Ten Innovators at the 2013 Ed Tech Industry Summit

Posted on May 10, 2013 by coreeducation

The Education Division of the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) announces winners and finalists in its Innovation Incubator Program. The program was held during the annual flagship Ed Tech Industry Summit, May 5-7, at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. Ten products and services were featured during the event, and awards were presented to the Most Innovative and Most Likely to Succeed based on votes of conference attendees. The Educator’s Choice Award was also be presented based on votes from educators and administrators from around the U.S.

The SIIA Innovation Incubator Program identifies and supports entrepreneurs in their development and distribution of innovative learning technologies. The program began in 2006 and has provided support for dozens of successful products and companies in their efforts to improve education through the use of software, digital content and related technologies. The program is open to applicants from academic and non-profit institutions, pre-revenue and early-stage companies, as well as established companies with newly developed technologies.

“This year’s Innovation Incubator participants stand out as incredibly original and exciting products,” said Karen Billings, vice president for the SIIA Education Division. “It’s a tremendous value for our members to have early access to these technologies.”

Innovation Incubator Program participants were selected from the applicant pool based on key selection criteria, including:

The extent to which their innovation represents a “sea change” in thinking
Potential to positively impact education by way of enhanced student achievement, teacher effectiveness, cost reduction and efficiency
Education focus and end-user impact/market need for the innovation
Representation of K-12/postsecondary market levels
Level of originality and innovation

Innovation Incubator Program winners and finalists are as follows:

Citelighter, Citelighter Inc (voted Educator’s Choice and Most Innovative Runner Up)

Citelighter is an academic research platform that allows students to save, organize, and automatically cite content. Once completed they can open Citelighter in a Google doc to have their research next to their writing. As students undergo a critical thinking process (research, organizing, writing) we capture their behaviors and present it back to their teachers so they can see how and where their students need help. This appear like strands of DNA, but they are strands of thought.

simCEO, Jetlag Learning (voted Most Innovative)

Shmoop create online learning simulations where students compete and interact with one another – instead of a program – to make the environment and the learning more dynamic. Students apply skills in a real-world environments without right/wrong answers. Our first solution, simCEO targets entrepreneurship and financial literacy where students create their own company then buy/sell shares in each other’s companies. Teachers keep the simulation dynamic through news articles.

See.Touch.Learn., Brain Parade, LLC (voted Most Likely to Succeed)

See.Touch.Learn., an iPad visual learning & assessment system, improves the social interaction & communication skills of special needs students. Parents & teachers are turning away from traditional, static picture cards towards See.Touch.Learn.’s easy-to-use & effective personalized picture card learning tool. With stunning images, a community of content created by thousands of users, plus their own personal content, teachers & parents can deliver highly personalized instruction & assessments.

scrible, scrible (voted Most Likely to Succeed Runner Up)

scrible makes online reading and research apps for students/instructors and publishers. Our Web app lets you annotate webpages in your browser and then save, share and manage them in the cloud. Our Student Edition adds academic features (citations, reports, etc.). Instructors use scrible for collaborative e-reading exercises. Our Classroom Edition will empower them to teach critical reading skills using online reading/research assignments. Our annotation tools help publishers make content interactive.

Globaloria, World Wide Workshop (Finalist)

Globaloria is a project-based learning platform for teaching any subject through webgame design. A turn-key instructional solution, it integrates an academic curriculum, programming tutorials, and virtual support with professional development tools and a social learning network, making prior programming skills unnecessary. As students research educational game topics and learn content knowledge, they develop digital literacies and STEM & Computing skills by programming their original webgames.

mAuthor, Learnetic S.A. (Finalist)

Learnetic has pioneered an authoring system for creating INTERACTIVE mobile content ideal for publishers and developers and, in its next iteration for teachers. Content displays and functions on any device with any OS/screen size so is ideal for the diverse installed base of mobile devices in schools. Created content can easily be integrated with any website or learning platform. The Cloud based development approach provides maintenance free control of publishing process, content and technology.

