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We can provide every student in America access to great teachers, but that won’t happen in a traditional classroom (as Public Impact has so clearly spelled out)—it will happen when we leverage talent with technology and blend the best of online and onsite learning.

To power these new models that combine local and national resources, Digital Learning Now calls for educational funding that is weighted, portable, and performance-based.

"Allowing students to pursue learning experiences that are relevant to them -- including traditional seat-based environments and digital learning opportunities -- is the best strategy," Haglund said. "The same thing with adults, frankly. I don't want every teacher to be teaching in a virtual environment because not every teacher has the interest or skills to support that type of an instructional environment."

1. It has been predicted that 44 percent of college textbooks will be digital by 2017. 2. Florida is making K-12 textbooks completely digital by 2015. 3. Even the federal government is taking a strong stance — it released the “Digital Textbook Playbook” to show districts why and how they should make the move toward e-textbooks. 4. The transition to digital content is undeniably taking place in classrooms and on campuses, and will only accelerate in coming years.

2012 Q2 Special Report: The Textbook Reformation & Digital Content

Converge 2012 Q2 Special Report Supplement: Funding and Professional Development

If we drill down, it appears that 2012 will be the year where five mostly disconnected streams of tech-rich K-12 learning are finally connecting:

Digital learning:

Online learning:

the trend among schools was to let students bring their own devices. “We’re seeing BYOD taking off in schools,”

“I certainly think there is a lot of conversation around BYOD … but these introduce challenges as well.” He explained: “I think you need to define the common technology needs and goals and determine if BYOD can meet those needs.”

The outcome will be quite innovative. Within a year, the school district expects all 25,000 students to have an iPad — for grades 3-12 — or an iPod Touch for those in kindergarten through 2nd grade.

The total price tag of $20 million — over five years — will be covered with district money.

Federal funds will help with infrastructure. Free training will be provided by Abilene Christian University (ACU), a leader in educational technology instruction.

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.

retrieval-based learning refers to the repeated recall of newly learned information in various situations or study sessions. It’s been shown to be much more effective than study without recall practice.

Spaced learning involves learning or studying the same information over intervals in time, rather than all at once, which is known as massed learning.

Gamification applies game design principles and mechanics to non-game experiences to increase engagement.

The 2014 List The Top 100 Tools for Learning 2014  – the results of the 8th Annual Learning Tools Survey –  has been compiled by Jane Hart from the votes of 1,038 learning professionals from 61 countries worldwide and published on 22 September 2014. 

53 - Explain Everything NEW

81 - Kahoot NEW