This post originally appeared on the Breakthrough Learning in a Digital Age blog. Tashawna is a high school senior in Brooklyn, NY. In the morning she leaves home for school listening to her MP3s, texting her friends about meeting up after school at Global Kids, where she participates in a theater program, or […]
Monthly Archives: October 2009

The Teacher is the Key
October 23, 2009
This post originally appeared on the Breakthrough Learning in a Digital Age blog. Here is a pretty shocking statistic. More than 40% of teachers today are disheartened and disappointed in their jobs according to a study just released by Learning Points Associates. It is hard to be an inspirational, caring teacher if you don’t want to be […]

Breakthrough Learning from the Outside In: Four Policies to Accelerate Innovation in the Classroom
October 21, 2009
Victor V. Vuchic is Program Officer, Open Educational Resources The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Often when we think about innovation, we focus on lots of low cost rapid prototypes and bottoms up design driven approaches. You don’t often hear much about how policy could stoke innovation. Usually, people think of policy as stifling […]

The Promise of Games in the Public Interest
October 20, 2009

Technology and Family Literacy
October 19, 2009
We’re excited to participate in the Cooney Center’s upcoming Forum. Families of all socio-economic classes are using technology in their daily lives. The National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL) is on a quest to crack the code on helping families—particularly families struggling with low literacy skills—use technology to further education and their well-being. Parents and children must be […]
Digital Connectors Will Build Today’s Communities and Tomorrow’s Leaders
October 15, 2009
David L. Cohen is the Executive Vice President, Comcast Corporation This post originally appeared on the Breakthrough Learning in a Digital Age blog. We are strong believers in investing in stronger communities, and we’re in the midst of one of our most exciting community investment initiatives ever. Building on our partnership with One Economy, we recently launched […]

The Outer Spaces of Learning
October 14, 2009
This post was originally published on the Breakthrough Learning in a Digital Age blog. In the recent Star Trek movie by J.J. Abrams we get to see what a 23rd century Vulcan school was like for young Spock. Hundreds of crater-like pods, with 360-degree projection systems, allow individual students to navigate through an encyclopedic array of topics fully […]
+1 Learner: How personal learning networks can transform individual teacher practice
October 13, 2009
Lucy Gray, Education Technology Specialist Center for Elementary Mathematics and Science Education University of Chicago This post was originally published on the Breakthrough Learning in a Digital Age blog. Imagine a learning community for educators, a place where teachers can connect to the world. Teachers can pose questions and receive just in time help and advice […]

Write a Story On a Phone? Are you Kidding?
October 12, 2009
This post originally appeared on the Breakthrough Learning in a Digital Age blog. Creativity continues to be an essential skill in the emerging creative economy. Since scientific and technological creativity are tightly intertwined with cultural and artistic creativity, developing tools for creative expression can help all members of society. Thus, ensuring open access to […]

Taking Down the Digital Divide in Schools
October 8, 2009
This post originally appeared on the Breakthrough Learning in a Digital Age blog. I vividly remember a physician friend of mine, Dr. Karen Hein, saying that, for AIDS, asthma and other health problems, geography was destiny. She meant that poverty and the problems associated with it were key determinants of health. Poor people got […]