Ten keys to a successful school iPad program
It seems that every school is considering purchasing iPads these days, and Apple has reported that iPad sales to schools are currently outpacing MacBook sales by a very…
Six tips for guiding the learning of students with autism
Classrooms come with their own unique characters, props, and soundtracks. To the average student, these things meld into the background, setting the scene for learning. However, for children…
Why iPads? It’s a question of innovation
By the end of 2012, Apple reported that it had sold more than 4.5 million iPads directly to educational institutions. At its January Education event in New York…
Don’t plan for technology; plan for learning
You never know how someone will react when you suggest that they junk their title and replace it with a new one that leads to a different focus…
Engaging learners through games: Help or hype?
Games are often trumpeted as the perfect tool for creating learner engagement. But what do we really know about how engagement works? What opportunities and risks do games…
Five examples of innovation in today’s schools
A student-developed vocal warm-up app … Graphic novel biographies … Robotics competitions: Students and teachers using technology to drive innovation is a theme woven throughout this year’s Follett…
Six steps to effective teacher development and evaluation
Effective teaching is a complex alchemy—requiring command of subject matter, knowledge of how different children learn, and the ability to maintain order and spark students’ interest. Evaluation procedures…
How I turned my classroom into a ‘living video game’—and saw achievement soar
The notion that struggling and failing is important to learning runs counter to traditional approaches to U.S. education. In the world of gaming, however, the very elements of…
Launching a district data warehousing project
A redesign of a school district’s information systems is always a challenge, but Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools (WSFCS) was further complicated by rapid growth, changing demographics and school choice.…
Prevention through information: Promoting social norms awareness with digital signage
A small liberal arts college located in the heart of the Finger Lakes in Upstate New York, Hobart and William Smith Colleges (HWS) are home to one of…
Plagiarism souvenirs
Most teachers will tell you that when assigned a research paper, students enter a few keywords into a Google search, download some relevant webpages, cut and paste passages…
Four steps to admissions superstardom with Google AdWords
With the growth of non-traditional students, campuses must tailor their communication to each audience. A strategy that enrolls adults must differ from one that enrolls high school students.
How a flipped classroom flipped a student’s perspective
The idea of graduating high school is supposed to be exciting: the beginning of a brand new life filled with experience and opportunity. But, when I thought about…
How ‘game mechanics’ can revitalize education
Many of the elements and engagement factors found in any number of games across a wide range of genres can help inform the shape of tomorrow’s classrooms.
Beyond ‘one-to-one computing’: Time for a new approach
Adding a digital device to the classroom without a fundamental change in the culture of teaching and learning will not lead to significant improvement. Unless clear goals across…
10 tips for success with analytics, information management, and reporting projects
Launching information management, reporting, and analytics systems can be difficult. Sustaining them – and creating enthusiastic users – is even trickier. In a series of interviews, technology leaders…
How the government can drive school innovation
Most of the funding and decision-making around education in this country occur at the state and local levels. The federal government has limited ability to effect change. That…
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…