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Great article on US news about initiatives in the US that have started but of special interest is the request that students and educators tweet. The biggest issues I've had with the town hall meetings is that most of them are in the middle of the day when everyone is teaching. On Thursday at 3 pm there is a chat about rural education. It is nice that they're having these meetings but if they REALLY want teachers to participate it will be when teachers are able to focus on the conversation. You can't have teachers teaching and Tweeting. It doesn't work. If you see me tweet during the day, most of the tweets are scheduled or I'm on break or lunch break. "February has been a busy month for K-12 education. On February 1, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan kicked it off by announcing that all U.S. schools should transition to digital textbooks within the next five years. On the 9th, President Obama waived 10 states from No Child Left Behind. And last week, the president proposed a 2013 budget that includes a $1.7 funding increase for education." Although these federal policy decisions may not seem directly connected to day-to-day classroom activities, the Department of Education is using Twitter to encourage teachers, administrators, parents, and students to play a more active role.

The Implementing One-to-One Laptop Learning in Alberta's Schools resource is available online. This support resource and the accompanying summary document are gudes for implementing a one-to-one program with advice from the participants of the Emerge One-to-One Laptop Learning Initiative.

How Cramberry Works Using Cramberry to study is simple. First, you create a blank "set" of flashcards. Cramberry will prompt you to give your set a name. All of your flashcards are stored in sets. Once you've created a blank set, Cramberry will help you add cards to the set. Adding cards with Cramberry is as simple as it is with traditional flashcards: just type in the text you want on the front and back of the card, and click on "add another card" to add another card to the set. Once you're satisfied with the amount of cards you have in your new set, click "finish". Once you've set up one or more sets with the cards you want to study, actually learning them is simple. Click the title of the set from the home screen, and you're off! Cramberry will present you with the front of a random card. Try to guess what is on the back of that card, and then click on the button to find out if your guess was correct. If it was, click "correct". If not, click "incorrect". As you continue studying, Cramberry will keep track of which cards you know, and help you learn the ones you don't.

How people spend their discretionary income - the cash that goes to clothing, electronics, recreation, household goods, alcohol - depends a lot on where they live. People in Greece spend almost 13 times more money on clothing as they do on electronics. People living in Japan spend more on recreation than they do on clothing, electronics and household goods combined. Americans spend a lot of money on everything.

Cool summary of an article by Liz B. Davis -- Liz took the article and extracted the most valuable bits to her using google Docs. This methodology is fascinating, but even moreso the fact we may all begin doing this together with Diigo.

Cool summary of an article by Liz B. Davis -- Liz took the article and extracted the most valuable bits to her using google Docs. This methodology is fascinating, but even moreso the fact we may all begin doing this together with Diigo.

Cool summary of an article by Liz B. Davis -- Liz took the article and extracted the most valuable bits to her using google Docs. This methodology is fascinating, but even moreso the fact we may all begin doing this together with Diigo.

One of my favorite web 2.0 tools shown last year at necc wasn't on a computer, it was a keychain used by Kevin Honeycutt. These are amazing and this is a photograph of that. These were given to the teacher at his school in sort of a swap meet - people wrote about what it was and links on one side and the name on the other side along with the name of a person who could be contacted to help with that. Each teacher had to bring two to share with the others.

"Layar is a free application on your mobile phone which shows what is around you by displaying real time digital information on top of reality through the camera of your mobile phone. Layar is a global application, available for the Iphone 3GS, T-Mobile G1, HTC Magic and other Android phones in all Android Markets. It also comes pre-installed on the Samsung Galaxy in the Netherlands. How do you use Layar? By holding the phone in front of you like a camera, information is displayed on top of the camera display view. For all points of interest which are displayed on the screen, information is shown at the bottom of the screen. "

Layar may be only operational in a few specific countries? I tried to locate the software from the App Store from Australia but did not succeed.

Thanks, Steve, for the heads up on that.

Here's a side by side comparison of Bing Vs Google results on the term: Information Fluency 21cif.com ( formerly 21cif.imsa.edu ) has been online for 10+ years and dominates the Google Search results. Nothing in the top ten for Bing? Google ranks our old url #1 and our new url #4. Give this a try for your self with the same terms? I'll bet you get radically different results from Google than I do. Since I've worked on the 21cif project for nearly 8 years, I know the materials well. Also Google has adapted to my search habits and provides me with more links relevant to my interest. On the Google page I'm given a link to my search-wiki results: http://tinyurl.com/21cif-search-wiki

Here's a side by side comparison of Bing Vs Google results on the term: Information Fluency 21cif.com ( formerly 21cif.imsa.edu ) has been online for 10+ years and dominates the Google Search results. Nothing in the top ten for Bing? Google ranks our old url #1 and our new url #4. Give this a try for your self with the same terms? I'll bet you get radically different results from Google than I do. Since I've worked on the 21cif project for nearly 8 years, I know the materials well. Also Google has adapted to my search habits and provides me with more links relevant to my interest. On the Google page I'm given a link to my search-wiki results: http://tinyurl.com/21cif-search-wiki This proves the point 21cif has been making for a decade: USE MULTIPLE SEARCH ENGINES! The more sources of information you tap, the better your chances of getting a less filtered view of what's available on the world wide web

Great article outlining copyright, fair use and explaning the 5 principles of fair use in education.

