If there is an Achilles’ heel to a future of robust personalized learning for all K-12 students, it is the uneven attention to the cybersecurity risks facing school information technology assets and data. In this post, I offer emerging lessons about real and perceived information security issues facing schools from the data underlying the K-12 Cyber Incident Map.
In the public interest, an archived copy of the January 2017 E-rate progress report, “E‐rate Modernization: Progress and the Road Ahead,” rescinded by the FCC two weeks after is was issued.
The authors of the 2016 EdNext Poll on School Reform claim that support for blended learning has dropped among parents since last year. A closer look at two year’s worth of their polling data and analysis, however, raises more questions than answers. It seems there is a glitch in the EdReform Matrix.
Newly published, peer-reviewed research finds that one-to-one laptop programs improve student academic achievement in K-12 classrooms. Given the top line finding, I suspect the study will garner much attention and – at the same time – be subject to much spin. Here is my summary of the study, with accompanying analysis of what we can reasonably conclude from the findings.
“Such clear and direct relationships are few and far between in education—and these findings raise many implications for states and districts as they shift to online assessment.”
New research by EdTech Strategies, LLC, reveals that in spring 2016 – for the first time ever – the majority of US elementary & middle school students will be testing online, not taking paper and pencil tests.
Three thoughts (which are perhaps two more than deserved) on the treatment of edtech in the 2015 EdNext Poll on School Reform.
According to an alarming new study, school districts are routinely sharing individual student data about discipline with colleges as part of the admissions process, and colleges are in turn using that data to deny admissions to students. With no empirical evidence to support the practice, a lack of written policy, and demonstrable harm to students, this practice must cease.
Games for learning advocates take note. A new study reveals that parents of young children are more likely to say technology and media has a positive effect on young children’s creativity and basic educational skills. However, the one medium that runs counter to this trend is video games, for which a majority of parents hold negative views in terms of its impact on learning. I can offer no compelling armchair hypothesis for why parents are so negative about the educational impact of games. It seems as if there is some cultural bias at play that is anti-gaming – and I believe undeservedly so.
High school teachers are routinely assigning homework that requires the use of the Internet. Yet, not every student has easy access to computers and the internet outside of school. A new study sheds light on the scope and consequence of the issue.
