The Change Agent:
Pandemic (Issue #51) Now Available!

The "Pandemic" issue of The Change Agent is now available. In it, students talk about how the pandemic has affected them at home, in their communities, and in their workplaces. They don't pull any punches describing the fear and challenges that the pandemic has caused, but they also notice where they have found joy and growth in the amidst crisis. You need a subscription to access this issue, but no worries, it is very low-cost: just $30 per teacher per year, and it's free for your students.

And on Thursday, October 1, 2:00-3:00 PM EST, join Cynthia Peters for a webinar about using this issue in the classroom. Activities and discussion questions aligned to the College and Career Readiness Standards make this classroom-ready, and our online features (including audio versions of articles) make this a great resource for distance learning.

Join us at the ASU+GSV Virtual Summit on Sep. 30 - Oct. 1 & Oct. 8, 2020 where global education and workforce leaders, investors, and startups will gather to change the world for good.

Join Cynthia Peters on Thursday, September 24, at 2:00-3:00 EST for a webinar introducing our new Voter Education, Registration, and Action materials for 2020. The election process is more complicated this year due to the pandemic, which makes it that much more important to share information with students about how to vote, why voting matters, and how to make sense of current debates about voter suppression and fraud. You’ll leave the webinar with ready-to-use, relevant, student-written content that will help you teach all of this and more. The content is bundled in Lesson Packets available as PDFs or in Google slides (that can be adapted for your distance learning classroom).

New Report Estimates School Closures’ Long-Term Impact on the U.S. Economy at More Than $14 Trillion

A new report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) highlights the issue of "learning losses" -- the stalling of the academic gains and progress of students -- due to school closures resulting from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The paper also proposes ways in which these losses could be regained, including more attention to individualized instruction bolstered by adaptive digital learning technologies. You can find the full report at the link below.

ProLiteracy & EdTech Center Collaborate on
New Professional Development Offering

On Sep 25, 2020 01:00 PM EST, come hear Helaine Marshall from Long Island University-Hudson introduce a lesson model teachers can use for distance education. The Synchronous Online Flipped Learning Approach (SOFLA) weds flipped learning with online instruction. In the SOFLA model, learners independently complete online lessons that provide initial instruction on key concepts. Then students attend class (through Zoom or something similar) with the teacher and other students where they can build their understanding through collaboration, discussion, and application. This lesson model will help you make efficient use of students’ learning time at home, as well as your web meeting time. The presenter will share steps to create lessons, describe an example of SOFLA in practice, and be available for questions.

NEW! Upcoming Course + National Webinar

Save the date! The EdTech Center @ World Education is excited to launch a new professional development offering: the Transforming Distance Education course. This course will be freely available on the EdTech Center website and includes microlearning content organized in the following modules:

 

• Getting Started with Distance Education & Blended Learning
• Outreach, Screening, & Orientation: Supporting Distance Learners from the Start
• Effective Distance and Blended Learning Instruction
• Assessment in Distance and Blended Learning

Our team will host a webinar on Tuesday, September 29th at 1 PM Eastern and introduce the course including the skills you will gain, digital microcredentials available, and options for using and adapting the learning content in your own professional learning initiatives.