A couple of ed tech articles worth checking out today:
Hechinger Report takes a look at blended learning in New Jersey. The headline emphasizes the predictable conflict with teachers unions but buried in the article is the issue that has a lot of people worried – how do you ensure that ed tech doesn’t become just the latest iteration of class stratified teaching? Poor students do need different support/methods than affluent students but the goal should be moving all students to richer learning opportunities. To the extent that tech can accelerate that, and there is some evidence it can (though not as much as its boosters claim), that’s for the good. But the risk is obvious.
Underneath the hype about ed tech Tutor.com is one of those companies quietly doing some interesting things – they offer tutoring for military families via a DOD program, for instance. Big potential for what Tutor does is one reason it was just purchased. Very few education firms successfully sell into a consumer market – this is one of them.
In higher education technology is playing out in some ways as it is the newspaper business – its potential to disrupt and tear down is clear, what gets built on the other side less so. And the revenue model still up in the air. Tamar Lewin takes a look at that in The Times. Via the grapevine and chatter it seems that investors are becoming aware of just how frothy the ed tech space has become.
Nice information about learning..
There are very excellent online creative writing tools and communities available now, perhaps not specifically designed for educational curriculum, but that are suitable – places like http://scribeslice.com or protagonist are doing a really good job of providing the ability to do creative writing online and provide feedback, direction and editorial support. Wonder when a moderated system like this will arrive for the classroom?