How is literacy changing — that is, how might new technologies demand new skills for reading, writing, and interpreting online texts? What do “critical reading skills” look like alongside these new literacies? How do students read and research online? How do we assess these new literacies?
Reading and Research in the Age of Wikipedia Read More »
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
New Literacies in the Classroom Read More »
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
What You Should Know This Week Read More »
How do we build upon the successes of a particular school or program? How do we expand elsewhere “what works” in one school? Are some successes simply one-of-a-kind — too unique, too specialized, too localized to work in other places? These are questions that Chris Lehmann, the principal of the award-winning Philadelphia high school Science
Can Science Leadership Academy “Scale”? Read More »
“But will it scale?” It’s a question asked with a fair amount of frequency of anyone who has a good idea, a successful initiative, an interesting project or product. What does that word “scale” mean? And since the word is commonly associated with business and with technology, is it something that schools should be wary
What We Mean When We Talk About “Scale” Read More »
In a previous EML article on homelessness, we asked “What does progressive education look like in an age of economic precarity?” To expand on that question: what does it look like in the most fragile of situations? What does education look like among the world’s almost 17 million refugees? How can technology make a difference in their
Teaching and Learning in the Midst of Crisis Read More »
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
What You Should Know This Week Read More »
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
How Do We Measure “Innovation”? Read More »
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
How Video Games Will Save School Read More »
Gamification. It’s become a popular buzzword in recent years: a way to add game-like elements to non-gaming applications or activities in order to make them more fun and engaging. That’s very different than actually using games for teaching and learning. Here, EML editor Audrey Watters offers an “explainer” on the difference between “game-based learning” and
What Should School Leaders Know About Gamification? Read More »
Despite all the promises that new technologies will unlock a new era of teaching and learning, these tools are often used to replicate older practices in education. Here EML regular contributer Lee Skallerup Bessette asks if apps are becoming the new worksheet, with the same sorts of frustrating and repetitive exercises now on a computer
Are Apps Becoming the New Worksheet? Read More »
What do we mean by “self-directed learning”? Who gets to undertake it? All kids? How do we make sure that when we promote “self-directed learning” that we’re opening up possibilities for all students and not foreclosing possibilities for some. In this article, Sylvia Martinez looks at the ways in which gender plays a role in
We hear it a lot in the media: there is a “skills gap.” There are not enough workers with the right skills to fill jobs, particularly STEM-related ones. And the prediction: the future will be even more dire. The finger is often pointed at schools — both K-12 and higher education — as failing to
K-12 Education and The “Skills Gap” Read More »
What will the future of higher education look like? And in the midst of uncertainty as to how to answer that question, how do we prepare students for college? (Or do we?) In this article, Bryan Alexander explores the changing landscape of higher education — new demands and needs for knowledge, skills, networks, credentials. How
How Do We Prepare Modern Learners for College? Read More »
What do we mean by “personalization” in education and in ed-tech? The term has become a popular buzzword to talk about the potential for technologies to reshape how we teach and learn and to challenge a traditional model of “one size fits all” education. But what exactly does that challenge entail? EML editor Audrey Watters
The Problem with “Personalization” Read More »
