Greetings Starfighters,
Normally in this space, you’d find 10 things I found this week that I think are awesome.
This week, I’m at the KySTE Conference in Louisville, KY, leaving me with a shortened list of things to share. Next week, I’ll be back with a full set of 10.
If you’re interested, I’m giving two presentations at KySTE, one on some ideas for integrating the science of learning and development in a virtual academy and another on how we started a Student Technology Leadership Program (STLP) in our virtual academy this year (the themes in this one are specific to KY, but I’m sure there’s a version you can implement where you are).
You can find the slides and resources for both those sessions right here.
Yesterday, during my session, I looked at my watch and remembered that four years prior, I was at the same conference in a meeting to figure out how we would get learning materials to kids since we were closing in-person schooling due to COVID-19.
Of course, that was only supposed to be for two weeks…
In other news:
- Adobe is getting into the digital badging game. This seems like a late move, with so many edtech providers offering badges and “ambassador” programs for years now. As someone who once chased these credentials, I always worry that the mindset is more about becoming an unpaid salesman for a company rather than focusing on great outcomes for kids. Still, there is value in earning these badges.
- From the “We Can’t Avoid It, So We’ll Embrace It” Department – Pearson is expanding AI within its Pearson+ e-textbooks in the coming school year.
- If you work in education (or really any industry) and share your thoughts and work online as I do, Christy Tucker has some great advice on setting realistic boundaries for sharing freely (face it, folks, we gotta get paid somehow).
- In other news involving money, Accenture is buying Udacity to build a learning platform for AI.
- Educators are increasingly adopting the concept of play theory, which argues that play and learning are fundamentally intertwined and that children benefit from a healthy balance of both.
OK, that’s 5 awesome things to share. Have a great weekend, gang. Mine will be spent watching T-Swift on repeat with my pre-teen daughter. I’d appreciate your thoughts and prayers 😉
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