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Check out Google's new tool for taking data (i.e. coffee growers world wide) and turning into a map.  Very interesting.  Nice follow up to the Gapminder video.

CommonCraft style video on Blended Learning.  We don't have a formal LMS, so teachers have to create the suggested uses of Web 2.0 tools to foster creativity, and collect data in ways that make sense in their classrooms.

Travel in time and explore NASA satellite visualizations in 3D.  Eyes on the earth is AWESOME.  See the earth turn with selected data turned on.  Weather, pollution, etc.  See the satellites circling the globe.  

I'd like to spend some time exploring this idea. These forms could help track data, and perhaps make some tasks much more efficient.

Abstract The purpose of this study was to describe the barriers and challenges school leaders face as they implement a standards-based grading (SBG) system.  The researchers used a multiple case study methodology to investigate how key school leaders described their implementation journey at three schools that differed in size, demographics, and location.  Purposeful sampling was used to identify key administrators at three different schools who were in the process of implementing a SBG system.  Data were collected primarily via semi-structured interviews.  In the analysis, researchers used three phases: horizontalization, thematizing, and textural-structural synthesis.  Each of the three schools had very different implementation stories.  Barriers in the process included: student information and grading systems, parents/community members, the tradition of grading and fear of the unknown, and the implementation dip.  This study suggests that implementation of SBG must be purposeful and well communicated.  That is, in order to enhance the likelihood of success, an intentional plan with a reasonable timeline, ongoing professional development and collaboration, and effective two-way communication about the purpose of grading is needed.  Also maintaining A-through-F final grades-even as they simultaneously implement more progressive assessment and reporting strategies-is often seen as a necessary concession.  Finally, the authors explicate SBG's relationship to competency-based education and professional learning communities (PLCs).

Perhaps the key to moving from 6th grade to 7th grade this year? Thank goodness we'll all be ANESU next year.

"Here is a new video from EDUCAUSE with four experts and me addressing the question, "Why is measuring learning difficult?" Some good reflections on learning analytics, data, MOOCs, testing, pyschometrics, and more. I think the video has a nice balance of humility and optimism. Learning is much more complex than we can ever really pin down, but that doesn't mean that we can conduct meaningful assessments that lets students and mentors identify their learning experiences as, as Gardner Campbell says, find new doorways forward. "

An update to the TED talks of years past where the creator Hans Rosling first demonstrated GapMinder.  Easy to use tool with amazing possibilities.

New resources on Common Core