Despite all the promises of the World Wide Web as a platform for online learning, there are still many questions about whether or not we are building learning tools and learning communities that welcome and support a diversity of ideas and people. How do stereotypes affect the ways in which technologies are developed and implemented? …
EU Court Backs “The Right to Be Forgotten” Online: 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 …
Singapore-based educator Jabiz Raisdana looks at DS106, a digital storytelling class first offered by the University of Mary Washington that’s become quite the Internet phenomenon, with participation from learners all over the world. Raisdana writes about the ways in which DS106, an open online course that encourages creativity and sharing on the open Web, challenges …
Digital Storytelling and Online Learning Networks Read More »
Net neutrality is a key feature in the operation of the Internet as we know it. But the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is looking to revise the policies governing the Internet. As it stands, net neutrality means that Internet service providers and governments should treat all data on the Internet the same, not discriminating …
What Is Net Neutrality and Why Should Educators Care That It’s In Danger? Read More »
White House Report on Big Data: 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 …
What does it look like when a Silicon Valley engineer decides to reinvent primary school education? Former Google exec Max Ventilla has just raised $33 million to build AltSchool, which he says will be an updated version of Montessori, but a version that relies more heavily on technology R&D. The funding — and the philosophy — prompted …
What sort of vision do education policies and plans offer for the future of teaching and learning? Do they focus on test scores? Do they focus on rankings? Do they see technology as simply the digitization of old processes? Or do these plans articulate something new, something forward-thinking, something that addresses the challenges and opportunities …
Modern Learning at the Provincial Level: British Columbia is Hoping to Get it Right Read More »
As the “Maker Movement” grows in popularity and reach, we’re seeing more and more schools integrating “making” and “building” — a powerful return of project-based learning. But as Chad Sansing argues here, it isn’t simply a matter of adding “programming” or “engineering” to the curriculum. Makerspaces demand a different mindset, one where self-direction, spontaneity, creativity, …
The media hype about the transformative potential of new digital technologies gets louder and louder. But how might this narrative around education technology — particularly social media tools — run counter to the ways in which these tools are used in the classroom? Is “social” welcome in the classroom? How do students (and in the …
Cognitive Dissonance: How Teaching with Twitter Opens Up the Classroom Read More »
The US Supreme Court: 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 …
Thanks to our increasing use of technology, we are creating mind-bogglingly vast amounts of data in increasing volume, speed, and complexity — IBM estimates about 2.5 quintillion bytes of data created every day. The great challenge for education technology (and, as such, for schools) will be striking a balance between the collection and analysis of …
In addition to publishing articles from a wide range of authors here at Educating Modern Learners, we plan from time-to-time to sit down and record conversations with various leaders in education, technology, politics, business, and science and publish the audio. Here, EML co-founder Will Richardson chats with researcher Roger Schank.
There’s a push for teachers and students to draw on our knowledge from neuroscience to rethink how we teach and learn. This includes, for example, a variety of new “brain training” tools that promise to make us learn more efficiently. But what does neuroscience really say? Randolph-Macon College psychology professor Cedar Riener helps differentiate here …
Heartbleed: 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 run). …
We live in a moment of unprecedented change, and our conceptions of schooling and education are being challenged in fundamental ways. Educational leaders around the globe are grappling with unfamiliar new contexts for learning which demand new ways of thinking and leading around an increasingly uncertain future. EML Publishers Will Richardson and Bruce Dixon unpack …
