EdTech 10: Valentines or Singles Awareness Day Edu

It’s that time again. Whether you consider it Singles Awareness Day or Valentines Day, Team Getting Smart is here for you as we share the latest EdTech news from this week that we know you’ll love to know. Cupid himself couldn’t be more fond of this collection of breaking news, updates, and releases. As we’re hard at work on elevating stories for the recently launched Smart Parents and GenDIY projects, we’re happy to circle back with the weekly EdTech 10 wrap.

Cue the romantic tunes, relax, and kick back with this week’s top EdTech news stories.

Blended Schools & Tools

1. Lights, Camera, Academics. What sort of education environment is most likely to succeed in the 21st century? This is the driving question of Most Likely To Succeed, a 2015 Sundance selected documentary that makes the case for education reform that better suits today’s economy.

Digital Developments

2. Startin’ On Up. Studypool and Cloud Academy are two members of 500 Startups’ 11th Mountain View cohort and were featured by TechCrunch as top startups in the class whose foci range from cookie delivery to health in the Arab world.

3. Shhhhh, The Demonstrations Are Starting. Milestones is a new online collection of videos from GreatSchools aimed at supporting understanding of grade-level expectations in K-5 reading, writing and math.  

4. SnowBigDealThe Bay State might be buried in 60+ inches of snow but that didn’t stop Boston-based LearnLarnch Accelerator from naming six early-stage EdTech startups to their Winter 2015 Accelerator Program. Congrats Authless, Education Modified, Knowledge to Practice, NI-O Toys, Pip Learning Technologies, and Quill!

Dollars & Deals

5. RIP. As described in Using Prize & Pull Mechanisms to Boost Learning, prizes have the power to mobilize action and energy towards needs in ways other levers cannot.The B $1 million Broad Prize for Urban Education spurred investment and alignment in the early days but it’s not getting the lift it did in 2002 so the  The Broad Foundation suspended the prize.  Unfortunately, they also hit pause on personalized learning grants just when the revolution is getting into full-swing.

6. Listen Up. Listen Current secured $950K to expand their curation of radio content for classroom use. With the growing list of must listen podcasts and podcasts becoming commonplace for learners on the go, it’s great to see the integration audio in classrooms as a method for enriching LX. Did someone say Getting Smart podcast? (hint).

7. It’s A Deal. Schools are notorious for common website mistakes. That’s why school web managers have reason to celebrate as LMS expert Blackboard has acquired Schoolwires to support in building student-focused K-12 school websites and apps.

Stem Gems

8. Game on. MIND Research Institute, Getting Smart Advocacy Partner, has launched a unique opportunity for students, educators and parents to showcase their understanding of math standards through a national K-12 Game-a-thon. This is the 2nd annual game-building competition sponsored by the nonprofit. This year’s theme: “Math Your Own Adventure.”

Higher, Deeper, Further, Faster Learning

9. CBE Land of Opportunity. Clayton Christensen Institute’s Michelle Weise shared in Wired why innovators, entrepreneurs, and tech companies should take advantage of online competency-based education to skill up Americans to build a ladder into the middle class.

The Big “D”

10. Dashboard Confessional. Alliance for Excellent Education released Data Dashboards: Accounting for What Matters that the makes the case for systems in schools and districts to go beyond scores when assessing achievement. The “Data Dashboards” could provide transparency and performance and accountability tracking to better serve underserved students.

Getting Smart Staff

The Getting Smart Staff believes in learning out loud and always being an advocate for things that we are excited about. As a result, we write a lot. Do you have a story we should cover? Email [email protected]

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1 Comment

jamesbarber
4/22/2015

Knowledgeable post.As we're working diligently on hoisting stories for the as of late propelled Smart Parents and GenDIY ventures, we're content to hover back with the week by week EdTech 10 wrap.

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