The scion of the Gap, Inc. fortune has jumpstarted a $25 million fund with the goal of turning the Bay Area into a national hub for blended learning, the promising school model that combines individualized online learning and face-to-face classroom instruction.
With a sizable gift from John Fisher, the Silicon Schools Fund can move ahead with plans to underwrite 25 schools’ experiments in blended learning, within five years. The grants will be up to $700,000 – money that wiill underwrite startup costs of innovative new schools until they can become self-sustaining, according to Brian Greenberg, a former charter school principal and technology advocate who’s the founder and CEO of the new Silicon Schools Fund.
Sophisticated software that can identify gaps in individual students’ knowledge is one piece of blended learning.
Most schools have computer labs, and some districts are offering online courses. Teachers have been supplementing what they teach with computer software since Steve Jobs introduced the Mac. But true blended learning, in which individually tailored online instruction is an integral part of the school day, transforming what students learn and how teachers teach, is still at version 1.0 in its
If you are confused about the differences between Propositions 30 and 38, the competing initiatives that would raise billions of dollars for California public schools, you are not alone.
The initiatives deal with what is arguably the most complex public policy issue in California today – how our public schools are financed.
To help reduce voter confusion, EdSource, founded 35 years ago to clarify complex education issues, has for the first time produced a visually appealing infographic – in this case to clarify for