Teaching & Learning

How Digital Skills Can Promote Cultural Literacy and Create Pathways to Equity

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Coding and computer science are typically associated with outcomes around problem-solving and analytical skills. For instruction that yields cultural literacy, we most often look to language arts and social sciences. But Victor Hicks approaches these academic pathways as complementary, not contradictory. With Google’s Applied Digital Skills as his foundation, Hicks prioritizes culturally relevant teaching through … Read more

How a Feedback Tool Improves Both Instruction and Student Outcomes for This Math Teacher

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In recent years, the focus in math education has shifted from the traditional priority of answering the problem to one of understanding and articulating the process. This has been accompanied by a growing demand for educators to provide quality feedback in a timely manner. And high school math teacher Krystina Wood might have discovered the … Read more

When Virtual Animations Are Teaching, Can They Make an Emotional Connection?

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Studies have shown that students learn better from instructors displaying positive emotions—in other words, an upbeat lecturer is more effective than someone delivering in monotone. But when video lessons are led by computer animations instead of live instructors, how much do their simulated emotions matter? That’s the subject of a research project at the University … Read more

How Leveraging Curiosity May Keep Students Engaged From Afar

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Faith Bongiorno began her teaching career as an “art-on-the-cart” educator. But that changed one day when her son told her he wanted to participate in FIRSTⓇ LEGOⓇ League, a robotics program created through an alliance betweenFIRSTⓇ (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) and LEGOⓇ Education. Curiosity piqued, she presented the program to her … Read more

This Is the Moment for States to Design the Future of Education

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We begin 2021 heartened by the resiliency of educators and students from around the country pushing through the disruptions of COVID-19. Even in the face of current challenges, many schools and districts are using this moment to design new approaches that will shape learning far into the future. As 2021 kicks off and we set … Read more

Another Pandemic Semester Is Underway. Here’s What Students and Profs Learned From the Fall

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Here we go again. Spring semester is starting at campuses around the country, and the COVID-19 pandemic just doesn’t seem ready to let up. Just like in the fall, some campuses are doing as much in-person teaching as possible, with safety interventions like plexiglass barriers in front of podiums. Others are staying fully online. One … Read more

U. of Florida Asks Students to Use App to Report Profs Who Don‘t Teach In Person

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Administrators at the University of Florida are so concerned that professors will refuse to teach in person this semester that they’re asking students to use an app to report any professor who teaches online instead. And some professors are outraged by the tactic. The university added new options to its campus safety app, called Gator … Read more

Do Instructional Videos Work Better When the Teacher is On Screen? It Depends.

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As the pandemic has forced more teaching online, plenty of instructors have been trying to figure out the best way to keep students’ attention and interest with lecture videos or Zoom sessions. Meanwhile, learning scientists have been taking a more clinical approach, using experiments to test the question: How important is it for the teacher … Read more

How Professors Can Use AI to Improve Their Teaching In Real Time

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The original version of this article appeared in Toward Data Science. When I started teaching data science and artificial intelligence in Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering, I was frustrated by how little insight I actually felt I had into how effective my teaching was, until the end-of-semester final exam grades and student assessments came … Read more

‘Don’t Kick the Chicken,’ and Other Memorable Advice From the EdSurge Podcast in 2020

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On this week’s EdSurge Podcast, we’re revisiting some of the most memorable moments from our podcast in 2020—and some bonus material that we wanted to include but didn’t make it in previously. Listen to Dave Eggers’ concerns about what he sees as overuse of tech in education. Hear how one professor created an unusual final … Read more