Source: nation.foxnews.com --- 46 minutes agoThe predictable effect of more regulation has arrived: Investment is plummeting. By L. GORDON CROVITZ | Wall Street Journal Sept. 13, 2015 6:29 p.m. ET It’s Back-to-School time, and Internet More...
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Source: wwlp.com --- 1 hour agoSPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – As your kids go Back to School there’s one thing you don’t want them to bring Back home. The 22News I-Team discovered just how common head lice are, and a new way kids More...
Source: www.nbcnews.com --- 3 hours agoAs the September gets rolling and the carefree days of summer come to a close, the most popular question among students is, "What are you wearing?"
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Source: www.blogher.com --- 4 hours agoSo, like many of you, I'm refreshing my Back to School cleaning routine with two of my little mess-makers gone during the day. And today, in partnership with Bounty, I'm sharing my easy 5 minute More...
Source: publicradiotulsa.org --- 4 hours agoThere is big news today for prospective college students and their parents. It comes from Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who is in Iowa with President Obama for his annual Back to School Bus Tour. More...
Source: www.wday.com --- 4 hours agoWDAY Midday Live Host Sandy Buttweiler debuts a new segment, "Our Take", with Tracy Briggs and Cris Linares. Some topics discussed areBack to School, bullying and what young women face.
Facebook is going to school. Not as in the “Facebook” page that just about everyone on the planet “likes.” Instead the company has created a tight partnership with California-based charter network, Summit Public Schools, to build a software platform that both educators and entrepreneurs hope will help students plunge deeply into meaningful learning.
The collaboration, which started in early 2014, veers away from the traditional intensive fact-packed style of learning to emphasize a student-centered, exploratory learning model. Technology comes into play in two ways: It gives students more command over the pace and direction of their own learning, putting the resources they need at their fingertips when they need it. And technology tightens communications between teachers and students, enabling the teachers to act more like “coaches” and less like lecturers, even as they keep an eye on whether students are working their way through academic standards.
Although learning by doing is hardly a new approach, this amped-up version is still evolving. And if the collaboration between the relatively tiny school network and the social media giant proves successful, it could offer some unusual answers to powerfully explosive questions: Who is shaping public education? And how will students learn?
What will make all the difference: Which entity—the school or the company—stays in command of the tools that they are jointly creating.
Here’s why.
Plenty of technology companies, including the giants, have an “edu” division or group: Apple was among the earliest to go deeply into education. Microsoft, Google and many others created packages of products—some paid and some free—for education. Most of the time, such companies built their product for their “primary” customer—either consumers or industry—and then figured out how to morph their offerings for schools. Some of them tried to listen to the needs of the educators; others were more attentive to the difference the sales made to their bottom lines.
Beginning around 2010, technology was becoming powerful and flexible enough that users could imagine designing what they wanted technology to do. Edtech startups began to emerge, some of which have been strongly influenced by users—and in education, that included educators.
Educators, meanwhile, have been battling a welter of challenges: Calls for “improved performance”—by students and teachers—were growing shrill. At the same time, student diversity was accelerating: the kids who came to school had an exploding number of needs, spoke a profusion of languages, and frequently came from families battered by poverty and the economic downturn. Connecting the “classic curriculum” to the lives of these students was increasingly hard.
“The industrial model of schooling [isn’t] working well for anyone—our schools were designed for a very different time and purpose and are simply not able to prepare and inspire every young person to be successful over the course of their lives,” wrote Stacey Childress, CEO of NewSchools Venture Fund and formerly with the Gates Foundation, in a recent blog post.
At Summit Public Schools in Redwood City, CA, executive director Diane Tavenner created a program where 55% of her high school students graduated from college in six years—double the national average for the demographic of students Summit serves. The outcome made her cry.
“I still remember getting that result,” she recalled, speaking at a conference earlier this year. “Tears were rolling down my face. I had given more of myself to the kids in those classes than I did to my own son. And 55% just wasn’t good enough.”
Budding entrepreneurs, including many who had taught in the classroom or been corps members in Teach for America, began designing technology explicitly for schools and students.
And so did some schools:
Aspire Public Schools launched Schoolzilla, a data warehouse platform that displays schools’ data in detailed graphics and charts in 2009. In 2013, the development team spun out into its own B-Corporation.
Leadership Public Schools in 2012 created ExitTicket, a classroom response system. It was acquired by EdStart in March 2014.
Philadelphia public magnet school, The Science Leadership Academy (SLA), developed Slate, a multi-faceted learning management and student information system that supports communications between teachers, students and parents, and store school records and assignments.
