Learning Innovation

Earlier this month The Washington Post Magazine ran a story titled "Can Parents Share Child-Raising Responsibilities Equally?" This article is a good contribution to a larger discussion about work / life balance,

Whatever you think of MOOCs or online learning programs (they are different things!), one great benefit of all the focus on both of these trends is a renewed focus on teaching. Suddenly, everyone is talking about learning. They are talking about learning at CES, in the press, and at provost and presidential meetings. As an edtech guy, someone who hangs out with learning designers and spends his days (and nights) as part of an online/blended learning program team, I am overjoyed with all the focus on teaching and learning.

I was asked by some colleagues if I could recommend any web based and/or mobile collaborative platforms for virtual teams. The requirements include the need to manage and track projects, share and collaboratively author and edit documents, and engage in virtual meetings.

HigherEdTech, the edtech summit embedded in CES, kicked off this week with an incredible set of speakers and discussions. This is a conference that is top on my list to attend (impossible this year do to a local commitment), and I'm interested to hear the news and insights that come out of these discussions.

Adrian Sannier is one of those edtech leaders who is difficult to pigeonhole. An academic working for a big publishing company. A truth-teller operating within a buttoned-down publisher. An idealist operating within the real world of business, profit and loss. Adrian's title at Pearson is Digital Strategist and Senior Vice President of Product - he is the guy behind OpenClass.

Like many of you, I took the time to print out and carefully read Lev Gonick's essay "The Year Ahead in IT, 2013". The entire essay is worth spending time with, as you will find a number of challenging ideas and insights embedded in Gonick's writing.

Michael Feldstein is "an educational technology consultant and a lifelong educator," with previous gigs as "senior program manager of MindTap at Cengage Learning and principal product strategy manager for Academic Enterprise Solutions (formerly Academic Enterprise Initiative, or AEI) at Oracle." He is also a terrific speaker (recommend Michael for any keynote you need keynoted), an excellent and prolific writer, and someone who seems to know everybody else in edtech.

This Hanukkah/Christmas my wife and I gave each other Fitbit Ones, a wearable digital activity tracker that measures steps, distance, calories burned, stairs climbed and sleep.