Learning Innovation

Why School? is part of the wonderful new TED Books series. Have you read any of these TED books? We are in the middle of a concise nonfiction renaissance, made possible by e-book readers, tablets, and new software platforms such as Atavist. The primary concern in Why School? is K-12.

First, I think we should take a moment to acknowledge the role that Michael Chasen has played over the past 15 years as a founder and CEO of Blackboard in changing our edtech industry. Many will disagree with me, but I believe that Blackboard has been part of accelerating a transition to active learning at scale, and the growth of the LMS industry has made possible the rapid diffusion of blended and online learning. Michael Chasen's role in bringing both capital and consolidation to an underfunded and fragmented edtech industry should not be minimized.

I have a colleague who does not have an office. He is an an edtech leadership role in higher education, with over 20 years of experience managing a large and complex organization. During the time in which I have known this edtech leader he has had a couple of different offices throughout his campus, as his responsibilities are distributed across a number of units.

What platform do you use for synchronous online learning? Adobe Connect? Blackboard Collaborate? WebEx? GoToMeeting? BigBlueButton? Skype? Google Hangouts? A new startup, Zoom.us, is determined to shakeup this market.

The idea to use NPR as model for how higher ed could change is not my own. I heard the analogy of how higher ed could evolve to mimic the NPR model from a colleague at a conference, and the idea has stuck in my head. (Perhaps you have heard the analogy before?).

We have too few books that feature designers who work in 24 hour (potentially magical) bookstores who can program in Ruby and who are obsessed with fantasy literature and data visualization.

Have you downloaded the IHE survey Debt, Jobs, Diversity and Who Gets In: A Survey of Admissions Directors?

My Kindle $119 Kindle Paperwhite with $39.99 persimmon leather cover arrived today. I'm already reading more. This is a beautiful device.