What We’re Watching: Education Reform for the Digital Era
John Chubb, Bryan Hassel, Mark Bauerlein, Eleanor Laurans, and Mike Petrilli discuss whether digital learning is education’s latest fad or its future at a Fordham Institute event held last week.
What We’re Watching: Education Reform for the Digital Era
On Thursday, April 19 from 9:00-10:30 am we’ll be watching a live webcast of the Fordham Institute’s webinar event on digital learning.
What We’re Watching: Short Circuited
The benefits and challenges of bringing online learning into California classrooms are explored in this video from the Pacific Research Institute.
Bright Spots Shine in Blended, Online Learning
A month has passed since the first-ever national Digital Learning Day. Given the excitement generated from teachers and others tuning in to the National Town Hall meeting and given today’s National Leadership Summit on Online Learning up on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. that iNACOL sponsored, I thought it was worth noting some great examples that weren’t highlighted during the day’s festivities.
Hyper Hype
Will digital learning be killed by kindness?
Will digital learning be killed by kindness?
In the Digital World, Every District Can Compete with Every Other
In Utah, new legislation has given school districts the opportunity to attract high school students from throughout the state to their online course offerings.
Digital Textbooks, OER, and More from Digital Learning Day
What’s most important to understand about the digital textbook effort is that it’s an opportunity to open up a large amount of existing public money that has been locked into use by a very small and closed set of publishers.
Putting the Schools in Charge
An entrepreneur’s vision for a more responsive education system
An entrepreneur’s vision for a more responsive education system
The Country’s Most Ambitious Digital Learning Project
While it’s easy to think of the consortia as “building tests,” the more apt description is that they are attempting to re-invent, with heavy use of technology, the entire process of assessment.
For Digital Learning, the Devil’s in the Details
State planning is key to progress
State planning is key to progress
Hewlett Assessment Competition Comes at Critical Time
The political incentives to create high-quality assessments aren’t particularly strong, so having philanthropists invest dollars to create these assessments and continue to push innovation is critical.
Understanding the Economics of Online Learning
The Costs of Online Learning, the latest in Fordham’s digital learning policy series, tackles the tricky question of per-pupil spending. And while the paper cannot offer definitive answers for policymakers and school leaders, it does provide a helpful primer on the overall economics of online and blended learning.
California Initiative Brings Breath of Fresh Air
It’s an embarrassment that California, the state that led the technology revolution in America, is, according to Digital Learning Now, last in the nation in using technology to transform its education system from its current factory-model roots into a student-centric one.
In Praise of Performance Pay—for Online Learning Companies
Whether you consider yeserday’s New York Times article on K12.com a “hit piece” (Tom Vander Ark) or a “blockbuster” (Dana Goldstein), there’s little doubt that it will have a long-term impact on the debate around digital learning. So how can we go about drafting policies that will push digital learning in the direction of quality?
What We’re Watching: A Day in the Life of the National Online Teacher of the Year
Kristin Kipp teaches 11th and 12th grade English virtually from her home in Colorado.
Why Stanford Online High School Matters (and two ways it could matter more)
Sunday’s New York Times story broke the news that Stanford University, one of the world’s most prestigious research institutions, is putting its brand squarely behind a full-time, degree-granting online high school program. It’s just one more reason to set aside the silly debate about whether online education can possibly be effective for high school students.
The Nation’s Online Learning Omission
The Nation’s recent online learning expose, How Online Learning Companies Bought America’s Schools, in its zeal to connect various dots into a narrative of a corporate public education takeover, makes critical errors. It falsely equates K-12 online learning with privatization, leading to an incomplete and flawed political analysis. More importantly though, the article makes a credibility-killing factual omission.
Like Peanut Butter and Chocolate, Digital Learning and Excellent Teachers Go Well Together
Rather than seeing a painful (and politically volatile) trade-off between technology and teachers, we propose that digital education needs excellent teachers and that a first-rate teaching profession needs digital education.
Review of New Fordham Digital Learning Papers
Teachers in the Age of Digital Instruction and School Finance in the Digital-Learning Era, two new working papers in the Fordham Institute’s series on digital learning, are welcome additions to the often narrow debates around online learning.
Giving Every Student a Digital Learning Experience
By requiring students to take at least two credits online to graduate, Idaho is arming its kids with the knowledge and skills they will need to thrive in our increasingly digital world.
Colorado’s Crummy Policies Lead to Crummy Virtual Schools
An investigation of Colorado’s full-time virtual schools has revealed some dubious results and practices, which led the state’s Senate President to call for an emergency audit of all of Colorado’s virtual schools. But the state shouldn’t be shocked by the report. As the truism goes, you get what you pay for.
Educators Answer Questions About the Flipped Classroom
I’ve received a number of questions and comments on my recent article, The Flipped Classroom. Most gratifying have been the rich exchanges in comment threads and on twitter, primarily from educators explaining their experiences, challenges, and discoveries from “flipping” their classrooms.
Jeb Bush, Melinda Gates, Sal Khan and the Coming Digital Learning Battle
The debate between blended and online learning will continue. Too much politically is at stake for it to be otherwise.
Laura Johnson’s Unhappy Online Learning Journey
If we are going to offer students new options — and we should — policymakers must first do whatever they can to mitigate the risks borne by students.
