Group items tagged

Published by SETDA (State Educational Technology Directors Association), April 21 2010. This report summarizes a national survey of the 50 "states' implementation of the technology sections of the ESEA [Elementary and Secondary Education Act], Title II, Part D (Title II-D) Act."

By Katie Ash in the Digital Education blog of Education Week, Sept 1 2010. Ash quotes a study by e-Learning for Educators that finds online PD improved teachers' "instruction and subject knowledge" and "produced gains in student achievement."

Published by Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), this "series provides literature reviews, with analyses, of contemporary issues in education."

By Jim Shelton and John Easton of the U.S. Education Department. The authors blogged as part of the National Journal's Expert Blogs - Education area. In the initial post, Shelton and Easton post some questions about effective innovation. In the comments section (24 posted as of 4/1/10), others in the field respond.

This Carnegie hosted recorded webinar features panelists Anthony Bryk and Louis Gomez. They argue that the social organization of the research enterprise is badly broken and a very different alternative is needed. Instead, they support a science of improvement research and introduce the idea of a "networked improvement community that creates the purposeful collective action needed to solve complex educational problems." Webinar date, January 27, 2011.

This is the "Education Policy" topic from the larger collection of working papers published by Harvard's Kennedy School (HKS). This collection includes "works-in-progress" and the education policy papers cover a range of topics (K-12 as well as post-secondary) in the U.S. and abroad.

Produced by McKinsey & Company, McKinsey on Society division, December 2012. McKinsey & Company notes that, in many countries, we are faced with "high levels of youth unemployment and a shortage of job seekers with critical skills." In this report, they have compiled case studies of best practices from around the world (with the goal of high employment of program graduates) as well as surveying students about their own prospects based on their education. On this page, links to the report itself (as well as Executive Summary) as well as access to some of the case studies.

If the goal of postsecondary education is employment, this report starts to posit some innovations and solutions.

By Oliver Dreon, PhD in Online Education section of Faculty Focus website, May 13 2013. Citing research titled Critical inquiry in a text-based environment...from The Internet and Higher Education (2000), the author have 5 steps to improve the community aspect of online classes, including introductions and a "common area" for students to meet for discussions that are off-topic.

Confirming much of what we've learned with our communities.

This short video produced by McKinsey & Company, Jan 2013, broadly discusses their worldwide survey into the issue of education to employment. Some success stories are highlighted. Calls for widespread, large scale collaborations between employers, educators, students and parents.

MOOC and higher ed

Based at the Center for Elementary Mathematics and Science Education at the University of Chicago, "RWB is a home for open research in education." The project promotes collaborative research, inviting participants to join one or more communities and to participate in events like online webinars. The Resources database appears to be expansive and allows users to rate the resources that they use.

By Todd D. Reeves and Joseph J. Pedulla in Professional Development in Education, vol 37 (4), 2011. A look at the USA's e-Learning for Educators (EfE), specifically and at online professional development (OPD) more generally. NOTE: This page has abstract only. For full article, check with your library.

NOTE: OPD (online professional development) might be a good keyword.

""A new online community devoted soley to education in the 21st Century." Anyone with thoughts on education is welcome. We have so much to talk about."

This wiki offers an evolving collection of technology tools for collaborative work and online education. It is maintained by Margaret Riel and faculty and others from the Masters of Arts in Learning Technologies, Graduate School of Education and Psychology from Pepperdine University. There are a variety of tools and other useful links here -- watch out for currency, though. When visiting the site on 4/1/10, the last update had been Dec 2009.

By Dr. Geoff Elliott in Education News, WalesOnline, April 8 2010. An overview of Moodle. Elliott is the head of e-learning at Pembrokeshire College.

eduTecher is a great place to look at new educational technologies, or to find just the right technology to do a job (e.g. document collaboration or word clouds). Each tool is reviewed by the staff, and users can search the database various ways. While many tools have a K-12 focus, there are plenty that would be useful in postsecondary education as well.

By Lloyd Armstrong, Jr., in his blog Changing Higher Education, June 15 2010. This post refers to a Georgetown University report titled Help Wanted: Projections of Jobs and Education Requirements through 2010, which argues that there will not be enough people in the workforce with Associate's degrees (or better) to fill the job needs of 2018.

By Ian Quillen of the Digital Education (blog) in Education Week, September 2 2010. This study suggests that "Algebra I teachers who were trained in and used a program that allowed them to monitor students' progress on graphing calculators led to significantly improved achievement by their students on a researcher-designed test." This blog post (and the video link) both stress that it is the combination of technology AND professional development that has provided these positive results. \nNOTE: First link to Summary of Findings is a Texas Instruments report (TI produces the graphing calculator that is part of the study). However, the study was conducted with outside consultants, including SRI.

By Betty Ray, on Edutopia, July 8 2010. This is a post by guest blogger Rob Jacobs, a recent participant in twitter group #edchat's topic, "What actions are needed to move the education reform movement from conversation to action." This guest post is on the same topic. Not only is this an interesting post, but #edchat sounds like a great twitter to follow.

By Dana Goldstein, published in The American Prospect, November 19, 2009. The article is critical of the idea of "innovation" in public policy, and cites specific criticisms of recent Obama initiatives in innovation, including in education. See highlights.