A Utah-based company has fired a warning shot across the bow of learning management system (LMS) companies, including market leader Blackboard, with the announcement that it's turning its new LMS into open source. Instructure has publicly released the source code to its Canvas learning management system, which was launched in 2010.
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 02/01/11
PBS will develop achievement-oriented content especially for the New York City Department of Education's School of One (So1) with the help of a $500,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. School of One is an experiment in personalizing education using multiple modalities of instruction, allowing students to learn at their own pace and according to their own respective strengths and weaknesses.
- By Scott Aronowitz
- 02/01/11
While collaborative learning in courses like science and social studies has grown exponentially in recent years, literature still remains predominantly a solo pursuit. However, online educational community BookheadEd Learning is about to take the next leap.
- By Scott Aronowitz
- 02/01/11
Logical Choice Technologies this week unveiled an educational augmented reality tool designed to help children in preschool and kindergarten learn to read and write.
Ed tech adoption isn't about forcing new technologies on teachers or wearing them down in an effort to obtain grudging "buy in." On the contrary. In order for any technology-centered education initiative to have meaningful results, according to Rushton Hurley, it has to be born of a spirit of collegiality, teamwork, and openness.
Think banning cell phones and restricting access to Web sites in your classrooms is a good idea? If so, your students will miss out on some incredible learning opportunities, according to education technology advocate Leslie Fisher.
Introducing online social media into your educational mission brings you right into a hacker’s bull’s-eye. Can you ensure your learning environment stays uninfected?
- By John K. Waters
- 01/25/11
What you believe about professional learning communities (PLCs) may be wrong. That's what Rem Jackson, CEO of Top Practices Education, has discovered in working with a group of educators from around the world whose goal has been to create sustainable change in schools.
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 01/19/11
Blackboard has released a major update to its cross-platform mobile learning management system, Mobile Learn 2.0. The new version expands the types of content users can create via their mobile devices and also offers an enhanced UI and support for some Angel and WebCT customers.
An emerging virtual world platform is the destination of droves of emigrant avatars, as a price hike and the shutdown of the teen-only grid have prompted an educator exodus away from Second Life.