The Whitehouse announced the ConnectED initiative June 6 with the goal of connecting 99 percent of America's schools in five years and providing teacher training. But, no new money was allocated to realize those lofty goals. Who is the Whitehouse trying to fool?
- By Cathie Norris, Elliot Soloway
- 06/12/13
Learning is all-the-time, everywhere. Mobile computing devices – and only the mobile ones – can support 24/7, everyplace learning. So, how do you decide what is a mobile computing device? Read on for our mobility litmus test
- By Cathie Norris, Elliot Soloway
- 06/05/13
Kyle Menchhofer kicked mobile learning off in rural, blue-collar, St. Marys, OH in 2007. But, in May, 2013, St. Marys voted down the school bond, and the visionary, pioneering program that Kyle created ended. Well, a chapter ended. Check out what Kyle did in 2007 to bring mobile learning to 160 students.
- By Cathie Norris, Elliot Soloway
- 05/22/13
A program in Singapore is bringing smartphones into the classroom as part of an effort to transform instruction to an inquiry-based model. The results? Let's just say the United States needs to take note.
- By Cathie Norris, Elliot Soloway
- 05/08/13
Student performance data is playing an increasingly important role in America’s classrooms. From scientifically based research to survey data to clickstream learning analytics, the volume of data is most definitely increasing. The question, of course, is this: for the better?
- By Cathie Norris, Elliot Soloway
- 04/29/13
We can't ask teachers to use 1:1 computing devices (BYOD or school-purchased) while still giving them only pencil-and-paper curriculum and askign them to figure it out on their own. We need to give teachers new curriculum, with detailed lessons that exploit the affordances of the computing devices, if we want to see increases in student achievement.
- By Cathie Norris, Elliot Soloway
- 04/17/13
Both higher ed and lower ed are seeking to provide learners with personalized instruction. The issue, however, is this: Who does the personalizing -- the individual or the computer? We argue that higher is choosing the former approach while K-12 is choosing the latter approach. Has K-12 made a good decision?
- By Cathie Norris, Elliot Soloway
- 04/01/13
According to its CEO, HP is becoming a tablet and smartphone company; PCs are becoming small potatoes. And T-Mobile has disrupted the telcos' pricing scheme -- big time! Brace yourselves: price wars for mobile devices are soon to follow. Yes folks, the Age of Mobilism is definitely upon us and big changes are afoot! This is all good news for K-12.
- By Elliot Soloway, Cathie Norris
- 04/08/13
The FCC needs to act now to support K-12 and solve the "connectivity access problem." Here's where to start.
- By Cathie Norris, Elliot Soloway
- 04/11/13
Since the 1950s, standardized test scores have been used to compare and rank schools, districts, states, and now nations, according to Rick Stiggins (2007), founder of the Educational Testing Service's Assessment Training Institute. In a commentary on assessment myths, he posed a question that has probably been discussed since standardized testing was chosen as the large-scale measure of effectiveness of schools: "Are we helping students and teachers with our assessment practices, or contributing to their problems?" (p. 28).
- By Patricia Deubel
- 04/10/08