Naiku, Naiku, Inc. (Finalist)

Naiku accelerates learning by providing next generation assessment solutions on any web enabled device. With automated scoring and built-in standards-aligned reports, teachers instantly know what each and every student knows. Additionally Naiku’s unique “better assessment” methodology engages students through research backed practices such as confidence based assessment, journaling, and reflection to provide teachers with a more complete picture of student performance than currently possible.

ParentSquare, ParentSquare (Finalist)

ParentSquare is an online platform for schools that makes parent involvement easy. Studies confirm what logic tells us to be true: parent involvement is the key to student success. School-home communication and parent participation are key components of parent involvement and ParentSquare exceptionally simplifies both. Teachers and parents have called it “an effective communication tool,” “an efficient way to recruit volunteers,” “great tool for individual class reminders,” “irreplaceable!”

Shmoop, Shmoop University, Inc. (Finalist)

Shmoop is a digital education resources company that innovates education by making learning accessible through understandable language and online materials. Shmoop uses colloquial language & pop culture to make learning fun and easy for students. Also, Shmoop serves as a one-stop education stop from high school to the real world, “specializing” in a gamut of resources, including literature & history guides, online classrooms, teacher resources, online textbooks, test prep, and career resources.

zondle, zondle (Finalist)

zondle is a unique web and mobile platform that enables teachers and students to create, play and share games to support learning. Teachers choose or create questions to match exactly their teaching aims (multiple formats, any subject, any level, any language). Students play and practice those questions (or questions they’ve created) in any of zondle’s casual games (any topic in any game, to consolidate classroom learning, for assessment, or to prepare for high-stakes tests).

For more information about the Ed Tech Industry Summit, visit siia.net/etis/2013/incubator.asp or contact Liderby Portorreal at Education@siia.net.

MOOC for Educators: “Digital Learning Transition”

Posted on April 15, 2013 by coreeducation

The Alliance for Excellent Education and the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation are offering a first-of-its-kind online course for school district leaders.

Last month, the Alliance for Excellent Education and Friday Institute for Educational Innovation at North Carolina State University opened enrollment for a first-of-its-kind Massive Online Open Course for Educators (MOOC-Ed). Titled “Digital Learning Transition,” the free course will examine how the effective use of digital learning can help school districts meet educational challenges, including implementing college- and career-ready standards for all students and preparing teachers to make effective use of technology to enhance teaching and learning.

The course—a component of the Alliance’s “Project 24” initiative and the first of a series of MOOC-Eds planned by the Friday Institute—will help school district leaders develop a set of digital learning goals to address their students’ specific needs. Participating educators will learn how technology and the global information age impact both what students need to know and how and when student learning can take place. They will study the elements necessary for a successful digital learning transition, develop a set of goals for digital learning aligned to desired student outcomes, and create an action plan to meet these goals.

“By participating in this ground-breaking effort, educators can experience first-hand how digital learning can change teaching and improve learning,” said Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education and former governor of West Virginia. “At the same time, they will develop a valuable plan for how to take their school or district through a digital learning transition.”

Throughout the course, participants will have access to digital learning experts who have successfully implemented digital learning efforts that are supporting teachers and positively impacting student learning. And by conducting the course on such a massive scale—literally thousands of district leaders can participate—participants will also benefit from “crowdsourcing,” a collaborative professional learning experience that uses the “wisdom of the crowd” to discuss ideas, share strategies and resources, and exchange constructive feedback with other participants in similar roles and schools.

“The Digital Learning Transition MOOC-Ed enables educators to experience using innovative technologies as learners and collaborators, which will help them gain insights into what these technologies can mean for students,” said Glenn Kleiman, executive director of the Friday Institute. “We look forward to having many innovative educators join us in exploring this new form of large-scale, flexible, multimedia, and collaborative professional development.”

Each of the course’s seven sessions will include core resources and supplemental materials around a specific topic, while allowing for a great deal of personalization and flexibility. Participants are expected to navigate their own paths, consistent with their own goals and the needs of their school or district, while being supported and guided by the facilitators, resources, and fellow participants.

Running through May 24, the seven-week course is designed for school and district leaders, including superintendents, principals, curriculum directors, technology directors, financial officers, instructional coaches, lead teachers, and others involved in planning and implementing K–12 digital learning initiatives. Participants should expect to commit between two and four hours each week, but there will be opportunities for those who wish to invest more time and explore issues more deeply.

