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"That puts most college-level students right at the beginning of what Metros calls the literacy continuum. "Literacy sits on a continuum. As we move up the continuum, we become more learned, practiced, original, sophisticated, and critical," she explains. So where would we like our students to be on the literacy continuum? "While we do need to move our students toward digital literacy, I think there is some confusion about this continuum. I don't think we need to make everyone an expert. For example, you could be a student in economics and be literate in technology; but if you are a student in film studies, you are going to need to be truly fluent in certain technologies.""

"Light's research indicates that students take their writing more seriously when they write for their peers than when they write for their professors. His argument, as I recall it, was that a student can turn in a paper to a professor in which something isn't explained very clearly, assuming that the professor will fill in the gaps. Students know their peers can't fill in those gaps, so they have to work a little harder to explain themselves if they want their peers to understand them. And since they generally want to share their ideas with their peers, they put forth that effort."

"students also share their textbooks because they are so incredibly expensive. And as the digital rights management (DRM) restrictions on e-books makes lending someone your copy difficult if not impossible, students are likely steering away from e-books because they simply don't work for them - practically or economically."

"One big take-away from the session for me was the reminder about how many schools and districts take a defensive stance towards ANY publishing of online work. One participant described how her school uses google apps - but that they're turned off at the end of the day, so students can't access them or any of the work saved in the programs. Other teachers described how schools create draconian acceptable use policies, where no names of photos of students can appear online."

"The research of more than 2,300 undergraduates found 45 percent of students show no significant improvement in the key measures of critical thinking, complex reasoning and writing by the end of their sophomore years."

"One explanation for the lack of student interest in eTexts may be the price: current eText products have yet to deliver on the widespread expectation that "digital should cost less." However, my (admittedly quick) scan of the textbook market suggests that eTexts are actually among the more expensive textbook options for students."

"LectureTools turns student laptops into in-class communication tools and increases student participation regardless of class size."

"What role, if any, should colleges and universities play in the shift from print to digital textbooks (eTexts)? One perspective is that eTexts are a consumer transaction between a publisher and student, and institutions need not be involved. Another perspective is that volume licensing by institutions can dramatically reduce the costs to students and improve the terms through a business-to-business negotiation. Likewise, what software is needed? Do institutions want a common software platform for eText reading and annotation, or are four different software systems to read five eTexts just fine for a freshman?"

"this information gives us a vision of "students that are enabled, engaged, and empowered." This is true, she added, for students at all grade levels, from elementary through high school."

To acquire and practice literacy skills today, students and educators in Oklahoma City Public Schools require access to Evernote, Google Docs, Gmail, Edmodo, Posterous, Celebrate Oklahoma Voices, and other educationally appropriate, interactive websites. All these websites are currently (as of February 9, 2012) blocked by OKCPS for student access. OKCPS must stop its "draconian" and unjustified Internet content filtering policies and adopt BALANCED policies.

As reported in U Connecticut's Daily Campus newspaper, N. Katherine Hayles, a professor at Duke University, recently gave a lecture on the impact of everyday digital media use on university students. The bottom line: the perpetually connected lifestyles of today's students means they are coming to the classrooms with significantly shorter attention spans than previous cohorts. Professors can ignore that, stay calm and lecture on - or we can respond by adjusting our teaching styles.

You just have to tap your iPad and there you are, exploring the realms of science in a fun, exciting, colorful and in some cases, realistically illustrated method. That's what these iPad apps for science are all about. Here you will find science apps for elementary graders, high school students, college students, etc. for free, and some for only a dollar or two. Either way, these apps are all great in their own topic of interest.

Last month, Apple announced iBooks2 with the main focus being on electronic textbooks for education. I wrote my initial thoughts, concerns, and observations then and am still a skeptic due to costs and access to devices. iPads are expensive ($500) and then add in the costs of the iBooks ($14.99) for each student. Most schools are in the red and have no money for devices. Instead, I like device and OS agnostic, free apps and e-textbooks, along with free web resources. There are a bunch of links below for more on that.

But as Damian Bebell, one of the project's researchers argues, we can't just act as though the devices "arrive on parachutes" into a classroom and suddenly and magically students perform better. "It's really about pedagogy and teaching," says Bebell. The iPads are "just a tool."

"MIT has decided to put the two together-free content and sophisticated online pedagogy­-and add a third, crucial ingredient: credentials. Beginning this spring, students will be able to take free, online courses offered through the MITx initiative. If they prove they've learned the materi­al, MITx will, for a small fee, give them a credential certifying as much."

"Apple is empowering students to share content in real time, turning a classroom lesson into a social-networking experience."

Praise for ability is commonly considered to have beneficial effects on motivation. Contrary to this popular belief, six studies demonstrated that praise for intelligence had more negative consequences for students' achievement motivation than praise for effort. Fifth graders praised for intelligence were found to care more about performance goals relative to learning goals than children praised for effort. After failure, they also displayed less task persistence, less task enjoyment, more lowability attributions, and worse task performance than children praised for effort. Finally, children praised for intelligence described it as a fixed trait more than children praised for hard work, who believed it to be subject to improvement. These findings have important implications for how achievement is best encouraged, as well as for more theoretical issues, such as the potential cost of performance goals and the socialization of contingent self-worth.

Seven out of 10 undergraduate students attending the University of California, Riverside don't buy textbooks, preferring to rent them, rely on instructor-provided materials, or go without. According to a recent "Undergraduate Experience Survey," run annually, 73 percent of respondents reported postponing the purchase, and 74 percent chose to skip buying them altogether. Those counts are similar to results from a 2010 survey.

"No doubt, 2011 was a year of shrinking government funding for education, rising student debt, rising unemployment among college grads (gasp! people questioned the value of a college diploma!) and growing private sector investment in education companies. 2012 will likely bring more of the same."

"Mr. Rudolph took particular exception to the programming exercises, in which the computer automatically informed students whether or not they got 100 percent on the task. "It's so black and white," he tells Wired Campus. "They have to make it easy enough so everyone can get 100 percent, basically. In the past I've turned in programming assignments, and only the really smart kids got stellar scores, because they went above and beyond. This model kind of discourages that.""