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This resource houses many of the frameworks and theories used and discussed in current educational settings. This includes the Addie, Gerlach and Ely Design, Kirkpatrick, and Kemp Design.

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Frameworks & Theories Archives - Educational Technology

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Frameworks, models and theories related to educational technology such as leaning theories (Behaviorism, Cognitivism and Constructivism) and theorists, instructional frameworks and models and other theoretical issues and problems.

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TPACK, also known as Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge, aids in teachers identifying knowledge areas that are not as strong when it comes to content, pedagogy, and technology. These 3 knowledges should be intricately woven within a solid learning environment. Content represents the “what”. Pedagogy is the “how” information is disseminated. Technology is the partner that helps the content more accessible.

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TPACK, or Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge, is a model that helps teachers consider how their knowledge domains intersect in order to effectively teach and engage students with technology. Learn more about TPACK and how you can combine your knowledge of content, pedagogy, and technology for innovative teaching and learning.

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Introduction to the TPACK Model | Common Sense Education

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Introduction to the TPACK Model is a video from Common Sense Education. Use this video to help your students learn and thrive in our connected world.

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IPAC discusses pedagogies of mobile learning. This includes personalization, authenticity, and collaboration. Mobile learning provides personalization through agency and customization. It makes experiences relevant and meaningful for the learner. This environment also allows learners to interact with other learners, making connections and networking.

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The iPAC framework is the theoretical underpinning for the Mobile Learning Toolkit. It was originally developed in 2012 by academics and teacher educators working in the University of Hull (UK) and...

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TIM recognizes 5 characteristics in a learning environment that aid to successful and deep learning environments. This includes: active, collaborative, constructive, authentic, and goal-directed. These characteristics are interdependent and are discussed on a 5-level system: entry, adoption, adaptation, infusion, and transformation.

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The Technology Integration Matrix

The Technology Integration Matrix (TIM) provides a framework for describing and targeting the use of technology to enhance learning. The TIM incorporates five interdependent characteristics of meaningful learning environments: active, collaborative, constructive, authentic, and goal-directed. These characteristics are associated with five levels of technology integration: entry, adoption, adaptation, infusion, and transformation. Together, the five characteristics of meaningful learning environments and five levels of technology integration create a matrix of 25 cells, as illustrated below. All TIM descriptors apply equally well to online and face-to-face instruction, Developed by the Florida Center for Instructional Technology (FCIT) in 2005, the TIM is now in its third edition (2019).

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Dr. Ruben Puentedera is the creator of the SAMR technology model. In this resource, he discusses the beginnings of the SAMR framework and explains the different levels and when to use them. At times, there is no reason to go beyond the Substitution level. It all depends on the end goal and lesson design. Puentedera gives specific examples highlighting the difference between the levels, especially the Modification and Redefinition level.

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Ruben Puentedura on Applying the SAMR Model

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Common Sense Education provides educators and students with the resources they need to harness the power of technology for learning and life. Find a free K-12 Digital Citizenship curriculum, reviews

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Birmingham Covington School reveals how they collaborate through teacher labs. Teachers have a roughly 3-hour session, cross-curricular. They include a teacher lab protocol which includes: identify a professional learning topic, brainstorm best practices, observe a host teacher’s classroom, and discuss observations and takeaways.

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Teacher Labs: Making Professional Development Collaborative

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David Weston, TDT (Teacher Development Trust Chief) discusses why teachers are struggling to improve and be supported in their field. He examines the research and policies that are significant for schools to put teacher development at the top of their list.

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Why Teacher Development is the Growing Priority - David Weston (Keynote)

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This project reveals past PD formats that don’t work and identifies strategies that are effective.

PD is most relevant when focused on real work, in real schools, with real students. It needs be interactive, social, and based in discourse and community practice.

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Providing Effective Professional Development for Educators

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Rutgers university looks at PD with a flipped approach, just as you would provide for your classroom. It is a model-based approach to produce effective PD to help teachers implement this approach within their own learning environments. The video takes a walk through the PD session.

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Modeling-Based (Flipped) Professional Development at Rutgers University - Dr. Lodge McCammon

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http://lodgemccammon.com In all of our professional development sessions, we model an efficient and active learning environment. Video lectures are created ahead of time; that include all of the lecture content we intend to cover throughout the day. Not only are these video lectures 60-80% shorter than live lectures of the same information, but they also help to create a self-paced learning environment.

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This article discusses the benefits of social learning and tries to counter some of the myths associated with it. Myth 1 identifies social learning is new. Albert Bandura established the model of social learning in 1970. Myth 2 states social learning is the same as social media. Social media can be a support to social learning. Using social media tools in the classroom demands specific goals and guidelines to keep the learner focused. Myth 3 is social learning is just for fun. The interconnected, interactive nature of social learning enhances the learning. Myth 4 says social learning doesn’t have broad appeal. On the contrary, social learning is making the “web” seem old school.

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You've heard of "safety in numbers." You may not have heard of "learning in numbers"...though you've probably already done it.

Working together has been part of the educational process since ancient Greece, if not before. But in today's increasingly collaborative world, where answers to information are mere seconds away, this approach is being reinvented by active learners, for active learners. Ongoing improvements in personal technology and online communities have redefined what it means to be social. And this will, in turn, redefine what it means to teach and learn.

Let's go myth-busting.

Myth 1:

Social Learning Is New

We all want the next big thing. But the next big thing is not always the next new thing.

In the late 1970s, Albert Bandura established the most well-known theory of modern social learning, which proposes that people can learn in a social context.

