Will Richardson

Co-founder of Modern Learners, author, speaker, instigator, surfcaster, husband, and father to two amazing young adults. Currently advising the work of Modern Learners while also asking Big Questions at the Big Questions Institute.

New Literacies in the Classroom

The most basic definition of literacy is “the ability to read and write.” How might new digital technologies prompt us to reconfigure our notions of literacy? And if literacy is changing, how must schools change as well? What are “new literacies” — that is, how do new technologies demand new skills for reading, writing, and

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What You Should Know This Week

The Future of Education at MIT. Each week, Educating Modern Learners will pick one interesting current event – whether it’s news about education, technology, politics, business, science, or culture – and help put it in context for school leaders, explaining why the news matters and how it might affect teaching and learning (in the short or

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What You Should Know This Week

Duolingo takes on the TOEFL. Each week, Educating Modern Learners will pick one interesting current event – whether it’s news about education, technology, politics, business, science, or culture – and help put it in context for school leaders, explaining why the news matters and how it might affect teaching and learning (in the short or in

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What You Should Know This Week

Amazon Kindle Unlimited. Each week, Educating Modern Learners will pick one interesting current event – whether it’s news about education, technology, politics, business, science, or culture – and help put it in context for school leaders, explaining why the news matters and how it might affect teaching and learning (in the short or in the long

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How Do We Measure “Innovation”?

The OECD, known best perhaps for its PISA tests, has just issued a report on “Measuring Innovation in Education.” The report ranks countries based on “innovation.” But what is “innovation”? How do you measure it? And where does a fixation on “innovation” take us? Is it necessarily progressive? EML editor Audrey Watters dives into the OECD report and asks

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What You Should Know This Week

Moody’s Outlook for Higher Ed. Each week, Educating Modern Learners will pick one interesting current event – whether it’s news about education, technology, politics, business, science, or culture – and help put it in context for school leaders, explaining why the news matters and how it might affect teaching and learning (in the short or in

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How Video Games Will Save School

Once it was rock-n-roll that was condemned for corrupting the youth. These days, it’s often video games that are blamed. Despite a lack of research to tie gaming to negative behaviors, video games still suffer from a fair amount of negative media attention. And perhaps that’s part of the reason why schools remain resistant to

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What You Should Know This Week

A MOOC Experiment? Each week, Educating Modern Learners will pick one interesting current event – whether it’s news about education, technology, politics, business, science, or culture – and help put it in context for school leaders, explaining why the news matters and how it might affect teaching and learning (in the short or in the long

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How Schools Can Hack their Textbooks

A high school math teacher and instructional technology specialist at Zeeland Public Schools, Anthony DiLaura has brought together teachers in his district to build their own digital textbooks, using open educational resources and other openly licensed media. Here DiLaura writes about the move from static print to interactive content, and what it means for schools

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