#Gamergate. 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). This
What You Should Know This Week Read More »
This article is Part 2 of an exploration of what “open” means and affords in education. How can we think about “open” beyond “openly licensed materials”? Granted, the licensing piece is incredibly important for access and distribution and remixing. But what else do we mean when we talk about “open,” and how can we think
What Do We Mean By “Open Education”? Read More »
The theme this week on EML is “openness,” and this post by editor Audrey Watters looks at why licenses — Creative Commons and open source, for example — are important in helping move our thinking of education forward.
Openness and Ownership: Who Owns School Work? Read More »
My daughter, the high school senior, was in the middle of prepping a presentation for Social Studies when I called home from the road a few days ago. “How’s it going?” I asked. “It’s so annoying,” she said without missing a beat. “What’s annoying about it?” I asked, pretty much knowing what her reply would
What We Know Isn’t What We Do Read More »
Adobe and Your E-Book Data. 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
What You Should Know This Week Read More »
There are hundreds and hundreds of books on leadership, most often framed in terms of “management.” What is the connection between language and leadership? And what role does language play in modern learning and modern leadership? These questions seem particularly important if we want to focus less on the “management” of learning and on the
The Language of Leadership Read More »
Having spent significant time over the past eighteen months working with educational and policy leaders from a broad cross-section of countries I felt a long plane flight home was a good time to reflect on the directions that appear to be emerging as educational priorities for governments around the world. The first and most obvious
The Pain of Powerful Policy Read More »
Student protests. 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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What is “design thinking” and what does it offer for schools? Here, Ewan McIntosh offers an introduction to some of the elements of design thinking. He argues that, as a creative approach to problem-solving, design thinking can be a powerful process for both innovation and learning.
Design Thinking: For Innovation and For Learning Read More »
It’s not unusual for someone to raise a hand in the middle of a workshop we’re doing and say “I get these changes and shifts, but what do I do about it in my school?” Or something along those lines. Like most in education, we want answers. Lingering questions about change or uncertainty, it seems,
Questions Over Answers Read More »
The Global Learning XPRIZE. 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
What You Should Know This Week Read More »
Last week, EML editor Audrey Watters asked if Twitter was really the best place for online professional development, in part because of changes to the platform and perceptions that the discussions on the social media site were becoming “uglier.” But Twitter isn’t going away any time soon, and we do need to think about our
On Social Media, Silence, and Things That Matter Read More »
Rafranz Davis is an instructional technology specialist for a Dallas/Fort Worth area school district. She describes herself as an advocate for passion-based learning, inspired in part by her experiences with her nephew Braeden. Rafranz and Braeden’s story highlights the challenges that many parents face when trying to advocate for more self-directed learning at school, particularly
Advocating for Passion-Based Learning (and Puppets) Read More »
NYU professor and widely-read author Clay Shirky’s recent post about the need to ask his students to put their laptops away during his lectures signals an interesting shift in the conversations around young people’s technology use. It was very much in line with the recent New York Times article that carried the ‘surprising’ news that
At Least We’re Talking About Ubiquitous Access Read More »
Twitter could replace traditional professional development, some have argued. Instead of sitting in day-long workshops, Twitter lets educators reach out in real-time to their peers. It allows them to grow their professional networks, to become “connected educators.” But over the past few months, there’s been growing concern about Twitter. Some say it’s becoming nastier and
Is Twitter the Best Option for Online Professional Development? Read More »
