“Personalization” is certainly one of the most popular and powerful buzzwords in education technology. A lot of hope and hype has been pinned on it. But it took a bit of a hit last week when the National Education Policy Center released a report on “personalized instruction.” Written by UCLA professor Noel Enyedy, the full […]
Moving Beyond “Personalized Instruction” Read More »
Writer, activist, and EML contributor Melinda Anderson recently noted that, “This school year, for the first time, the majority of students in public schools are nonwhite. Yet the diversity of the student population isn’t reflected in the teachers standing in front of classrooms: Eight out of 10 public school teachers are white. Simple arithmetic reveals
Culturally Relevant Pedagogy: A Primer 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 »
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 »
My daughter, the high school senior, was in the middle of prepping a presentation for Social Studies when I called home from the road a few days ago. “How’s it going?” I asked. “It’s so annoying,” she said without missing a beat. “What’s annoying about it?” I asked, pretty much knowing what her reply would
What We Know Isn’t What We Do 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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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
What You Should Know This Week Read More »
