Brent Sordyl's blog » e-learning

Khan Academy short school pilot results

Brent Sordyl — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 19:22:36 +0000

The quantitative results show that students in the “control” or traditional summer school course increased their average percentage of correct answers by 5.2% over the five-week period, while students in the “treatment” or Khan class, on average, showed a 6.4% increase in their percentage of correct answers. Since the teacher in the Khan classroom worked mostly 1:1 with students, and since students in this cohort learned content at their own pace, these results suggest interesting potential for the blended learning environment. Yet the results alone paint an incomplete picture because not all blended learning classrooms are similar. Accordingly, this report focuses on the key insights gained from our pilot and provides suggestions for the role of the teacher, student interaction, space configuration, software considerations, and hardware usage. The hope is that others similarly can experiment to find new models for School 2.0 and share their learning.

(Full Story: Khan Academy short school pilot results)

PrepMe online test-prep firm acquired by Hobsons division

Brent Sordyl — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:56:11 +0000

PrepMe Inc., an online test-preparation startup, has been sold to Naviance, a division of Cincinnati-based education technology provider Hobsons Inc.

Chicago-based PrepMe, founded in 2005 by entrepreneur Karan Goel, quickly grew to be one of the largest online test-prep companies. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Mr. Goel, a Cincinnati native who earned an economics degree and MBA from the University of Chicago, stepped down last week as CEO.

The business, which helps students prepare for SAT, ACT and PSAT exams, will be run by Eva Prokop, PrepMe’s president who had been recruited recently from Princeton Review Inc. Naviance plans to use PrepMe to create personalized study plans for students.

(Full Story: PrepMe online test-prep firm acquired by Hobsons division)

Alleyoop – Pearson-backed Startup Aims to Be the Zynga for Learning

Brent Sordyl — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 17:51:43 +0000

What if the 232 million people who log into Zynga’s Facebook games each month instead spent hours working through online learning resources?

At least where teens are concerned, a new Pearson-backed startup Alleyoop is betting the result would be more college graduates.

(Full Story: Alleyoop – Pearson-backed Startup Aims to Be the Zynga for Learning)

Gates Paying Murdoch For System To Track U.S. Kids’ School Progress – Slashdot

Brent Sordyl — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:02:25 +0000

The Gates Foundation has ponied up $76.5 million for a controversial student data tracking initiative that’s engaged Rupert Murdoch’s Wireless Generation to ‘build the open software that will allow states to access a shared, performance-driven marketplace of free and premium tools and content.’ If you live in CO, IL, NC, NY, MA, LA, GA, or DE, it’s coming soon to a public school near you.

(Full Story: Gates Paying Murdoch For System To Track U.S. Kids’ School Progress – Slashdot)

Freakonomics » How Is a Bad Radio Station Like Our Public-School System?

Brent Sordyl — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 21:00:14 +0000

So you’re saying that if plumbers or if IT designers or engineers, or writers, or presidents, performed at the level, at the objective level that New York City teachers did, we’d either get rid of all of them, or radically change the job?…

All the learning modalities -
Large live instruction, small live instruction, virtual live instruction (which we call virtual tutoring, colloquially) independent practice, small group collaboration and independent virtual instruction.

(Full Story: Freakonomics » How Is a Bad Radio Station Like Our Public-School System?)

Early Thoughts on MITx

Brent Sordyl — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 21:00:01 +0000

MIT today announced MITx which appears to be an open learning initiative. They describe it as “an online interactive learning platform” that will offer a portfolio of MIT courses.

(Full Story: Early Thoughts on MITx)

Coursekit – simple way to manage your course and engage your students

Brent Sordyl — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 21:07:14 +0000

We believe that there’s a lot more to class than lecture. Post links, videos, files. Start discussions. Write a blog post. Ask about an assignment. Classes are meant to be social, but they rarely are. We’re changing that.

(Full Story: Coursekit – simple way to manage your course and engage your students)

The Ingenious Business Model Behind Coursekit, A Tumblr For Higher Education | Fast Company

Brent Sordyl — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 14:08:25 +0000

“We wanted to create a simple, elegant LMS that covers 95% of instructors’ needs, like grading, file management, calendaring, submitting assignments, and emailing with the class,” says Joseph Cohen, 20, who left Wharton after his sophomore year when he scored $1 million in seed funding this past June to start Coursekit. “Blackboard covers 100%– that’s why it’s such a cluttered platform.”

(Full Story: The Ingenious Business Model Behind Coursekit, A Tumblr For Higher Education | Fast Company)

Mahalo Lays Off 25 Percent for Shift to Apps

Brent Sordyl — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 20:56:28 +0000

a transition from cheaply churning out gaming videos in the style of Machinima.com to making educational iPad apps like Learn Guitar.

(Full Story: Mahalo Lays Off 25 Percent for Shift to Apps)

Overselling educational software

Brent Sordyl — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 20:56:21 +0000

A federal study, conducted a year earlier, examined ten leading software programs for teaching math, and concluded that they had no “statistically significant effects on test scores.”

(Full Story: Overselling educational software)