Sexual harassment online. Each week, Educating Modern Learners will pick one interesting current event – whether it’s news about education, technology, politics, business, science, or culture – and help put it in context for school leaders, explaining why the news matters and how it might affect teaching and learning (in the short or in the
What You Should Know This Week Read More »
Originally I’d intended to write about the dehumanizing impact of data, particularly as it acts on our students and educators. Maybe I still will make that argument down the line. But I think this time of the year is a better one to think about how all of this data is collected. That is, often
Listening and Hearing Read More »
It’s Computer Science Education Week, and thanks to a major industry-funded initiative, many schools will be participating in an “Hour of Code.” It’s nice to see a growing interest in computer science, of course, as many K-12 schools have been resistant to view computers as more than word-processing or test-taking devices. But I want to
Will an “Hour of Code” Change School? Read More »
The talk about “disruption” in education has been building for quite some time now, but as with much of the rhetoric that surrounds school change and “reform,” the bar for what constitutes real disruption continues to be set relatively low. We’re told that “Massively Open Online Courses” (MOOCs) will disrupt the entire higher education system.
Everything You Think is “Disruptive” Isn’t Read More »
Elonis v United States. Each week, Educating Modern Learners will pick one interesting current event – whether it’s news about education, technology, politics, business, science, or culture – and help put it in context for school leaders, explaining why the news matters and how it might affect teaching and learning (in the short or in
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What if we focused less on scalable pedagogy and more on sustainable pedagogy? When someone proposes a new idea in education, that proposal is often followed by the question, “But can you do it at scale?” While “at scale” can mean a variety of things, in this context, it usually means doing it big —
Sustainable Pedagogy Read More »
“Personalization” is certainly one of the most popular and powerful buzzwords in education technology. A lot of hope and hype has been pinned on it. But it took a bit of a hit last week when the National Education Policy Center released a report on “personalized instruction.” Written by UCLA professor Noel Enyedy, the full
Moving Beyond “Personalized Instruction” Read More »
In this era of evidence-based decision-making, how often are we now being confounded, rather than comforted by evidence? While on the surface it seems natural that leaders would seek research and evidence to support the decisions they make, digging a little deeper reveals all might not be quite what it seems. Evidence-based decision-making certainly came
Truthiness and the Education Conversation Read More »
#Ferguson. Each week, Educating Modern Learners will pick one interesting current event – whether it’s news about education, technology, politics, business, science, or culture – and help put it in context for school leaders, explaining why the news matters and how it might affect teaching and learning (in the short or in the long run).
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Writer, activist, and EML contributor Melinda Anderson recently noted that, “This school year, for the first time, the majority of students in public schools are nonwhite. Yet the diversity of the student population isn’t reflected in the teachers standing in front of classrooms: Eight out of 10 public school teachers are white. Simple arithmetic reveals
Culturally Relevant Pedagogy: A Primer Read More »
Let’s take a quick quiz of some of the things you probably “learned” in high school: 1. What’s the circumference of a circle with the radius of 4? 2. What Scottish scientist discovered penicillin in 1928? 3. What geologic era are we in right now? 4. In the sentence “The swimming pool is closed today,”
What’s Worth Learning in School? Read More »
K-12 OER Collaborative. Each week, Educating Modern Learners will pick one interesting current event – whether it’s news about education, technology, politics, business, science, or culture – and help put it in context for school leaders, explaining why the news matters and how it might affect teaching and learning (in the short or in the long
What You Should Know This Week Read More »
As a teacher and a parent I can fully understand why there is a hesitancy to use technology in a classroom. There are fears about child safety: who can they be talking to? Fears about the student data: how will it be used? And fears about the credibility: why would kids need something that I
“Meaningful Learning” in a Digital Age Read More »
Over recent months, in both the columns of EML and beyond, there have been a number of thoughtful discussions around the concept of self-directed learning. Certainly the recent Mindshift article around the most recent Global X Prize provoked a lot of debate, given the clear brief of the contest to “develop a free, open-source and
Who Directs the “Self-Directed?” Read More »
Chromebooks’ Popularity. Each week, Educating Modern Learners will pick one interesting current event – whether it’s news about education, technology, politics, business, science, or culture – and help put it in context for school leaders, explaining why the news matters and how it might affect teaching and learning (in the short or in the long run).
What You Should Know This Week Read More »
