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A virtual drum roll please… We are thrilled to officially open the application process for the Discovery Student Adventures Pilot Program. Join us as we discover more of our incredible planet earth together with adventure trips to Australia, South Africa, and China. In order to participate in this pilot trip, you must be a STAR Discovery Educator. Not only are you able to take part in this once in a lifetime opportunity, each STAR selected will be able to choose four of their students to join them on the adventure! This is at no cost to you or your students! So with no further ado… here's the official wording and post importantly the link to apply.

If you think that cell phones can't improve math scores -- check again - read this report about a pilot where algebra problems were sent to smartphones. (So much for "leaving your homework at school.) "During the 2007-2008 school year, Wireless Reach began funding Project K-Nect, a pilot project in rural North Carolina where high school students received supplemental algebra problem sets on smartphones (the phones were provided by the project). The outcomes are promising -- classes using the smartphones have consistently achieved significantly higher proficiency rates on their end of course exams. So what's so different about delivering problem sets on a cell phone instead of a textbook? The first obvious answer is that the cell phone version is multi-media. The Project K-Nect problem sets begin with a Flash video visually demonstrating the problem -- you could theorize that this context prepares the student to understand the subsequent text-based problem better. You could also theorize that watching a Flash animation is more engaging (or just plain fun) and so more likely to keep students' attention."

iPad Pilot Project website for the Palm Beach School District. Includes lots of links to Apps being used, challenges and successes, and many other websites and blogs focused on integrating iPads into the classroom.

The Personalized Learning system now in Beta by Rice University and being piloted around the country that links open resources with students to personalize learning. Here is the information on the portal.

Lots of talk in technology circles about 6th grader Thomas Suarez an iphone programmer.His best selling app is Bustin Jieber a Justin Beiber "Whack a Mole." He shares how he learned how to program an app. How he taught himself the iPhone Software Development kit.  He started an "app club" at school where any kid at school can come and learn how to design an app. He is part of an ipad pilot program. The students are asking teachers to help them design apps for education and the money is going into local education foundation. 

From A Very Short List:  Based on a chilling contingency speech written for Richard Nixon titled "In the Event of Moon Disaster," this nostalgia-laced 15-minute radio broadcast, courtesy of American Public Media, tells its story entirely through the radio communication between Mission Control and the astronauts. Seconds after tuning in, you'll witness Apollo 11's crash landing on the moon. Buzz and Neil are okay, but the lunar module is destroyed, and the men are running out of oxygen. The story is haunting in its plausibility, and despite the fact that the astronauts sound less like test pilots from the Air Force than hipsters from Brooklyn, the quality writing and sound effects bring this macabre counterfactual deliciously close to reality.

Canby School District's wiki for iPod and iPad pilot programs, including resources, complete deployment and management strategies, pitfalls, success, and everything else you might want to know about a large scale 1:1 iOS implementation

Anyone doing anything with iPods and iPads NEEDS to be following this Wiki religiously!

NEA Foundation and the US Department of Education Challenge to Innovate contest is requesting classroom teachers to identify and solve the current pressing issues regarding education. Smallish grants designed to help implement small pilot projects.

2008: software written in New Zealand. A pilot program where students respond to case studies which involve values. Responses are quantitatively collated. Good potential for further research for more academic inclined students.

Values Exchange. Students able to discuss current interests. Has formal approach to discussions.

I'm always hesitant to listen to research conducted by a company itself touting amazing results, but much of what this company is doing is what needs to happen with curriculum. Of course, any curriculum may be implemented well and often the best teachers are selected for pilots. ;-)

This was for Math but the opportunities around language are almost unlimited!

"Primary school students are more likely to understand and engage with maths if classes use real money and real-life projects, according to a Western Sydney University pilot study. The findings come as Australian students lag behind other countries in maths, with Year 4 students dropping from 18th to 28th out of 49 countries in year 4 maths in the latest Trends in International Mathematics and Science study."

When Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) administrators recently turned their attention to social studies education, they concluded that a better means of engaging and holding students' interest was needed. Textbooks alone weren't enough to keep today's digital generation, raised in a dynamic visual environment, focused on learning. Thanks to the administrators' commitment to improvement, IPS educators and students are now accessing streaming video, images and other digital media in the classroom.

Survey results from students who have had access to shared iPads (2:1) in their high school classes for approximately four months.