Driven to distraction: How to help wired students learn to focus
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How applicants would change the eRate, if they could
Sensing that demand for eRate funding would continue to outpace available funding nearly 2 to 1, last spring Funds For Learning set out to gather the perceptions, predictions,…
Social learning networks promote student engagement, global awareness
One of the goals of a social studies curriculum is to ensure that students are aware of different cultures and geographies—including how these are similar to or different…
Teachers: Involve parents in the flipped classroom, too
At the beginning of each semester I spend time speaking to my students about what the flipped classroom is: a significant change over the way students have previously…
Data: It’s more than test scores
It’s pretty common these days to hear the term “data-driven decision-making” in education and assume it is synonymous with standardized test scores. But we all know that students…
Making gains with real-world science connections
Helping middle school students grasp abstract science concepts can be a challenge. Many times, when we teach something in class, students have nothing to relate it to in…
How to have assessment without testing—and without losing valuable instructional time
Most educators can agree that frequent progress monitoring is critical to achieving a data-driven culture. However, under my direction at Cahuenga Elementary School in Los Angeles, we employed…
Education is a public good, not a commodity
Education is the great equalizer, the bedrock of the American Dream. Despite the highest levels of income disparity since the Great Depression, at a time when the personal…
Romney calls for smaller federal role in education
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has offered a program of education policy goals that calls for a smaller federal role in both K-12 and higher education, modifying but…
Tired of the same old professional development? Try Edcamps
As educators gear up for a new school year, they’ll be doing some learning of their own in professional development workshops and sessions. Unfortunately, district and school-based professional…
Public-private partnership transforms school bus into mobile learning lab
With nearly 500,000 school buses transporting students daily in this country, one in particular stands out at Calvin Coolidge High School in Washington, D.C. Instead of the familiar…
Delaware bans colleges from requiring students’ social media passwords
Should a university be able to edit a student’s Facebook profile or check his private tweets? Absolutely not, said the Delaware state legislature, as it recently passed the…
ACT to launch college and career testing for elementary school students
Standardized testing is under increasing scrutiny, as proponents tout its potential for bringing accountability to education while opponents deride it as misguided and exhausting. How much testing is…
Five key roles for 21st-century school librarians
Given the unprecedented quantity of information learners are exposed to, the librarian’s role is more important than ever. Librarians help all students gain access to, evaluate, ethically use,…
How one California school uses iPads to support its PE programs
By combining SPARK’s movement-based curriculum with the user-friendly iPad, our PE department has been able to work more efficiently and effectively during a time when budget cuts and…
Veteran superintendent brings turnaround model to schools nationwide
Can turnaround results in one troubled school district be replicated in another? A new partnership between an education intervention provider ... Read more
New ed-tech service aims to boost parent engagement
A simple text message could clue in parents to the perfect conversation starters with their kids: The Parent Connection, a new feature of Channel One News InterActiv (C1Ni),…
New math software targets ‘perceptual learning’
As schools struggle to balance conceptual learning and recall of simple facts, a new series of online math education products proposes a different focus: pattern recognition.
New online safety curriculum helps schools document CIPA compliance
Starting this month, schools receiving federal e-Rate funding must have updated internet safety policies that show how they will educate minors about appropriate online behavior. Now, a new…
To support ed tech, schools need to rethink budgets, infrastructure
As schools seek to provide more interactive, engaging, and personalized learning, newly released survey results reveal they need to radically ... Read more
Virtual foreign exchange program will give students global skills
Today’s students need to prepare for a globalized world, business leaders often say—but sending students abroad is usually too expensive for cash-strapped schools or parents. One Michigan school…
How Twitter can be used as a powerful educational tool
Think Twitter is just a waste of time? Think again. Its organizational structure makes it an effective tool for connecting with students and others online.
New program prepares educators for blended learning
Many brick-and-mortar schools want to incorporate more online instruction—but how should teachers prepare for the newly popular blended classroom? An update to a national certification program for educators…
Column: Why our kids hate math
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New course is like traffic school for sexting
Students who send explicit photos on their cell phones wouldn’t have to be branded as sex offenders, if a new curriculum developed by Yahoo! Inc. catches on.
Seven iPad alternatives for schools
With their interactive touch screens, easy portability, and quick boot-up time, tablets are increasingly becoming schools’ classroom computers of choice. And while many schools have invested in Apple’s…
Project to evaluate use of tablets in schools
Tablets—with their lightweight portability and interactive touch screens—have been hailed as the next “must have” as schools move toward mobile computing. But questions linger: How much network access…
District ‘Race to the Top’ rules spur mixed reaction
Proposed guidelines for school districts to vie for $400 million in new federal grants have elicited mixed reaction from education groups—from concern among ed-tech groups over how “personalized…
‘Data center in a box’ could ease virtual computing
A new disruptive technology aims to help schools cut costs and streamline the deployment of virtual computing by combining servers, storage, and virtualization in a single box.
Ed-tech leaders schooled on interoperability standards
When school technology directors purchase an innovative product from one vendor and an exciting upgrade from another vendor, schools can find themselves in a tangle of incompatible formats.…
Computerized searches help identify non-resident students
“Boundary hoppers”—parents who falsify their residency so their children can attend a particular school—can strain already cash-strapped districts. Now, a new technology-based solution claims it can help.
Three ways to improve your college’s recruitment program
In today’s competitive climate, institutions face a significant conundrum: the need to simultaneously increase student enrollment and reduce student recruitment costs. This challenge has motivated institutions to stretch…
New concussion-management service targets schools
Sports concussions have captured public attention in recent years, with high-profile NFL players and other professional athletes stepping forward about the long-term effects of sports-related head injuries. Now,…
The truth about flipped learning
A flipped classroom is all about watching videos at home and then doing worksheets in class, right? Wrong!
Why teacher merit pay can’t work today–and what can be done about this
When asked why it’s so hard to pay public employees based on their merit, you often hear a number of answers. Some point to union resistance, while others…
Web literacy: Where the Common Core meets common sense
Are you as worried as we are that the overall impact of technology on our children’s ability to solve complex research problems is negative? Have you heard a…
School groups craft seven-part plan for improving teaching
National, state, and district education leaders have convened at a conference this week focused on establishing better labor-management collaboration to ensure that teachers are respected, supported, and equipped…
Report calls for more broadband access in schools
School districts should provide a minimum of 100 megabits per second of bandwidth for every 1,000 students and staff members within the next two years, and federal lawmakers…
How to make videos your students will love
When we first started making our own videos, they were not very good. Over time, our videos have gotten better. Give yourself some time and you, too, can…
How to implement the ‘flipped classroom’
Despite the attention that the videos get, the greatest benefit to any flipped classroom is not the videos. It’s the in-class time that every teacher must evaluate and…