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Excellent examples of how schools in NYC are taking 21st century teaching and learning to the next level.

This is the home site for NYC iZone. The NYC iZone is an initiative intended to allow schools to innovate in order to achieve dramatically improved outcomes by rethinking the standard assumptions that underlie 'business as usual' in education.

Read these case studies to learn how several schools in the DOE are taking innovation to the next level.

What types of systems are these schools utilizing to take teaching and learning to the next level?

The U.S. Department of Education is developing a new National Educational Technology Plan to provide a vision for how information and communication technologies can help transform American education. The plan will provide a set of concrete goals that can inform state and local educational technology plans as well as inspire research, development, and innovation. A draft plan is expected in early 2010.

The U.S. Department of Education is developing a new National Educational Technology Plan to provide a vision for how information and communication technologies can help transform American education. The plan will provide a set of concrete goals that can inform state and local educational technology plans as well as inspire research, development, and innovation. A draft plan is expected in early 2010.

This self assessment checklist, developed by Teaching Matters, designed to "outline a set of critical questions to guide school leaders assess themselves on a continuum of school innovation in a set of critical areas".

Unit planning template developed by the DOE's core Innovation Team.

Pixar University's Randy Nelson on Learning and Working in the Collaborative Age The Dean of Pixar University explains what schools must do to prepare students (and themselves) for new models in the workplace. This is a fascinating look at what the Pixar workplace is like, and the skills and experiences Randy Nelson sees as vital to develop in students. Some high points; Four main areas- Breadth of experience, Depth of knowledge, Communication, Collaboration. The core skill of innovators is error recovery, not failure avoidance. Employers would rather see the proof of a portfolio versus the promise of a resume. Employers need people who are more interested than interesting. See communication as a destination, not as a source - you aren't the judge of your communication skills - your audience is. Collaboration is amplification, not cooperation.

This would be a great article to share with resistant teachers to help them see the need in moving forward as 21st century educators.

this is a quote about simCEO from Edutopia- What if students created their own companies, complete with business plans? What if they could also buy and sell stocks in classmates' companies? What if they could see how stock prices fluctuated over a 10-year period rather than just a few weeks? The result of that brainstorming became an online simulation called SimCEO. Luebbe, principal of American International School of Budapest, has been fine-tuning his creation by sharing it with educators around the world. They have surprised him by taking projects in directions he never imagined. He expected teachers to focus on financial literacy and entrepreneurship. But some have brought in different content. "They might set the simulation in Colonial America or New York in the 1920s," Luebbe says, then ask students to consider how historical factors would have affected market prices. Because teachers determine all the content, he adds, "they can bring in demographic data, real or fictional news, historical events -- whatever they want." The game becomes an open platform for teacher innovation.""

"Does your school have a culture of innovation or does your school have pockets of innovation?" Take a look at what to expect and when.

...New York City school system's Innovation Zone, a three-year initiative launched by the 1.1 million-student district last fall that aims to test new and different ways for educating students and managing schools.

Project Foundry is an online learning management and student portfolio system that allows innovative educators to scale authentic, integrated, individualized learning.

"Winkles Wakes Up" - a staple animation in our icebreaker activities was created by this innovative teacher who views technology integration as a means of fostering higher order thinking skills, collaborative communities and effective professional development

This page from the Innovative Educator has a lot of great resources specific to the DOE, especially the link to unblock websites.

Hope they (or other tablets) are not hijacked by publishers but can provide access to a wide variety of innovative, cheap learning opportunities.

Ideas to share with teachers for using a digital camera in the classroom.

Excellent rubric developed by NYC based organization Teaching Matters as a road map for assessing 21st century schools.

Will Richardson mentioned Ideas Lab in a recent blog post, and I was curious if any of you have heard of this company before.

5 ideas for managing one's digital footprint in the age of Web 2.0