Personalized Learning | Blended Learning
Most of the time when I blog I am not trying to sell you anything (well, not directly). I certainly never call out “Hey! Buy me!” I never put in a bunch of links for things I am hoping you will purchase, or say “click here” and expect that you will. But you know what they say: never say never.
Today’s blog post is all about shameless promotion. The good news is, I am not promoting myself, or even promoting Ed Elements. I am promoting our panels at #SXSWedu, in which we are the organizers and the moderators (who the audience quickly forgets) and the stars are this amazing network of districts and thought partners we are excited to bring together. I am promoting a group of incredible people sharing their experiences with personalized learning, edtech, and how it all really works in K12. So yes, this blog post is about shameless promotion. But I can own that.
So here we go: Vote for Us! Click on all the links below! Trust me (and not in the used car salesperson sense - no offense intended to used car salespeople) - you will be glad you picked our panels. They are going to be interesting, informative and fun. But we need your votes to make sure we get to bring all these great panels to Austin this March.
First off, the great debate. Join Anthony Kim, Founder and CEO of Ed Elements, Brian Greenberg, CEO of Silicon Schools Fund and moderator Heather Staker of the Christensen Institute as they duke it out in debate style in Tried and True vs. Shiny and New. They will share ideas and verbal punches around how much innovation is enough in instructional models. Vote here.
Next up? Technology and digital content providers can facilitate flexible paths and pacing for students, core to a competency-based environment. This panel will explore strategies to implement and scale competency-based personalization. This amazing panel includes Chris Sturgis of Competency Works, Julia Freeland of the Christensen Institute, Jane Bryson of Education Elements and me (don’t worry, just as the moderator). Vote here.
So much data, but is it the right data at the right time? The session will deconstruct data use to support personalized instruction. Access to data has been less and less of a challenge because of education technologies. However, the volume of data around student needs and performance can be overwhelming. This panel discussion will pick apart the role, types and uses of data in the personalized classroom from the perspectives of school leaders, teachers and industry experts. Panelists include Amy Creeden of the Enlarged City School District of Middletown, Betsy Raffery of the Seton Schools, Matt Carlton of Landmark Academy and our own incredible Justin DeLeon. Vote here.
And finally, hear from teachers how blended learning helps their special needs students to achieve. There is lots of talk about how blended learning helps all students - but does it? We convened some special ed teachers to find out. They will share best practices for implementation, and talk about the successes they are seeing from differentiating instruction & using data on a daily basis to better chart incremental student progress and help students set and meet goals. Vote here
So that’s it. Vote 4 times for our 4 panels. Tweet about them to your networks. Tell all your friends on Facebook. And then book your ticket to Austin and meet us there for SXSWedu!
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