Really. There is an inferno of activity in the EdTech sector right now. Many teams are attempting to use technology to address problems that have existed since the beginning of compulsory schooling. A few of these teams are onto something. Witness the use of online video to free up class time for more interactive student […]
Beginning of end for ETS? Notes from the SF EduTech @Meetup #EdTech #k12
One thing is for sure. There will be no dearth of choices for adaptive learning math-in-the-box tools. This was my fourth SF EdTech Meetup, and included my 13th, 14th, and 15th encounters, respectively, with young, bright-eyed founders developing cloud-based learning environments for basic math instruction. Why wouldn’t they do this? Math instruction, at the lower […]
Science is dead. Data analysis is king. Creativity rules. @wiredscience #Edtech #Education
Two summers ago I had lunch with Professor Jonathan Osborne of Stanford University’s science education department. I was interested in finding a new research avenue for my classroom. Osborne’s work is in scientific literacy. I was looking for a research partner to carry out a study comparing future outcomes of students who had taken IB […]
Lock cell service, maintain wireless capability in the classroom @lightspeed #EdTech #mlearning
Went to the Edutech meetup (Meetup.com) at Parisoma last night. This was my third time attending, and the size of the gathering seems to double every time. A mix of edupreneurs, educators, and investors mingled in a small, hot room with poor acoustics and unflagging enthusiasm. I spoke with three technical founders, each working on […]
Get Attention With Google’s Public Data Visualization Tool #EdTech #Education #k12
The above image is static, but you can see the dynamic one right here. This blew me away. Not so much the information, because I live in the bay area and I am well acquainted with equity issues in schools. I was impressed, rather, by the power that Google is placing in our hands with […]
The Future of Crowd Sourced Education #EdTech #Education @Quora
My response to a Quora question.
Online Text Reading Level Assessment Tools Reviewed #k12 #education #edtech
When assigning text reading to students it is helpful to appropriately target the grammatical complexity and vocabulary level for the audience you are teaching. I teach conceptual physics to a very diverse student body. In the same class with sophomore English language learners I will have senior IB diploma candidates. It is helpful to be […]
Kids Will Rise to Match Their Own Facebook Profile #EdTech #Education #SocialMedia
Instant messaging on AOL was one thing, checking-in everywhere you go, tweeting about the experience you are having, and then instantly sharing the photos you take while you are there is the next level. Twitter was founded in 2006; Facebook only two years before that. This means that the tweens who were early adopters to […]
Intimacy, Destruction, and a Google Doc #Edtech #Education #k12
The first time I asked students to submit papers to me as a shared Google Doc instead of an attachment, I sensed their reticence. The reticence was not because these IB diploma candidates in the capstone epistemology course I was teaching for them did not know how to do that. These digital natives felt that […]
Khan is good, but you are probably better. #EdTech #k12 #Education
Something struck me the wrong way the fifth time that I was asked if I use Sal Khan’s videos in my physics classes. Why the fifth time? Because after the fourth time, I actually went and watched a few of them myself. I was shocked. Really? That was what everyone is excited about? I was, […]
Concept Maps are Cool, but.. #EdTech #k12
..Infographics are way cooler. If you are a fan of Wired Magazine, then you know this. I can spend as much time looking at and thinking about a well-done infographic as I can a well written feature story. That is, unless the feature story is about pirates, high-profile technocrats that disappear at sea, narcosubs in […]
Flipped Classroom sounds like an old best practice reborn #Edtech #ISTE
Constructivist education, for those who don’t already know, is when a learner actively participates in creating their own knowledge. There are myriad hierarchies that rank the effectiveness of the different ways we can learn, but an old favorite of mine goes something like this.. We learn some of what we hear We learn a bit […]
Who Does Online Education Serve?
Another data point (well, 23 data points actually) to confirm my suspicion that online education in high school is being used primarily for at-risk students. The International Association for K-12 Online Learning – INACOL – published the results of a recent study of their membership. The study was a survey that asked technology coordinators how […]
Gaming for User Commitment
If you want your audience to be committed to your application, make them work for it. Dan Ariely (Wired 19.07) suggests that the more effort we put into our online creation, the more committed to it we will be and consequently, the more time we will spend using the product. He refers to Zynga’s Farmville […]
The #EdTech Backchannel in the Classroom? Really?
Yes, really. The backchannel can work in the classroom, as it does at a conference, if a teacher can monitor the conversation as it is happening. If you are making a product that includes a backchannel application, make sure any student to student messages or student to whole class messages pass through a teacher filter […]
Market Sustainability Depends on Teacher Commitment
HS teachers are keenly aware of the value or distraction provided by technology in the classroom. You might sell a district’s leadership on the idea that something will increase student engagement, like interactive whiteboards, or decrease operating expenses, like online professional development videos, but if the teachers can’t find the added value, good luck with […]
Lesson Plans Are Personal
Most HS teachers do not want or need lesson plans. A lesson plan is particular to a context. Teachers want resources. Short videos, images, simulations, and well written test questions (both formative and summative); these get our attention.
Question Tank 