Interested individuals can obtain more information and register for the course at dlt.mooc-ed.org. After registering, they are strongly encouraged to take Project 24’s free online self assessment to help frame a vision for digital learning and specify how technology can help align efforts to achieve college- and career-ready standards. Upon completion of the self assessment, participants will receive a personalized report analyzing their district’s progress in integrating technology into instruction.

The MOOC-Ed is part of “Project 24,” a ground-breaking new initiative led by the Alliance to help school districts plan for and effectively use technology and digital learning. Project 24 is an urgent call to action on the need for systemic planning around the effective use of technology and digital learning to achieve the goal of career and college readiness for all students. Project 24 participants benefit from free comprehensive district-level planning tools, expert advice, creative ideas, and tangible suggestions from experienced education experts and nonprofit education membership organizations. Already, more than 1,000 school leaders from nearly 500 school districts—representing 6.5 million students—have signed up to participate.

The Digital Learning Transition MOOC-Ed is provided by the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation as part of ongoing work to support the effective use of technologies and innovative teaching and learning practices in K–12 education.

“Make no mistake; digital learning holds the key to preparing millions of additional students for college and a productive career, but district leaders need to approach this opportunity with sound planning to leverage the potential and achieve the best results,” said Wise. “Going forward, our goal is to get every district to sign up and start planning.”

For more information, please visit the following:

http://dlt.mooc-ed.org/preview

Twitter for Educators: 3 Essential Starter Tips

Posted on March 14, 2013 by coreeducation

Have you ever wondered whether you, as an educator or someone in the field of education, should get on Twitter? And even if you did join Twitter, how would it be helpful to you and how does it work?

These are all questions that blogger Evan L. R. Hays addresses in a post for the Tioki blog. Tioki is a social media website for teachers. It bills itself as the “the online professional network exclusively for the education community.” The Tioki blog attempts to offer practical takeaways for its members and readers.

Here is a brief excerpt from the post that describes the utility of Twitter for educators:

The main utility of Twitter for educators is to help us all stay informed about the education climate surrounding us that is so rapidly changing. Moreover, Twitter allows us to easily stay up on news from a variety of types of sources, enabling us to have a more comprehensive view of the often partisan wrangling over education politics. With questions over standardized testing, Common Core, ESEA re-authorization, NCLB waivers, Race to the Top funding, and new technology in the classroom—to name only a few—all looming, staying abreast of changes is more difficult and essential than ever. I have it from a number of education PhD’s who have had their noses to the ground in education for a while that changes are coming much more rapidly in education than they have in decades past. This is where Twitter comes in.

The post then goes on to outline technology tools, etiquette, and search functions. Finally, the post concludes with the basics of who is on Twitter and how to know about good education Twitter accounts to follow.

If you are on Twitter, but don’t use it very much, or have thought about joining Twitter but haven’t quite taken the plunge, this blog post is a great place to start.

Following is the link to the post: http://blog.tioki.com/a-brief-primer-on-twitter-for-educators/?doing_wp_cron=1362593570.2928841114044189453125

Technology and Teacher Preparation

Posted on February 25, 2013 by coreeducation

Aspiring teachers want more digital avenues for learning, says a new report from Project Tomorrow.

The findings are included in the report Learning in the 21st Century: Digital Experiences and Expectations of Tomorrow’s Teachers, prepared by Blackboard Inc. and Project Tomorrow, which includes findings from the Speak Up for Aspiring Teachers survey of nearly 1,400 college students in teacher preparation programs during spring 2012. The data collected from the aspiring teachers was compared with the results of the surveys completed by 36,477 in-service K-12 teachers and 4,133 administrators during Speak Up surveys from fall 2011.

Since 2007, Project Tomorrow has collaborated with Blackboard Inc. to create a series of annual reports that focus on key trends in the use of technology to increase student achievement, teacher productivity and parental engagement. This new report is the latest in the series and provides new insights that will inform college and university based teacher preparation programs as well as the induction and professional development processes within K-12 schools and districts. Tomorrow’s teachers may have the keys to finally unlock the potential of technology to transform teaching and learning, but much depends upon their experiences in their preparation program and how well future school leadership can support their expectations for essential technology tools and resources.

