links Archive

The National Education Technology Plan and BettrAt

Earlier this month, The US Department of Education released its National Education Technology Plan. The NETP is driven by two clear goals by 2020: We will raise the proportion of college graduates from where it now stands [39%] so that 60% of our population holds a 2-year or 4-year degree. We...
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Formal vs informal education, by Joi

I keep meaning to hat-tip to startup hero, Joi for this wonderful post on Formal vs Informal education but I kept forgetting until I looked through my recent bookmarks today. The good parts: Despite my completely dysfunctional relationship with formal learning, I've been able to learn enough to run companies, give talks...
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What can a cookie do?

We're proud to be supporting informal learning organizations like the Girl Scouts that help people develop skills to become the next generation's world leaders and make a difference. If you stop and think about just how much informal learning groups that you've been a part of have played into your growth...
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25 Ways to Rebuild America: Education gets high marks

Apologies for the blog hiatus, Kevin and I (Ash) went away on an international trip and got back a week ago and just getting back into the swing of things here at BettrAt. We continue to push forward and will be piloting BettrAt with some local groups. ...
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Tech the Halls Chicago — Jelly

We're extremely proud to be a part of and contribute to the vibrant Chicago startup community. BettrAt is sponsoring Tech the Halls this Friday, December 11th @ 10pm at the Noble Tree Coffee. If you're about tech startups in any way, come by and chat with us to...
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The School of One is one of Time magazine’s 50 Best Inventions of 2009

The School of One is one of Time magazine's 50 Best Inventions of 2009 This past summer, in a sixth-grade math class, New York City schools chancellor Joel Klein piloted a small program in which individualized, technology-based learning takes the place of the old "let's all proceed together" approach. Each day,...
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Meetings

Sorry - We haven't fallen off the face of the earth, we're still here! Over the past several weeks, we've had some meetings with some potential partners that might make the BettrAt ecology a lot more robust and a way better user experience. Very exciting potential here,...
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Feeling Better is better

Hmmm. As it turns out, we actually want you to be awesome at what you do. I just stumbled upon this by Kathy Sierra from O'Reilly radar. I always knew that Kathy was into helping users get better, but I guess I hadn't kept in touch when she stopped...
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US DoE: Online learning kicks [regular] academia’s tail

The US Department of Education put out a study about online learning last month that I just came across from an NYTimes article. Bodes well. Some key findings: Students who took all or part of their class online performed better, on average, than those taking the same course through traditional...
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Getting better at stuff: Not just for poindexters anymore

I had a conversation with Hugh (the associate dean of the Institute of Design) today about his son Morley's high school which sounds completely amazing and reminded me of this article in Wired I read recently, called "Making Geeks Cool Could Reform Education" I've worked on various education related projects in...
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