Expert Perspectives


How to Craft Useful, Student-Centered Social Media Policies

Whether your school or district has officially adopted social media or not, conversations are happening in and around your school on everything from Facebook to Snapchat. Schools must reckon with this reality and commit to supporting thoughtful and critical social media use among students, teachers and administrators. If not, schools and classrooms risk everything from digital distraction to privacy violations.

How to Bounce Back After an 11th-Hour Technology Switch

Five steps to finding, implementing, and rolling out a technology platform in a pinch.

Beyond Point and Click: Real Coding for Students Across the Curriculum

If we need students to be learning coding now, yet the schools are not ready for it on many levels, where does that leave us?

Teachers Learn Just Like Students: A Case Study From Singapore

Professional development is out; professional learning is in. In this week’s blog post we visit Singapore schools again. We describe how researchers and experienced teachers, there, scaffold fellow science teachers who are learning inquiry pedagogy through inquiry. In turn, those science teachers will use the same sorts of scaffolds to support their students who are learning science through inquiry.

Student Data Brokers: Shady Practices Put Private Student Data on the Open Market

The market for student data may be fed by unwitting students, who turn over sensitive information that they believe they must provide in order to learn about educational opportunities and scholarships.

Understanding Digital Transformation: Part 1 - Background

"Businesses will spend $1.1 trillion in 2018 on digital transformation…" Trillion. All in 2018. Phew! In this week’s blog post, then, we explore the notion of digital transformation outside of K-12 — what is "digital transformation?" What is its goal? Who is doing it? Armed with that understanding, then, in a subsequent blog post we will explore the "digital transformation" of K-12.

IT Leadership: Key Facts to Advance Ed Tech in America

CoSN CEO Keith Krueger shares insights from the 2018 National K-12 IT Leadership Survey Report.

As Demand for Online Schools Grows, So Does Need for Accurate Evaluation

In light of the scathing NEPC report on virtual schools, Kevin P. Chavous of K12 Inc. — whose partner schools account for more than a third of all online schools in the United States — argues for the need for meaningful measures of effectiveness ... and sets the record straight on student diversity.

STEM: At the Crossroads of Traditional and Online Learning

In this guest viewpoint, FIRST President Donald E. Bossi argues that online and blended learning offer tremendous potential for enhancing STEM education and hands-on learning opportunities for all students.

How We Use Technology to Empower Both Our Students and Reading Teachers

With student learning driving instruction like it never has in the past, our district is harnessing the power of technology in a way that supports teachers at every level while making students more active participants in their own learning.