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Terry Freedman from the UK makes some great points about expertise in Computing. This is particularly relevant in the UK where every student age 5 and up is expected to be taught programming in school. (Wake up world.) Terry says: "Some Principals and Headteachers think that a good way around the problem of teaching computing is to not worry about whether teachers have subject knowledge at all. "All we need are facilitators", they say, "while the kids can teach themselves and each other." This is, as any teacher knows (or should know), easy to say, less easy to do, and not altogether the most desirable thing to do even if you can do it. However, just in case your school happens to be "led" by one of the aforementioned Headteachers, here are some arguments you may want to use. I think that any one of them should suffice, and all of them together make for a cast-iron case." Read more... this is a topic that will be increasingly discussed in other countries.

"we also have a third drive. We do things because they're interesting, because they're engaging, because they're the right things to do, because they contribute to the world. The problem is that, especially in our organizations, we stop at that second drive. We think the only reason people do productive things is to snag a carrot or avoid a stick."

New center for researching information and digital technologies and the impact on learning has been created.

Comprehensive research on how advanced computer and communication technologies can improve all levels of learning has been funded. This National Center was created and signed into law on August 14, 2008 in the United States. I think that research is a great thing. I they will involve all educators in developing their primary questions. Research based best practices underlie all we do and we do need more. I hope, however, they don't get too hung up on the technology (i.e. wiki, blog) and focus on what technology lets us do.

Tools are emerging to move content to student cell phones.

Interested to see this software. Hope to get a copy and see how it works with my students. I have no doubt that moving content to mobile devices is going to be an incredibly useful thing to be able to do in the coming years. Do it now or do it later? How about 1:1 cell phone schools instead of laptops.

Teens are really moving a lot of their relationships to cell phones as Danah Boyd said recently on a Wow2 show. This example of teenage habits of sharing photographs on cell phones is an example. Discussions of cell phone use should be a part of what parents and teachers do with kids. This makes me think twice about allowing cell phone cameras on my children's phones, but I'd rather help them be wise in using it.

Many people have not read the Youtube Community Guidelines. You should report any videos that break these rules to youtube - everyone should have a youtube account and be able to do this. Today, a student had a bad video linked to hers -- I had to go to another place to report the other video but you can do this! Guidelines: "Don't Cross the Line Here are some common-sense rules that will help you steer clear of trouble: * YouTube is not for pornography or sexually explicit content. If this describes your video, even if it's a video of yourself, don't post it on YouTube. Also, be advised that we work closely with law enforcement and we report child exploitation. Please read our Safety Tips and stay safe on YouTube. * Don't post videos showing bad stuff like animal abuse, drug abuse, under-age drinking and smoking, or bomb making. * Graphic or gratuitous violence is not allowed. If your video shows someone being physically hurt, attacked, or humiliated, don't post it. * YouTube is not a shock site. Don't post gross-out videos of accidents, dead bodies or similar things intended to shock or disgust. * Respect copyright. Only upload videos that you made or that you are authorized to use. This means don't upload videos you didn't make, or use content in your videos that someone else owns the copyright to, such as music tracks, snippets of copyrighted programs, or videos made by other users, without necessary authorizations. Read our Copyright Tips for more information. * We encourage free speech and defend everyone's right to express unpopular points of view. But we don't permit hate speech (speech which attacks or demeans a group based on race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, and sexual orientation/gender identity). * Things like predatory behavior, stalking, threats, harassment, intimidation, invading privacy, revealing other people's personal information, and inciting others to commit violent act

STAR educators program.

If your school has united streaming and you do things to teach others about how to use this resource, you can become a STAR educator. Here is the application process and let me know, I'll be happy to help you. I have an ulterior motive on this one -- if I help recruit a STAR by December 1st, I can get a mythbusters or Deadliest catch DVD and really would love to give this to my son. Like all of you, I'm scrambling this year on Christmas to slash the budget and still do great things. (Hey, some of you might want to give my book for Christmas ;-) So, if you decide to join and want a little help, let me know. And if you do so, let me know and I can get credit and get a DVD -- my son LOVES mythbusters!! I've been a STAR educator for some time now, and it is another great networking program. They also have their summer institutes. They have a wealth of great resources and UNITED STREAMING is my teacher's FAVORITE classroom subscription that we have.

I've been learning somethign new this week. On Tuesday nights, I 'd noticed the #gno hashtag floating around. It stands for Girls night out (although I've seen men participate) and I was asked to be a part of it tomorrow night. I wanted to learn how to host a twitter panel and do this, so here we are. Here is the information on how to do it. On Wednesday night, I and some friends are going to experiment with this to share some tools for teachers at http://edutweetpanel.wikispaces.com -- feel free to join in. I think that learning how to do a twitter panel is probably something new to help us comprehend how Twitter works to bring us together in deeper ways than we have thought of before.

My ninth graders have completed a module documenting how to do various tasks in OpenSim, the virtual world we use that is hosted by Reactiongrid. This wiki has the links, instructions, and other pages with tutorials on how to do various items. I was assessing this today and thought I'd pass it along as there is some great information to show you how to do things. (If you are a beginning second lifer you may also learn some things.)

