Category: Informal learning

July 26, 2022

New America has been collecting data for its Varying Degrees survey for six years. That covers a period of significant change in the U.S., including divisive election cycles, the coronavirus pandemic, a reckoning with racism spurred by the police killing […]

July 22, 2022

In my role as a 5th grade teacher, I’ve come to believe that one of the best ways to integrate technology into the classroom is to start with the lesson itself. Lessons can be turned digital, and formatted in a […]

July 14, 2022

A collaboration between two schools co-located in a midtown Manhattan campus has bridged both of their missions in the most fruitful way possible: a hands-on project giving their respective students real-world life skills. Students at Urban Assembly School of Design […]

July 14, 2022

“Being back on campus is really, really good in some ways, but in some ways, it’s harder.” That statement, from one of my former students, stuck with me. It was the first day of fall classes in 2020, and Denison […]

July 8, 2022

A recent National Student Clearinghouse Research Center report reveals that post-secondary enrollment continues to decline. Undergraduate enrollment alone saw a 9.4 percent drop from Spring 2020, resulting in nearly 1.4 million fewer undergrads than before the pandemic. Although the COVID-19 […]

June 30, 2022

When coding merges with storytelling, you have story coding, in which students use computational skills and design thinking as they demonstrate creativity across core curricular areas. During an ISTELive 22 virtual session, computer science, robotics, and design thinking educator Paige […]

April 27, 2022

While many American parents and students say they are now ready to move on from the COVID-19 pandemic – 77 percent of the U.S. population has received at least one dose of the vaccine, a number that has not changed […]

March 8, 2022

The pandemic brought special education to the forefront of the dialogue about education, with the media focus mainly directed at sharing stories of students separated from the in-school supports that they had come to rely upon, and parents struggling to […]

February 18, 2022

I’ve always thought of the U.S. as the leader in digital learning, representing the most adventurous innovations. But lately I’ve realized my perception may be flawed by a false sense of American exceptionalism. In Canada, for example, about two-thirds of […]

February 11, 2022

The pandemic has given us all a taste of forced isolation. We’ve seen how it can leave individuals feeling lonely, scared and depressed. Imagine if that was your permanent experience. For many students with disabilities, isolation is the standard practice, […]

December 7, 2021

Virtual learning, and the forms in which virtual and in-person education meet, have sparked controversy in the educational community. Often we debate what consequences this type of education has. We wonder whether traditional learning methodologies–with their big appetite for control […]

November 18, 2021

Over the past few years, the pandemic made online education the de-facto schooling format for nearly all Americans. While it proved viable for many, it also exposed some of the common pitfalls in the traditional online education landscape, leading to […]

November 3, 2021

Testing anxiety shows itself in different ways for different students. It can range from refusing to do work, crying, hiding in the bathroom, and verbal aggression to physical behavior like flipping tables and desks or hitting school staff. Some students […]

October 22, 2021

Dana Dickens likes it when her former students check in with her and when they do, several will ask if their old school — P.S. 76, the Asa Philip Randolph School for the Humanities in New York City — still […]

September 8, 2021

For us folks with one of the great invisible disabilities, hearing loss, captions are a godsend. Their significance becomes dramatically evident in their absence, as occurs when one of us, David, has told family members that he’s hearing a movie […]

August 26, 2021

A bipartisan, bicameral bill introduced last month contains a proposal for a simple policy change that would make a considerable difference in how students with disabilities access postsecondary education. The Respond, Innovate, Succeed and Empower Act, or RISE Act, would […]

July 20, 2021

Millions of students transitioned to online and hybrid learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. While that transition was relatively easy for some students, many–including students with special needs–found it difficult or impossible to access in-school services and therapies. While many schools […]

June 24, 2021

Students with disabilities tend to show greater learning losses over the summer, and at times grow at academically higher rates than peers without disabilities, according to a new study showing detailed insight on academic growth among students with disabilities. The […]

June 11, 2021

The pandemic has changed the way parents look at their children’s education, and most want more choices–including an online learning option–going forward. According to a survey conducted by Stride, Inc., parents believe schools should now be equipped to quickly and […]

June 9, 2021

About two in 10 U.S. school districts have already adopted, plan to adopt or are considering adopting virtual learning after the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a RAND Corporation study published earlier this year. The survey of district […]