“Data Challenge Invites Hackers to Help Enhance Education Policies”

If you’re not directly involved in schools or innovation, you can still help shape education innovation. 60 civic hackers, developers, and students are working on the Mass EduData Challenge in Boston. Parham, Government Innovation Officer for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, shared school data with those he believes are most suited to analyze it — hackers. “We […]

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“Educational Technology Isn’t Leveling the Playing Field”

Researchers are beginning to document a digital Matthew Effect (the tendency for early advantages to multiply over time) in regards to learning with technology and the achievement gap. Access to technology alone does not level the playing field – it’s guidance and scaffolding by adults or mentors that really lead to meaningful educational gains with technology. Annie Murphy […]

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“Why Public Schools Struggle to Innovate”

Michael B. Horn writes about how public schools have some unique challenges to solve the innovator’s dilemma – how you prioritize innovation that will disrupt the current student experience to drive improvement. Political leadership, varied stakeholders, and limitations on change have an impact as well as the fear of failure in one of our most important […]

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“Moving Towards Next Gen Learning”

Blended learning, personalized learning, project-based learning, student-centered learning – there are so many terms but what is the difference and overlap between them? Andy Calkins shares a quadrant graphic model to make sense of current reforms in the education-innovation space around four main degrees: time, place, path, and pace. Calkins gives examples of all four […]

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“Teachers Not (Necessarily) Included”

Teachers must be involved in education innovation products to bring about maximum success. Catalano explains that most successful startups in the education field have at least some teacher involvement.The deep understanding of the education system paired with idealism and the network to try ideas and get feedback on them makes teachers a key ingredient in […]

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“Education Innovation”

In Pakistan, families are increasingly recognizing the value of education in reaching success. However, Dr. Najam explains that the country has a major supply problem of providing quality schools for those students. Dr. Najam recognizes that teacher-led innovation is of critical importance: “The key realization has to be that teachers are the key to educational quality […]

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“Design Thinking for Social Innovation”

What increased impact might you be missing by using traditional problem-solving techniques instead of design thinking? This informative article by Brown & Wyatt, two of IDEO’s top dogs, outlines where the advantages of design thinking could have helped projects wildly succeed in India and Africa rather than being merely effective.They believe design thinking can be […]

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White House Official: “More Tech Key to Education”

The White House recognizes that technology based innovation is making its way into classrooms across America but, “we’re just not taking enough shots on goal,” says Kumar Garg, an assistant director for learning and innovation at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. There are many ed-tech programs or apps out there for teachers; […]

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