Michael B. Horn: Bright Spots Shine in Blended, Online Learning (Video)

A month has passed since the first-ever national Digital Learning Day. Given the excitement generated from teachers and others tuning in to the National Town Hall meeting and given today’s National Leadership Summit on Online Learning up on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. that iNACOL sponsored, I thought it was worth noting some great examples that weren’t highlighted during the day’s festivities.
To our friends in the field, these examples are familiar, but they remind us that what is so exciting about technology is the power that it holds to move our education system toward a student-centric model of learning where students can move at their own path and pace to boost student outcomes.
Click here to watch some videos of exceptional online learning programs

Guest Commentary: Joel Klein on The Promise of Edtech (It's not Just About Lighter Backpacks)

Joel Klein is the former chancellor of New York City's public schools. He is now chief executive of the Educational Division of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.
In a Huffington Post column, Klein recently wrote about education technology and its future.
"When Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski spoke at the first ever 'Digital Learning Day,' ' Klein wrote, "and pushed schools to get digital textbooks in students' hands within five years, it marked a vital recognition that technology can help us re-imagine teaching and learning."
But, Klein continued. "it's equally important to admit that, as nifty (and lightweight) as digital textbooks may sound, when it comes to realizing the potential of education technology to lift student achievement, we're still on our own 5 yard line. The digital textbook push is a positive step and a meaningful sign of change, but it risks being an incremental move in a field that urgently needs transformative improvement.
"As someone who led America's largest school district for 8 years, serving over 1 million children, I believe technology can radically transform the way students learn by customizing instruction, and by helping teachers focus on each student's areas of greatest need. But the key to capturing this potential lies as much inside our own hearts and minds as it does in any hardware and software we'll deploy," he added.
Click here to read Klein's complete post.

Digital Learning Day: The Town Hall Meeting

Federal Communication Chairman Julius Genachowski and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan are scheduled to be the featured speakers at the Digital Day National Town Hall Meeting, which is being held virtually.
During the meeting, teachers, students, and leaders in the digital education movement from Colorado to North Carolina,and from Texas to Ohio, will discuss everything from blended learning to mastery of subject to the pros and cons of virtual education.
The event will conclude with a look at the Reconnecting McDowell project in West Virginia, a comprehensive, long-term effort to make educational improvement in this home of the coal mining industry.
The Town Hall meeting is scheduled to start at 1 p.m. Eastern, that's 10 a.m. on the Pacific Coast.
Here is a link to watch the event.  A piece of advice: So you don't have to wait to get online to watch the Town Hall, login in 5-10 minutes before the event starts.

Digital Learning Day: The Webcast

If you are on the Pacific Coast, you will have to be up and at a computer screen before the crack of dawn.
But it should be worth it.
The Alliance for Excellent Education is hosting a webcast that will present an in-depth look at important elements of digital learning--leadership, innovation, instruction strategies, effective teaching, and professional development opportunities.
Just in case you miss the morning webcast, sections of the webcast will be re-broadcast beginning at 9 a.m. Pacific (that's noon on the East Coast).
Click here for a detailed schedule of events. Click here for a link to the webcast.

Michael B. Horn: Digital Learning Day Cometh

With the arrival on February 1, 2012 of the first-ever national Digital Learning Day, the disruptive innovation of K-12 online learning—from in blended-learning environments to remote ones—seems to be taking yet another step toward the mainstream.
For over a couple decades, supporters of technology in education have talked of its potential benefits in transforming education. But beyond a set of enthusiastic early adopters, the use of technology in formal education remained largely stalled. Its talked-about benefits remained unrealized at best, as the cramming of computers produced few notable results that scaled.
With the rise of online learning, that began to change. Its growth is rapid and undeniable. Increasingly we’re seeing online learning stretch beyond areas of non-consumption—where the alternative is nothing at all and where disruptive innovations first take root.
Click here to learn more about the goals of the first Digital Learning Day.