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"Over the past few years, Forsyth County Schools in Georgia has been moving toward allowing students to bring their own technology to school. The district updated its acceptable use policies, beefed up its infrastructure and piloted the initiative. But the schools decide what that initiative would look like in their buildings. In all 35 schools, students can bring personal devices. In 25 schools, the initiative has permeated the buildings, and in the other 10, has made its way to some individual classes."

Part of the benefit of jumping forward with a 1:1 iPad deployment like we have tried is that we get the opportunity to impart knowledge to other districts looking to do a similar initiative. While that might not seem like a benefit, it actually also means we can make some mistakes because there is not a long history of this type of deployment in the world. Many districts have had 1:1 Laptop projects, which we have benefited from and could easily be applied to this list I'm about to share. However, for the sake of our specific district, and the questions I get from other districts on a daily basis, I'm going to break down the ten things you should NOT do when implementing a 1:1 iPad program.

The world of education is often defined by the "haves" and "have nots." It is this separation that ultimately drives decisions when it comes to educational technology. Why should students in less affluent districts not be afforded the same opportunities as those with large budgets to utilize technology to create, collaborate, connect, communicate and develop essential media literacies? A BYOT initiative makes sense, as we can leverage a variety of devices that many students already possess. It is how we utilize these student-owned devices in schools that is the key to a successful BYOT initiative.

"Our BYOD initiative at NMHS has succeeded and grown up to this point based on the basic premise of trust and respect.  Yes, we have policies in place, the right infrastructure, and support our teachers with professional development and guidance. However, the most important elements stem from the fact that we trust our students to use their devices as tools for learning, enhanced productivity, and to conduct better research.  Time is spent working with them on digital citizenship and the creation of positive digital footprints that they can be proud of.  We also respect them as learners growing up in the digital age where these tools are playing a greater role in the world we are preparing them to succeed in.  When creating a BYOD initiative grounded in these principles the possibilities are endless."

Workbook about Seth Godin's latest book "Poke the Box". Interesting discussion about having initiative and taking risks.

"Google Reader, one of the world's most popular RSS readers, is shutting down on July 1, 2013, Google announced Wednesday. The search giant is pulling the plug on the 7-year old project citing "declining usage." Google says it is shuttering Reader and deprecating or shutting down a number of other services as part of the company's "spring cleaning" initiative - one that seeks to help the company focus on the features that need the most use."

"This resource is a national initiative for the improvement of English and literacy education from Foundation to Year 10, produced in partnership with Education Services Australia and the joint associations of the Australian Association for the Teaching of English, the Australian Literacy Educators' Association and the Primary English Teaching Association Australia, representing more than 10,000 teachers of English."

TtEDSC is one of 12 Deployment Trial initiatives funded under the NBN-Enabled Educations Skills and Services (NBNEESS) program. The program is part of the federal government's wider Digital Economy strategy. We are utilising the National Broadband Network​ to deliver innovative content and services to independent schools nationally by leveraging the experience and expertise of the State-based independent school associations and by engaging capable and committed vendors who are supporting our project.

"At a recently held press event, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg took to the stage to announce Facebook Home. After a quick joke regarding the Facebook phone rumours, he went on to reveal that Facebook Home is a new app that will be made available to a certain set of Android phones (at least, initially) that extensively changes the Android experience by making it more heavily integrated with Facebook."

"STEMbite was created by Andrew Vanden Heuvel, mostly because he needed something to do with his Google Glass. Andrew loves trying to do interesting and cool things related to science, technology, and learning. Check out what else he's been up to by visiting http://agl-initiatives.org/"

"Much attention has been paid to 3D Printing lately, with new companies developing cheaper and more efficient consumer models that have wowed the tech community. They herald 3D Printing as a revolutionary and disruptive technology, but how will these printers truly affect our society? Beyond an initial novelty, 3D Printing could have a game-changing impact on consumer culture, copyright and patent law, and even the very concept of scarcity on which our economy is based. From at-home repairs to new businesses, from medical to ecological developments, 3D Printing has an undeniably wide range of possibilities which could profoundly change our world."

"The initial process of linking a Google+ account and a YouTube account is very simple indeed. There are, however, quite a few things I have learned along the way. If you are a business looking to make the most of your Google+ experience, an individual looking to get all your 'ducks in a row and ready to quack', or a consultant who wants to guide people on their way, then this is for you!"

"While we've witnessed many effective approaches to incorporating iPads successfully in the classroom, we're struck by the common mistakes many schools are making with iPads, mistakes that are in some cases crippling the success of these initiatives. We're sharing these common challenges with you, so your school doesn't have to make them." "

In February this year, Attorney-General Nicola Roxon announced the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) would conduct an inquiry into copyright law to make sure it was keeping pace with the digital age. The inquiry was initially flagged by former Attorney-General Robert McLelland in 2011. "Fifteen years ago no one used Google as an internet search engine, viewed YouTube videos on iPads or listened to music on their mobile phones," McLelland told the 15th Biennial Copyright Symposium on 14 October in Sydney.

"Of all the initiatives a school can begin, integrating technology may require the most professional development. This is partly because of the equipment, hardware, and software involved and partly because of the shift that a teacher must make in his or her teaching style, technique, and planning process in order to effectively use technology in the classroom. Here are some basic "dos" and "don'ts" for anyone doing tech integration professional development.

"Of all the initiatives a school can begin, integrating technology may require the most professional development. This is partly because of the equipment, hardware, and software involved and partly because of the shift that a teacher must make in his or her teaching style, technique, and planning process in order to effectively use technology in the classroom. Here are some basic "dos" and "don'ts" for anyone doing tech integration professional development.

You may know TED, not as the guy from marketing, but as the nonprofit organization devoted to "Ideas Worth Spreading" - or as the set of global conferences, Talks, and videos that touch on the many heady, relevant issues surrounding Technology, Entertainment, and Design. As an increasingly powerful medium through which the world's experts share their hard-won knowledge, TED is also an educator. In March, the organization launched the first phase of its "TED-Ed" initiative, in practice a series of a dozen short animated YouTube videos "created for high school students and lifelong learners," in the big picture an invitation to teachers to collaborate with TED to create more effective video lessons that can be used in classrooms.

"Proponents of "bring your own device" (BYOD) programs like them for a lot of reasons: budgets keep dwindling, students already bring devices to school, and technology isn't getting cheaper. "People are saying 'It's happening in the real world. Let's mirror that in our schools," says Lucy Gray, project director ofthe Leadership for Mobile Learning (LML) initiative at CoSN, the Consortium for School Networking. But this article isn't meant to convince readers to try BYOD. It's about how to make it work once you've decided it's the way to go. Here are the methods three districts took to make BYOD happen."

In response to all of the attention given to the flipped classroom, I proposed The Flipped Classroom: The Full Picture and The Flipped Classroom: The Full Picture for Higher Education in which the viewing of videos (often discussed on the primary focus of the flipped classroom) becomes a part of a larger cycle of learning based on an experiential cycle of learning. Universal Design for Learning has also been in the news lately as a new report Universal Design for Learning (UDL): Initiatives on the Move was released by the National Center on UDL, May, 2012. This post describes the principles of Universal Design for Learning and how they naturally occur when a full cycle of learning, including ideas related to the flipped classroom, are used within the instructional process.