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More School Time, Well Spent, Boosts Academic Achievement and Engagement at Edwards Middle School

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Blogs on Online Learning

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Virtual Schooling: Where Are We Now? Where Are We Headed?

Andrew MillerJune 6, 2013

Tags Blended Learning, Online Learning, Technology Integration, All Grades

I am a committed virtual learning advocate. As an experienced virtual teacher, I have seen students thrive where they'd previously failed. I have seen students who didn't have access to certain courses gain not only college entry requirements, but also innovative electives to support their passions. At the same time, I am also a thoughtful critic of virtual schooling. We have an opportunity to innovate with online learning; we also risk stepping into pitfalls of doing the "same ole thing." We run the risk of the "factory model," where we put as many students as possible through a course with a large student-to-teacher ratio. So where are we now? After many of years of experimentation and implementation of various models, what are some challenges that still remain?

Resources to Prevent Summer Slide: Virtual Field Trips, DIY Projects and Summer Reading

Matt DavisJune 4, 2013

Tags Online Learning

Summer is here! But along with warmer weather, trips to the pool and the Fourth of July, comes a not-so-fun reality... the summer slide.

Too often students scowl at the idea of summer learning, but it doesn’t have to be that way. In fact, summer is the perfect time to dive into some fun, engaging learning activities.

Virtual field trips, check. Fiction writing, check. A summer of making, check. For parents, we’ve rounded up some outside-the-box resources, as well as reading, math and writing activities, that will help counteract summer slide.

An Unprecedented Opportunity for Educational Equity

Judy Willis MDMarch 11, 2013

Tags Achievement Gap, Differentiated Instruction, Online Learning, Technology Integration, All Grades

Access to successful learning for all students is a powerful equalizer that drives superior educational outcomes. The importance of equal access is credited with much of the academic progress in Finland, a country without private schools or standardized tests. "Since the 1980s, the main driver of Finnish education policy has been the idea that every child should have the same opportunity to learn, regardless of family background, income or geographic location. Education has been seen first and foremost not as a way to produce star performers, but as an instrument to even out social inequality."¹

Where MOOCs Miss the Mark: The Student-Teacher Relationship

Matt LevinsonFebruary 8, 2013

Tags Online Learning, Technology Integration, Middle (6-8), High (9-12)

The mistake about MOOCs (massive open online courses) is that they discount the central component of effective teaching -- the relationship forged between student and teacher.

How Educators and Schools Can Make the Most of Google Hangouts

Mary Beth HertzFebruary 1, 2013

Tags Classroom Technology, Media Literacy, Online Learning, , Technology Integration

What Is a "Hangout?"

A Hangout is a web-based tool created by Google for communicating through video. Up to ten people can "hang out" at one time in a virtual "room." A Hangout can be as simple or as complex as needed for the task at hand. It can be used simply to converse or, through the use of extra apps and add-ons that Google provides, a Hangout can become a robust, virtual meeting space.

Flipping This Class: A Journey from Professor to Popularizer

Ainissa RamirezNovember 16, 2012

Tags Flipped Classroom, Online Learning, Chemistry, All Grades, Science

I was an unusual little girl. Since I was four, I wanted to be a scientist. I got the idea from a television show called 3-2-1 Contact.

From my experience, I learned that exposure to fun science is the best pathway to encourage children to learn. For this reason, I created a fun science show for kids at Yale called Science Saturdays. For the Saturdays of April and October, children converge on New Haven, Connecticut, where they are exposed to the Three D's: Donuts, Demonstrations, and Dynamic Lectures.

Google's Open Course Builder: A Giant Leap into 21st-Century Online Learning

Todd FinleyOctober 16, 2012

Tags Blended Learning, Learning Environments, Online Learning, , Technology Integration, High (9-12)

"Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." -- About Google

Google is the most powerful nonhuman teacher ever known to actual humans. Implicitly and ceaselessly, Google performs formative assessments by collecting the following data: the content, genre and media that interests you most; when and for how long you access your external cloud brain; what your hobbies and routines are; with whom you work and communicate; who will get your November vote; and whether you prefer invigorating clean mint or enamel renewal toothpaste. By continuously refining the nuance of your sociogram, Google has already customized your next web exploration and taught itself to teach.

In the News: 14 Open Educational Resources for High School

Matt DavisOctober 15, 2012

Tags Classroom Technology, Current Events, Online Learning, Open Education Resources

To kick off this week's curation, we'll start with something we published here at Edutopia: the last video in our Tech2Learn series. The videos, which were co-produced by Teaching Channel, look at inspiring ways educators use tech tools in the classroom.

Eight Ways to Use Video With English-Language Learners

Larry FerlazzoOctober 10, 2012

Tags English-Language Learners, Lesson Plans, Online Learning, Technology Integration, English Language Arts

This blog was co-authored by Katie Hull Sypnieski. This post is excerpted from their new book, The ESL/ELL Teacher's Survival Guide: Ready-to-Use Strategies, Tools, and Activities for Teaching English Language Learners of All Levels.

Using Photos With English-Language Learners

Larry FerlazzoOctober 4, 2012

Tags Common Core Standards, English-Language Learners, Lesson Plans, Online Learning, Student Engagement

"A picture is worth a thousand words."
-- Unknown

Though the origin of this popular adage is unclear, one thing is clear: using photos with English-Language Learners (ELLs) can be enormously effective in helping them learn far more than a thousand words -- and how to use them.