Taking the pictures, sending the pictures, or keeping the pictures of underage teens can land you in deep water. So what do you do? How do you learn more?

09 DECEMBER, 2010 How Music Works by Maria Popova "What Stanley Kubrick has to do with Medieval harmonies and universal lullabies. Music. It's hard to imagine life without it. How flat would a world be where films have no scores, birthdays no 'Happy Birthday,' Christmas no carols, gym workouts no playlists? Music is so ubiquitous and affects us so deeply, so powerfully. But how much do we really know about it? How well do we understand its emotional hold on our brains? How Music Works, a fascinating program from BBC4 (the same folks who brought us The End of God?: A Horizon Guide to Science and Religion), explores just that. Composer Howard Goodall takes us on a journey into music's underbelly, examining the four basic elements that make it work: Melody, rhythm, harmony and bass."

Do you want to learn a new language? Do you want to memorize a long list of medical terms? Do you need to review your collection of flash cards while going to the office? Keep Your Word lets you build your own dictionary, classifying and grouping the terms exactly how you want to, while helping you to learn a large vocabulary thanks to its different exercise modes. Mac only

And the price is this: facts learned in this way, and especially by rote, and especially at a younger age, take a direct route into the mind, and bypass a person's critical and reflective capacities, and indeed, become a part of those capacities in the future.

while it is necessary (and possible) to teach facts to people, it comes with a price. And the price is this: facts learned in this way, and especially by rote, and especially at a younger age, take a direct root into the mind, and bypass a person's critical and reflective capacities, and indeed, become a part of those capacities in the future.\n\nWhen you teach children facts as facts, and when you do it through a process of study and drill, it doesn't occur to children to question whether or not those facts are true, or appropriate, or moral, or legal, or anything else. Rote learning is a short circuit into the brain. It's direct programming. People who study, and learn, that 2+2=4, know that 2+2=4, not because they understand the theory of mathematics, not because they have read Hilbert and understand formalism, or can refute Brouwer and reject intuitionism, but because they know (full stop) 2+2=4.\n\nI used the phrase "it's direct programming" deliberately. This is an analogy we can wrap our minds around. We can think of direct instruction as being similar to direct programming. It is, effectively, a mechanism of putting content into a learner's mind as effectively and efficiently as possible, so that when the time comes later (as it will) that the learner needs to use that fact, it is instantly and easily accessible.

I love these views from my student and her use of the term "horizontal" teaching - I think she has inadevertently hit on a very important concept for us teachers to understand. "Everyone has different views, different things they are good at, and different things they know. In a classroom, the teacher used to stand in front of the students, and lecture all day long. Now many of those teachers have started to teach "horizontally". This means that the teacher doesn't necessarily stand in front of her class and lecture, but works with the class, not only teaching them, but allowing them to teach her new things as well. This video gave me different opinions and opened my mind to a flattened world. I agree in many ways with Mr Friedman, because I personally do not learn well by having someone lecture me, it is very easy to get distracted, and by learning horizontally, I can interact with my teacher and classmates, and I feel like I learn so much more, because not only do I pay attention, but the fact that I am interacting, and experiencing what she is teaching helps out a lot."

Love this phrase "horizontal learning"

If you post future status updates on sites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn and more telling the world what you are GOING to do, where you are GOING to be, and for how long, you open yourself up to a number of risks. The world does not care what you are doing, and those that are watching, are the people you do not want to care.

If you do not understand, comprehend, and believe that everything you do with ANY form of digital technology is public and permanent, and you do not have a respect for the "21st Century Flame," or "2.1C", you will get burned!

Suzie Nestico is our project manager for this semester's Flat Classroom project and is doing an incredible job. She is a history teacher and is doing work at her Pennsylvania school to align everything with common core.Here,you can see her transparency with her students about each aspect of the FlatClassroom project, what they are doing, and how those things are aligned with what they need to know. While she very humbly pointed out to me that her blog is just beginning and still a work in process with some things to iron out - it is a great example of how global collaboration, common core, and core courses can go hand in hand.

Every pupil in England will be expected to have memorised their times tables before leaving primary school, under new government plans, reports the BBC. These will also see new tests of multiplication skills at the age of 11. The checks will be pi…

1) Peter Drucker believed "Students Should Have Studied What They Do Well" "Delivering literacy--even on the high level appropriate to a knowledge society--will be an easier task than giving students the capacity and the knowledge to keep on learning, and the desire to do it."... "All it requires is to make learners achieve. All it requires is to focus on the strengths and talents of learners so that they excel in whatever it is they do well." But schools do not do it. They focus instead on a learner's weaknesses." The New Realities pages 236 and 237. Peter thinks that student who do poorly with math should not be let anywhere near algebra. This should make students happier but remember algebra teachers need jobs.

If you work with younger children under the age of 5, you will want to look deeper into this research that shows that words mean less to children than adults when trying to categorize things. ""In the past, we thought that if we name the things for children, the labels will do the rest: children would infer that the two things that have the same name are alike in some way or that they go together," he said. "We can't assume that anymore. We really need to do more than just label things."