More specifically:

Learning can occur by observing others' behaviors and the resulting outcomes

Learning can occur cognitively without a corresponding change in behavior

Modeled behavior is reinforced by producing desirable outcomes (for both the observed party and the learner)

Three variables in the social learning context-the learner, the behavior, and the environment-can influence each other

The advantages of social learning, including learning by example and the reinforcement of knowledge that comes with the "human connection," are as valid today.

However, the advent of social networking technologies has helped create a new breed of social learning. In today's environment, instructors still act as models, facilitators, mentors, and guides, but at the same time relinquish a degree of their authority to the "learning community," which includes students in the classroom, remotely located students, and a huge variety of resources that are as close as an Internet connection. In turn, each individual in the network of learners actively shares both knowledge and challenges.
The first generation of active learners who have grown up in a digitally connected environment provides a 21st century direction for social learning.

Myth 2:

Social Learning Is the Same as Social Media

Social media and social learning are as much the same as French fries and French toast. In other words, they're different (but both wonderful).

Social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Pinterest make it easy and motivate people to connect, share information, and develop relationships. Yet they can also provide the means to wander aimlessly, discovering people and information that may serve no value when it comes to learning.

When using these sites in the classroom, specific goals, directions, and guidelines on how to reach them (such as input from an instructor or lesson plan) can be used to facilitate formal social learning. However, social learning can also occur informally, without a pre-defined leader or curriculum, when topics originate organically from the learners themselves-for example, a group of students who get together to study for an upcoming test.

Social learning strategist and designer Tom Spiglanin explains social learning and social media exist separately, but social media can be used in support of social learning.

Dan Pontefract, head of learning and collaboration at Canadian firm Telus, posed a further distinction in Chief Learning Officer: Social media is a tool; social learning is an action. And online social technologies have enabled frictionless social learning opportunities.

Researchers Baiyun Chen and Thomas Bryer found that online social tools provide learners with "connections across boundaries and over time" and facilitate informal discussion and collaboration (key elements of social learning).

Myth 3:

Social Learning Is Just for Fun

Social learning is fun, but not just for fun. Like all of us, it multi-tasks.

Social learning has real benefits for both individuals and institutions. The interconnected, interactive nature of social learning exponentially amplifies the rate at which critical content can be shared.

Both individuals and institutions reap real benefits from social learning. The interconnected, interactive nature of social learning exponentially amplifies the rate at which critical content can be shared and questions can be answered.

In Cathy Davidson's essay Collaborative Learning for the Digital Age in The Chronicle of Higher Education, she describes a course she offers at Duke University called "This Is Your Brain on the Internet." The course was based on a suggested reading list that included specialized journals, popular magazines, and websites, but was to be "peer-led, with student interest and research driving the design."

Regular blog posts were also a requirement of the course, and much to her surprise Davidson discovered "that the most elegant bloggers often turned out to be the clunkiest and most pretentious of research-paper writers."

Her experiences offers insight into how contemporary social learning frees learners to better process content and better retain what they have learned. When allowed to let go of the rules that accompany formal term papers, the changes were significant. They were more expressive. And they were able to interact with course content in ways that were more meaningful to them than a traditional format "that invites, even requires, linguistic and syntactic gobbledygook."

Davidson, a professor of interdisciplinary studies at Duke University and one of the creators of the school's Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, goes on to point out that social learning does far more than simply give license to gossip with peers or surf online content. In fact, existing research indicates benefits specifically related to the social and interactive nature of social learning:

At every age level, people often take their writing more seriously when it will be evaluated by peers as well as teachers

Blogs directed at peers exhibit fewer typographical and factual errors, less plagiarism, and generally better, more elegant and persuasive prose than classroom assignments by the same writers

Myth 4:

Social Learning Doesn't Have Broad Appeal

Dial-up: RIP. Roaming charges: RIP. No matter how the digital world evolves, social learning is here to stay.

Social learning may be hyped, but that does not mean it is a passing trend. Modern day social learning is a reflection of the educational environment today's students have helped create for themselves (and future students) to perform at their best.

Observations suggest social learning is here to stay:

Social tools are making the web "old school"

According to comScore, the time spent using social tools increased by more than 62% (from 1 out of 13 minutes to 1 out of 8) between 2011 and 2012. This means use of the more traditional web, what Ben Elowitz, founder and CEO of Wetpaint, calls "the searchable web," fell by more than 500 million hours during the same period.

He attributes this to the fact that "the connected social web is alive, moving, proactive, and personal, while the document web is just an artifact-suited as universal reference, but hardly a personal experience."

And those experiences build relationships...which increase engagement...which stimulate learning.

Today's active learners are demanding and benefiting from social learning

Mashable Tech reported that after adopting a pilot social media learning program, the grades of one Portland, OR seventh grade class increased by more than 50% and 20% of students school wide completed extra assignments for no credit.

Tweets improve understanding of the classics

Upper level students in a class on Chaucer at Shenandoah University use Twitter to post tweets from characters they are studying in class. The posts must be in keeping with plot and character development.

The exercise has improved students' critical thinking and given them greater insight into the material. Instructor Byron Grigsby, who is also the school's vice president of academic affairs, said, "(It's) causing them to think about the characters in different ways."

A New Bedtime Routine

Fourth graders at an IDEAL-New Mexico school have redefined bedtime reading. A teacher created online literature circles that her students participated in for one hour, once a week at home. She found her students so excited to read with each other that after the hour long collaborative session ended, they consistently asked the teacher for more group reading time.

Whether you're just starting to explore methodologies or looking to enhance your current efforts, we want to hear about your social learning experiences.

