Howard Dvorsky

The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) has released an advance look at its 2026 “top topics” driving innovation in K-12 education.

A Portrait of a Graduate identifies the traits we want for our students, but it remains just a vision without intentional pathways within our educational system. Student experiences reveal what a system truly values. Consider the student who revises a major project three times and finally demonstrates proficiency, only to receive a C because early drafts were averaged in. The message is clear: our...[Read More]

When Dr. Carolina Gutierrez’s physics students used artificial intelligence to solve problems, something unexpected happened: The answers were wrong. But instead of provoking frustration, those mistakes sparked the kind of learning teachers hope for. Students began asking why, adjusting their prompts and developing critical thinking skills that went beyond computational accuracy. This is the...[Read More]

It’s 2005, and the computer room has been vibrating for two hours straight, my fingers gliding across the keyboard copying HTML and Java code while jamming to the latest R&B CD I burned. No, I’m not a computer programming wiz — I’m designing my MySpace page. I spend countless hours choosing the perfect song, trying to figure out why my About section header isn’t bold, and how to get those glit...[Read More]

Krystalyn Musselman holds a worn cardboard box up to the screen on our Zoom call. It’s the anonymous question box she relies on to field queries from high schoolers at Tecumseh Public Schools in southeast Michigan, where she teaches sex ed. The box, covered in pink and black patterned craft tape, is topped with a pink handlebar mustache, serving as a key visual set up for the “I mustache you a que...[Read More]

The new law will take effect next year.

When I was a teenager, the idea of revealing my innermost thoughts and feelings to another human being was beyond comprehension. Now that I’m an adult, the idea of revealing those same secrets to an artificial being is almost inconceivably strange. Back then, and still today, I’m an outlier, a fact underscored by the 28% of American adults and 72% of teens who seek emotional solace and advice from...[Read More]

Education is at an inflection point. For decades, we have structured learning around content delivery—standardized, decontextualized, and increasingly disconnected from the real world. But a rapidly changing global landscape demands something different: an approach to learning that is immersive, relational, and participatory. It requires a shift from passive knowledge absorption to active engageme...[Read More]

How can schools make STEM exciting and relevant in preK-12 classrooms, without overwhelming teachers? Here are a few suggestions.

Imagine spending thousands of dollars on an edtech product for your school or district that promises to transform student learning, only to watch students struggle to engage with it. It’s a scenario we’ve heard about repeatedly from educators. While teachers and education leaders are the ones making the procurement decisions, the end users — students themselves — are often left out of the conversa...[Read More]

States and school systems considering the future of assessment find themselves in a position somewhat analogous to Netflix circa 2007. Netflix had a thriving DVD-by-mail service. It kept that approach while simultaneously embracing the future by introducing streaming—adding personalization, usefulness, and usability without abandoning its core business. For Pre-K12 education systems, the path forw...[Read More]

From content to thought, linear learning to spiral learning, and grading to micrograding, here are possible characteristics of an innovative classroom.