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Watch out Silicon Valley. You may just need to relocate to... you might guess it.. Ok - maybe not -- the UNITED KINGDOM. This country gets it. Kids will start learning programming at age 5 in the UK. This is a big deal and something visionary schools will wake up to and understand.

Really 197 channels for learning? Well, there are many, but if you're like me, you're building a subscription list for your content areas and starting to curate (and perhaps create) some channels. Building a good YouTube stream is becoming part of curation and PLN building - so here's a great place to start.

Scientists are continuing to advocate that work and school start later. Researcher Paul Kelley CLAIMS that test scores and work productivity should start at 10am. Of course, what he doesn't account for that this would push sports to later in the day and kids would go to bed even later than they do already. You can only cram so much into a day. Anyway, it is interesting reading. One of the most important things is emphasizing and encouraging to parents that kids get enough sleep.

And I'm seeing this too. This generation wants to start their own business. We see this with Shark tank type experiences. This is a cool overview of what one college is doing as they literally help students start businesses in school instead of doing projects that go in the trash.

Get students to start with their 40 day challenge starting on International Day of Climate Action to minimize their ecological footprint.

You're invited to join our cultural scavenger hunt!

Join in our virtual scavenger hunt - this is a quick simple way in 3 days that you can meet students from other cultures and "flatten" your classroom by participating in the flat classroom conference. Start the conversations that need to happen. We're kicking this off now, although once it starts, it can really continue for some time. Maybe some of you will bring your students in to participate virtually. If you do this, please give a shout out by replying to the discussion. Join in if you wish! Just another way to flatten your classroom and there are a growing many!

I was looking at all some really complex charts on personal learning networks (PLNs); and was thinking how intimidating they must be for those just starting to grow a network. Sometimes simple can be more powerful. After all … All PLNs start with a single connection.

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!

Those who want to share a presentation they've done with the K12 online community, share at the K12 online fringe festival just starting up at notk12online -- ANYONE can submit a preso on ANYTHING. So, dust off those slideshares and vids and start sharing!

Excellent post on advice to Web2.0 Newbies

Angela Maiers, in her latest blog post, asked for some suggestions for people starting their Web 2.0 journeys. Here are a just a few: 1. Start with the pedagogy -

Blogging newcomer from educational mainstay Beth Holmes is a welcome addition to the edublogosphere.

Elizabeth "Beth" Holmes, former manager of the Center For Quality Teaching and Learning has been working with education and technology for a long time. She has started blogging and is now on my must read list. I said if she ever started blogging, I'd be a fan and I am -- this first post is an amazing call to action and also goes through the emotional internal debate we all have before moving into the edublogosphere. Beth has written for many educational magazines through the years and has the big picture understanding with also the practical back up of how things really work in the classroom. She's going to be a superstar and I'm glad she's blogging!

Susan Etteneheim uses Google Sites for her school and set up a customized start page for students in her school using google sites. Very nice work.

Susan Ettenheim's start page for students at her school. They customize it with their google site ID from their school.

# How did you get started with social media? # What was your introduction, and how did the journey unfold? # What difference has it made in your professional practice?

Tell your story and help Karyn out!

Getting started with Google Docs in the classroom document.

Getting started with Google Docs in the Classroom

Searchme lets you see what you're searching for. As you start typing, categories appear that relate to your query. Choose a category, and you'll see pictures of web pages that answer your search. You can review these pages quickly to find just the information you're looking for, before you click through. We're just getting started on our first step towards creating an entirely new way to search the Web. The quality of our results will vary as we make Searchme better and better. If you have comments or suggestions we'd love to hear from you. We love feedback.

a music site that offers a unique progressive pricing structure that lets you save money for selecting music before it gets popular.When a new song or album is added to the site it's available for free or very cheap (the site doesn't specify a maximum starting price). The price only goes up as demand for a song increases (in terms of total downloads).  The more attuned you are the cheaper your music prices will be. And even if you're late to an artist, the highest price a song can reach is 98 cents (one cent below the starting price for songs on an unnamed service run by a guy who favors mock turtlenecks). The site also rewards users for recommending new music. If you recommend a song that happens to get popular, Amie Street will credit your account as more users download the track (the amount of credit you receive increases as the song gets more popular).

Great tips getting Educators started using Twitter.

J.ot Down is a simple Internet-based notepad. Here are some simple instructions: 1) Open j.otdown.com in your browser. 2) Start typing. 3) Pause for a moment (or hit "Save") and J.ot Down will save your note and give you a permanent link for it (as seen in your browsers location bar) 4) Continue to edit your note or share it (or a read-only version) with your friends. 5) Bookmark your note for later access or just start another one.

Here, then, is my list. This is, in my view, what you need to learn in order to be successful. Moreover, it is something you can start to learn this year, no matter what grade you're in, no matter how old you are. I could obviously write much more on each of these topics. But take this as a starting point, follow the suggestions, and learn the rest for yourself. And to educators, I ask, if you are not teaching these things in your classes, why are you not?