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You've heard of "safety in numbers." You may not have heard of "learning in numbers"...though you've probably already done it. Working together has been part of the educational process since ancient Greece, if not before. But in today's increasingly collaborative world, where answers to information are mere seconds away, this approach is being reinvented by active learners, for active learners.

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This article examines the importance of connecting passion and purpose. The fundamental “E’s” are engage, equip, and empower, to prepare students to enter the workforce. Providing students with challenging hands-on learning, while collaborating with experts in the field who share similar interests, builds a foundation for passion and purpose.

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Passion and purpose. One drives students' ability and eagerness to learn. The other can keep them wavering in life to no end.

As an educator and father, I've been quick to notice that my students and even my own children, for that matter, are passionate about the subjects they learn and concepts that come naturally to them; however, often these passionate students get lost in the application of that passion to its purpose-i.e., how it applies to a career or real-life situation.

Driven by their passion, students will often continue on to higher education. However, without an intentional purpose, these students can end up on a confused college and career pathway, wavering in and out of courses and jobs, unable to follow a solid direction.

Even if a student has an intentional career in mind, let's say, heart surgeon, while the college path is obvious, what about the reality of being competitive in a global economy?

A quick Internet search on "students and the workforce" will bring up staggering insights on employers feeling that college graduates are not prepared, or statistics on students feeling prepared for the workforce, but only half of employers sharing that same sentiment. Another article provided examples of how one industry was offering "shadowing" opportunities and workshops to help better prepare graduates for their industry to fill the gap. And another talked about college graduates' inability to think critically or handle criticism.

After a quick glance at these insights, it's clear that we need to better prepare our students for the workforce, now more so than ever considering the competitiveness of the global economy. Over the past decade of working in experiential learning, I've found that there are three fundamental "E's" for K-20 learners when preparing them for the global workforce: Engage, Equip, and Empower.

What these three Es offer students through experiential learning is an opportunity to communicate and collaborate with like-minded students as well as current leaders in their field of interest or study, and think critically and be creative through hands-on, project based learning. The immersion into the hands-on portion of learning is really what clicks the "passion" puzzle piece into the "purpose" or practical piece. It provides that "aha" moment.

Years ago I met a high school student who had his heart set on being a lawyer. He made this decision years ago and was determined to go to a top law school. The student was slightly timid, probably typical of a teenager; but without a doubt, I could tell that he was very bright, passionate and ambitious. When I asked him what type of law he wanted to practice and if he wanted to be a litigator, he got flustered and was honest that he wasn't sure.

His parents signed him up for an experiential learning course on intensive law and trial. The course was his first taste of immersing himself in the theory and hands-on practice of law. Over 10 days, he met with legal professionals and academics, took copious notes on theory and practice and attended workshops on the legal profession. But what impacted this student the most was the engagement-the real-world simulations and mock trial that took place throughout the 10-day course. The opportunity to write opening and closing statements and argue a case from start to finish in a real court empowered him. In the end, he lost his trial, but the feeling of defeat exhilarated his passion even more. He was aware of his fumbles and was eager to enter the courtroom again. Now that he had a concrete taste of how his passion has a purpose, he stood firm in his pathway to pursue a career as a litigator.

Experiential learning offers K-20 students more than a "text book" education. Surely learning the case studies and theories are important, but being immersed and gaining the sensory experience in the subject gives much more weight when equipping our students for the workforce.

What's more is it helps prevent students from falling into the trap of what I call a "delayed career launch." As a parent, the last thing I want after my children have invested years of higher education and thousands of dollars in tuition is to have them wavering in the workforce without a means to an end. Experiential learning provides sensory participation-an immersive experience that aligns aspirations to a purpose or direction. It builds character and gives them a sense of ownership for their future.

Andrew Potter is an educator, who teaches at the college level (private and community) and high school (philosophy, AP history, AP politics) and father to a high school and a college-aged daughter. As the Chief Academic Officer at Envision, a leading experiential education (i.e., project based learning) organization, Andrew directs the organization's academic strategy and development of faculty, curriculum, methods, and pedagogy that provide learning experiences designed to deliver tangible college and career readiness opportunities for students.

Top image credit: Adobe Stock

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How experiential learning helps students own their future

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Passion and purpose. One drives students' ability and eagerness to learn. The other can keep them wavering in life to no end.

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This resource examines three new aspects to assist in changing our education system. There are 3 forces identified: new pedagogies, new change leadership, and new system economics. New pedagogies embrace deep learning that looks at teacher-student partnership. New leadership shakes up the top-down model, and realizes leadership should also come from bottom-up and sideways. Finally, new system economics looks at providing accessibility with learning tools for all.

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Education is supposed to prepare students to be a part of and contribute to society. We need systems that will promote connections. We don’t need to follow Corporate America’s model. School reform needs to consider why connections form, what patterns do they leave, and what’s the impact of those connections.

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Connectivism embodies 8 principles. With the digital age, learning involves diverse opinions, connecting to outside sources, tools, and our ability to see connections, just to name a few.

This is a learning model that identifies societal changes impact the learning environment and its participants. People interact and work differently as society changes and new tools are developed.

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Schools need to use new technologies to enhance the learning environment. The principles of connected learning are: interest-powered, openly-networked, production-centered, peer-supported, academically-oriented, and shared purpose. Connected learning looks at building connections in different areas, with different people within a community, which includes libraries, schools, homes, and businesses

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Connected learning combines personal interests, supportive relationships, and opportunities. It is learning in an age of abundant access to information and social connection that embraces the diverse backgrounds and interests of all young people.

Meet Abigail: A Connected Learner

Read more about positive peer relationships on Wattpad here, in a report.

