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2.  Facilitate collaboration between business and IT

3.  Don’t try to boil the ocean

5.  Build a repository of APM information

Jeff Weaver, the dynamic superintendent of the Upper Arlington City School District in Ohio, was planning to unveil the district’s vision for 21st century learners … at the first district leadership meeting of the year. So he had the vision statement printed on adhesive-backed vinyl, purchased a hundred inexpensive dinner plates, and affixed a copy of the vision to each of the plates. At that first district meeting, Weaver asked for the plates to be passed out to the district’s leaders, then stood at the lectern and said something like this: “The last few years, whenever I talk to you about 21st century skills — about the importance of creativity, collaboration, critical thought, and all the other proficiencies that phrase implies — you remind me how much we’re already trying to accomplish. You tell me, ‘I would grapple with this,  and make it work — but there is so little time, and there is already so much on our plate.’ You ask me, ‘How can we make room for this on our plate?’ . . . And so, I am letting you know you today that, moving forward, this is the plate. . .“

Ten years ago, Stanford’s Larry Cuban noted that computers in the classroom were being oversold and underused. In short order, the iPad craze could take the same turn. My lesson from ZIS is that we should make sure we have teachers who understand how to help children learn from the technology before throwing a lot of money into iPad purchasing. It wasn’t the 600 iPads that were so impressive— it was the mindset of a teaching staff devoted to giving students time for creation and reflection. Are American public schools ready to recognize that it’s the adults and students around the iPads, not just the iPads themselves, that require some real attention?

a vision for the future is important to allow for planning. I’m starting to see school districts make purchases without establishing a long-term vision, and that is a recipe for disaster and wasted dollars.

But let's not mistake purchases for progress when reflecting on our efforts to change teaching and learning spaces.

as there are many creative ways to cut costs, as well as to free resources that can be used with existing infrastructures.  Schools can utilize cost-effective lease purchase programs for computers, investigate the implementation of a Bring Your Own Technology (BYOT) program, or promote the use of a plethora of free Web 2.0 tools.

Schools and classrooms do not, and will not, spiral out of control when we allow teachers the flexibility to take calculated risks to innovate with technology or permit students to learn using social media or their own devices.

One of the most powerful means of professional development is through the use of social media where educators can create their own Personal Learning Network (PLN) based entirely on their unique needs and passions.

At a quantum scale, the motion of electrons and protons is completely and genuinely random, since it doesn’t follow a clear path of cause and effect. You basically have no idea what’s going to happen. If you can measure this somehow, than you’ve got yourself an absolutely random value.

“If you want to defeat an adversary who is trying to hack into your system, basically you need large quantities of random numbers,”  Sussman said.

“…a truly random number generator will provide impenetrable encryption for communications — be they military transmissions, secure banking, or online purchasing — that underpin the modern connected world.”

Don't let fear based on misconception prevent you from creating a more student-centered, innovative learning culture. Rest assured, everything else will fall into place.

The fear of not being able to meet national and state standards, as well as mandates, leaves no time in the minds of many educators to either work technology into lessons, the will to do so, or the desire to learn how to. Current reform efforts placing an obscene emphasis on standardized tests are expounding the situation

With budget cuts across the country putting a strain on the financial resources of districts and schools, decision makers have become fearful of allocating funds to purchase and maintain current infrastructure

teens' penchant for borrowing and sharing books rather than purchasing them

The biggest single source of influence for teen readers is enjoying an author’s previous books.

their paths to discovery are more dependent on word of mouth—and for today's connected teens, this often means social media.