At Summit, Tavenner and her team started down an ambitious path to put students at the center of learning. To support how they wanted students to learn, the educators began to cobble together Google docs and spreadsheets.
After a year or so of relying on an in-house engineer (and former entrepreneur) Sam Strasser, Tavenner and her team realized they needed more engineering horsepower. Through a Secondment Agreement(which allows companies to loan out employees), Summit wound up with a team of six Facebook engineers devoted to working on its Personal Learning Platform, or PLP.
Last year, more than 2,000 students and 100 teachers used Summit’s PLP. Over the summer, Summit threw open its doors for a two-week long “Basecamp” program. Twenty-one educators from middle and high schools schools around the US got a crash course in both the Summit model and in using the PLP, and will spend this year putting the approach into practice in their schools.
So far, Tavenner and her partners, including Facebook, say what they are building is just what the Summit educators have in mind.
“We’ll use feedback from this program to improve the PLP so we can eventually offer it, for free, to any school in the US that wants it,” wrote Chris Cox, Facebook’s chief product officer, in a blog post published today. The PLP, he added, is “completely separate from Facebook,” and does not require a Facebook account to log in. The teams are aiming for a “gold standard” around protecting student data, they assert. For starters, they are adhering to the White House-endorsed Student Privacy Pledge, which Summit has signed.
In the paper she coauthored with Childress, Tavenner says she’s committed to making all the tools that Summit uses free for educators—including the PLP, Summit’s full curriculum, assessments and its emerging Professional Development Platform.
But Childress, Tavenner and their coauthor also warn that the commitment is heavy—and may not conform to the usual cyclical demands of commercial or even political development. “We must be far more patient about the investment (time, money, and energy) needed to design, build and refine better models of schooling,” they write.
That will become the test for the Facebook partnership: Will the company, even with its vast resources, continue to let the educators lead? And how will they demonstrate that commitment to educators, parents and even students, year after year?
In a brief post about the announcement, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg acknowledges the need for community input and collaboration. He writes.
Building software that will enable personalized learning for all children is a new and exciting challenge for Facebook and we can’t do it alone. We’re committed to listening to and learning from the education community—teachers, parents and organizations that are supporting personalized learning—and we're looking forward to opening up to more students soon.
Source: www.newschannel6now.com --- 12 minutes agoFree School supplies for pre-k through high School were handed out in downtown Wichita Falls early this morning. A new group called the Shonda Carter Price Foundation collected supplies through More...
Source: www.ibtimes.com --- 2 hours agoAs we close out the month of August and prepare to head Back to School, there’s one small silver lining: With the beginning of a new month comes the addition of new content to HBO Now -- meaning More...
Source: nationalreport.net --- 2 hours ago(AP Photo/Wong Maye-E, File) It’s that time of the year again. The kids are going Back to School, the NFL season is about to begin, and North Korea has once again threatened to attack the United More...
Source: www.littlethings.com --- 2 hours agoWhen I was still in School, the beginning of the semester was always an excuse to buy new clothes. I would argue with my parents or save up as I got older. Every School year felt like a fresh start, More...
Source: www.wwaytv3.com --- 3 hours agoWILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — The 16-th annual Back to School Buddies Backpack Giveaway was help today at the Martin Luther King Center in Wilmington. Organizers said over 2,000 backpacks filled with More...
Source: www.monett-times.com --- 3 hours agoLess fortunate School children in the Monett area will receive School supplies thanks to the 'Stuff the Bus' project, hosted by EFCO Corporation, 3D Corporate Solutions, Cox Monett Hospital and More...
Source: wagrobanite.tumblr.com --- 4 hours agostuffmomnevertoldyou : Back to School time is also Back to terrible, no good School dress code time. via: Modesty Is NOT the Best Policy
Source: www.drugs.com --- 1 hour agoSATURDAY, Aug. 22, 2015 -- With the new School year here, parents might think about measures to protect their children's spinal health, an expert says. "Parents should be attentive to the amount of More...
Source: www.newsrt.co.uk --- 1 hour agoWITH just two weeks of the summer holidays remaining, the countdown has begun for the first dayBack at School. Children will have enjoyed weeks of freedom after the end of the last academic year, More...
Source: www.cnn.com --- 2 hours agoIn the ad, she's beaming in her Back-to-School best, golden pigtails and mile-wide smile, helping sell shoes for a California company.
Source: stylelifefashion.com --- 2 hours agoStyle + Life + Fashion A new School year can turn even the most organized kitchen into a chaotic mess. Whether you’re off to college, or sending your little one to their first day of School, keeping More...