Elements of Connected Learning

The research is clear: Learning is irresistible and life-changing when it connects personal interests to meaningful relationships and real-world opportunity.

Spotlight: YOUmedia Chicago

YOUmedia, a youth digital makerspace in Chicago's main downtown public library, embodies the values and elements of connected learning.

YOUmedia centers on digital media production such as music, art, poetry and journalism. Young people can "hang out socially, mess around with new projects and geek out" in areas of specialization when they want to take the leap. Librarians and mentors organize showcases, support the production of various projects and broker connections to other opportunities in their interest area.

Youth who participated at YOUmedia saw clear results.

Feeling emotionally and physically safe and a sense of belonging

Becoming more involved in the chosen interests they brought to YOUmedia

Improving in at least one digital media skill

Improving academic skills: better communication with adults and improved writing ability

Understanding more about opportunities available to them after high school

Elements of Connected Learning Environments

Connected learning does not rely on a single technology or technique. Rather, it is fostered over time through a combination of supports for developing interests, relationships, skills, and a sense of purpose.

Educators have been putting connected learning into practice through a wide range of networks and organizations, in both formal and informal environments.

Educator Networks

The National Writing Project, Young Adult Library Services Association and the Consortium for School Networking have embraced the connected learning framework. Click [here] to learn more about connected learning in teaching practice.

Connected Learning In Action

Programs and organizations designed around connected learning are serving young people around the country and world.

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About Connected Learning - Connected Learning Alliance

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You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience. Connected learning combines personal interests, supportive relationships, and opportunities. It is learning in an age of abundant access to information and social connection that embraces the diverse backgrounds and interests of all young people.

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Monticello High School set out to bring internet for all students. The district is trying to build its own countywide broadband network. The goal was designed to combat an equity issue, where some students had the opportunity to learn at home and others did not.

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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - The floor-to-ceiling glass wall between the high-tech fabrication lab and the hallway at Monticello High School in Albemarle County, Virginia, is meant to showcase the hands-on, self-directed learning done there.

"I give the kids access to all the tools pretty much right off the bat," said Eric Bredder, with a sweeping gesture taking in the computer workstations, 3-D printers, laser cutters and milling machines, plus a bevy of wood and metalworking tools that he uses while teaching computer science, engineering and design classes. But Bredder can't give students the tool he considers most indispensable to 21st-century learning - broadband internet beyond school walls.

"This is an equity issue," said Bredder. "If some kids can go home and learn, discover and backfill information, while other kids' learning stops at school, that's a huge problem."

Whether it's used for homework-assignment web searches, streamed video tutorials, educational apps or collaborative multimedia projects, fast internet at home is rapidly turning into a necessity for America's students. Yet, according to a 2015 Pew Research Center report, about five million households with school-aged children are mired in the so-called homework gap, because they can't afford broadband or they live in underserved rural areas, such as the expanse of farms and hillside vineyards of this Virginia district spreading south from Charlottesville to the small town of Scottsville along a bend in the James River.

In places like Albemarle County, where school officials estimate up to 20 percent of students lack home broadband, all the latest education-technology tools meant to narrow opportunity and achievement gaps can widen them instead. So, rather than wait for reluctant commercial internet providers to expand their reach, the district is trying an audacious solution. They're building their own countywide broadband network.

"Without internet, these kids are now disadvantaged two ways, and that opportunity gap grows even more."

Josh Walton, principal, Walton Middle School, in sAlbemarle County, Virginia

Still in its early stages, this ambitious project relies on a little-known public resource - a slice of electromagnetic spectrum the federal government long ago set aside for schools - called the Educational Broadband Service (EBS). Some internet-access advocates say EBS is underutilized at best, and wasted at worst, because loose regulatory oversight by the FCC has allowed most of the spectrum to fall into the hands of commercial internet companies.

The resulting spectrum scarcity may be the most daunting of the legal, technical and monetary challenges faced by any district hoping to create its own broadband network. But a few pioneering districts have shown that it's possible, and Albemarle County has joined a nascent trend of districts trying to build their own bridges across the digital divide.
***
Standing outside Monticello High School, it's easy to spot Carters Mountain about two miles to the east, thanks to the crowd of radio towers perched near its peak. Built on land leased from an orchard, the towers rise above pink-and-white-flowering apple trees, and are operated by TV and radio stations, as well as telecommunications companies. On one of these towers, the Albemarle County schools have hung base stations that link to broadband internet beamed up from the roof of a nearby elementary school. The hardware on the towers then blasts that connection about 10 miles into the valley below. Carters Mountain is the first of four planned mountaintop tower sites that will help blanket the county with broadband in the next two years.
Related: Not all towns are created equal, digitally
Vince Scheivert, chief information officer for the county's schools, is leading the network build-out. "All our students should be provided with the same tools to be successful in today's world," he said. "We don't decide which students get textbooks based on their address, so we shouldn't do that with digital access."

Towers are critical parts of the broadband network, but they're expensive (a new tower can cost $100,000 or more to erect), and getting the permits can be tricky, too. So, before the build-out began in 2014, Scheivert made a deal with the county's emergency services providers, which have several towers for communications: If the schools could use the towers, then the police, fire and EMS departments could use the school district's broadband in remote areas and in places where large crowds swamp commercial wireless networks.

One site in this partnership needs a new tower, and the others require extensive permits. Scheivert and his team also plan to build towers at a few schools. In the meantime, they have been testing the reach and reliability of the Carters Mountain signal, while also creating the network's backbone - burying 12 miles (of a planned 85 miles) of fiber-optic cable to ferry huge amounts of high-speed data between school-based transmitters, receivers and servers, and regional data hubs.