Highlights from the report include the following:

Aspiring teachers are tapping into emerging technologies such as social media and mobile devices to self-prepare themselves for their future teaching assignments. For example, tomorrow’s teachers are leveraging social networking sites and discussion boards as informal professional development sources to complement their formal coursework.
In spite of their comfort with using technology tools, the aspiring teachers say that their field experiences as student teachers and observing their professors are the best way for them to learn about how to integrate technology within instruction.
School principals have high expectations for the pre-service technology experiences of their future teachers. The specific technology tools and techniques that the aspiring teachers are learning to use in their methods courses however do not match the expectations of those school principals.
Aspiring teachers place a high value on the role of technology to both impact student academic success and their own effectiveness as a teacher.
Thinking about their future teaching assignment, aspiring teachers consider access to technology tools and resources to support instructional plans as one of the top five factors that will determine their future success as a teacher.

Future teachers want more digital, mobile and social technology integrated into their training and, in turn, their future classrooms, according to a survey report released from Blackboard Inc. and Project Tomorrow®. According to the report, nearly 50 percent of students in teacher training programs use online podcasts and videos and turn to social networking sites to self-train for future teaching assignments.

The tendency for tomorrow’s teachers to leverage technology is a direct result of their own experience as “active learners” – students who expect technology to extend teaching and learning. The report finds that over half of the aspiring teachers polled (58 percent) are taking online classes and nearly the same amount (52 percent) use digital textbooks as a part of their education experience.

The findings, intended to inform preparation and professional development programs for new teachers, also reveal that today’s principals have high expectations for the use of technology in classrooms. Over 80 percent of principals polled want their future hires to use digital tools to connect and communicate with students and their parents.

“Due to increased access to digital learning tools throughout their lives, aspiring teachers gravitate toward online collaboration, which translates to a more self-directed teaching approach,” said Julie Evans, chief executive officer of Project Tomorrow. “The correlation between an educator’s familiarity with technology, and the strong likelihood of using that technology within instruction, is a good way to predict the future classroom.”

The survey also found that over 40 percent of students in teacher training programs sought career guidance online from educators outside of their institution, demonstrating the important role that access to and fluency in technology tools can play in their future success.

“In order to be effective in the classroom and create an engaging learning environment, a great teacher needs to realize that children today are exposed to a vast amount of technology outside of the classroom, and when they walk into a classroom, they are walking back in time,” said an aspiring elementary school teacher from Purdue University that participated in the survey.

To access the report, see http://www.tomorrow.org/speakup/tomorrowsteachers_report2013.html

Reform to support Common Core

Posted on February 22, 2013 by coreeducation

If the Common Core initiative is to have a chance to take off, a new strategy of professional development, coupled with thoughtful evaluation is necessary. This is according to Peter Youngs, writing under the auspices of the Center for American Progress. This new strategy requires reform of the current system of teacher evaluation and needs the buy-in of principals and other school leaders. In the introduction to the report, Youngs provides the following background:

The Common Core State Standards Initiative, in its aim to align diverse state curricula and improve educational outcomes, calls for K-12 teachers in the United States to engage all students in mathematical problem solving along with reading and writing complex text through the use of rigorous academic content. Until recently, most teacher evaluation systems in this country did not measure or promote the ability of teachers to practice in these ways.

This report discusses efforts to develop and implement Common Core standards and assessments in the 45 states and the District of Columbia that are initiative members, and outlines how past attempts to enact standards-based reform have been impeded by limitations in teacher evaluation. It also draws on the notion of “standard of care,” from the field of medicine, to note that advances in our understanding of subject matter, pedagogy, how students learn, and technology call for teachers to continually acquire new knowledge and to refine their instructional practices by participating in comprehensive professional development on a regular basis.

Youngs then proceeds to recommend the following as concrete changes that could be made to help implement the reform needed to help bring about a successful Common Core model:

• Utilize school-based instructional coaches in English language and mathematics to provide ongoing professional learning opportunities to teachers related to the Common Core standards and assessments. In addition, districts can support principals’ efforts to connect teachers to relevant external professional development based on classroom observation and student survey ratings.

