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Nominate someone you know NOW. What a great way to share up and coming education technology leaders: "Do you know educators who are passionate about using technology to transform teaching and learning; who can inspire their colleagues to embrace new tools; and who are curious by nature and always looking for how the next innovation can be applied to education? If so, please submit their names by Wednesday, December 18th for consideration as part of the National School Boards Association's "20 to Watch" recognition program. The 2013-14 "20" will be honored in Washington, D.C. during CoSN's Annual Conference, March 19th, 2014 (www.cosn.org) and recognized during the Technology Leadership Network Luncheon at the NSBA Annual Conference in New Orleans, April 6, 2014. Questions? Please email Ann Flynn."

Watching the Oscar-winning global-warming documentary An Inconvenient Truth, I was struck by the similarities between climate change and education change. These seemingly unrelated crises on our planet and in our schools are, in fact, connected. Both have taken many decades to develop and, at least in the United States, both originated in an industrial economy built on manufacturing. The effects of global warming and school decline are difficult to detect year to year, but over several generations, their impacts accumulate -- and are now converging to limit the future health of our economy and our society. To reverse these declines, similar fundamental shifts in thinking and behavior will be required at the individual, institutional, and societal levels. Consuming less, recycling more, and the ethic of caring for the environment should begin with our youngest children, as modeled by their parents, teachers, and caregivers. It's the same with literacy, curiosity, and a love of learning. Just as green technologies can make energy consumption more efficient, learning technologies can play a key role in modernizing the learning process.

"A new national center founded to spur breakthrough technologies that can help transform the way teachers teach and students learn. Educators Empowering you with tools to help you reach every single student. Innovators Making it easier for you to turn a great idea into a product that delivers results for learners of all ages. Researchers Translating cutting-edge research on how we learn into cutting-edge technologies that can help us learn. Citizens Preparing Americans of all races, regions, and backgrounds to succeed in college and a career. ..."

"re you a bright spark with a brilliant educational technology idea that could change the way we teach and learn in schools and drive up educational outcomes? If so Cool Initiatives wants to hear from you! Cool Initiatives, premier early stage investor in education and edtech, has just launched The Cool Initiatives Education Challenge 2019 . It's giving away a total of £17,500 - no financial strings attached - to students, teachers or early stage start ups that offer an innovative edtech solution to change the face of education as we know it today."

Congress has authorized a new federal research center that will be charged with helping to develop innovative ways to use digital technology at schools and in universities. The National Center for Research in Advanced Information and Digital Technologies was included as part of the latest reauthorization Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader of the Higher Education Act, approved last month. President Bush signed the law on Aug. 14. The center will be charged with supporting research and development of new education technologies, including internet-based technologies. It will also help adapt techniques already widely used in other sectors, such as advertising and the military, to classroom instruction.

As I was reading up on inquiry based learning, I found a research paper from 1999 that has been cited almost 500 times. In this paper, you have an overview of inquiry based learning and how the use of technology is an excellent support for inquiry based learning. (They call it TSIL - technology-supported inquiry learning.) This paper talks about the potential and Opportunities. This is a PDF that I'm reading and filing in my personal research cabinet.

This September 17, Wolfram Alpha has a Virtual Learning Education Conference. I suggest that math teachers everywhere should take advantage of this free conference. They have 2 tracks - one where you learn how to use their technologies in the classroom and the other is emerging methods of using it in STEM education. All of this is online and free.

Free online technologies are changing adult education by offering the ability to use free online tools to support collaboration and completing class work. The list is long in regards to the number of online programs which support adult students in their quest for learning in adult education. The sheer number of these online software programs continues to grow almost daily. A review of several of these programs has narrowed the list down to a few which are beneficial to adult students, because they ease their work load and collaboration efforts with fellow classmates.

"Join the maker movement! There's a technological and creative revolution underway. Amazing new tools, materials and skills turn us all into makers. Using technology to make, repair or customize the things we need brings engineering, design and computer science to the masses. Fortunately for educators, this maker movement overlaps with the natural inclinations of children and the power of learning by doing. The active learner is at the center of the learning process, amplifying the best traditions of progressive education. This book helps educators bring the exciting opportunities of the maker movement to every classroom."

The Social Learning Academy is intended for learning professionals  - in Workplace Learning and Education - who are new to social media and would like to find out more about the different social technologies and their application to learning.

Teachers who use technology frequently in their classrooms perceive greater benefits to student learning--particularly learning 21st century skills--than teachers who are less frequent users. That's one of the major findings from a K-12 technology study released Monday by researchers out of the Richard W. Riley College of Education and Leadership at Minnesota's Walden University.

Two studies were released in an attempt to "quantify the benefits of mobile technology in education and the infrastructure needed..." In these students students had tablets and Internet access at home and at school. Of course, I'm not sure that it is tablet computers that give benefits, Internet access, cloud computing, or a combination, but I'm sure these studies will be touted by many far and wide. Of course, remember if they had strapped the tablets to the kid''s back and hadn't used them - they would have had lower scores. All improvement is all in how technology is being USED to teach. "The studies put Android tablets in the hands of students and their teachers in two schools - eighth-graders at Stone Middle School in Fairfax County Public Schools and fifth-graders at Falconer Elementary School in Chicago Public Schools - and provided wireless access to the students both in school and away from school. (The devices were HTC Evo tablets.) Researchers then followed the students' activities over the course of a year, with the aim of evaluating "how access to these devices for communication with teachers and classmates increases comfort with technology, extends the learning day, and allows students to develop digital citizenship skills within a safe and secure learning environment.""

An amazing science site with a large number of magnificent animations and graphics to help you explain science principles. Content suitable for older students. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Science

mission is to educate students in the sciences by building content-rich immersive teaching tools designed around discovery-based learning that are accessible to educators and learners at school, at home and in the general public. Spongelab Interactive builds their own products and offers custom production services for the global education community. Their unique approach around integrating educational design with advance web & gaming technology is planting the seeds for continued innovation of advanced communication and education products.

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.

'Context' is where you start. 'Scaffolding' is the structure(s) we build in order to increase the effectiveness of the technology use. 'Pedagogy' is the artful things we do to enhance learning regardless of technology use.

Wise words about the purpose of tablets, ipads, and more from Daniel Edwards @syde06 from the UK. It is about people, pedagogy, and purpose... the apps come later. "The power of learning with new technology lies with the teacher and the ability to choose the appropriate tool for the right intention. Moreover, success directly relates to the relationships between learner and educator, and the learner and learning."

The use of PowerPoint presentations in schools takes advantage of education technology integration strategies and techniques. However, student learning is not improved when these presentations are merely a substitute for note taking bullets from older overhead projectors. To take advantage of the power of this technology, the elimination of boring slide shows must be replaced with interactive story telling that keeps students engaged.

Students talking about trends on the Horizon report are amazing me!

The use of PowerPoint presentations in schools takes advantage of education technology integration strategies and techniques. However, student learning is not improved when these presentations are merely a substitute for note taking bullets from older overhead projectors. To take advantage of the power of this technology, the elimination of boring slide shows must be replaced with interactive story telling that keeps students engaged.