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But how can we identify a potentially good teacher? How can average teachers become better teachers? The secretary's special funding could make a crucial difference by financing a national program exploiting the electronic miracles of the Internet and video. We could escape geography by using the technology to have the best teachers appear in hundreds of thousands of disparate classrooms. This is a force multiplier. The classrooms would be equipped with a large, flat-screen monitor with whiteboards on either side; the monitor would be connected to a school server that contains virtually all of the lessons for every subject taught in the school, from kindergarten through 12th grade. The contents would use animation, video, dramatization, and presentation options to deliver complete lessons, to convey ideas in unique ways that are now unavailable in conventional classrooms. The classroom teachers would play the role of enhancers, answering questions and helping students better understand the material covered electronically; they'd pause the presentation to ask questions and to prompt critical thinking. The whiteboard would be the platform for student involvement.

We struck a nerve with a lot of people this morning with our article Stats Confirm It: Teens Don't Tweet. In it, we explained how a recent Nielsen report shows that only 16 percent of TwitterTwitterTwitter users are under 25. The response was overwhelming - especially from teenagers who currently use Twitter. While the entire debate is a healthy one, there's been a lack of focus on the most important question of all: Why aren't teens using Twitter? The answer to this question is essential to not only understanding why Generation Y has not embraced microblogging, but to the very future of the medium. Let's take a look at the statistics and the thoughts of my fellow under 25-ers to understand just why there's a shortage of teen tweeters:

Web-based instruction

Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Va., the top school in U.S. News & World Report's America's Best High Schools rankings, is designed to challenge students. A course load of offerings that include DNA science, neurology, and quantum physics would seem to be more than enough to meet that goal. But students and the faculty felt those classes weren't enough, so they decided to tackle another big question: What are the social responsibilities of educated people? Over the course of the school year, students are exploring social responsibility through projects of their own design, ranging from getting school supplies for students with cerebral palsy in Shanghai to persuading their classmates to use handkerchiefs to reduce paper waste. The One Question project demonstrates the way "TJ," as it's referred to by students and teachers, encourages the wide-ranging interests of its students.

Shawn Roner's Group

New free backchanneling tool from the MIT media lab.

One of the aspects of Backchan.nl that I'm excited about is the option to create multiple channels ahead of time. This will be a useful time-saver on the days when I have four consecutive classes and I want each class to have its own channel. Richard Byrne

A tool for creating a backchannel.

10 questions to consider during and after lesson/project/unit development

I love this site from the BBC with stunning visuals and a great soundtrack. Travel through a strange world answering questions about English, maths and science earning fuel for your hot air balloon. Click on the characters to unlock the questions. Designed for KS2. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Cross+Curricular

Shallow (still important) analysis of the major issues regarding technology integration in schools.

Looking for Learning in 21st Century Classrooms A leadership guide to supporting and coaching best practice technology use across the curriculum. Administrators are given the charge to foster professional development of teachers through classroom observation, walk-throughs and overall supervision. In recent years, technology has changed significantly and the world has altered alongside that change. Education has begun the process of including technology, but finds variety in teacher expertise and practice. What questions can supervisors ask of their teachers to best promote technology-use to improve learning? Here are some helpful guiding questions.

"Many observers now believe that, when used effectively, digital technologies could ultimately break the grip of the one-shot, drive-by workshop in schools and spur the growth of teacher-learning opportunities that are truly collaborative and job-embedded. Yet many questions remain. In this webinar, two experts address these questions and bring you up to date on the latest ideas and trends in online teacher learning and how you can take advantage of them."

We are all time travelers... drifting through time at a steady pace, one moment at a time. In what direction are we moving through time? Or does time move through us? How many dimensions of time are there? Though slightly allegorical, three-dimensional time offers physics new parameters, accounting for conventional and exotic physical phenomena, while maintaining the conservation of energy and symmetry groups found in physical law.  I began playing with the idea that all of physics could be reduced to just interactions between spatial and temporal coordinates. I wondered if inertia and momentum might be composed strictly of temporal components. This would require extra time dimensions. Could inertia or momentum be used as indicators of multi-dimensional time? What about charge, spin, and other properties of matter? Answers to some of these questions appeared to reside in neutrino research, specifically neutrino flavor oscillation.  The universality between Thermodynamics and Temporal Mechanics can reduce the fundamental forces of nature into a single expression, a new equivalence principle, which can be used as the generator for the evolution of time. Once Quantum Mechanics is seen through the lens of three-dimensional time, the EPR paradox looses its mystique. The speed of light may be restricted to a set speed limit within each individual frame of reference, however, frames of reference can undergo periods-of-time at varying rates of the passage-of-time. If the positive side of absolute zero is a state of condensed matter, what is on the negative side of absolute zero? Uncondensed matter?  The anti-matter aspect of the Dirac equations may have been misinterpreted. The convention is to assume that "matter" is composed of "particles" distinctly different from "antimatter" composed of "antiparticles". The assumption of one time dimension locks in this interpretation of the Dirac Equations. However, the uniform production of particles and antipa

A provocative article by Yong Zhao on CCSS and reflective questions we ought to as ourselves.

A superb app for any one looking at learning basic Mandarin Chinese. Play the game to listen and see the language. There are many different types of questions, but most are multiple choice or click and drag from a selection of choices. Questions start out easy and there is support and 'hint' buttons to help you. You can download each lesson as you reach it, or download everything if you plan to use it offline. All the language you have met is stored in a word bank and use your microphone to compare your pronunciation to the recordings.

An excellent article by Terry Heick on TeachThought about the development of critical thinking skills, how to infer and how to learn to infer, all of which lead to the identification and establishment of essential questions. A great read!

This has got to be the funkiest instant poll, quiz, response site around. Create questions, quizzes and polls with optional uploaded images for participants to complete in real time from a computer or mobile device. The users access the quiz by using a pin code. The 'question master' gets the data back instantly and it is stored on the site or can be downloaded. This is superb for checking the knowledge of children in your class or that your audience is still awake.

I tried this recently and it was pretty great. The class was engaged, and I got some very good information about what they knew and did not know. Students commented things like, "Can we do this again?" and "We should do this every day."

Some statements stand out in your memory for the power with which they resonate through you mind. I recall the first time I encountered the question posed by Alan November "Who owns the learning?" on the cover of his book of the same name. In four words, Alan poses a question that strikes at the heart of education and encourages us to re-think our approach. If we believe that the learner should own the learning, what are the implications of this for our teaching? Like a stone dropped on the surface of a calm pond, the ripples from a powerful idea spread, expand and gain strength.