The final link in the network will be the "client units," or outdoor routers - one for every household with students - that will pick up internet from the towers and connect to school-issued computers (and only to school computers), free of charge.

Scheivert's goal is to build the network without new money from taxpayers, and so far he's been successful. While the federal government awards billions of dollars annually to get schools and libraries online, through its E-rate program, Albemarle's project is technically ineligible for that because it's "off campus," even though it will be an extension of the school network with all its security, filters and firewalls.

Funding aside, at first Scheivert and his team had trouble even finding a hardware manufacturer willing to do business on such a small scale. "The Ericssons of the world and the Motorolas wouldn't return our calls," he said. Eventually, however, they found companies willing to do business with them, including Huawei in China and Florida-based Airspan Networks.

Those companies have found a ready market among the small but growing number of schools and communities giving DIY broadband a try. Among the other pioneers is Northern Michigan University's chief technology officer, David Maki, who has spent the last few years partnering with districts and local governments in the state's remote Upper Peninsula to expand a broadband Educational Access Network from town to town. And in California's rural Central Valley, Jerry Waymire, the assistant superintendent for information technology for the Kings County Office of Education, has spearheaded construction of a broadband network in several districts, including Corcoran Joint Unified. The Corcoran superintendent, Rich Merlo, credits the off-campus broadband with fueling an ed-tech transformation that's coincided with a drop in suspensions, fewer failed classes, better standardized test scores and higher graduation rates.

"We can extend the learning day. We can flip the classroom. We know kids can be more efficient in their work, and access information wherever they are," said Merlo. "There's been a real positive change in the culture."
***
Of course, towers, base stations and routers are nothing without a license to beam all that data through a sliver of the electromagnetic spectrum. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) divides up the spectrum into allowable uses, such as for TV, radio, satellites and mobile data. Nobody can own spectrum, but they can get a license to use specific frequencies, which the FCC grants by geography. That's why, for example, 92.9 FM is alternative rock in Boston, sports talk in Atlanta and classic hits in Tulsa.

"This is an equity issue. If some kids can go home and learn, discover and backfill information, while other kids' learning stops at school, that's a huge problem."

Eric Bredder, teacher, Monticello High School, in Albemarle County, Virginia

With skyrocketing demand for bandwidth and mobile coverage, internet companies have been forking over millions of dollars for spectrum licenses when the FCC occasionally auctions them. And yet, decades ago, the FCC granted thousands of spectrum licenses - free - to educational entities nationwide, including Albemarle County schools, for a range of frequencies now known as the Educational Broadband Service. Most EBS license holders, however, can't use their portion of spectrum the way Albemarle County has. Explaining why requires some history.

The EBS spectrum was first called ITFS (Instructional Television Fixed Service), back in 1963 when the FCC reserved it for broadcasting instructional TV in classrooms. But teaching with TV never really took off, so to spur use of that part of the spectrum, the FCC let license holders lease "excess" bandwidth to commercial broadcasters - with the allowed portion growing to 95 percent of each license by the mid-1980s.

While some license holders leased their spectrum in the 1980s and '90s, the market for it remained somewhat sluggish until 2004, when the FCC changed the permitted use for that part of the spectrum from television to internet and renamed it EBS. Suddenly, all those sleepy educational spectrum licenses were collectively worth $75 billion, according to an independent valuation for the FCC. As one account of the switch put it, "this spectrum real estate went from swamp land to ocean front property immediately."

According to the FCC, in addition to enabling new modes of instruction, the newly allowed use of the spectrum set aside for broadband internet would help close the digital divide. Introducing the EBS changeover, the FCC commissioners wrote: "By these actions, we make significant progress towards the goal of providing all Americans with access to ubiquitous wireless broadband connections, regardless of their location."

By that measure, EBS has fallen well short of its promise, according to some digital-access advocates. After the rule change, internet companies started gobbling up educational spectrum, offering big money to lease school districts' maximum "excess" of 95 percent for up to 30 years. At the time, many cash-strapped schools lacked the technical expertise to consider their own broadband networks. It was far easier to use the money from lease payments than to use the spectrum itself.

"We're looking at a public asset, designated to do public good, and in the end, it's mostly just generating private profit."

Zach Leverenz, founder of EveryoneOn

Exact dollar figures for the deals are hard to come by, because most lease contracts are hidden behind non-disclosure agreements. However, interviews with lawyers who negotiate spectrum leases, along with tax disclosures of nonprofits with spectrum licenses and a few contracts made public in lawsuits, reveal a wide range of lease payments - from tens of thousands of dollars for a rural license to millions of dollars for spectrum in a major city.

By the time educators realized how critical off-campus broadband access was for students and how slowly commercial internet providers were bringing service to low-income and rural communities, it was too late. The vast majority of existing EBS licenses were locked up in long-term leases, many of which don't expire until the 2030s.

"We're looking at a public asset, designated to do public good, and in the end, it's mostly just generating private profit," said Zach Leverenz, founder of EveryoneOn, a nonprofit that provides low-cost internet, computers and digital literacy courses.

"Five percent is nothing. It should be at least 50 percent," said Kevin Walker, founder and president of Project Appleseed, a nonprofit that fosters family engagement with schools, often with the help of technology. Indeed, for setting up broadband networks, virtually nothing can be done with 5 percent of licensed spectrum; it's not enough bandwidth to sustain the necessary high-speed data traffic.