Source: www.educationviews.org --- 3 hours agoBy Michelle Minton – It’s Back to School season, which for many parents means spending money on new clothes, shuttling young people from sports games to ballet, and increasingly, worrying about the More...
Source: www.wkkj.com --- 4 hours ago'Sustainable Electronics Recycling International says businesses and individuals often discard their computers prematurely. �'
Source: consumerqueen.com --- 4 hours agoHere’s your Office Depot Back to School deals for 8/23 – 8/29! 1¢ Items: While supplies last – no rainchecks – with a $5.00 purchase Office Depot 2 pocket paper […] ConsumerQueen.com- Oklahoma's More...
Source: www.newsrt.us --- 4 hours agoLaptop? Check. Smartphone? Yep. Backpack? Of course. Now that you've got the essential gear forBack-to-School, you might consider some additional high-tech companions that can help you in and out More...
Source: www.afro.com --- 29 minutes agoPrince George’s County Public Schools hosted their fifth annual Back-toSchool Fair at the Show Place Arena in Upper Marlboro on Aug. 8. (Photo by Courtney Jacobs) To help prepare students for the More...
Source: www.1011now.com --- 1 hour agoIt was a milestone for many today in LPS on the first day Back to School, and for kindergarten parents that can mean a very emotional day.
Source: www.polyvore.com --- 3 hours agoBack to School: New Shoes by houseofhauteness on Polyvore.com Backto School #keds #newshoes #backtoschool #backpack #School#schoolhousechic
Source: wreg.com --- 3 hours agoMILLINGTON, Tenn. — Amanda Grierson said it is hard being a mother without a job. “The income does especially with kids going Back to School,” she said. Grierson said things such as shelter, food More...
Source: pbcommercial.com --- 3 hours agoTracy Shavers Ministries will host a Back to School Bash from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 22, at Townsend Park.
Source: www.ocalapost.com --- 3 hours agoOcala, Florida — On Sunday, August 16, My Salon Suites in Ocala is offering free haircuts for elementary School students — 1st through 5th grade — from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in exchange for a donated More...
Source: www.heraldstaronline.com --- 4 hours agoBLOOMINGDALE - Jefferson County Joint Vocational School is officially welcoming students with the second-annual Back To School Kickoff on Aug. 24 at the School, county Road 22A.
Source: www.kmbc.com --- 4 hours agoThe end of summer can be a little tough on students, but some schools in the Hickman Mills SchoolDistrict have a new tradition that aims to get the School year off to a good start.
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Source: www.idahostatesman.com --- 1 hour agoHere’s an item you might want to add to your Back-to-School shopping list – an app to track what your child is doing on his or her cellphone. Click to Continue »
Source: kplr11.com --- 1 hour agoST. LOUIS (KPLR) – It’s time to send your kids Back to School in style and that means with the latest technology! Here to show us some of the coolest new gadgets for Back to School is Michael More...
Source: www.polyvore.com --- 2 hours agoBack to School with LIVLOV Top by spenderellastyle on Polyvore.com #backtoschool @livlovcollection TOP : http://www.movestoslow.com/category803/top-en-neopreno-con-peplum-manga-corta
Source: ktla.com --- 2 hours agoLifestyle Expert Amanda Garrigus joined us live with Back to School Essentials from Pottery Barn Kids and Pottery Barn Teen. They will have everything from backpacks to lunchboxes, desks, locker More...
Source: www.news4jax.com --- 2 hours agoHomeless students returning to classes in Duval County will have a Back-to-School wardrobe they can feel confident wearing, thanks to a shopping campaign by the Sulzbacher Center.
Source: www.csmonitor.com --- 3 hours agoAugust lacks a major commercial holiday, it's still a busy month for retailers and deal hunters alike.Back-to-School sales are at their prime this month, and in the coming weeks consumers will be More...
Source: jamaica-gleaner.com --- 10 minutes agoAs telecommunications firms LIME and FLOW continue to combine their operations, the joint entity is also planning to host two major Back-to-School fairs aimed at providing assistance to more than More...
Source: www.logicbuy.com --- 1 hour agoBack-to-School! Amazon offers the 12-Pack HI-LITER Desk Style Fluorescent Yellow for low $4.58 plus FREE shipping for Prime members on the Add-on program on orders of $25. What makes this deal hot: More...
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Source: www.wsvn.com --- 1 hour agoIt's almost time to head Back to School, and 7News has a checklist of what you'll need in order to be ready for that first day.
Source: www.nola.com --- 2 hours agoRiverdale High School has been an Old Jefferson educational institution since 1962, opening that year for girls only in grades nine through 12. Today, the School is co-ed.
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