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Pakistan is pushing to educate more of its children, amidst financial woes and a struggle for more funding. Their goal: 100% enrollment. Of course, there is a great effort also to build a firewall in Pakistan much like the "great firewall of China." That said, there are many lovely educators from Pakistan who contribute and connect increasingly online and I wish this country well as well as the many countries working to increase enrollment. "As schools returned to session in Pakistan's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province this fall, the newly elected provincial government - with the help of the non-profit campaign Alif Ailaan - launched an enrollment drive. In its first month, the drive managed to enroll nearly 245,000 out of school children - about 65% male and 35% female - across 25 districts of the province, according to figures provided by Alif Ailaan. But considering Pakistan's education woes, where more than 25 million children between the ages of 5-16 remain out of school, it is a small step. "In order to provide schooling to all the kids, we need about Rs. 138 billion (roughly $1.2 billion) just in KP - for school infrastructure, classrooms, teachers so on and so forth," Joudat Ayaz, the province's education secretary, told me over dinner. Ayaz estimates the number of out of school children in KP between 2 to 3 million, about 20% to 30% of the school-age children in the province. "You can't do this [reaching 100% enrollment] in one go - you have to do it progressively, over six or seven years.""

Most weeknights of Connected Educator month #cem13 there are Connected Cafes with many online leaders in education. They are free and will be great conversations. I'm on October 3 at 7:30 pm and we're talking about connected leadership with Dean Shareski and moderated by Steve Hargadon. Take a look at the calendar to see more. October 4 is Larry Ferlazzo and Angela Maiers, October 8, Ira Socol and Kathleen Cushman and many more.

Come join us during this month-long series to explore and discuss the educational potential of Minecraft through actual, hands-on gameplay inside of the Minecraft world, and open chats with the Connected Learning community.

"Put the tools in kids' hands. * Interactive whiteboards: They don't call 'em interactive for nothing. When these large-display screens that connect to a computer and a projector arrived at Forest Lake, Williams gave teachers six months to wean themselves from their interaction-less overhead projectors. Students can touch the interactive boards to solve math problems, play games, or write and edit text. When one student is running the board, Williams suggests keeping others engaged using remote clickers, personal dry-erase slates, or manipulatives. (Download this idea guide for interactive whiteboards.) "

Happy Digital Citizenship week. As part of connected educators month, this is digital citizenship week. Here is the webpage to help you participate and promote the event.

Among the stats - 500 Billion minutes/month spent on Facebook - and it's only been in existence for 5 years.

If these are accurate, they boggle the mind.

The 2009-2010 school year ended for me early today and I'm just wrapping up a few loose ends before I head into vacation mode for the summer. I did want to release the Free PDF of the Web-Based Portfolio series I've been working on for the past couple of months. I've taken the four blog posts and pu

Imagine if every one of your kindergartners had received 1 book a month since they were born prior to entering your classroom.

Scholastic and Turtle Pond Interactive invite you and your class on a virtual field trip to an aquarium in Florida! Students will be introduced to an extraordinary and inspiring bottlenose dolphin named Winter, who was just three months old when she lost her tail after it became caught and mangled in a crab trap.

Just received the press release on this new one. $4.95 a month and you have access to videos to help with homework. There is a growing business based upon videos for learning -- that is because kids clamor for them. Textbooks, and teachers need to see the value in things like Eric Marco's Mathtrain.tv and other screencasting for teaching. Have the kids make their own tutorials for one another -- or you can just subscribe, I guess.

If you're attending events over the next several months, you might give some thought to a quick checklist that might help you better accomplish your goals. As

If you twitter, or would like to twitter, then participate along with us!

For the month of March, a group of educators and lifelong learners will be picking a "Tweet of the day" and ReTweeting it with a tag: #gr8t Hopefully, you will join us in doing this too! See the 'about' page for more details. There are a number of reasons why you might want to participate: * To share what you value about Twitter. * To see what others value about Twitter (just look below). * To celebrate the power and wisdom of your Personal Learning Network. * To find interesting people to follow on Twitter. * To commit to giving Twitter a try.

From Steve Hargadon: "I've started a new community at http://www.FutureofEducation.com to providing an opportunity for those who care about education to share their voices and ideas on charting the course of education in a networked world. It's a place for thoughtful discussion on an incredibly important topic. The site will launch officially at the end of the month with the start of a weekly interview series, but I'm inviting some participation now because of an email Carol Broos (http://www.classroom20.com/profile/beatechie) sent out. Carol is one of twelve teachers who have been invited to participate in a round table discussion concerning the direction of education the new Secretary of Education Arne Duncan on Jan 21. She was sent the following questions, and is asking for feedback and ideas. You can respond either at the new http://www.FutureofEducation.com site or her wiki at http://education20.pbwiki.com/FrontPage. Here are the questions: 1. What is the one most important education issue you wish Secretary Duncan to focus on during his tenure and why? 2. How shall the tenets of the No Child Left Behind act be altered or invigorated? What are its positives? How can its negatives be improved? 3. How should the new administration respond to the nation's need for better prepared and more qualified teachers? 4.What should the new administration do to increase student engagement in mathematics, the sciences and the arts? 5. How should funding equity issues be addressed? There is also a discussion topic on what questions were not asked that might have been." This seems to be a great thing!

Password security is a big deal, and if you don't think it is, then someone might be hacking into your computer even as you read this. A strong password isn't foolproof, but it proves that you're no fool. And it might protect you from compromised data, a broken computer or identity theft. Your bank account, your personal e-mails and lots of other stuff are at risk with weak passwords.

Alternative to Jott worth checking out.

Liz Kolb tipped me onto this gem that I will look at. She says it does things just like Jott - it has several features for iphones. I'm going to look at it and let you know how Jott and reqall compare -- if it is worth the $3.95 a month for Jott to work w/ RTM and Google Cal.

Mobile Apps to replace Jott's functionality.

A reader named Liesl send in this great article from LifeHacker about the alternatives to Jott. Actually, after reading this, there really isn't an alternative to Jott without a lot of elbow grease. I may be coughing up the $3.95 a month. I just really use it. However, I'm going to email them. I NEED A FAMILY PLAN! I have my children using Jott on their cell phones but they use it very infrequently. I should be able to have some sort of family plan for our situation.

OK, Jotters, you'll now have to pick - if you use RTM and Google cal with jott, that will be $3.95 a month. Will have to go tell my students, they'll be heartbroken.

Jott now going to cost money.

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.

Starting this month, October, and going all the way to March, we'll be sharing Travel Trunks showcasing six continents! Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America. Here on the Book-A-Trip wiki, we'll even share information about Antarctica.