From the outset, the FCC had also required these leases to ensure a small amount of "educational use" of the spectrum. While the rule - 20 hours a week per channel - made some sense for TV programming, it's unclear how hours of internet "use" should be calculated. (Would 20 hours of one student logged into Google Classroom, or 20 students logged in for one hour, suffice? Are teachers "using" the resource when they're reading email and typing responses, or just when they hit send?)
Related: Most students go to a school that meets federal standards for internet speed
The FCC did not return emails and phone calls requesting an interview for this article. But the commissioners have previously rejected petitions to increase the 5 percent reserve or to clarify the educational use rule, explaining that they simply "rely on the good faith efforts of EBS licensees to meet these requirements."

Many leases arguably satisfy the educational intent of EBS by providing money for teachers and other school expenses and by giving license holders some free internet accounts on the commercial service. There's no way to keep tabs on any of this, however, due to the nondisclosure agreements.

"We don't decide which students get textbooks based on their address, so we shouldn't do that with digital access."

Vince Scheivert, chief information officer, Albemarle County Public Schools

While much of the EBS spectrum will be controlled by commercial internet providers for the next two decades, there are exceptions. Some early leases were for just 10 or 15 years, for instance, and will expire soon. And a number of lease holders fell prey to economic realities -the company that had leased Albemarle County's spectrum, for example, struggled in the great recession and had to back out of the deal in 2012.

Finally, there are still many remote areas of the country where no EBS licenses have ever been issued. That's how spectrum was found for broadband in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and in Kings County, California. For now, however, gaining access to that spectrum requires a lengthy, cumbersome and potentially expensive application for a special waiver from the FCC, which stopped issuing new educational spectrum licenses in the 1990s. To qualify for the waivers, the spectrum must be used entirely for education and, importantly, the license cannot be leased.
***
In 2014, the national association of EBS license holders sent the FCC a proposal to make a public inventory of available spectrum, and then gradually open it up for applications from school districts and nonprofits. The FCC has yet to officially respond.

Back in Albemarle County, Scheivert and his team plan to hand out the first shipment of nearly 1,000 routers as soon as they arrive from their Chinese manufacturer, hopefully before the end of this school year. First served will be folks who live within range of Carters Mountain, including several families with kids at Monticello High School and Walton Middle School, located about halfway between Charlottesville and Scottsville.

Seven years ago, Walton was the first school in Albemarle County to give every student a laptop. Textbooks have given way to Google Classroom and the Blackboard Learn management system, and lessons are assigned, submitted and assessed online. There are classroom Twitter and Instagram feeds through which teachers celebrate student work and post announcements for parents. The school building itself has Wi-Fi, but a recent survey found that about one-quarter of Walton students had limited or no internet at home.

Josh Walton, the school's principal, pointed out that a big part of the internet's promise in education is to give lower-income and rural students digital access to the academic and cultural amenities enjoyed by their more affluent, urban peers. "But, without internet, these kids are now disadvantaged two ways, and that opportunity gap grows even more," he said.

Students without home access squeeze in a little more time online whenever possible, sometimes by skipping lunch to camp out in the school library, or by cannibalizing a half-hour period at the end of each day called "tutorial," meant for kids to get help in tricky subjects. Every fall, students are shown how to download assignments from Blackboard before they leave school, so they can complete them offline at home and then upload them again the next day.
Related: The biggest tech trendsetter you know just may be - your local teacher
But those workarounds can be stressful, acknowledged Marie Vinel, who teaches Spanish part time and has two kids at Walton. "I know I can't assign homework that is internet-based," she said. "It just wouldn't be fair."

Another Walton parent, Selena Garcia, takes her seventh-grade son to the public library or sometimes to McDonald's for free Wi-Fi access, even though the late-evening trips are a strain on her two younger kids. The only internet at Garcia's house is her phone's $45 per month data plan, which chokes off the connection speed after just five gigabytes' use. Her kids love to read, and they want to download new books rather than re-read the paperbacks at home. Her seventh-grader wants to practice math with an app, so he doesn't fall behind in class.

"My son gets pretty frustrated," said Garcia, who occasionally relents and hands him her phone for math practice. "When I say, 'OK,' I look at him and see a little bit of ease come over him."

Next year, Monticello High School will expand class offerings in computer science, engineering and design, and another teacher will join Bredder in the high-tech fabrication workshop.
This story was written by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Read more about the Digital Divide.
"We're starting to ask the kids what they want to do, and it's having an impact," said Bredder, who hopes the county's broadband expansion will keep pace with the transformation of education made possible by the internet's vast resources.

"It blows my mind when a kid comes to class and says, 'Hey, look what I made with Blender [the open-source, online design software]' or 'Look what I programmed,' after they went online for research and troubleshooting, and did their own thing," he said. "That's a pretty amazing piece of self-directed learning. And that's what we should be setting our kids up for."

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A school district is building a DIY broadband network - The Hechinger Report

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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - The floor-to-ceiling glass wall between the high-tech fabrication lab and the hallway at Monticello High School in Albemarle County, Virginia, is meant to showcase the hands-on, self-directed learning done there. "I give the kids access to all the tools pretty much right off the bat," said Eric Bredder, with a sweeping gesture ...

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Personalized learning entails the following characteristics: real-world activities that incorporate student interests and abilities, teachers are the facilitators/coaches, student ownership, utilizing technology to demonstrate learning, formative assessments, proficiency through identified skills and understanding, and technology as a supportive tool. This guide was designed by Peggy Grant and Dale Basye, backed by ISTE, in 2014.

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Personalized Learning: A Guide for Engaging Students with Technology

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A guidebook designed to help educators and administrators understand the concepts behind personalized learning.

