K-12 OER Collaborative. 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
What You Should Know This Week Read More »
As a teacher and a parent I can fully understand why there is a hesitancy to use technology in a classroom. There are fears about child safety: who can they be talking to? Fears about the student data: how will it be used? And fears about the credibility: why would kids need something that I
“Meaningful Learning” in a Digital Age Read More »
Over recent months, in both the columns of EML and beyond, there have been a number of thoughtful discussions around the concept of self-directed learning. Certainly the recent Mindshift article around the most recent Global X Prize provoked a lot of debate, given the clear brief of the contest to “develop a free, open-source and
Who Directs the “Self-Directed?” Read More »
A “Genius Hour.” “20% Time.” “An Hour of Code.” These ideas suggest that students should be allotted time during the school week to follow their own interests. But it this really a substantive or sustainable change?
It’s Gonna Take More Than a “Genius Hour” Read More »
On rare occasion, usually when I’m struggling with a bout of insomnia or boredom, I’ll hop on Twitter and take part in a “chat,” a usually unfollowable, fast-stream of 140-character observations and opinions from dozens (if not hundreds) of people that requires it’s own literacy and mindset to make even a modicum of sense at.
There’s Really Only One Way to “Raise Student Engagement” Read More »
There’s so much hype about education products and services, many of these claiming to have scientific research to back them up. Perhaps the best example of this is the “brain training” industry, which presents itself as scientific fact. Not so fast, said a group of psychology and neuroscience professors this week, as they issued a
Separating Education Research from Marketing Read More »
What is “design thinking” and what does it offer for schools? Here, Ewan McIntosh offers an introduction to some of the elements of design thinking. He argues that, as a creative approach to problem-solving, design thinking can be a powerful process for both innovation and learning.
Design Thinking: For Innovation and For Learning Read More »
The Global Learning XPRIZE. 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
What You Should Know This Week Read More »
Rafranz Davis is an instructional technology specialist for a Dallas/Fort Worth area school district. She describes herself as an advocate for passion-based learning, inspired in part by her experiences with her nephew Braeden. Rafranz and Braeden’s story highlights the challenges that many parents face when trying to advocate for more self-directed learning at school, particularly
Advocating for Passion-Based Learning (and Puppets) Read More »
Twitter could replace traditional professional development, some have argued. Instead of sitting in day-long workshops, Twitter lets educators reach out in real-time to their peers. It allows them to grow their professional networks, to become “connected educators.” But over the past few months, there’s been growing concern about Twitter. Some say it’s becoming nastier and
Is Twitter the Best Option for Online Professional Development? Read More »
With a growing fixation on “data,” it’s no surprise that schools feel compelled to focus on outcomes that are measurable. Often that means assessing some product – an essay, a quiz, a project. But what happens when we emphasize instead the learning process and not the learning product? Maha Bali, a professor at the American
Assessing the Learning Process, not the Product Read More »
When we talk about rethinking education, our focus shouldn’t simply be on how students learn. Frequent EML contributor Lee Skallerup Bessette looks at how professional development is still often stuck with bad pedagogy and very traditional models of “content delivery.” She also points to some of the new forms of PD that educators themselves are
Arrested (Professional) Development Read More »
What lessons can we learn from the disastrous iPad initiative in Los Angeles? EML co-founder Bruce Dixon looks at what it’s obvious people still haven’t learned about 1-to-1 initiatives, despite decades of efforts to put computing devices in every student’s hands.
Lessons for Leaders from LAUSD Read More »
Although it’s hardly new, “competency-based education” has become one of the latest buzz phrases. Many education reformers are pushing for it, arguing that it can challenge the “one size fits all” model of traditional schooling. EML editor Audrey Watters offers some background on what CBE is, which schools have implemented it, and what its adoption
Competency-Based Education: A Primer Read More »
EML co-founder Will Richardson asks if we can imagine a world where, for example, gravity no longer exists. That is, can we imagine a world where everything is changed so utterly that all our expectations, our practices cease to function? And what if that’s the world we’re already inhabiting in education — not one without
Important New Contexts for Leading and Learning Read More »
