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Peter DeWitt questions why we do not make better use of blogs to support learning. He provides a number of possibilities, including curation, media literacy, student voice, assessing learning, collaboration and artistic freedom.

" an amazing set of infographics made entirely of type"

For the typography geeks out there. Oh yes, you know who you are!

We announced our self-driving car project in 2010 to make driving safer, more enjoyable, and more efficient. Having safely completed over 200,000 miles of computer-led driving, we wanted to share one of our favorite moments. Here's Steve, who joined us for a special drive on a carefully programmed route to experience being behind the wheel in a whole new way. We organized this test as a technical experiment, but we think it's also a promising look at what autonomous technology may one day deliver if rigorous technology and safety standards can be met.

When it comes to using technology in school, the tension between what students and parents want and what schools allow is becoming more apparent - and more divisive. Students want more control over how they use technology in school, but many classrooms are still making it difficult. That's according to the most recent Speak Up 2011 report, "Mapping a Personalized Learning Journey," which reflects the views of more than 416,000 K-12 students, parents, and educators nationwide surveyed on how technology can enhance the learning environment.

Mobile learning is in the air, almost everyone realizes the potential, and some companies are now taking tentative first steps. While I haven't blogged in a while, I continue trawling through my RSS feeds, seeing more and more references to mobile learning, mlearning, performance support, 'just-in-time' and so many other terms that make sense in that context. Here are some interesting links I've come across recently, mostly about mobile learning and some about learning in general that I found interesting. Do note some of these link up to dated articles.

The preliminary results of our TeacherView Survey on Flipped Learning are in based on responses from close to 500 teachers nationwide.  These results should make any school or district administrator look seriously into how to begin flipping instruction broadly. Here's a quick sample of the findings. Click on the infographic to expand:

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.

"With budgets tight, many schools are hoping to bring technology into the classroom without having to shell out for a device for each student. A solution for many has been to make classes BYOD (short for "bring your own device"), which allows students to bring laptops, tablets, and smartphones from home and to use them in the classroom and share them with other students. It's a promising idea, especially for schools that don't have big tech budgets, but it has met with some criticism from those who don't think that it's a viable long-term or truly budget-conscious decision. Whether that's the case is yet to be seen, but these stories of schools that have tried out BYOD programs seem to be largely positive, allowing educators and students to embrace technology in learning regardless of the limited resources they may have at hand."

This is Google's contest to introduce pre-university students to the many kinds of contributions that make open source software development possible. It runs from November 21, 2011 to January 16, 2012. We invite students worldwide to produce a variety of open source code, documentation, training materials and user experience research for the organizations participating this year. These tasks include:

"Siri is still in relative infancy as a program, but as the technology develops, it will be interesting to see how it's applied in other situations outside of finding basic information, locating a Starbucks, or updating a calendar. One area where Siri's capabilities could be extraordinarily useful is in education, and many are already theorizing about the myriad different ways that Siri could be used to change how we teach, learn, and view it. Here we've collected a few of these ideas about how Siri could make the leap from a simple search tool to a powerful learning and education assistant. While they may not all come to pass, it's certainly fun to think about a world where interaction with technology for education could be so seamless, accessible, and maybe even fun."

"Imagine hundreds of thousands of great short videos, and other media, explaining every topic taught to school kids. Imagine them rated and sorted into a giant Directory, making them simple to find. WatchKnowLearn is a non-profit online community devoted to this goal."

"Wave a Microsoft Kinect sensor around the object you want to inhabit and the new system, developed by Jiawen Chen and his team from Microsoft Research in Cambridge, UK, quickly creates a 3D virtual model of it. Then, by standing in front of the sensor and positioning your body so that it melds with the virtual character on screen, the two are rigged together by uttering the word "Possess". The system performs the transformation by binding the model to you at the points where your joints are attached. Moving your body makes the avatar come to life, allowing you to re-enact Fantasia-like cartoons or to create your own interactive stories. It's also possible to team up with friends to possess more complex bodies, like a four-legged horse."

The trend line is very much suggesting that in time every school in the developed world will use some form of 'bring your own technology' (BYOT) school resourcing. It is not a question of if but when your school will make the move. The BYOT 'tsunami' is rapidly coming over the horizon.

Tom Marchoves through an extensive list of some of the main aspects that make digital learning different - and better - from what we might be used to.

Welcome to the NSW Draft Syllabuses Version 2 presented in interactive online format. Consultation on the content of English K-10, Mathematics K-10, History K-10 and Science K-10 (incorporating Science and Technology K-6) Draft Syllabuses Version 2 is to be conducted from 13 February to 31 March 2012. Consultation includes meetings and online surveys. The online presentation of the syllabuses is new and additional features and functionality will be made available throughout 2012. Please tell us what you think and let us know how we can make it more useful.

Our goal with Duolingo is to provide the absolute best language learning service out there (and also make it 100% free!). In this post I want to talk about something that we believe is fundamental towards this goal: students must be able to read and write complete sentences and be given immediate detailed feedback about their answers. When we started working on Duolingo we noticed that most language learning methods outside of the classroom didn't do this. Some never provide you with any feedback (think of books or the audio tapes from the 1980s), while other more "interactive" ones only provide you with feedback on single words or multiple choice questions. As any educator will tell you, having students read and write complete sentences by themselves, and then get detailed feedback, is significantly better for learning.

"The Google Chromecast is one of the hot tickets in the tech world right now, and while it has somewhat limited functionality compared to something like an Apple TV, there's a lot to be said for it. It's only $35 for starters, and has cross-platform functionality - though Google's idea of cross-platform is still limited to ChromeOS and the Chrome browser, iOS and Android. That's great news for us however, as with Netflix and YouTube initially - and likely Google Play Music when it finally makes the jump to iOS - supported already, we can get in on the action. So, if you're tempted, keep on scrolling for everything you need to know!"

A great blog from Seth Godin on the dangers of simply seeing the www as a place to make money, rather than as a community where you are able to connect.

"There was a lot of head-nodding around the office when Jason Orbaugh's article for EdSurge "Lessons from the Downfall of Interactive Whiteboards" made the rounds on TechSmith's internal social media site few months back. When we visit schools and ask teachers how they're actually using their IWBs, the answers would probably surprise the people who wrote the checks for these devices. But we're making a huge bet that things are going to be different with Chromebooks. Why? "

"In our book, Invent To Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom, Gary and I took what I would consider a fairly even-handed view of the current fad of celebrating "failure" in the classroom. I'm starting to reconsider a more radical stance."