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There are 4 reasons to gamify in the classroom. The first: it is okay to lose. Gaming promotes risk-taking, failing, and trying again. Gaming also encourages collaboration. Digital classroom games help those students who reveal low motivation and struggle to master skills in the traditional environment. Finally, it is easy to gamify a classroom with teacher-to-teacher sharing. Gamification can reach all learners.

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In his TED Talk exactly six years ago, American video game designer Jesse Schell predicted a future in which games would rule everyday life. The government would hand out experience points-aka tax relief-for making "right" decisions, such as paying off your credit card bill or saving more in your retirement fund. Companies, too, would use gamification to collect data and reward you based on what you buy, eat, and even how long you brush your teeth.

Well, the future has arrived-at least in China. Using a unique database of consumer information, a gamified social credit system compiles individual social credit scores. Introduced in a government-approved pilot project from the world's biggest online shopping platform, it's said to be a test-drive of sorts for a similar program that will be mandatory for all Chinese citizens by 2020. (Imagine a score based not just on purchases and credit payments, but also on traffic violations and social media behavior.)

Although this may seem drastic to many Americans, we believe everyday gaming is here to stay. In the U.S., where its applications aren't nearly as extreme, digital gaming is already making headway in education. In fact, it's become widespread in K-8 classrooms-and has garnered critics as a result. As a Taiwan-based social gaming company with eyes on both China and the West, we know that gaming can have a significant and positive impact on education-while steering clear of Jesse Schell's most severe predictions. Below, we 1) correct the most common myths about digital gaming, 2) outline key benefits of bringing games into the classroom, and 3) point teachers toward specific games that benefit different types of learners.

What the Cynics Say

These are the myths about classroom gaming that most frequently pop up on teachers' forums, along with our responses:

Myth: Students today are turning into zombies, glued to their games 24/7.

Truth: Children and teens are drawn to novelty and technology, especially when their peers are interested as well. Instead of trying to dissuade them, we can make the most of students' passion for and easy access to gaming. For example, some developers are creating apps that encourage social and emotional skills such as empathy and cooperation.

Myth: By promoting virtual reality, gaming shortens attention spans.

Truth: Instead, games may actually increase our ability to focus and be attentive. Recent research has suggested that video games, for example, may boost multi-tasking skills, activate neurons, and increase brain connectivity responsible for tasks such as planning, memory formation, and spatial navigation.

Myth: Gaming encourages rewards-based learning instead of learning for its own sake.

Truth: With U.S. students in big-city schools expected to take an average of 112 standardized tests between preschool and 12th grade, it's clear that the education system's widespread focus on extrinsic motivation is not due to gaming! While many games do involve rewarding players with badges and points, there are alternatives. Our own multi-player social gaming platform, for example, lets a teacher limit the amount of time that students can play-without requiring the teacher's constant supervision.

Four Reasons to Gamify Your Classroom

We believe digital gaming can be an asset in many learning environments. Here's why:

1. When playing games, it's okay to lose. Gaming provides a safe way to explore, try, and fail repeatedly, without the stigma or anxiety attached to botched exams or bad grades. Game playing also offers educators a unique view of how students approach problems, deal with frustration, and brainstorm solutions.

2. Game playing encourages collaboration, peer validation, and a different kind of teamwork than is often found in traditional group projects. Teachers are able to prompt more introverted students to speak up, and to connect with students who are otherwise difficult to engage.

3. Digital classroom games are especially helpful for students who struggle in school. In one recent study, nearly half of teachers surveyed reported that gaming can significantly motivate low-performing students and improve their mastery of both academic content and skills such as critical thinking and communication.

4. Classroom gaming has never been easier, as teacher-to-teacher sharing of lesson plans has made educational gaming resources easier to come by. Sites such as Khan Academy and OpenEd now feature content with at least some elements of gaming. PaGamO, for instance, allows teachers to create custom games and share them with other educators.

Games to Reach Every Learner

In the end, the only way for teachers to know if digital gaming will benefit their students is to try it out in their own classrooms. But determining which games to use with which students can require a lot of trial and error-and late night research. That might sound fun if you're a gamer, and tedious if you're not. To lend a hand, we've put together a gaming playlist. Below, we recommend specific games suited to seven learning styles popularized by renowned Harvard professor Howard Gardner in his landmark Theory of Multiple Intelligences. Good luck and game on!

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Classroom Gaming: What It Isn't, What It Is, and How to Do It Right - EdSurge News

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In his TED Talk exactly six years ago, American video game designer Jesse Schell predicted a future in which games would rule everyday life. The government would hand out experience points-aka tax relief-for making "right" decisions, such as paying off your credit card bill or saving more in your retirement fund.

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Gamification, described by Gabe Zichermann, when appropriately applied has the capability of bringing a new level of creativity and innovation. It promotes connectedness, emphasizing the 3 F’s (feedback, friends, and fun). Speed, pressure, and perseverance are embodied through playing games.

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The Future of Creativity and Innovation is Gamification: Gabe Zichermann at TEDxVilnius

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Blended learning incorporates online and face-to-face activities to individualize the learning experience for all students. It allows teachers to tailor instruction and content to meet the learner’s needs. There are many blended models including online, rotation, flex, and personalized blend. Depending on the learners and the environment, one or more of these approaches would be suitable to meet the learning objectives.

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contributed by April Giarla

The teaching landscape is rapidly changing, the technological rise of the 21 st- century and widespread integration of those technologies into our society, combined with access to the internet has integrally changed teaching in just a few years.

Our children and their following generations are already and will continue to grow up in a world that's a stark reminder of how rapidly the human civilization has changed, a society and world where smartphones and tablets are widespread, affordable, and replacing most computers and laptops.

