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Are schools stifling creativity? Ken Robinson tells Jessica Shepherd why learning should be good for the soul

The San Jose Digital Media Course is a unique course designed for educators to experience 21st Century Learning in a real world setting. Participants work collaboratively to create vodcasts (video podcasts) of art exhibits from the San Jose Museum of Art.

Information about paying people to pass ap tests.

Paying kids to pass the AP test isn't working... but those supporting it say give it time. In some ways, money is the easy answer. But money doesn't solve problems when you have a child who has low self esteem. A child who is beaten every night isn't going to want to learn more during the day for a one time incentive... they feel trapped. Although the average improved (there were more "5's") - the overall pass rate declined slightly -- but more tests were taken. I am glad that people are willing to put money into trying new things, but sometimes I think teachers are left out of the equation. If we look at brain rules, improving the family life of kids and making sure they get more sleep are two of the most beneficial things we could to improve test scores.

FACEBOOK, MySpace, YouTube and Wikipedia are considered valuable educational tools by some who embrace the learning potential of the internet; they are also seen as a massive distraction with no academic benefit by others. Research in Nottingham and Notts suggests split opinions over the internet in the classroom. Some 1,500 interviews with teachers, parents and students nationwide showed the 'net was an integral part of children's personal lives, with 57% of 13 to 18-year-olds in Notts using blogs in their spare time and 58% in Nottingham. More than 60% of Nottingham teens use social networking sites. They are a big feature of leisure time - but now the science version of You Tube, developed by academics at The University of Nottingham, has been honoured in the US this week. The showcase of science videos shares the work of engineers and students online. However just a quarter of teachers use social networking tools in the classroom and their teaching, preferring to leave children to investigate outside school.

Five states that made bigger strides than Iowa on national test scores had much tougher standards for what children should learn in school, according to a new study.

ProjectExplorer, Ltd. is a not-for-profit organization that produces FREE online films and educational programming for the kindergarten to 12th grade community. Our virtual fieldtrips showcase destinations around the world. Learn more>

Excellent post discussing free speech rights of public employees.

Great discussion emerging on Jon Becker's blog about free speech and blogging of public employees. I learned as much from the comments as the blog post itself.

Welcome to School AUP 2.0 This is a dynamic document designed to support teachers, school media specialists, and education leaders in developing, maintaining, and enforcing policies designed to: 1. Promote the most effective, productive, and instructionally sound uses of digital, networked, and abundant information environments. 2. Provide safe digital environments for learners and to instill safe practices and habits among the learning community. This wiki site will serve as a launchpad to other documents and communities seeking to provide guidance in acceptable use policy development and also as an incubator for ideas related to issues, document structures, new problems and opportunities, and maintenance.

This will be a worthy course to enroll in!

Connectivism and Connective Knowledge is a twelve week course that will explore the concepts of connectivism and connective knowledge and explore their application as a framework for theories of teaching and learning. It will outline a connectivist understanding of educational systems of the future. George Siemens and Stephen Downes - the two leading figures on connectivism and connective knowledge - will co-facilitate this innovative and timely course.

Article written by NYS educator Jim McDermott

Open Education Resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials freely available online for everyone to use, whether you are an instructor, student, or self-learner. Examples of OER include: full courses, course modules, syllabi, lectures, homework assignments, quizzes, lab and classroom activities, pedagogical materials, games, simulations, and many more resources contained in digital media collections from around the world.

Post about women in edtech.

Wes has a post about the misconception that there are "no" credentialed female presenters for conferences and lists a long list of women edtech presenters -- great for anyone planning a conference.

sharing improvement in learning. Any teacher or education professional can publish their own case studies using the template provided. Launched end Nov - over 60 case studies up there already.

Great info on creating networked, collaborative learning.

The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) is the country's premier voice for K-12 education leaders who use technology strategically to improve teaching and learning. The objective of this wiki is to provide a space for collaborative work around topics regarding effective planning for and use and implementation of technology.

A recent "practice guide" from the federal National Center for >> Education Research >> distills what its panel of scholarly authors believe are seven of the >> best research-based instructional strategies teachers can use to >> improve student learning

an enormous collection of learning and education resources across the curriculum

Two people tweeted about this website and how student test scores went up with it. Wonder if others have had similar results? Might decide to use it with my own children if that is the case.