Group items tagged

By Jennifer Gonzalez, the Chronicle of Higher Education, August 9 2010. Before an audience at the University of Texas at Austin, Obama called for "the United States to produce and additional eight million college graduates by 2020."

by Nick Anderson, Washington Post, September 2 2010. As part of the Race to the Top, grants were made to the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers ($170 million) and the SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium ($160 million). The Partnership "would potentially replace a single, high-stakes test with a series of assessments to be averaged into one score for accountability purposes." SMARTER "would assess students through computer-adaptive technology..." Both assessments hope to do away with the existing "bubble tests" and hope to roll out in the 2014-15 school year.

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.

The United States Department of Education has recently launched ED Data Express to make some of the Department's data available to the public. There are a variety of "views" of the data (e.g. state "snapshots," state tables), as well as the opportunity to build your own view.

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."

By Katie Ash in Education Week, March 16, 2010. Coverage of the increasing popularity of mobile learning (m_learning), that is, the use of mobile phones in the classroom. The feature includes links to related stories.

Published in AccreditedOnlineColleges.org on March 16, 2010. For the Twitterers among us, some feeds worth review.

This database (launched summer 2010) is a collaboration of various federal agencies (including the Office of Educational Technology, part of the US Dept of Education) that bring together "federal learning resources and primary source materials." Use the learning_registry tag to find background information.

From edna.edu.au, "Australia's free online resource for educators." There are several interesting topics available here (each with its own RSS feed), and while many articles pertain to Australia, not all do. The topics in the left-hand column: Teacher education resources, Curriculum and education studies, and Education technology all appear to be particularly rich.

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

This "network of researchers interested in research about education and the use of digital technologies to improve teaching and learning" launched in March 2010. While the network focuses primarily on Australian research, they are looking for evidence-based researched from all over the world. Users can follow the network on Twitter, or via RSS feed. Free sign-up is required.

Created by Pennsylvania's Department of Education, and part of the Standards Aligned System (SAS), launched March 2010. Database allows educators to search for appropriate digital materials for use in the classroom.

By Nathaniel Irons, published in CoolTools, Mar 22, 2010. Review of an offsite data backup option called CrashPlan.

By Allison Keyes reported on Tell Me More (NPR) on March 23, 2010. Urban Prep Charter Academy is Chicago's only all-male charter school. This spring, they will graduate their first class; every member of the class has been accepted to a 4-year university. In this report, Keyes interview the CEO of the school, and one graduating senior. Podcast (10 minutes, 50 secs) also available.

Posted by Steve Midgley to the U.S. Department of Education's ED.gov blog on July 28 2010. In this post, Midgley announces the government's plan to "make its educational resources much easier to find and use through a new Learning Registry." This outline of the plan explores some of the technical issues that had to be addressed in order to build the database. Follow the learning_registry tag for a link to the registry itself.

According to the site, EduCon, an annual meeting, "iis both a conversation and a conference," with a focus on education innovation. Participants can attend virtually or in person.

The site defines "blook" as somewhere between a book and a blog, and on this site, there are interviews with researchers and practitioners in a number of interesting fields, including education, "internet & society," and social media.

By Robin Wilson in the Faculty section of the Chronicle of Higher Education, Sept 5 2010. This article looks at the resistance to measuring learning outcomes -- and the progress that is being made, as well.

Posted to the White House website (whitehouse.gov), unsigned and undated. On October 5 2010, Dr. Jill Biden will chair a White House Summit on Community Colleges, highlighting "the critical role that community colleges play in developing America's workforce and reaching our educational goals." There is both an online forum (see tag whitehouse_cc) and an opportunity to submit videos. The event will be webcast, as well.

Posted on Ideascale, users can submit their "thoughts, questions, and challenges" for the White House Summit on Community College, to be held October 5 2010.