• Ensure the validity and reliability of classroom observation protocols by implementing a standardized approach to training principals and other evaluators, and monitoring their ratings. In addition, districts can train principals to provide timely, meaningful feedback to teachers based on observational data.

• Provide training to principals to ensure that student surveys are administered in a uniform way across schools and classrooms, and work out specific procedures for administering them to young children and students with disabilities. To address teachers’ resistance to the use of student surveys, districts can educate them about the value of student survey data. Further, districts can train principals to provide timely, meaningful feedback to teachers based on student survey data.

• Use multiple years of value-added model data in evaluating individual teachers. High-stakes decisions such as dismissal, career ladder promotion, or merit pay should focus only on those teachers who consistently receive bottom-quartile or top-quartile value-added model scores over multiple years.

• Combine aspects—or scaled-down versions—of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and edTPA assessments with one or more of the other approaches discussed in this report.

For access to the full report, please see:
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/education/report/2013/02/05/51410/using-teacher-evaluation-reform-and-professional-development-to-support-common-core-assessments/

Leaders to Learn From

Posted on February 20, 2013 by coreeducation

In the first of what will be an annual report on leadership, Education Week’s Leaders To Learn From provides fifteen profiles on forward-thinking education leaders.

The importance of effective educational leadership goes almost without saying: Some research suggests leadership is second only to classroom instruction among all the school-related factors that contribute to student learning. Leaders To Learn From aims to draw attention to the importance of good leadership and spread the word on strategies and tactics from leaders in some of the nation’s 14,000-plus districts that others may want to adopt or adapt. This 2013 report provides profiles of 15 district-level leaders—superintendents, assistant superintendents, and others, including a union president—all of whom had a clear vision of how they wanted to improve their districts or areas of responsibility, and brought it to fruition.

FEATURED LEADERS:

Minn. Superintendent Pioneered ELL Reforms
An immigrant herself, Valeria Silva led by example a nationwide push to teach English-learners in mainstream classes.

Veteran Educator Turns Around Cincinnati Schools
Under Superintendent Mary Ronan’s oversight, 16 schools climbed out of “academic emergency.”

N.C. District Embraces College for All
Under Superintendent Austin Obasohan, Duplin County schools is expanding early-college high schools district-wide and instilling college ambitions in children from kindergarten on.

Mo. Tech. Specialist Pushes Power of Social Media
Kyle Pace, an instructional technology specialist in Lee’s Summit, is teaching teachers how to take charge of their own professional development through social networking.

Register to view the Leaders To Learn From live event. This April 18th the Leaders will be honored at an exclusive event in Washington, D.C., featuring a keynote by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. While this in an exclusive, invitation-only event, you can view it in its entirety by registering here.

For more, see: http://www.edweek.org/leaders/

Teacher Professional Development in “Fragile Contexts”

Posted on February 7, 2013 by coreeducation

Join the Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) for Teacher Professional Development in Crisis: How Can We Give Teachers in Fragile Contexts the Learning They Want and Need? a three-month online special forum at http://www.ineesite.org/en/blog/teacher-professional-development-in-crisis-series.

The forum will bring together international experts, practitioners and teachers to share PD-related research, ideas and strategies to gather in one space our collective understanding of effective professional development to begin to shift the narrative around professional development from “quantity” and “scale” to quality and impact.
The forum will include weekly contributions by professional development specialists who work in a variety of global settings who will discuss:

Problems and solutions in teacher professional development (TPD) and continuous professional development (CPD)
Best practices, case studies and models of effective professional development supported by research
Ways forward to bring high-quality professional development to teachers across the globe, with an emphasis on developing countries, fragile contexts, and low-income environments

The forum is being organized and facilitated by Mary Burns, Education Development Center (USA) and James Lawrie, War Child (Netherlands) with the support of Peter Transburg (INEE). The forum will also support French, Spanish and Portuguese-language discussions for those who are more comfortable in these languages.

The Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) is a global network of over 8,500 practitioners and policy makers based in Paris. It promotes the right to quality education and safe learning environments in emergencies and post-crisis recovery.

