Helping Struggling Students Build a Growth Mindset
This article, written by two veteran researchers of brain and education science, presents five strategies to help struggling students develop positive outlooks on their learning capabilities. The authors outline the potential positive outcomes for students who have developed a growth mindset. The strategies the authors share include, creating student success files (a continually updated collection that… Read More ›
EdSurge on Air
These podcasts by EdSurge are curated on topics related to education technology. The podcast episodes feature news updates, interviews, and debates on a variety of topics, globally and nationally. Edsurge provides transcripts, as well as great background information on the topic. Past episodes feature topics such as suggestions for superintendents selecting edtech products, relevant data… Read More ›
How Design Thinking Became a Buzzword at School
This article discusses the lack of clarity around the concept of design thinking. Confusion around the topic is not surprising as design thinking encompasses a wide array of mindsets and philosophies. For this piece, the author interviewed Neil Stevenson, the executive portfolio director at IDEO Chicago, one of the best-known organizations dedicated to design thinking.… Read More ›
Designing New School Models: A Practical Guide
This school design guide, written by Springpoint, a group of school design experts, outlines a student-centered approach to designing innovative school models where students can be active agents in their own development. The guide was compiled from best practices gathered over four years while working with districts, networks, and charter management organizations around the country… Read More ›
Coding in the Classroom: Six Tips to Get Even Reluctant Teachers—and Students—Started
This article shares actionable approaches to getting started with coding in the classroom. It identifies why coding is important on the macro level, as STEM jobs growth will outpace all other jobs, leading to an estimated 1.1 million computing jobs by 2024. The article also addresses how to implement it on the micro level, in… Read More ›
The EdSurge Guide to Becoming a Future Ready Leader
This guide from EdSurge is designed to help superintendents and district leaders plan for and implement personalized learning. It is a collaboration with Future Ready Schools, a project of the Alliance for Excellent Education designed to help schools transform teaching pedagogy and leverage technology to personalize learning. The guide is aligned with the Future Ready… Read More ›
Will Blended Learning Fulfill its Disruptive Potential?
In this opinion piece, Thomas Arenett explores blended learning and the concept of disruptive innovation, a theory of change and the central theme of research at the Christensen Institute. Researchers there hope disruptive innovations can end the cycle of fads in education reform, in which new approaches enter the landscape with promise but fizzle out… Read More ›
If You Do Any of These Four Activities in Your Classroom, You’re Already Personalizing Learning
In this article, a fourth-grade teacher discusses four teaching strategies that can personalize learning experiences for elementary students: passion projects, virtual field trips, alternative self-assessments, and student blogging. The author provides a description of each, discusses how they personalize learning, and lists tech tools and resources to use in the classroom. This article can help… Read More ›
What Should I Buy for My New Makerspace? A Five-Step Framework for Making the Right Purchases
In this article, Laura Flemming, teacher and media specialist, discusses how to order equipment and materials for a makerspace in which students can explore, create, and build, guided by their passions and questions. She cautions schools not to simply order materials and equipment that is trendy or that other schools have. Instead, the needs and… Read More ›
The Role of Performance Monitoring in Competency-Based Education
This blog post is the seventh in a blog series by Getting Smart on strategies to encourage students to reflect on their performance. The post discusses performance monitoring in the context of competency-based education (CBE) in which students progress based on demonstrated mastery while increasing voice, choice, and agency in their work. The post explores the… Read More ›
Our Top 16 from 2016
As the excitement of the ball dropping and the year’s end fades into a cold and dreary January (at least here in Boston), we’re taking a moment to reflect and share our most-visited resources from 2016. We’re pleased to see that so many of the most accessed resources touch on important hopes and goals for… Read More ›
10 Trends of Personalized Learning in 2017
This article shares predictions for 10 trends in personalized learning in 2017, based on research, reoccurring or most talked about topics, frameworks, and themes in the personalized learning sphere. It also shares analysis of why the trends are important to the landscape of learning. The idea of personalizing learning is not about creating one model… Read More ›