Blended Learning: A Wise Giver’s Guide to Supporting Tech-assisted Teaching

Blended Learning: A Wise Giver’s Guide to Supporting Tech-assisted Teaching
Author: Laura Vanderkam
Publisher: The Philanthropy Roundtable
Total Pages: 150
Release: 2013-04-03
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 0985126566

Few innovations in education today offer as much potential to transform how students are educated as the rise of so-called blended learning—the artful combination of computerized instruction with small-group teaching that is closer to tutoring than to traditional mass lectures. This highly readable book provides rich, up-to-date practical information for donors aiming to make a difference.

Learning to Be Useful: A Wise Giver’s Guide to Supporting Career and Technical Education

Learning to Be Useful: A Wise Giver’s Guide to Supporting Career and Technical Education
Author: David Bass
Publisher: The Philanthropy Roundtable
Total Pages: 120
Release: 2016-09-01
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 0986147478

Philanthropists are already connecting educators, nonprofits, and companies, and funneling young people and low-wage adult workers into job training. If expanded, this assistance has the potential to move millions of Americans firmly into the middle class. If you are a donor who wants to bolster America’s workforce, this practical book will show you how.

Closing America's High-achievement Gap: A Wise Giver's Guide to Helping Our Most Talented Students Reach Their Full Potential

Closing America's High-achievement Gap: A Wise Giver's Guide to Helping Our Most Talented Students Reach Their Full Potential
Author: Andy Smarick
Publisher: The Philanthropy Roundtable
Total Pages: 203
Release: 2013-10-22
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 0989220222

This intriguing book makes a powerful case for a sorely needed U.S. educational improvement that has been almost entirely overlooked. During the last two decades, philanthropists and education reformers have made urgent efforts to pull weak students up to levels of basic competency. Though that vital work is incomplete, there is evidence of progress among low achievers. Meanwhile, though, children at the other end of the achievement spectrum have gotten lost in the shuffle. Programs and funding once aimed at stimulating high-potential students to make the most of their talents have withered, and we are now doing a poor job of stimulating our quick learners. When the particular needs of high-potential students are not met by schools, that is a moral failure—because every child deserves to be stretched and challenged. It is also a threat to our national interests—since high achievers will be crucial to America’s future ability to compete internationally. This is a field where donors have wide-open opportunities to lead. In the pages of this fresh, practical guidebook, savvy school-reform philanthropists will be introduced to scores of programs and institutions that can pull talented students of all ages, races, and income levels up to their full natural capabilities.

Excellent Educators: A Wise Giver's Guide to Cultivating Great Teachers and Principals

Excellent Educators: A Wise Giver's Guide to Cultivating Great Teachers and Principals
Author: Laura Vanderkam
Publisher: The Philanthropy Roundtable
Total Pages: 122
Release: 2014-04-27
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 0989220265

The strongest influence on whether a student learns (and how much) is the teacher. Never mind fancy facilities, new technology, top curricula, or more school spending—research shows that the intelligence, skill, and dedication of the instructor is two to three times as important as any other contribution to student outcomes. If we want to improve schools, we must raise the quality of teachers. Yet credentials, degrees, years on the job have little to do with classroom excellence. Fascinating investigations have recently given us clearer pictures of what a successful teacher looks like. Now leading schools are beginning to hire and mentor teachers differently, with a clear-eyed focus on their demonstrated ability to transfer knowledge to their students. New techniques for measuring and enhancing the teacher’s capacity to add value in the classroom are the most promising elements in school reform today. Putting them into effect, though, requires wise and brave school leaders. Without bold, sober, demanding principals, few schools will build a truly excellent set of instructors. This book is for public-spirited donors who want to foster educational excellence by elevating teachers and principals. It reviews the latest academic research and on-the-ground experience of reformers and offers practical advice on multiple fronts. It is written for philanthropists and allies active in the field who want to make a positive difference.

From Promising to Proven: A Wise Giver's Guide to Expanding on the Success of Charter Schools

From Promising to Proven: A Wise Giver's Guide to Expanding on the Success of Charter Schools
Author: Karl Zinsmeister
Publisher: The Philanthropy Roundtable
Total Pages: 219
Release: 2014-03-25
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 0989220249

Twenty-five years ago, charter schools hadn’t even been dreamed up. Today they are mushrooming across the country. There are 6,500 charter schools operating in 42 states, with more than 600 new ones opening every year. Within a blink there will be 3 million American children attending these freshly invented institutions (and 5 million students in them by the end of this decade). It is philanthropy that has made all of this possible. Without generous donors, charter schools could never have rooted and multiplied in this way. And philanthropists have driven relentless annual improvements—better trained school founders, more prepared teachers, sharper curricula, smarter technology—that have allowed charter schools to churn out impressive results. Studies show that student performance in charter schools is accelerating every year, as high-performing models replace weaker ones. Charter schools as a whole already exceed conventional schools in results. The top charters that are now growing so fast elevate student outcomes more than any other schools in the U.S.—especially among poor and minority children. Charter schooling may be the most important social innovation of our age, and it is just beginning to boom. Philanthropists anxious to improve America have more opportunities to make a difference through charter schools than in almost any other way. This book provides the facts, examples, cautionaries, inspiration, research, and practical experience that philanthropists will need as charter schooling shifts gears from promising experiment to mainstream movement bringing improved opportunity to millions of students.

