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Students use the iPod touches to record themselves reading what Nienhueser calls a fresh read passage, as it is the first time they have read it. They then listen to the recording and score themselves based on a rubric given to them by their teacher. The rubric scores students based on their level of fluency, expression, pacing and smoothness. Next, each student meets with a partner so they can evaluate someone else’s recording. Nienhueser said students have to be able to explain why they chose the scores they selected. The partners also take time to see if they agree with each other’s scores.

If knowledge of subject matter were the most important factor in delivering a quality education, then professors with doctorates and a long list of publications in their field would make ideal candidates for K-12, as I wrote in a letter to the editor published in the Los Angeles Times on Dec. 3 ("You get what you pay for"). After all, they certainly possess expertise in their subject. But what most of them lack is pedagogical competence. That's why they wouldn't last very long in a public school classroom.

using technology to change learning is an exponentially harder nut to crack. It means asking teachers to rethink their classrooms and the way they do their work. I

if we have the courage and the vision to take it on, here’s the payoff: students experiencing excitement and engagement as they build personalized, global learning networks that they will have for the rest of their lives

“Schools are smartening up and letting students use their tech tools in innovative ways,”

The schools that “get it” will be the ones that stay ahead of the tech curve. “As educators, we really need to stay on top of this stuff,” said Rios, “instead of constantly playing catch up.”

nothing really matters if we introduce technology without changing the process of learning and the way teachers teach.

If the subject matter was a bit unusual for high school students, the amount of time they had to grapple with it was more so — 2 hours 10 minutes, in what is called a class block. Long blocks became standard this year at Calhoun, as part of a radical attempt to alter the structure of the school day and school year.

To suggest that tapping this for educational purposes is pointless also suggests that people mistrust the medium as a whole and don’t understand how it can be used for good. We’ve already seen that Twitter and Facebook can help create change around the world. It can also do a lot of harm in the hands of bullies and criminals. But the technology is neutral. It can be made to work in a classroom setting if you set the right limits.

Ideas for Educators Who Want 21st Century Students to Tune In

If you are just telling students something they can find on the internet, stop.  Give them the link and use class time to have discussions, do work, or make meaning of the work.

Parents who try to secretly monitor their kids' online activities are wasting their time and should use an approach that builds trust and allows for conversation, says a psychologist who has studied texting, social networking and other online pursuits.

"Your job then is to learn and to assess, and to now use your parent radar to see if there might be any problems."

We were absolutely shocked. We all lost our bets. It turns out multitaskers are terrible at every aspect of multitasking. They're terrible at ignoring irrelevant information; they're terrible at keeping information in their head nicely and neatly organized; and they're terrible at switching from one task to another.

One of the biggest points here I think is, when I grew up, the greatest gift you could give someone was attention, and the best way to insult someone was to ignore them. ... The greatest gift was attention. Well, if we're in a society where the notion of attention as important is breaking apart, what now is the relationship glue between us? Because it's always been attention.

What probably won't be on that list is to make a mistake -- in fact many. But it should be.

if we believe that the process of learning -- which inevitably must include the process of erring -- is just as, or more, important than getting to the correct answer.