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A professional development course that is very fascinating. It is wiki centric and has assignments called "The 23 Things" that I find to be very conducive to learning. I've had a lot of interaction with these teachers and am very impressed with what they are learning.

This cool course is fascinating. I've been getting a lot of links titled "Thing 1" or "Thing 8" -- didn't know what it was and now I do. The 23 things is a fascinating way to teach teachers about these tools. Great resource for professional developers to look at.

Excellent post by Angela Maiers about hear it and hold it teaching.

Information for installing sloodle - this is what you'll use if you're running opensim on a server at your school - helps make the teaching with virtual worlds so much easier.

A thought-provoking article on the reasons for the decay in education. Couldn't agree more.

Enough Preconceived sequencing and graphic organizers! Help us find patterns.

Many commonalities are emerging in these NetGen videos -- one of which is the importance of harnessing the power of mobiles in learning. Whether or not you agree or feel that the students are being "whiney" (as many educators often think with such videos) -- there is a point to be made. I have particularly noticed how kids keep gravitating to the itouch and iphone as useful in school - it has reappeared over and over in these student videos. They were given free reign to picture improvements in THEIR education based upon the research of their generation and they keep coming back here. It has me thinking -- no conclusions yet, but really, they are teaching me.

Common trends of cell phones and mobiles in the classroom.

This open source textbook by Raleigh, N.C., math teacher Kenny Felder was part of the review of the first 16 digital texts submitted to California's review program as part of the free open-source digital textbook initiative by California's Governor Schwarzenegger. This textbook scored a 96 and met 26 of 27 standards. Felder teaches at Raleigh Charter High school.

Just received this in my inbox: "WASHINGTON DC (August 25th, 2009) - Curriki, the largest online community for creating and sharing open source K-12 curricula, was asked by the Department of Education, Office of Innovation and Improvement (OII) to provide a continuity of learning plan for states, school districts, and individuals as part of a nationwide readiness initiative for a possible resurgence of the H1N1 virus. Curriki's continuity of learning plan includes access to a free and open repository of teaching and learning resources built on an open platform that can be customized for individual states or school districts. Like an iTunes playlist, users of Curriki can create collections of free and open educational resources, along with repositories of other supplemental content. If a teacher prefers one lesson to another, he or she can easily swap content in or out to meet the individual needs of the students. States or school districts can take advantage of customized landing pages designed to provide specific information, news, resources, and links to their education stakeholders. Additionally, Curriki's group function allow members of a district, school, or community to stay connected and privately share resources, communicate and post news and collaborate on projects from any location. " I think that perhaps online learning is about to completely boom largely as a result of the growing pandemic and the need for isolation and ongoing learning. Curriki has things together for this and I'm going to take a look at this for our school.

Fred Haas' reflections are so very real when it comes to ambitious global collaborations. I had to laugh as he said about NetGenEd (last spring's project): "Without question it was a mildly harrowing but ultimately rewarding experience." The learning curve is TREMENDOUS but once you have it under your belt it is similar to your first year of teaching or boot camp for someone in the military. If you're wondering if this sort of thing is for you, take a read of Fred's very real reflections. Julie nor I NOR ANY global collaborator will ever say it is easy - if it is perhaps you're not having to be as engaged as perhaps you need to be. However, it is most rewarding!

Great list of Twitter tips for teachers trying to get started on Twitter.  Also, easily customizable to teach our students about Tweeting.

Must read about considerations for the future directions of our schools and developing the 21st Century learner.

Free comic book about copyright that teaches you everything you need to know. You can even remix it. There are multiple translations as well (and you can buy a hard copy.) Awesome tool to use.

"Ainsworth, Prain and Tyler  (2011) in a paper in Science argue that  drawing  can play a number of  important roles in learning:, namely: Drawing to enhance engagement - surveys have shown than when students draw to explain they are more motivated to learn compared to traditional teaching of science. Drawing to learn to represent in science - the process of producing visual representations  helps learners understand how scientific representations work. Drawing to reason in science - student learn to reason like scientists as they select specific features to focus on in their drawings, aligning it with observation, measurement and/or emerging ideas Drawing as a learning strategy - if learners read a text and then draw it, the process of making their understanding visible and explicit helps them to overcome limitations in presented material, organise and integrate their knowledge and ultimately can be transformative. Drawing to communicate - discussing their drawings with their students provides teachers with windows into students' thinking as well being a way that the peers can share knowledge, discovery and understanding."

We've been doing an incredible professional development with Angela Maiers. You start with what you want to "be" before you talk about what you want to "do." This model is powerful and transformative, but honestly it took me the first 3-4 hours of the 10 hour training before the light bulb went on and I went 'oh" - Oh, my goodness, I"ve been doing some of this, but we need a common language. We start with what we want to be "scientists" "a learer" "risk takers" "bold" "Models and mentors" - -she challenged us to "be the learner, leader, citizen you wish your children to be."

Free textbooks in a variety of topics on CK-12. This is promoted as "learning made simple." Do students know how to find and download alternate sources of information? Can they find and search for the topics they are currently studying? This is a valuable way to compare and research topics.

An article/ ebook on creating new learning spaces in the classroom. this one talks about the "pod room." I love the 7 spaces for learning that Ewan McIntosh wrote for us in our Choice Chapter in the Flat Classroom book - he espouses many of these same thoughts. 

Students are writing their own textbooks. This one by The Advanced Placement United States GovernmentElectronic Textbook created by theSt. Gregory College Preparatory School'sSenior AP Government Class 2010 With such things that can be handed down to other students, so many questions come to mind including accuracy but also whether such a tool has value in lieu of traditional textbooks.