How to Participate
1.       Go to the following website and create an account (it is free): www.ineesite.org/join (Unless you belong to one of the organizations listed, under “Organization/Affiliation,” check Other).
2.       The URL for the discussion is: http://www.ineesite.org/en/blog/teacher-professional-development-in-crisis-series (or go to www.ineesite.org, select Blog, and then Teacher Professional Development in Crisis)
3.       Each Monday (from February 4-April 29, 2013) a guest author will post on a particular issue related to teacher professional development. You will have to log in in order to comment.
4.       Feel free to upload and share any evidence-based professional development related-resources that demonstrate effective professional development.

The link one more time is: http://www.ineesite.org/en/blog/teacher-professional-development-in-crisis-series

Hilton offers Unique Teacher Travel Opportunity

Posted on February 1, 2013 by coreeducation

Hilton will fund 15 teachers to “travel and experience first-hand the subject they teach, enriching their curriculum and inspiring students to explore the world.” Known as the Teacher Treks Travel Grant Competition, Hilton developed the program in partnership with the Institute of International Education (IIE), one of the world’s largest and most experienced international education and training organizations.

K-12 teachers from across the United States and Puerto Rico are invited to enter here (https://hiltonhhonors.promo.eprize.com/teachertreks/:b=firefox18) or at the HHonors Facebook page, facebook.com/HiltonHHonors, to enter their submission by March 15, 2013.

Along with a photo, candidates need to submit:

Two essays between 300 and 600 words, detailing their proposed global adventure and their plan for sharing their experiences with students and colleagues
A 140-character entry summary, telling voters why they should win
A letter of recommendation from their school’s principal

There are also several levels of award winners:

Winners: 15 winners will receive a trip valued at $6,000 to travel to a destination of their choice; in addition to the trip, each winning teachers’ school will also receive a $2,500 grant to use for cultural activities or enhancements
Runners-up: 15 runners-up will each receive a $2,500 grant for their school to use for cultural activities or enhancements
One winner from all submissions will receive a cultural excursion for their classroom valued at $1,500
From those that voted in the Teacher Treks competition, 10 random winners will receive one Hilton HHonors Gift Card valued at $250

Thirty finalists, for the winner and runner-up positions, will be selected by “a panel of judges that includes teachers and other education experts selected by IIE.” Then, voting will open to the public on Monday, April 8, 2013 with voting closing on Tuesday, April 30, 2013. Each person visiting the website will be able to vote from within the 30 finalists selected by the panel.

Winners will be announced in May of 2013.

For more information, please visit the following website:

http://news.hiltonhhonors.com/index.cfm/newsroom/detail/22724

Reality TV: Coming to Your Classroom

Posted on August 23, 2012 by coreeducation

The public school system in Washington, D.C. has hired a reality TV company to produce videos intended to improve the skills of its teachers. So far, 80 videos of 5 to 15 minutes each, have been produced. The videos are “peppered with quick jump cuts, slick screen labels and a jaunty soundtrack.”

The videos, financed through a Gates Foundation grant, were developed to complement IMPACT, D.C.’s teacher evaluation system. IMPACT has been controversial from the start, with many teachers complaining that they needed examples of what excellent teaching looks like. To meet teachers’ needs, and to improve overall performance of the District’s school system, DC decided to push ahead with their new reality-TV-style PD strategy.

Many districts and independent charter schools have begun to create video libraries of best practices to assist teachers, who often are “egg crated” in their classrooms with few chances of observing colleagues. Teaching Channel, a nonprofit organization, has a collection of more than 500 professionally produced videos of teachers; and the University of Michigan is in the process of indexing about 16,000 videos shot by researchers (also financed by the Gates Foundation).

Experts warn that the videos cannot be used independently—they must be part of broader professional development. For example, athletes often watch competitor videos to figure out the best strategies for outperforming them. However, they don’t leave it at that; after viewing video clips they go practice the strategies they just observed.

Amid skepticism from some quarters, it appears that video resources are here to stay. However, given the growing “mountain” of resrouces, “as much effort needs to be put into how to use this stuff as collecting tons of it,” observes Deborah Loewenberg Ball of the University of Michigan’s School of Education.

The "Core" of Education

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