At Empire High School in Vail, Ariz., students use computers provided by the school to get their lessons, do their homework and hear podcasts of their teachers' science lectures. Down the road, at Cienega High School, students who own laptops can register for "digital sections" of several English, history and science classes. And throughout the district, a Beyond Textbooks initiative encourages teachers to create - and share - lessons that incorporate their own PowerPoint presentations, along with videos and research materials they find by sifting through reliable Internet sites.

I have been using Ning with my students for the last couple of years and I have to say for a completely free service it is amazing! For any of you who have never come across it - you can sign up for free and for within a matter of minutes you can create your own online community that looks and feels like facebook or bebo. You can then make it completely private to protect say your students and you then can control who joins the community in fact you can invite people only if that is how you want to work it.

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:

Creativity, innovation, and deepened understanding can result from interdisciplinary thinking. Despite these potential benefits, schools rarely cultivate the "mental dexterity" required for thinking in the seams

I've been thinking a lot about Tapscott's comments about this particular expectation of Net Gen workers, because I believe that not only are we seeing Net Gen students in our classrooms and libraries, we are seeing Net Gen employees in our new(and sometimes in our experienced) staff as well.

I've declared independence from email. After more than 15 years of dealing with email, of checking email multiple times a day, of responding over and over throughout the day, of deleting spam and unsubscribing from newsletters and unwanted notices, of filtering out messages and notifications, of deleting those dumb forwarded jokes and chain mails …

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Internet-Using Educators A book written by Stephen R. Covey titled, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, and a 1998 FETC conference presentation based on the book by Dr. Donna Baumbaugh (University of Central Florida), "The ABCs from the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Educators", inspired me to consider taking the basic ideas put forth and applying them to some strategies which educators might use as they are trying to incorporate the use of the internet into their curriculum. I will try to briefly outline the essence of the 7 habits and include some strategies for achieving effective internet use in your classroom.

During Boot Camp last week, Sheryl turned me on to Phillip Schlechty's newish book "Leading for Learning: How to Transform Schools into Learning Organizations" and I had a chance to get through a chunk of it on the cramped, smelly plane(s) to Melbourne. In it, he makes a pretty compelling case that "reform" is really not going to cut it in the face of the disruptions social Web technologies are creating and that we really do have to think more about "transform" when it comes to talking about schools. There are echoes of Sir Ken Robinson here, and I've still got Scott McLeod's NECC presentation riff on Christensen's "Disrupting Class" on my brain as well, especially the "the disruption isn't online learning; it's personalized learning" quote. And while there are others who I could cite here who are trumpeting the idea that this isn't business as usual, I think Schlechty does as good a job as I've seen of breaking down why schools in their current form as "bureaucratic" structures will end up on the "ash heap of history" if we don't get our brains around what's happening.

When it comes to job hunting, people have no shortage of concerns: preparing a compelling resume, providing polished answers to interview questions, and having excellent references, just to name a few. But since the word "Google" became a verb, job seekers have one more thing to worry about: ensuring their online records won't deter hiring managers from making a job offer.

Professor Cal MacKenzie writes about the potential power of computer-based learning at Colby College.

Article about using technology in higher education to keep students engaged in learning.

Tools to follow twitter use around the world

Steve Dembo writes about whether or not education will be a trending topic.

Interesting article about the difference between leadership and managements

The speedy evolution of technology over the past 30 years has often outpaced our ability to use it to transform teaching and learning in real and meaningful ways. Much of that time we just tried to keep up, with new technologies often simply bolted onto traditional curriculum practices. However, today, with three decades of digital experience under our belt, the time is ripe to begin instituting true change.