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by organizing educational videos and letting professors “flip” them to enhance their lectures.

Many inputs go into the costs behind a blended-learning school: the number of teachers and administrators; their specific salaries; the instructional materials and technologies; student services; and other school operations.

The paper reaches the conclusion that the costs of blended learning are significantly lower than the $10,000 national average for traditional brick-and-mortar schools. They find that, on average, the costs range from $7,600 to $10,200.

Our own view is that blended learning will and should help schools--and ultimately the public--save money. But the overriding reason to adopt a blended-learning school isn't because of its cost savings, but instead because of the benefits for students that can result. Ultimately blended learning should help schools and policymakers move our education system to a student-centric one that educates children both more effectively and efficiently.

There's been some dispute to these numbers. Lee Wilson, a veteran of the education industry, blogged exhaustively that Apple e-textbooks actually cost six-to-seven times more than print textbooks. Using estimated data from his own experience and from technology directors, he determined Apple textbooks cost $71.55 per student, per class, as opposed to $14.26 for print textbooks. He factored purchase of the devices into cost. (I urge you to read his post, and his follow-up, and judge the numbers yourself.)

Either way, if the price tag for iPads and e-textbooks ends up being too costly and districts aren't seeing much of a different from their print past, meeting Arne Duncan's digital textbook goals may be tough.

tablet owners more than quadrupled among college-bound high school seniors during the past year, with 17 percent surveyed this year claiming a tablet device as their own.

It also more than tripled among college students, with a quarter of this year's respondents owning a tablet.

69 percent of high school seniors and 63 percent of college students said they believed tablets would effectively replace textbooks within five years,

"It wasn't the music business that was dying," he said. "It was the CD business." Similarly, the textbook isn't necessarily going away, said Bridges, but the form is definitely changing.

"We are already producing online materials that school districts can't even use fully because of the challenges they have [with professional development and infrastructure,]" said McFall. But while schools may not quite be ready to make the transition to fully digital content, the revenue from digital resources grows each year, and currently makes up more than a third of Pearson's sales, said McFall.

Among the key conclusions of that analysis is that students in virtual schools run by K12 are performing worse academically and dropping out of courses at much higher rates than their brick-and-mortar counterparts.

Such recommendations have been supported by some virtual school advocates, including a structure where funding is based on course completions and not course enrollments, such as the Florida Virtual School's funding model.

Ensuring that teachers are properly trained to use technology resources is fast becoming as big of a budgetary concern as was acquiring the technology in the first place.

Often overlooked however, is that not all teachers are immediately comfortable transitioning to a wired classroom.

“It is about kids creating for themselves. It is no longer about teachers passing on knowledge and controlling classes. It is about facilitating a mindset and lifestyle that is the reality of the modern child entering education.”

“We have exhausted and moved on from taxonomies. The bottom-up folksonomy has been explored, and we are now entering the rhizonomy, the un-organization (of which MOOCs are an example), chaotic, non-rule-based learning that happens regardless of organization.”

With the rise of standards-based instruction, districts and schools have been seeking out the best tools to foster it. Standards-Based grade books have been created is response to this need. As with educational changes, there are exciting potentials and pitfalls. First of all, here is what works when using the standards-based grade book:

1)     Ensures targeted Assessment and Rubrics

2)     Continuity across Classes and Teacher