Howard Dvorsky

At Getting Smart, we partner with organizations that help collectively reach our mission of actively building the future of learning by designing, accelerating and amplifying equitable innovations that empower all people to thrive and lead in a complex world.  Within our learning design work, we spend a lot of time writing about, supporting and implementing three critical elements: values, goals a...[Read More]

By: History Co:Lab “What would a map of every opportunity in Pittsburgh where young people feel powerful and seen look like?” On June 25th, at the Civic Learning Ecosystem’s Youth Design Day, youth leaders, educators, civic organizers, and community members from southwestern Pennsylvania gathered in the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh’s SLB Youth Media Center to co-create an answer to this questio...[Read More]

By Shannon King, Ph.D. Accountability is crucial in education. As educational leaders, we must ensure students meet high learning standards. However, our single-minded focus on standardized testing is extinguishing the joy of learning for many students. Now, imagine an education system where accountability and joy go hand in hand. As educational leaders, we have the exciting opportunity to ensure ...[Read More]

By Josh Schachter and Melinda Englert When 80 middle school students from Billy L. Lauffer Middle School, a Title I school in southeast Tucson, hopped off the bus at the University of Arizona, it was not for an ordinary field trip. Despite living just 10 miles away, for many students, this was their first time stepping foot on the university campus – connecting with professors and students and get...[Read More]

Recently I received an invitation to speak at an upcoming global education summit in Beijing. The organizers asked me to give a presentation on the two topics that have dominated my work for the last 30 years: Project Based Learning and 21st Century Skills. At the Buck Institute for Education (now PBLWorks) I created the PBL World Conference and co-wrote The PBL Starter Kit. At the Partnership for...[Read More]

I have had “write year-in-review” on my To Do list for about a month-and-a-half now. But every day I ignore the task, hoping that I’ll feel more like writing tomorrow. Tomorrow is the last day of this year, and I don’t anticipate anything will change so I am going to try to type a few, very generic thoughts about what happened in ed-tech in 2020. This reflection is not goin...[Read More]

I was a speaker today at the #AgainstSurveillance teach-in, a fundraiser for Ian Linkletter who is being sued by the online test-proctoring software company Proctorio. I am very pleased but also really outraged to be here today to help raise money for Ian Linkletter’s defense and, more broadly, to help raise awareness about the dangers of ed-tech surveillance. It’s nice to be part of a...[Read More]

I was a guest today in Chris Hoadley’s NYU class on ed-tech and globalization. Here’s a bit of my rant… Thank you so much for inviting me to speak to you today. I have been really stumped as to what I should say. If you look at the talks I’ve given this year — and I’ve done quite a lot since I’ve volunteered to visit Zoom school and speak to classes — there are ...[Read More]

Here are my remarks today from a Contact North webinar with Paul Prinsloo: “Why Technology is Not the Answer.” So I want to apologize at the outset for being a bit unprepared for today’s webinar. As you may well know, things have been a bit of a mess in the US lately — I mean, for at least the past four years, probably longer. But certainly for the past few months, weeks, and day...[Read More]

A couple of weeks ago, I received an email from my friend Eli Luberoff, the founder and CEO of Desmos. It was news I’d been anticipating — dreading, really — for some time: the startup had been acquired. Amplify was buying its curriculum division; the calculator part would become a free-standing public benefit corporation. The subject of the email from Eli said “good news,” and I...[Read More]

This is the transcript of the keynote I gave today at Digifest. (Well, I recorded it a couple of weeks ago, but it was broadcast today, and I popped in for some “live” Q&A afterwards, where I was asked the obligatory “do you hate all ed-tech” question. And here I was, trying to be all sweetness and light…) Thank you very much for inviting me to speak to you today....[Read More]

I’d wager it’s the most frequently told story about ed-tech — one told with more gusto and more frequency even than “computers will revolutionize teaching” and “you can learn anything on YouTube.” Indeed, someone invoked this story just the other day when chatting with me about the current shape and status of our education system: the school bell was implemented...[Read More]