Excellent discussion about Blogging in the classroom from Rob Kamrowski on the Flat Classroom Ning. Rob says: "The presenter, Konrad Glogowski, an eigth grade writing teacher, discussed his use of blogs as a "third place" for students to express themselves. The first place being students home, the second school, and the third, a sort of place where they are free to creatively express themselves. At the begining of the year, Mr. Glogowski challenged his students to "grow" a blog. He presented them a visual to assist them in planning their creation and, pretty much, allowed them the freedom to make their own product. He watched as the blogs and classroom community grew. Fellow students commented on one another's blog entries, offering advice and building fellow classmates confidence in their writing. Mr. Glogowski's role as teacher evolved into a reader of work and a partner in learning rather than an evaluator and expert of information. By the end of the year, his students had great pride in their work, bonded as a communtiy, and were better, more confident, writers. The likely hood that they would continue to work on their blogs and writing was extremely high. Mr. Glogowski's strategy and his educational philosophy towards blogging was a success." This person did not attend necc, but watched Konrad present via ustream via Will Richardson's blog. Ascyhronous conferences are so important. Can we make it part of conference best practice?

Overview of Konrad Glowgoski's presentation for necc.

Diane Ravitch calls it. Read her blog post on this major ethical issue. I think we need an independent testing company. Isn't there a conflict of interest here when a company creates textbooks and the test? "I am an 8th grade teacher in Xxxx, NY. On Day 1 of the NYS ELA 8 Exam, I discovered what I believe to be a huge ethical flaw in the State test. The state test included a passage on why leaves change color that is included in the Pearson-generated NYS ELA 8 text. I taught it in my class just last week. In a test with 6 passages and questions to complete in 90 minutes, it was a huge advantage to students fortunate enough to use a Pearson text and not that of a rival publisher. It may very well have an impact on student test scores. This has not yet received any attention in the press. Could you help me bring this to the attention of the public?"

Science and elementary teachers CAN'TMISS THIS. Every hour on earthday will mark another hangout by National Geographic with scientists and all kidsof amazing people. Get in on this! This is one of those things to forward!! 'This year National Geographic celebrates its 125th anniversary and a long legacy of exploration, conservation, and research. Every hour of every day, National Geographic explorers take to land, sea, and sky (each frontier represented by a colored band on National Geographic's historic flag) trying to uncover, understand, or help care for the world around us.

This is an iPad app and site where you can create video tutorials on a virtual whiteboard on an iPad and share it on the web to view on any device. The site has a extensive bank of shared tutorials from other educators on a range of topics, including maths, science, English, languages and more. Download the app at https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/showme-interactive-whiteboard/id445066279 http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/ICT+%26+Web+Tools

As I'm reading on inquiry based learning, I came across another article, I'd like to share. In this article, it discusses how inquiry-based learning projects are driven by students. This very much aligns with the questions we ask on the Flat Classroom and other projects. The one point of meaning that I'm working to understand (and finding different answers depending upon the site) is that some differentiate that students should develop the questions rather than teachers "handing them" the questions. I have a lesson plan I sent through Diigo where the instructor designed a lesson around the question "Can there be giants?" and called in inquiry based. Under this article, it may not be called true inquiry based, and yet, I'm wondering if the question is intriguing and of interest and can be used in a way to teach if it really matters where the question originates.  My class is a mix of student-created inquiries (Freshman project) and project-generated inquiries (Digiteen, Flat Classroom). Interesting. Look forward to reading and understanding more (and sharing with you.) This is another nice article on the topic. Feel free to share yours. "Inquiry-based learning" is one of many terms used to describe educational approaches that are driven more by a learner's questions than by a teacher's lessons. It is inspired by what is sometimes called a constructivist approach to education, which posits that there are many ways of constructing meaning from the building blocks of knowledge and that imparting the skills of "how to learn" is more important than any particular information being presented. Not all inquiry-based learning is constructivist, nor are all constructivist approaches inquiry-based, but the two have similarities and grow from similar philosophies.

My students are working on an awareness and social action campaign with the students from Reading, Ohio (teacher: Brian Page.) They are celebrating May DAy in a new way -- asking everyone to buy jewelry made by those rescued from human slavery and to wear it on that day. May Day: May all slaves be free one day but until then we will speak on their behalf. They have a blog, a Facebook page and more. Would you consider creating awareness next Monday and celebrate with them on May1st? We're looking for some more classrooms to join their voices to our blog at hopeforslaves.com a website we set up this week.

I'm embarrassed to admit, but two weeks ago I didn't even know anything about  Angry Birds. It looks like this addicting little game has been around for a while. I know … Where have I been? I guess I've been spending time with a less angry little bird … I'm really not the angry type! I guess I see Twitter as better use of my time and professional collaborative learning than shooting birds out of a slingshot. A casual conversations with my hairdresser a few weeks ago about the game led to a quick demonstration on her phone. Another reference came last Friday while attending a session on Instructional Coaching for principals. Some areas that Instructional Coaches can assist schools with are referred to as the Big Four: Classroom Management, Content, Instruction, and Formative Assessment. While the presenters facilitated dialogue around the topic of formative assessment the analogy was made to video gaming; and specifically Angry Birds. This piqued my curiosity.

Aims Aims One of the OERtest project aims is to provide support for future OER-related initiatives by European HEIs. One way to do it so is by the establishment of a European network to promote and follow the development of OER and Open Educational Practices within the EHEA. The project partnership will act as a vivid example of a consortium of European universities that offer credit certification under a self-developed framework of learning based on study using OERs, which is shared among several universities and proves to be feasible. Formalised through a Memorandum of Understanding, the OER Europe Network is intended to initially consist of an agreement between the project partners to continue the sustainability objectives of the project beyond its lifetime. As a framework agreement for cooperation on the topic, the agreement will also however admit for other institutions to join, and for the network to take on its own life.