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"AUTHOR: ISSIE LAPOWSKY. ISSIE LAPOWSKY DATE OF PUBLICATION: 05.04.15. 05.04.15 TIME OF PUBLICATION: 7:00 AM. 7:00 AM INSIDE THE SCHOOL SILICON VALLEY THINKS WILL SAVE EDUCATION Click to Open Overlay Gallery Students in the youngest class at the Fort Mason AltSchool help their teacher, Jennifer Aguilar, compile a list of what they know and what they want to know about butterflies. CHRISTIE HEMM KLOK/WIRED SO YOU'RE A parent, thinking about sending your 7-year-old to this rogue startup of a school you heard about from your friend's neighbor's sister. It's prospective parent information day, and you make the trek to San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood. You walk up to the second floor of the school, file into a glass-walled conference room overlooking a classroom, and take a seat alongside dozens of other parents who, like you, feel that public schools-with their endless bubble-filled tests, 38-kid classrooms, and antiquated approach to learning-just aren't cutting it. At the same time, you're thinking: this school is kind of weird. On one side of the glass is a cheery little scene, with two teachers leading two different middle school lessons on opposite ends of the room. But on the other side is something altogether unusual: an airy and open office with vaulted ceilings, sunlight streaming onto low-slung couches, and rows of hoodie-wearing employees typing away on their computers while munching on free snacks from the kitchen. And while you can't quite be sure, you think that might be a robot on wheels roaming about. Then there's the guy who's standing at the front of the conference room, the school's founder. Dressed in the San Francisco standard issue t-shirt and jeans, he's unlike any school administrator you've ever met. But the more he talks about how this school uses technology to enhance and individualize education, the more you start to like what he has to say. And so, if you are truly fed up with the school stat

"In a recent post, Edudemic introduced us to a very intricate, color-coded visualization by Envisioning Tech on what to expect in education technology in the next 30 years or so. And these concepts are not broad generalizations- Envisioning Tech takes topics like digitized classrooms and tangible computing and segments them into practical ideas to produce a well-organized, cohesive diagram"

Mobile technology is on the minds of higher education professionals more than ever before. At the recent HighEdWeb conference in Austin, the itinerary included several ways schools can use social media, blogs and mobile technologies to better captivate its student body .. As tomorrow's grads become increasingly married to their mobile devices, here are five ways that mobile tech matters just as much as social technology in the higher ed space.

Another federal agency with powers of the purse over education. Yeah, that's what we need.

The very next entry in Diigo, (after this one about a new ed-tech agency) was an article about Victoria, Australia providing iPads for every student. Some of the classrooms in my school haven't even a single computer for the 27 students to use. Somebody needs to provide the leadership to help the U.S. keep up with the rest of the world. If it is a fed agency, so be it. Iit's better than what we have now (at least in my state) which is nothing.

Cathy Davidson

In general, I agree. However, novelists and poets don't need college?? And perhaps less so to artists and musicians? Perhaps... but what better way to learn the history and analysis of their Art, in order to place their own work in context?

I could not agree more with you Maureen. As a long time middle school teacher in Oakland and Mpls I am thoroughly convinced that our nation and our states are nuts to have cut all of the tech and arts classes out of elementary, middle and high schools. EVERY student should learn a trade/skill set in high school. The hs drop out rate is horrifying and no surprise that the crime rate follows. We have a nation of under achieving teens because the adults have not kept up with funding the myriad of opportunities that would capture and harness their interests and creativity. I look forward to reading your book Maureen and to following you on here.

"A mountain of evidence indicates that educators have been painfully slow to use technology to change and improve the ways they teach." Thoughtful piece examining the reasons for slow transformation.

"A mountain of evidence indicates that educators have been painfully slow to use technology to change and improve the ways they teach." Thoughtful piece examining the reasons for slow transformation.

Asa Spencer of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute writes in the Education Gadfly Weekly: "Traditionalists cringe, tech buffs rejoice: This latest NAEP writing assessment for grades eight and twelve marks the first computer-based appraisal (by the "nation's report card") of student proficiency in this subject. It evaluates students' writing skills (what NAEP calls both academic and workplace writing) based on three criteria: idea development, organization, and language facility and conventions. Results were predictably bad: Just twenty-four percent of eighth graders and 27 percent of twelfth graders scored proficient or above. Boys performed particularly poorly; half as many eighth-grade males reached proficiency as their female counterparts. The use of computers adds a level of complexity to these analyses: The software allows those being tested to use a thesaurus (which 29 percent of eighth graders exploited), text-to-speech software (71 percent of eighth graders used), spell check (three-quarters of twelfth graders), and kindred functions. It is unclear whether use of these crutches affected a student's "language facility" scores, though it sure seems likely. While this new mechanism for assessing kids' writing prowess makes it impossible to track trend data, one can make (disheartening) comparisons across subjects. About a third of eighth graders hit the NAEP proficiency benchmark in the latest science, math, and reading assessments, compared to a quarter for writing. So where to go from here? The report also notes that twelfth-grade students who write four to five pages a week score ten points higher than those who write just one page a week. Encouraging students to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) is a start."

learning to know, to do, to live together, to be--developed in UN report and discussed by ed tech and mobile learning.

See how ed-tech leaders are using digital media to explore educational environments. Learn about innovative schools and what programs they use... great information!~

"This article from Edudemic features an extensive list of some of the most awesome technological tools you can find for teaching and learning."

"You want some great ed tech tools to use in your classroom? You got em'-50, to be exact! This article written by the folks from Edudemic features an extensive list of some of the most awesome technological tools you can find for teaching and learning. There's lots to explore here, so have fun!"

YouTube can be a great source of educational material to share in your classroom. Unfortunately, if you try to search YouTube in front of a class you're open to the possibility that something inappropriate will pop-up. 

This is an interesting list of 100% online ed tech masters at various schools. Looks like a legitimate source of information for those interesting in pursuing a master'd degree in education technology

Digital publishing tools for creating story books

Here's our latest post on web-based keyboarding tools that support the Common Core. Please take a look and give us feedback. We're a new site with a goal to address ed tech tools that support Common Core.

Discussion on how technology is being used and why we're still struggling to give more control of learning to students. A good read!

Excellent find!

An excellent recap of some very typical pushbacks about ed tech from teachers. Better yet, there are well-thought out RESPONSES to the misconceptions, too.

We do a crappy job of selling technology. Sure, we are great at convincing ourselves that ed-tech is good. We are great at throwing big parties like NECC and TCEA to convince ourselves that that we are doing the right thing. We read a lot. And we write a lot. We podcast a lot. And we RSS a lot. And we hire each other to speak at each other's conventions and workshops. We have done a great job of convincing ourselves that technology is important. The trouble is, we are not convincing anyone else outside of ourselves.