"As the economy changes, the skills required to thrive in it change, too," says David Brooks in this New York Times column, "and it takes a while before these new skills are defined and acknowledged." He gives several examples: * Herding cats - Doug Lemov has catalogued the "micro-gestures" of especially effective teachers in his book, Teach Like a Champion 2.0 (Jossey-Bass, 2015). "The master of cat herding," says Brooks, "senses when attention is about to wander, knows how fast to move a diverse group, senses the rhythm between lecturing and class participation, varies the emotional tone. This is a performance skill that surely is relevant beyond education." * Social courage - In today's loosely networked world, this has particular value - the ability to go to a conference, meet a variety of people, invite six of them to lunch afterward, and form long-term friendships with four of them. "People with social courage are extroverted in issuing invitations but introverted in conversation - willing to listen 70 percent of the time," says Brooks. "They build not just contacts but actual friendships by engaging people on multiple levels." * Capturing amorphous trends with a clarifying label - People with this skill can "look at a complex situation, grasp the gist and clarify it by naming what is going on," says Brooks. He quotes Oswald Chambers: "The author who benefits you most is not the one who tells you something you did not know before, but the one who gives expression to the truth that has been dumbly struggling in you for utterance." * Making nonhuman things intuitive to humans - This is what Steve Jobs did so well. * Purpose provision - "Many people go through life overwhelmed by options, afraid of closing off opportunities," says Brooks. But a few have fully cultivated moral passions that can help others choose the one thing they sho

" Education On Air, a free online conference about leading for the future and shaping the classroom today. All you need is a web browser and an Internet connection to join from the best seat in the house - your own. Whether you're a school leader, teacher, administrator, parent, student or just someone who cares about education, we hope you can join us."

Interesting new inaitative "The Student Privacy Pledge will hold school service providers accountable to: Not sell student information Not behaviorally target advertising Use data for authorized education purposes only Not change privacy policies without notice and choice Enforce strict limits on data retention Support parental access to, and correction of errors in, their children's information Provide comprehensive security standards Be transparent about collection and use of data."

"This unique transmedia project takes a documentary about internet privacy, digital identity, and online communications and adds a personal touch. By entering your own data into the project's interface, your digital self will be peppered throughout the film. This riveting doc profiles eight people, including computer pioneer Gordon Bell and Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle, who share their thoughts and experiences on the new social phenomena of digital culture. Speakers in the film are captured by a Kinect camera, and they see themselves being digitized and converted into lines of code, in a constant interplay between the Web and reality."

"Test your own level of innovation.  If you answer no to all Six Questions when evaluating the design of assignments and student work, than chances are that technology is not really being applied in the most innovative ways. The questions we ask to evaluate implementation and define innovation are critical." Did the assignment build capacity for critical thinking on the web? Did the assignment develop new lines of inquiry? Are there opportunities for students to make their thinking visible? Are there opportunities to broaden the perspective of the conversation with authentic audiences from around the world? Is there an opportunity for students to create a contribution (purposeful work)? Does the assignment demo "best in the world" examples of content and skill?

Host a image from goole drive using this site.

This is a framework to help guide and support your thinking and process for your Action Plan. It employs the principles of Design Thinking, but tailors it to the educational landscape.

Derek and Leslie do a nice recap of the Action plan in this Google Hangout.

"A recent SpeakUP survey (study here) of 403,000 educators, students, and parents found, among other results, that: 25 percent of administrators believe flipped learning has already had a "significant impact" on transforming teaching and learning in their school or district One out of six math/science teachers are already implementing a flipped learning model 16 percent of teachers are regularly creating videos of their lessons or lectures for students to watch Almost one-fifth of current teachers have "learning how to flip my classroom" on their wish list for professional development this year 66 percent of principals believe pre-service teachers should be learning how to create and use videos within their teacher training programs"

This new resource is INCREDIBLE !!! "Curious what Digital Bytes is all about? Digital Bytes is all about how you can explore and influence the digital world in which you live. Many kids have inspired/impacted the digital world in a big way... Seniors, known as the West High Bros, make the world a kinder place "one word at a time." A 9-year-old inspires imaginations globally with his cardboard magic. Erika used YouTube to take a stand and become a leader in the Dreamer movement. These kids have found their voices. When is yours going to be heard? Be part of a real conversation and show us what you've got."

"If you've ever typed anything into a Google Doc, you can now play it back as if it were a movie - like traveling through time to look over your own shoulder as you write."

"12 Helpful Tools for Research and Citations" is an excellent list created by Kira DeVaul and shared on Graphite. This list comprises a number of useful web tools that can help students during their research. As a process, research is made up of different interconnected stages: The first phase is the search for information, reading sources and taking notes, doing the write up and creating a bibliography for references. "

"One of my favourite sources for information and guidelines regarding referencing and citation styles is the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL). I have heard several professors (in the humanities, at least) recommend it to graduate students. But there are also several other resources student researchers and academics can draw on to hone in their research writing skills. This page from Plagiarism.org features a plethora of excellent materials and citation sources that are all available online or in the form of PDF documents , free to download and use. "