Reimagining K-12
Matt Greenfield is the managing director of Rethink Education, a venture fund focused exclusively on early- and growth-stage education technology startups. Tom Segal, an analyst for Rethink Education, has written extensively about innovation and educational technology issues. This blog is no longer being updated.
Teaching Profession
Opinion
Get to Know a C.E.O., with Jess Gartner
Jess Gartner recently founded Allovue to help guide principals through the maze known as K-12 budgets. In this exclusive sit down, Jess discusses Allovue's goals, Teach for America, and what it's like to start a new ed-tech venture.
Classroom Technology
Opinion
Twitter University: A Game Changer in EDU?
Twitter has acquired an online training company called Marakana as a base for the launch of "Twitter University." Is this just the start of corporations molding an educational experience to their real world needs?
Science
Opinion
In Praise of those Liberal Arts
Everywhere we look these days, people are stressing the same educational path - STEM STEM STEM! Perhaps they are not wrong, but let's take a second to examine the virtues of a liberal arts learning experience.
Classroom Technology
Opinion
Get to Know a C.E.O., with Joel Klein
Though early in its academic life, Amplify is poised to transform the entire K-12 experience. The man leading this transformation is none other than former NYC Ed Chancellor Joel Klein. This is an interview with him.
Classroom Technology
Opinion
How Can Nature Compete With Technology?
While technology has all sorts of wonderful applications, there are some places where it simply cannot compete: namely, observation of the natural world. Disney's Animal Kingdom is exploring various ways to connect nature and technology, to maintain the stimulation of technology in a child's hands while leveraging the simplistic joy of nature itself.
Classroom Technology
Opinion
The Heart of Darkness*: Launching a Venture in the Ed-Tech Market
Got an idea for an Ed-Tech venture? Give it a go! But first: do your homework, recruit the right partners, and, of course, be ready to do the hustle. Here are some tips.
Assessment
Opinion
Better to Be Lucky Than Good: The Persistent Gender Gap in Standardized Testing
If the SAT is meant to project a student's likelihood of success as a freshman in college, why are the results skewed in favor of males? Guest writer Scott Schonberger explores the gender gap in standardized testing for mathematics and examines the reason girls tend to lag behind despite proving to be equal if not superior math students in a classroom setting.
Ed-Tech Policy
Opinion
The Problem with Ed-Tech Adoption: Infrastructure
If we are to properly outfit our classrooms with useful modern technology, we must first address the most critical stepping stone to adoption: infrastructure.
Federal
Opinion
Get to Know a C.E.O., with Ilan Zechory
In this addition of Get to Know a CEO, we talk to Ilan Zechory, cofounder of the site rapgenius.com. While originally constructed as a place for annotating rap lyrics, the site has gained incredible traction, even penetrating the education community, and has transformed into a hub for inspiration and passionate debate over texts of all kinds.
Standards
Opinion
Closing the Gap: NYC's Ed-Tech Challenge
New York City's DOE seeks to be a leader in bringing innovation to the classroom. Through it's iZone schools, the DOE recently launched its Gap App Challenge as a way to introduce new technologies to its learning experience and develop concrete working relationships between developers and the schools they aim to help.
Student Achievement
Opinion
Get to Know a C.E.O., with Michael Lombardo
We all know about the achievement gap between the rich and the poor, but we don't often acknowledge that schools do a particularly good job of educating kids when they have them. To close the achievement gap, we need the involvement of the community and more organizations like Reading Partners. Let's meet their CEO, Michael Lombardo.
Future of Work
Opinion
The Children's Crusade: Entrepreneurship in the 21st Century
At age 17, Nick D'Aloisio just sold Summly to Yahoo! for $30 Million. With technology increasingly penetrating our everyday lives, today's children grow up with computers in their blood: thus, this rise of the teenage entrepreneur is not fading anytime soon.
Education Funding
Opinion
The Impact of Investing in Education
When we discuss monetary policy and federal budget issues, Education is held as its own spending category, like Healthcare or Defense. The reality, however, is that investing in education simply means investing in progress within every other category, and it should be treated as such. Education touches every piece of the living experience.
Classroom Technology
Opinion
The rise of smartglasses in education: or, A shameless plea to Jaime Casap
Google Glass is a potential game changer to the myriad ways that human beings interact with the world. By nature, this means we must shift our education strategies to match the world inhabited by smartglasses.