The rapidly changing landscapes should be a marker to show that teaching methods need to evolve to keep up with the times and incorporate integrated technologies into the learning modal, these technologies aren't going to go away, they'll continue to be integrated into our society and it's time to embrace them for the advantages they bring.
What Is Blended Learning?
TeachThought provided a definition of blended learning in the past. Blended Learning is a mixture of learning methods that incorporate multiple teaching modals-most frequently eLearning and traditional face-to-face learning.

Blended learning is a natural development to the growing accessibility of eLearning, online resources, and the continued need for a human component in the learning experience. A blended learning approach ensures that the learner is engaged and driving his or her individual learning experience. This approach also helps cater to the individual needs of the learner, most students have unique learning styles and a blended approach is more likely to cater to those needs than a traditional classroom teaching experience.
Blended Learning Models
You can read more about the different kinds of blended learning models in more depth here. As a quick overview, know that due to its modular design, blended learning can come in numerous shapes and sizes and be personalized to fit the individual. These types of modals can include:

Online - Instruction occurs via an online platform, with periodic face-to-face meetings.

Rotation: Student rotates between self-paced online learning and face-to-face instruction. Schedules are fixed but flexible.

Flex: Most instruction is delivered online, with teachers providing as needed support in small-group settings.

Personalized blend: Teacher designs face-to-face and anywhere, anytime learning options that straddle the physical classroom and virtual spaces. Learning is the constant and time is the variable.

Online lab: Instructions takes place in a brick and mortar lab. Delivered by an online teacher and supervised onsite by paraprofessionals.

Self-blend: Students take online courses to supplement their tradition schools face to face course catalog.

Face-to-face: Teacher offers primarily face-to-face instruction, supplemented with technology in the classroom or computer lab.
Why Is Blended Learning Important?
Blended learning is important because it breaks down the traditional walls of teaching, ones that don't work for all students and now with access to present-day technologies and resources we can tailor the learning experience for each student. Blended learning also offers flexible time frames that can be personalized to each person, offering them the ability to learn at their own pace.
Advantages Of Blended Learning For Teachers
Teaching is less expensive to deliver, more affordable, and saves time.

Blended learning offers flexibility in terms of availability. In other words, blended learning enables the student to access the materials from anywhere at any time while enjoying the benefits of face-to-face support and instruction.

Access to global resources and materials that meet the students' level of knowledge and interest.

Self-pacing for slow or quick learners reduces stress, increases satisfaction, and information retention.

E-learning allows more effective interactions between the learners and their instructors through the use of emails, discussion boards and chat room.

Students have the ability to track their progress.

Students can also learn through a variety of activities that apply to many different learning styles.

E-learning could improve the quality of teaching and learning as it supports face-to-face teaching approaches.

Blended learning also improves other factors for the teacher including:

More engaged students

Better information and feedback on work

Team teaching

Extended time with students

More leadership roles

Focus on deeper learning

Motivate hard to reach kids

New options to teach at home

More earning power

Individualized professional development plans
Improved Teaching Conditions
Blended learning tears down the traditional bricks and mortar approach to teaching, which can improve conditions such as:

Reduced Isolation

More opportunities for collaboration

Meaningful professional development

Better student data

Improved Time efficiency

Role-differentiation
Advantages Of Blended Learning For Students
Increase student interest: when technology is integrated into school lessons, learners are more likely to be interested in, focused on, and excited about the subjects they are studying. Subjects that might be monotonous for some - like math and science, while also increasing information retention.

Keep students focused for longer: The use of computers to look up information & data is a tremendous lifesaver, combined with access to resources such as the internet to conduct research. This engagement and interaction with the resources keeps students focused for longer periods then they would be with books or paper resources, this engagement also helps develop learning through exploration and research.
Provides student autonomy: The use of eLearning materials increases a student's ability to set appropriate learning goals and take charge of his or her own learning, which develops an ability that will be translatable across all subjects.
Instill a disposition of self-advocacy: Students become self-driven and responsible, tracking their individual achievements , which helps develop the ability to find the resources or get the help they need, self-advocating so they can reach their goals.

Promote student ownership: Blended learning instills a sense of 'student ownership over learning' which can be a powerful force propelling the learning, It's this feeling of responsibility that helps the feeling of ownership.

Allow instant diagnostic information and student feedback: The ability to rapidly analyze, review and give feedback to student work, gives the teacher the ability to tailor his teaching methods and feedback for each student while improving time efficiency.

Enables students to learn at their own pace: Due to the flexibility of blended learning and the ability to access internet resources allows students to learn at their own pace, meaning a teacher can help speed up the learning process or give more advanced resources if necessary.

Prepares students for the future: Blended learning offers a multitude of real-world skills, that directly translate into life skills, from:

Research skills

Self-learning

Self-engagement

Helps to develop a 'self-driving force'

Better decision making

Offers a larger sense of responsibility

Computer literacy
Conclusion
All students no matter their age learn differently and teaching methods should reflect this, by designing teaching programs in a way that reaches visual, auditory, and kinetic learners alike.

With the heavy integration of technologies, we'll be able to improve teaching, information retention, engagement, responsibility, and enjoyment. Students never outgrow their learning styles, meaning blended learning is more important than ever, no matter what the industry is, from schools to corporations, from all walks of life.
is a management development firm that delivers top 500 global companies engaging customized learning solutions. Visit StratX Exl at http://stratxcorporate.com/

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contributed by April Giarla The teaching landscape is rapidly changing, the technological rise of the 21 st- century and widespread integration of those technologies into our society, combined with access to the internet has integrally changed teaching in just a few years.