Clearing Obstacles to Work: A Wise Giver's Guide to Fostering Self-Reliance

Clearing Obstacles to Work: A Wise Giver's Guide to Fostering Self-Reliance
Author: David Bass
Publisher: The Philanthropy Roundtable
Total Pages: 98
Release: 2015-07-08
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 0986147427

Cracks are becoming visible in American work habits. Whole subpopulations now have weak attachments to self-supporting labor. This worsens poverty and economic mobility. It also damages well-being in subtler ways—because work plays a vital role in building social connections, and boosting self-respect and happiness. Any sensible effort to improve American prosperity today must begin by bolstering work. Alas, government agencies have a very checkered history when it comes to helping those who have struggled in the workforce develop the capacities to do better in the future. Statistically, most government job-training programs are quite unimpressive. There are, however, many charitable programs that have demonstrated real success at leading unskilled persons, single mothers, inexperienced minorities, released prisoners, former addicts, and other at-risk populations into lasting, transformative employment. This book was written to help donors find those successful models and strategies. Because when it comes to curing deprivation, softening inequality, improving life satisfaction, and strengthening society, work works.

Agenda Setting: A Wise Giver’s Guide to Influencing Public Policy

Agenda Setting: A Wise Giver’s Guide to Influencing Public Policy
Author: John J. Miller
Publisher: The Philanthropy Roundtable
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2015-03-07
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 0986147400

Donating money to modify public thinking and government policy has now taken its place next to service-centered giving as a constructive branch of philanthropy. Many donors now view public-policy reform as a necessary adjunct to their efforts to improve lives directly. This is perhaps inevitable given the mushrooming presence of government in our lives. In 1930, just 12 percent of U.S. GDP was consumed by government; by 2012 that had tripled to 36 percent. Unless and until that expansion of the state reverses, it is unrealistic to expect the philanthropic sector to stop trying to have a say in public policies. Sometimes it’s not enough to build a house of worship; one must create policies that make it possible for people to practice their faith freely within society. Sometimes it’s not enough to pay for a scholarship; one must change laws so that high-quality schools exist for scholarship recipients to take advantage of. Yet public-policy philanthropy has special ways of mystifying and frustrating practitioners. It requires understanding of governmental practice, interpretation of human nature, and some philosophical perspective. Public-policy philanthropists may encounter opponents operating from different principles who view them as outright enemies. Moreover, public-policy struggles never seem to end: victories one year become defeats the next, followed by comebacks, then setbacks, and on and on. This book was written to help donors navigate all of those obstacles. It draws on deep history, and rich interviews with the very best practitioners of ­­public-policy philanthropy in America today. Whatever your aspirations for U.S. society and governance, this guide will help you find the best ways to make a difference.

Catholic School Renaissance

Catholic School Renaissance
Author: Andy Smarick
Publisher: The Philanthropy Roundtable
Total Pages: 173
Release: 2015-11-01
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 0986147443

Over the last generation, Catholic schools have been buffeted by a confluence of winds: changing demographics in the urban neighborhoods where many of their facilities are located, the disappearance of nuns and priests from classrooms, new competition from tuition-free charter schools. Finances crumbled, enrollments fell, and 6,000 schools were closed. Yet two million children remain in Catholic schools today. This includes a great many low-income and minority youngsters for whom Catholic schooling is a lifeline in an otherwise dysfunctional neighborhood. And Catholic schools get enormous bang for their educational buck—posting graduation rates, college success patterns, and levels of constructive student behavior that much exceed the performance at counterpart public institutions. Donors never gave up on Catholic schools. And in recent years they have begun to be rewarded for their loyalty. The last decade has brought a burst of fresh management structures, teacher pipelines, back-office mechanisms, helpful technologies, support groups, education-reform allies, private investors, and state and local school-choice programs that leave Catholic schools in their best position for future success in more than 50 years. It is now possible to see the outlines of a significant Catholic-school renaissance. And it is donors who are leading the way. This practical guide describes hundreds of opportunities for savvy givers to put a stamp on this field—where there may be more opportunities for life-changing philanthropy than in any other corner of our nation.

Handbook of Research on K-12 Online and Blended Learning

Handbook of Research on K-12 Online and Blended Learning
Author: RIchard E. Ferdig
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 542
Release: 2014
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 1312587083

"The Handbook of Research on K-12 Online and Blended Learning is an edited collection of chapters that sets out to present the current state of research in K-12 online and blended learning. The beginning chapters lay the groundwork of the historical, international, and political landscape as well as present the scope of research methodologies used. Subsequent sections share a synthesis of theoretical and empirical work describing where we have been, what we currently know, and where we hope to go with research in the areas of learning and learners, content domains, teaching, the role of the other, and technological innovations."--Book home page.

WoMELA-GG 2019

WoMELA-GG 2019
Author: Anindito Subagyo
Publisher: European Alliance for Innovation
Total Pages: 727
Release: 2019-04-17
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1631901796

We are delighted to introduce the proceedings of the first edition of the Workshop on Multimedia Education, Learning, Assessment and its Implementation in Game and Gamification. This Workshop has brought researchers, developers and practitioners around the world who are leveraging and developing the education, media learning and scientific technology. We strongly believe that this Joint Workshop on Multimedia Education, Learning, Assessment and its Implementation in Game and Gamification provides a good forum for all researcher, developers and practitioners to discuss all scientific and technological aspects that are relevant to Digital Society. We also expect that the future Workshop will be as successful and stimulating, as indicated by the contributions presented in this volume.