Innovation

As always, our NPR Ed inboxes are clogged with press releases about the latest amazeballs app or product. Like the following, edited to protect the guilty:…an unprecedented new DOODLEHICKY app optimized for iPhone® and Android™ smartphones that includes real-time monitoring of a child’s learning progress. DOODLEHICKY is the tutoring program that fuses the most effective elements of personalized teaching with a fun and engaging iPad® and Android tablet-based experience for measurably improving student DOODLE performance.

Online education will grow up by scaling down. In spite of the practical and theoretical possibilities of e-learning, the very qualities that have enabled massive open online courses (or MOOCs) to serve prodigious numbers of learners—machine-graded assessment, prescriptive course design, and self-paced enrollment—have also tend to promote antiquated pedagogy, curtail student engagement, and preclude a sense of cohort. It doesn’t have to be that way.

Three decades ago, Chinese cities began turning rural land into industrial parks to attract foreign investors. Today, a new kind of project is blooming in China’s countryside: the vocational education park.Cities around China are carving out tracts of land for school parks – dubbed “education factories” – designed to train hundreds of thousands of students.

I recently had a chance to talk with renowned “rapping” math teacher Mark Rogers from Round Rock, Texas. Rogers shared the story of how he got his start in teaching and discussed the role humanity plays in his day-to-day activities with students. After watching the interview, check out the YouTube video displaying Mark’s creative side in education.

When we think of education technology, we often imagine large-scale impact and reach. But it’s not that straightforward.Stacked amidst temporary shelters, tents and thatched huts in Burundi’s Kavumu refugee camp are a pile of bright blue, green and yellow boxes. Stowed away in these 800 kg metal palette-size boxes are countless ideas to educate, entertain and foster creativity among refugees. The self-contained watertight boxes are packed with e-readers, tablets, cameras, e-books, paperbacks, board games and e-learning tools to offer educational and training opportunities to refugee children and adults and prepare them to reintegrate the world. In less than 20 minutes, the boxes are unfolded into interactive media centres with tables and chairs.

Can 4-year-olds learn what they need to know for kindergarten by sitting in front of a computer for 15 minutes a day?Utah is betting they can. This year, more than 6,600 children across the state are learning by logging on to laptops at home in a taxpayer-funded online preschool program that is unlike any other. 

Something I recommend in my work with schools and districts is to leverage social media to their advantage as a professional development tool. When I ask a group of educators how many are using Twitter, either personally or professionally, I am frequently saddened by the lack of hands I see raised. Many teachers think of Twitter as something with no value in the education realm. After all, how much content can you receive in 140 characters. Just the opposite is true. Twitter might be the strongest professional development tool available – and it’s free!The secret to getting the most out of Twitter as an educator lies in knowing how to use hashtags (#) – those things we used to call the number signs last century. I would recommend educators new to Twitter do a few things to begin getting the most out of this great resource.First, if you don’t already have one, get a Twitter account. It’s fast, easy, and free. Go to www.com, click on login on the top right, and then click “New User.” Fill out just a little information and you now have a Twitter account. Be sure to complete your profile and include in that profile that you are an educator. This becomes very important when you begin building your professional learning network (PLN).Once you have an account, look for the search window on the top right next to your name. In the “Search Twitter” window, type #edchat and then return. Edchat is one of the oldest and largest education focused chats on Take a few minutes to browse the archives. Read the rich discussions that happen every week on this chat. You can also browse the archives by going to https://edchat.pbworks.com/w/page/219908/FrontPage. Every weekly Edchat conversation is archived there. Look at the listing by date and then click to read. Some of the top names in professional development are regulars on Edchat.While Edchat is it one of the largest and oldest chats on Twitter, there are scores of focused chats that might appeal to you even more. Find a chat that most appeals to you by going to https://sites.google.com/site/twittereducationchats/education-chat-calendar. This Google calendar lists all of the major chats by interest area and lets you know when they are live.Some are geographically-focused like #MOEdchat for Missouri educators or #Africaed for African educators. Others are content-focused. #ELAChat, focusing on English and Language Arts, and #Precalcchat, discussing Pre-Calculus issues, are just two examples. There are also job-alike sessions like #ElemMathChat, #SpecEdChat, and #SuptChat. At first you probably will join a chat and just watch the conversations. This is called lurking and is a perfectly acceptable way to get started in live chatting. At some point though, you will have a question or feel compelled to reply to a comment. Just compose a tweet and be sure to add the hashtag of that particular chat at the end of your tweet so it appears in the flow of conversation. That’s it!The final step in getting the most out of Twitter is to follow smart people. When you follow someone you will see his or her tweets when you log onto Most people will follow you back. The more people you follow the wider and more powerful your PLN becomes. Unlike Facebook where friending someone you really don’t know in person is frowned upon and just a bit creepy, following other educators on Twitter is widely accepted and considered smart. Start by following me @hpitler and I promise to follow you back IF you have mentioned in your profile that you are in education.Once you get involved in Twitter as a way to grow professionally, the possibilities are almost limitless. Gather research for an article or blog post by posting questions to your PLN. Receive constructive criticism on a lesson plan, presentation, or idea from other educators. Share tips and get advice on things like parent/teacher conferences and open houses. Collaborate with others to solve a specific issue at your school. Once you get started you just might become an evangelist. I know I did.Howard Pitler, Ed.D. is an author of “Classroom Instruction that Works,” 2nd ed., “Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works”, and “A Handbook for Classroom Instruction that Works,” 2nd ed. He has worked with teachers and administrators internationally for over a decade to improve outcomes for kids. He was named a National Distinguished Principal by NAESP and is an Apple Distinguished Educator. He can be reached at hpitler@gmail.com, on Twitter at @hpitler, or on his website, www.hpitler.com

This summer I had the honor of attending an event that brought together educators and industry leaders involved in improving the state of STEM education in the U.S. During a panel discussion, I was asked whether I was encouraged or discouraged by where we are today in terms of diversity in STEM education. I am definitely encouraged, but we still have far to go to achieve equity in STEM education for minorities who have been historically underrepresented in STEM fields.

The touch-and-swipe interface of the digital marketplace makes it feel so easy. Looking for an app to teach your 5-year-old how to read? Flick your finger over to the education aisles of the App Store (or Google Play, or the Amazon Appstore), and press “buy.”