Alex Sarlin is Lead Verbal Developer for Graduate Programs at Knewton, specializing in GMAT prep.
Karen Cator, the former Director of Education and Leadership at Apple, was just appointed as the US Department of Education’s new head of the Office of Educational Technology.
Combined with the fact that $650MM that has been committed to educational tech by the federal government, this means that she could have a LOT of say about the next generation of educational tech policy in public schools.
What’s exciting about this to me (and why I’m sharing it with all of you) is that the government seems to be getting in line with private educational tech companies’ vision of the future and putting money toward implementing it in schools.
This is a scribd slideshow by Cator about her beliefs about educational tech. Some of the interesting things regarding our work here are her focus on
1) Student experience
2) User-generated content
3) 24-7 access to educational content
4) Communication and collaboration
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Seems that this is very much like what we already have gone through. With all due respect to Ms. Cator everyone is just jumping on the proverbial “bandwagon”. A few years ago it was Feminist Pedagogy, before that teacher lead classes. What is required is something I call the relational curriculum which is geared to all learning styles and all the teachers in the school districts teach the same material in different ways. E.g., if you are teaching three dimensional geometry as a strand of mathematics why not let the visual arts teacher help out with the design of multiple faces objects and have that grade for your measurement strand. Or for measurement strand and the student has issues of distance have this taught by the Physical Education teacher. They deal with distances and time each and every day. We gear the curriculum to the different gifts of each individual learner.
Hi!
I am so happy that Ms. Cator is going to be very active in decision-making for public schools. I am a Computer Teacher in CT, certified in Educatiion Technology and also Tech Education. I have taught in a couple of schools in CT and found that when it comes to the Educatiional part of Technology, there is a significant problem with not being a focus for students’ learning. Hopefully, this will change for the 21st century. Thanks.