Group items tagged

"As Congress and the Obama administration weigh a major reform of education policy, the government should overhaul testing methods that have handcuffed teacher creativity and done little to boost student achievement, according to a new report from the National Research Council."

The fact is that Tablets are here, they are useful, and they are proliferating as we speak. Most of my money this Christmas was spent at Amazon and the Apple store. Apps and music are where we spend our money. Two of my kids wanted iphones and the other, an ipad mini. Merry Christmas to Apple - I think many others are like that as well. I've been testing the Kenna tablet from SchoolTube which is a heavy duty droid tablet with slots for just about everything. Tablets are everywhere.

Another cloud alternative for managing documents and email. For those that may prefer Microsoft or are very heavy Microsoft Office users, this is the site where you can sign up.

While many people say multitasking makes them more productive, research shows otherwise. Heavy multitaskers actually have more trouble focusing and shutting out irrelevant information, scientists say, and they experience more stress. And scientists are discovering that even after the multitasking ends, fractured thinking and lack of focus persist. In other words, this is also your brain off computers. "The technology is rewiring our brains,"

The heavy focus on measuring teacher quality can give the false impression that teacher quality is everything. Study after study, however, has shown that poverty is a stronger factor than teacher quality in predicting achievement. The best teachers in the world will have limited impact when children are undernourished, have high levels of lead in their bodies, live in noisy and dangerous environments, get too little sleep, and have no access to reading material.

"# record using your phone or VoIP Recording audio has never been easier! Simply call us using a touch-tone telephone or a VoIP client. No microphone or audio editing software required. VoIP recording is FREE! Telephone recording is just $0.10/min - there are no other costs involved. # create podcasts Are you an audiophile? No. Then why concern yourself with the complexities of podcasting? Let us do the heavy lifting. Yes. Upload your studio produced episodes. Each of your channels can be subscribed to by an RSS client like iTunes, IE7, Firefox or any number of web-based portals. # post audio to your blogs Post audio content to your blogs! We integrate with popular blogging software like Blogger, TypePad, WordPress and more! # create audio greetings Create audio greetings to welcome users to your website! Or use a greeting as an audio avatar or signature in an email! # host conference calls Connect with colleagues and friends in conference calls! # tell me more "

"A strategy to support pupils improve their spelling strategies, by circling words which they think require attention. The Standards & Testing Agency have in some ways made the marking of spellings more problematic than it's ever been. They state quite clearly, that individual spellings should no longer be pointed out to children if you wish to mark it as an independent piece. This, coupled with Ofsted's move away from heavy amounts of marking needing to be seen in books, could make the marking of spelling seem tricky."

Business people and management should read this article about the transformation of business by using workplace communities. "Workplace communities are designed to solve workplace-related challenges" -- they focus on tasks. I would find it interesting to see a business REALLY use technology to change things. Having the business in a business network (OK a NING) and let people tag their posts with the business related PROBLEMS they are having and blog, video, or photograph it-- the tag cloud would tell the business IMMEDIATELY what the problems are in the company. The problem with this model is that there are few corporate executives who REALLY want to know the problems within their organizations. They don't want to be problem solvers, just opportunity creators. However, when managers open their eyes (and I'm a former General Manager myself) and see that two things give business opportunity: problem solving and innovation. And they are directly related. True innovation solves problems. Read this article and think about how you may solve problems using the networks you may now create. If you don't want everyone to know, keep it private and only allow people in your company in.

Traditional textbooks are expensive, rigid, and heavy. No updating. No customizing. Enter the FlexBook, a digital-age textbook. Free, customizable, and standards aligned. The future is now. Welcome to CK-12.