Gamification vs. Game-Based Learning–Which Is More Effective?

In recent years, educators who spend any time on the internet have no doubt come across one particular buzzword: gamification. For anyone struggling to boost engagement in snoozy subjects, it seems like the perfect solution. The term is often confused with another popular pedagogy: game-based learning. So—what’s the difference? And more importantly, which works better?

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Minecraft Provided Ideal Game-Based Learning for Benjamin Kelly. But to Use It, He Had to Cut Through Some Red Tape.

Game-based learning has been shown to be a viable educational tool. But that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily easy to implement. When Benjamin Kelly, a technology teacher at the Caledonia Regional School near Moncton, New Brunswick, tried to get the newest version of Minecraft into his class, he found that out first hand.

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With New ISTE Technology K-12 Learning Standards, Washington Walks a Line

Last week, the state of Washington officially updated their technology learning standards. K-12 students will now be expected to further incorporate technology into their existing skillset and learn as a ‘Digital Citizen,’ among other things. The standards were initially developed by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE).

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Michigan Has Required Online Classes for K-12 Students for Over a Decade. Is it Working?

In 2006, the state of Michigan passed a controversial piece of education legislation known as the Michigan Merit Curriculum. The revamp required students to complete upper level STEM subjects and, among other things, take at least one online class. Known as the online learning requirement, it was intended to onboard students for a future of lifelong learning and a workplace that will exist largely online. But recent data suggest that the program hasn’t had the results lawmakers were hoping for.

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Google Releases Tour Creator, An App that Lets Students Design their Own VR Journey

It’s teacher appreciation week and the folks at Google took the opportunity to showcase yet another addition to their education services. For many U.S. students in K-12 classrooms, Google Expeditions was their introduction to virtual reality. Built on the Google Daydream platform, and coupled with the very inexpensive Cardboard headsets, students could explore places such as the International Space Station, Machu Pichu, and Antarctica from their desks. On Wednesday, the search engine giant announced yet another addition to their VR offerings. Tour Creator allows students to, well, create their own VR tours.

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With the ESSA Set to Roll Out, Few States Have Dealt With Virtual Charter Schools in their New Legislation

ESSA was passed largely as a response to the culture of ‘teaching to the test’ created by NCLB and seeks to allow states to handle measures of quality on their own. But, according to Micah Wixom, a specialist in school choice for the Education Commission of the States (ECS), there’s one area that state lawmakers are largely ignoring: virtual charter schools.

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“There’s No Question that Flipped Learning Works.” Jon Bergmann and Errol St. Clair Smith Respond to Recent Research.

A study on flipped learning conducted by a team from the Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health was published last month in BioMed Central Medical Education. It made a splash for a singular reason: the researchers did not observe any positive testing results in the flipped classroom.

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Skewed Data, Non-Disclosure Agreements, and Hush Money from ECOT: Allegations Fly Against the Now Defunct Virtual Charter School

On Tuesday, the Columbus Dispatch reported that the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT) manipulated student activity tracking software in order to boost their reported student activity and, in doing so, the total taxpayer dollars they receive from Ohio.

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White Students Take More STEM Courses, Earlier

On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) released their 2015-2016 Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) report. The government agency has been collecting data on the demographics of K-12 schools in the U.S. since 1968. It has generally been their practice to publish it every two years. The latest release provides, among other things, insight into the current demographic breakdown of STEM courses.

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Following Google’s G Suite for Education Privacy Agreement Is No Picnic

Considering the news this month concerning Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, eLearning Inside News recently decided to take another look at an example of data collection in edtech. Google, with their G Suite for Education, is “still doing some data collection and they’re pretty open about it,” said Sophia Cope, an attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). “They’re collecting data for their own purposes to improve their products or just to better understand their users and in general.”

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