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"School has started for most of us around the country. Alarm clocks are set, bleary-eyed kids stumble their way to class, and iPads are being handed out. Just a typical day here at Eanes and many districts across the country. As the amount of 1:1 schools and districts continue to grow with many different devices, but specifically the Apple iPad, I thought it might be good to reflect and share the laundry list of items we've prepared in getting ready for our roll-outs. (all high school students, 8th graders, and 2 grade levels at the elementary schools are 1:1 this year) I've already written about 10 things NOT to do in a 1:1 here (the list is growing in year 2) but what about things we SHOULD do?"

"All versions of the iOS for the iPhone include Apple's default clock app that features alarm settings, a timer, a world clock, and a stop watch. The clock app works well, but there are several pages of other free and inexpensive timer apps in the iTunes Store for both the iPhone and the iPad, the latter of which does not include a timer by default."

"According to a study led by Lee Rainie of the Pew Research Center, about 23% of 1005 participants (randomly called via landline and cell phone) had not read a book in the past year, including ebooks, printed books, or audiobooks. With the massive influx of information that students receive on a daily basis thanks to the Internet, it is not a surprising statistic. Not surprising, but quite alarming."

"The list of apps that educators favor this year shares some commonalities with last year's favorites. Teachers tend to drop apps if they become too expensive or sometimes if the updates are so overwhelming that they no longer know how to use the product. Luhtala explained it's a delicate balance: "If it doesn't feel different than it did a year ago, that's alarming. It should feel the same, but better.""

"In the 2008 animated film WALL-E, Pixar depicted a light-hearted but dystopian world of obese, immobile people whose needs are met by a bustling horde of robots and computers -- a world that hardly seems like science fiction as we witness the precipitous decline in physical activity over the last generation. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that approximately 80 percent of Americans don't get the recommended amount of exercise they need each week for optimal health. So, did Pixar predict the future of humanity or is there a way for us to course correct? Sedentary behavior is an intractable issue. Seemingly benign forces make it easier and easier for many of us to conduct our work, school and social lives from the comfort of a chair and an internet-connected gadget. Unfortunately, sedentary lifestyles are a driving force behind burgeoning health care costs, and they pose an alarming threat to the health and well-being of our children. Fortunately, there is cause for hope in lessons from the tobacco control movement and efforts to change smoking behavior. "

"eople like maps. Give them a book with a map in the front, like Tolkien's Lord of the Rings series, and they will interrupt their regularly-scheduled reading happily to check out where the newly-mentioned river, mountain, or fjord is. It stands to reason, then, that people would enjoy making maps, too. And in this post on how to create effective homework (excuse me while I turn off the oxymoron alarms), Dan Bisaccio, former high school science teacher and now Director of Science Education at Brown University, discusses homework that might just be, if you'll excuse the audacity, fun."

"This year's Hour of Code has received unprecedented coverage.  Hadi Padovi from code.org opened the Nasdaq stock exchange and celebrities came out in full force to push computer science.  We heard the same alarming statistics that 95% of CS jobs will go unfilled.  Millions of students worldwide participated in activities that resembled puzzles.  Padovi tweeted a reply to me when I asked how the popularity of HOC compared to last year: As good as the activities are, they lack some needed elements.  The Hour of Code activities are not tied into curriculum. They are a one day event centred on puzzles.  One hour is not enough.  I would draw a parallel by saying we do not host "hour of gym" or "hour of music" activities once each year. What happens now?  The need for students to learn code and computer science will not disappear over this week.   In fact, we resolved very little.  My hope is that this week will be a springboard for more coding.  If students are to benefit from Hour of Code, we need to: Bring Coding into the existing curriculum and into the classroom Push STEM and find ways to bring it to every school Ensure that every teacher and student is aware of coding, CS and STEM Work with High Schools and the job sector to facilitate these programs"

"Sleepless night and eyeball fatigue. Cyberbullying and profound device-separation anxiety. Research identifies harmful side effects of too much tech on teens with alarming regularity. But a new report from the Pew Research Center suggests parents are just as compromised by our portable screens. In "How Teens and Parents Navigate Screen Time and Device Distractions," researchers not only compiled data on the behavior of tech-addled kids (they're on their phones from the moment they wake up!) or the concerns of hand-wringing parents (what do we do about the fact they're on their phones from the moment they wake up!), but on the behavior of parents, too."

Interview on children's media use. News = hyperbolic & alarming. Evidence = more balanced.

"Tell me if this sounds familiar: Your alarm goes off at 7:00 am. It's a school day. It's time to get out of bed and get ready to make that early morning bell. But in that moment, you feel as though there is no force on the planet that could make you open your eyes and surrender your comfortable position under the covers. Your mom comes into the room, already dressed for work. "You know," she says, "you wouldn't be so tired if you'd just gone to bed a little earlier." Is she right? Also, why isn't she ever tired in the morning? Most teens would agree that they're much sleepier in the morning than their parents are. There's a single molecule that's largely responsible for this difference. And no, it's not caffeine - it's melatonin!"

"As the school year draws to a close, I am looking forward to the laidback freedom of summer with its less hectic schedule and longer daylight hours. If I'm being completely honest, there's something really incredible about turning off my alarm clock for the foreseeable future. For me, it's time to recharge, to reflect and to prepare to return to the classroom and library renewed with energy and ideas. As an educator, I'm also keenly aware of the potential for kids to suffer from the summer slide-a loss of academic progress over the course of the summer months. According to a study done by the Colorado Department of Education, children in low-income households fall behind an average of 2 months in reading during the summer. And, summer slide is cumulative, with these learning losses building up each summer. The basic solution? Stay engaged in learning: read, write, do some math."

"We recently sent the call out on our Teacher HELPLINE! for teachers to tell us the best websites for teaching math. And wow, did you all come through! We've gathered all the links and a short description of each math website. The list encompasses grades K-12 and is chock-full of resources, games, freebies, and innovative programs. Not to alarm you, but, we think you're going to want to bookmark it. STAT! Without further ado, here it is:"

"IN BRIEF Anxiety about the effects of social media on young people has risen to such an extreme that giving children smartphones is sometimes equated to handing them a gram of cocaine. The reality is much less alarming. A close look at social media use shows that most young texters and Instagrammers are fine. Heavy use can lead to problems, but many early studies and news headlines have overstated dangers and omitted context. Researchers are now examining these diverging viewpoints, looking for nuance and developing better methods for measuring whether social media and related technologies have any meaningful impact on mental health."

I am wanting to take a slightly different approach to this weeks post. The past week has seen the latest round of PISA results and the media has had a field day. Headlines have routinely attacked students, educators and education systems in equal measure. The Canberra Times reported that "Australian school scores plummet on world stage", the Sydney Morning Herald led with "Alarm bells': Australian students record worst result in global tests" and The Weekend Australian went with "PISA global educational rankings: Schools fail on maths, science". 

"Welcome to the new age of academic dishonesty. A college professor in South Carolina is sounding the alarm after catching a student using ChatGPT - a new artificial intelligence chat bot that can quickly digest and spit out written information about a vast array of subjects - to write an essay for his philosophy class. The weeks-old technology, released by OpenAI and readily available to the public, comes as yet another blow to higher learning, already plagued by rampant cheating. "Academia did not see this coming. So we're sort of blindsided by it," Furman University assistant philosophy professor Darren Hick told The Post. "As soon as I reported this on Facebook, my [academic] friends said, 'Yeah, I caught one too.'" "