Curriculum 21

"Unfortunately, unchecked and unfocused use of technology can result in students disconnecting from the "why" of learning and from the real-time relationships that are key to their development and success. Alternatively, high-quality integration of technology has the potential to not only prepare young people for their futures, but also to enhance and expand learning and connectedness. Join our guests as they discuss specific ways you can overcome barriers to connecting digital learners and lead your school community in meaningful technology integration. You'll hear from: * Heidi Hayes Jacobs, author of Curriculum 21: Essential Education in a Changing World, founder and president of Curriculum Designers Inc., and executive director of the Curriculum Mapping Institute; * Juliette Mersiowsky, instructional designer and instructor of education and technology at Germanna Community College in Virginia; and * Ena Bentley Wood, technology integration specialist with Arlington (Va.) Public Schools. How does your school and community meaningfully connect digital learners to their peers, teachers, and communities; to rich and challenging learning; and to their futures?"

"The internet catalogue for students, teachers, administrators & parents. Over 20,000 relevant links personally selected by an educator/author with over 30 years of experience. "

"The 21st Century Fluencies are not about technical prowess, they are critical thinking skills, and they are essential to living in this multimedia world. We call them fluencies for a reason. To be literate means to have knowledge or competence. To be fluent is something a little more, it is to demonstrate mastery and to do so unconsciously and smoothly."

"International Studies Schools Network Asia Society has 23 public schools that are developing globally competent, college-ready high school students. Research shows our model has higher graduation rates and academic achievement than other schools with similar profiles. "

"Mike Fischer & Silvia Tolisano talk about the recent Curriculum Mapping Institute Conference in Saratoga Springs, NY. A different kind of conference who successfully embedded social media and networking to model upgrades for 21st Century Learning. Listen to interviews with Janet Hale, Jen Laubsch and Adam Bellow (Presenters and attendees of CMI2010) and hear their perspective of 21st Century learning, presenting and conferences."

"Wikipedia attributed the term "Information Overload" to Alvin Toffler: which refers to an excess amount of information being provided, making processing and absorbing tasks very difficult for the individual because sometimes we cannot see the validity behind the information"

Great video that represents the essence of Project-based Learning ... If a school/district is currently traditional in that the disciplines are seen/taught separate or occasionally blended, why not have teachers from various disciplines work collegially to create one interdisciplinary PBL Unit per semester as an curriculum upgrade. The PBL Units can be housed in a separate "course" in the mapping system.

"Has there ever been such a frenzy of thinking and activity over a concept which does not even exist? I am referring, of course, to the ridiculous notion of so-called '21st century skills'. Bloggers, teachers, employer organisations and even governments have fallen over themselves to produce documents 'proving' that 21st century skills are essential in the 21st century. Papers have been written. Rubrics have been created. In England the National Curriculum itself has been perverted from its course to include 'Personal Learning and Training Skills' (aptly pronounced, generally, as 'pelts'). I am surprised that I've yet to see jobs advertised: "Wanted: Dynamic Director of 21st Century Skills"; "Needed as soon as possible: 21st century skills co-ordinator.""

"Alan November talks Digital Roles at CMI 2010"

Thanks for the memories! Enjoy the memories of CMI 2010 in Saratoga Springs, New York!

"District administrators more likely to support certain technologies than teachers; pre-service teacher education lagging in 21st-century instructional methods"

"Students increasingly are taking education into their own hands with personal technology experiences, a trend with important implications for schools"

"This wiki was created to easily help educators find other educators on Twitter that have the same interests as them (that teach in the same content area). Check out the list of educators on the pages linked below and add your Twitter name to the appropriate list too. "

We Feel Fine is an exploration of human emotion on a global scale. Since August 2005, We Feel Fine has been harvesting human feelings from a large number of weblogs. Every few minutes, the system searches the world's newly posted blog entries for occurrences of the phrases "I feel" and "I am feeling". When it finds such a phrase, it records the full sentence, up to the period, and identifies the "feeling" expressed in that sentence (e.g. sad, happy, depressed, etc.). Because blogs are structured in largely standard ways, the age, gender, and geographical location of the author can often be extracted and saved along with the sentence, as can the local weather conditions at the time the sentence was written. All of this information is saved. The result is a database of several million human feelings, increasing by 15,000 - 20,000 new feelings per day.

These standards define the knowledge and skills students should have within their K-12 education careers so that they will graduate high school able to succeed in entry-level, credit-bearing academic college courses and in workforce training programs. The standards are: * Aligned with college and work expectations; * Clear, understandable and consistent; * Include rigorous content and application of knowledge through high-order skills; * Build upon strengths and lessons of current state standards; * Informed by other top performing countries, so that all students are prepared to succeed in our global economy and society; and * Evidence-based.

Through Race to the Top, we are asking States to advance reforms around four specific areas: * Adopting standards and assessments that prepare students to succeed in college and the workplace and to compete in the global economy; * Building data systems that measure student growth and success, and inform teachers and principals about how they can improve instruction; * Recruiting, developing, rewarding, and retaining effective teachers and principals, especially where they are needed most; and * Turning around our lowest-achieving schools. Awards in Race to the Top will go to States that are leading the way with ambitious yet achievable plans for implementing coherent, compelling, and comprehensive education reform. Race to the Top winners will help trail-blaze effective reforms and provide examples for States and local school districts throughout the country to follow as they too are hard at work on reforms that can transform our schools for decades to come.

Over 100 speeches by Barack Obama. Constantly updated. Complete and full text of each speech.

Wordle is a toy for generating "word clouds" from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.

Look up words' synonyms in mind map visual representation.

Conduct poll "live" in real time using SMS text messages, twitter, or the Web and see the results instantly embedded in a PowerPoint.