Should business education be free?
It’s hardly surprising that the appeal of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) continues to grow, Forbes reports.
Around the Web
News from around the web.
Delaware Vision 2015: School leaders see some progress
What is going right in Delaware’s education system? What areas need work? And how do we improve? Those were the questions on the table at the Vision 2015…
A scramble across city as school drivers strike
Boston school bus drivers went on strike Tuesday morning — with no advance warning to families — leaving thousands of children stranded at home or at bus stops…
The inside story on LA schools’ iPad rollout: “a colossal disaster”
Scarcely a month ago, on August 27, the Los Angeles County Unified School District placed the first iPads in students’ hands at the outset of a $1 billion…
Can startups disrupt the slow-moving education market?
Every year, schools spend billions of dollars on supplies and instructional materials and staff, Mind/Shift reports.
Why schools make bad buying decisions
Schools buy stuff badly, EdSurge reports.
Let tech organize your teaching
By now, many new and veteran teachers are settling into the routine of the new school year, Edutopia reports.
Three lessons from Amplify’s melted charger
Last Friday, Guilford County Schools in North Carolina “suspended the use of Amplify tablets, cases, keyboards and chargers, effective immediately.”
Houston-area school district ends $16M iPad plan
A Houston-area school district has abandoned a $16 million initiative to incorporate thousands of iPads into classroom curriculums after a consultant found widespread problems, the Associated Press reports.
High-tech approach to end bullying
A Johnstown company says it has found a better way to help the nation’s schools battle bullying – with the click of a computer mouse, The Tribune-Democrat reports.
L.A. school board to review $1-billion iPad project
The Los Angeles Board of Education has scheduled a special Oct. 29 meeting to review efforts to provide iPads to every student and teacher in the nation's second-largest…
Technology: The next giant leap in education?
Technology is evolving exponentially and is being used for far more than simply keeping in touch with friends and family on Facebook, the Huffington Post reports.
The failures of for-profit K-12 schools
The Washington Post reports that for all of the three-decade hype about how business practices applied to K-12 schools will make them more efficient and high performing.
St. Tammany School Board committee adopts resolution seeking end of Common Core in Louisiana
A St. Tammany Parish School Board committee overwhelmingly adopted a resolution calling on Gov. Bobby Jindal, state Education Superintendent John White and BESE to abandon the Common Core…
Five essentials to create connected students
Recently we had a holiday, or at least it felt like one, edSurge reports.
Why are there still so few women in science?
Last summer, researchers at Yale published a study proving that physicists, chemists and biologists are likely to view a young male scientist more favorably than a woman with…
Using cell phones in class? The Oregon Department Of Education approves
Mobile devices are traditionally considered a nuisance in schools, Northwest Public Radio reports.
Happy Connected Educator Month: A day in the life
October has been deemed "Connected Educator Month" by the U.S. Department of Education, the Huffington Post reports.
Can children’s TV characters boost STEM learning?
Can relationships formed with media characters like Dora the Explorer or Elmo help young children learn science, technology, engineering and mathematical (STEM) skills?
Young women will find engineering inspiring, not intimidating
Equality and diversity within engineering have been a hot media topic recently, with figureheads such as the president of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), Barry Clarke, speaking…
Finding the beauty in math
Math has a bad rap, writes math professor Manil Suri in a recent New York Times op-ed, and would be better geared to students as a playful and…
Our future depends on putting tech education at the core
The Huffington Post reports: "Does this class count as an Advanced Placement course?" It's been a common question of my returning IT Academy students.
Education reform advocate John White: We’re in danger of becoming the enemy
Advocates for charter schools, teacher evaluations and other changes to public education that have become mainstream in recent years are at risk of turning into the establishment they…
Are you a technophobe or a technophile in the classroom?
The fact that technology hardware today is ever-changing does not help a technophobe, according to an ASCD blog.
Students are ‘hacking’ their school-issued iPads: Good for them
Almost immediately after receiving their new school-issued iPads this fall, students in Indiana and in California (and probably elsewhere) managed to bypass the security on the devices, “hacking”…
Didn’t ace SAT? Just design microbe transplant research
The New York Times reports: High school seniors with poor grades and even worse SAT scores, you may be just what one of the nation’s most prestigious liberal…
BYOD to school? 5 tips for keeping student devices secure
Whether in junior high or in college, many students have one thing in common: a smartphone or tablet is in their pocket or backpack, the Huffington Post reports.
Building a “startup culture” in schools
For most, start-ups and school districts couldn’t be more different, EdSurge reports.
How to stop high school from stifling creativity
“Education is not the learning of facts,” said Albert Einstein, “but the training of the mind to think,” The Globe and Mail reports.
Education’s ‘shiny toy syndrome’
It’s elementary, the Marietta Daily Journal reports. Public education bureaucrats do the darnedest, stupidest things.
What we can learn from Rupert Murdoch, News Corp, and Amplify
I’ve been trying to figure out how to write about Amplify Learning for months. It’s complicated, Forbes reports.
Bypassing the SAT altogether
Mind/Shift reports: “It’s kind of declaring war on the whole rigmarole of college admissions and the failure to foreground the curriculum and learning,” Leon Botstein, Bard’s president of…
Veteran teacher: The key failing of school reform over decades
The tug of war over standardized tests is just the latest round of a struggle I’ve watched many times before, The Washington Post reports.
Bill Gates: ‘It would be great if our education stuff worked but…’
“It would be great if our education stuff worked, but that we won’t know for probably a decade.” That’s what Bill Gates said on Sept. 21 (see video…
Education 3.0: Embracing technology to ‘jump the curve’
Wired.com reports: It may not be “The Winds of War.” It may not even be as exciting as “Sharknado,” but I would argue that the role of ed…
Are teachers and ed tech businesses working towards the same goal?
Education technology businesses have come up with hundreds, if not thousands, of products meant to make teachers’ lives easier and improve student achievement, Mind/Shift reports.
Do teenage entrepreneurs even need to go to college?
The democratization of technology wrought by the mobile Web and a proliferation of app stores has made it easier than ever to succeed as an entrepreneur—and at an…
5 tools to help students learn how to learn
Helping students learn how to learn: That’s what most educators strive for, and that’s the goal of inquiry learning, Mind/Shift reports.
Florida’s blow to Common Core
On Monday, Florida Governor Rick Scott on Monday ordered the state education department to pull out of the PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers)…
Wichita school board bans personal use of social media at work
Wichita school board members unanimously approved a policy Monday that prohibits employees from using personal social media accounts during district time or on district computers, Kansas.com reports.