A project of Deeper Learning, the Share Your Learning campaign highlights the value of having students present their work to authentic audiences. In sharing their stories of learning, students reflect on their growth and engage in real dialogue with others about their accomplishments and their futures. To get started, teachers can sign up to join a community of educators encouraging students to produce meaningful work for an authentic audience. After signing up, teachers can download one of the toolkits and have their students publicly share their learning via student-led conferences, exhibitions of student work, or presentations of learning. Then they can post an image or video on social media using the #shareyourlearning hashtag or upload directly to the Share Your Learning website under the Community tab. Share Your Learning aims to have 5 million students across the US sharing their stories of learning by 2020. That goal will require the participation of 300,000 teachers!
The renewed focus on civics education in this country provides a promising path for readying students for the challenges of twenty-first century citizenship. The Council on Foreign Relations has created a free curriculum to facilitate this critical work. Educators are invited to explore the library of curriculum units—Global Era Issues; Regions of the World; and How the World Works—and Sometimes Doesn’t.
The biannual National Cyber League (NCL) Competition simulates real-life cyberthreats in a safe environment for high school students to learn how to defend organizations against such threats and keep them secure.
Educational technology research and development will gain additional levels of perspective with Digital Promise’s launch of the Center for Inclusive Innovation. The goal is to bring in communities of color to participate as “co-creators and collaborators” in educational innovation.