion poll commissioned by Dell comparing technology use in schools in the US, Germany, and China. There's a bit of we're-falling-behind-China hysteria here, I think, but it does highlight some opportunities. Also, Dell's Education Challenge is investing $30,000 in university student (graduate or undergraduate) projects to innovate learning in K-12 schools. Deadline is at the end of October. http://www.dellchallenge.org/k12

"Success is the result of a solution that truly meets the website and communication needs of every K-12 stakeholder. With that in mind, we built the new Learning Community Management System (LCMS) from Edline-the first truly integrated website communication platform for K-12 school districts and their learning communities."

Brings up the interesting issue of physical space in 21st century classrooms. Should schools of the future look like the way they do now (ie. desks and chairs, albeit with iPads/laptops atop desks)? How can we match the shift in pedagogical thinking with what our physical spaces of classrooms look like? On a related note, a colleague at an international school in Mumbai showed me around their new K-12 school recently (K-12 1:1 laptop program, phenomenal tech integration program)... and they no longer have walls to demarcate classrooms across the entire school. Instead of classrooms, they have "learning pods." So, imagine you're a third grade teacher--you have four slidable "walls" that you can open up to collaborate with the adjacent third grade section for social studies. Or perhaps you notice that the fifth grade science experiment seems to align with what you're doing today so you walk over to see if they'd be up for sharing what they're doing. Their idea is that the physical space needs to reflect the same environment of open education and collaborative learning that we're promoting in our classrooms.

Edmodo And Common Sense Media Partner (the authors of the 0-8 report some of us read for Joe Blatt's class this week) to offer free teaching tools based on Dr. Howard Gardner's work at HGSE. The partnership provides teachers with a set of student activities based on Common Sense Media's free K-12 curriculum, "Digital Literacy and Citizenship in a Connected Culture," for the Edmodo platform. The curriculum introduces the basics of using social networks and other digital technologies safely, responsibly and respectfully and is based on the work of Dr. Howard Gardner and the GoodPlay Project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Not as comprehensive an article as the title suggests, but interesting enough.

Details some efforts, challenges, and successes to bringing design thinking and creativity into K-12 education. Reminded me of some of the programs presented by the CEEO in class last Monday

A shortage looming? Survey finds that less than 50% of k-12 schools have a CTO.

How will the Cloud Disrupt Education?

The further along I go, the more I am realizing that we have fully arrived in the information age. For our nation to compete globally - we must get out of the trap of growing media consumers, technology consumers, and information consumers. We must grow a generation of students who not only use technology, but understand technology so that they can become active technology producers, so that they can create, innovate, imagine, and disrupt. Possibly, understanding computer science will be as important as learning to read and write - the new literacy.

The author makes a case for mobile learning for professionals with the Android App - Google Goggles... are there other uses that people see of the app in the k-12 sector?