Group items tagged

The EAST program is proven to increase math and science scores although it is about technology and social action. This program which was created in Arkansas, totally blew me away as an incredibly innovative practice that could work just about anywhere. I agree in practice with much of what they are doing and had the privilege of talking to many of the organizers and founders when I was in Arkansas -- AMAZING.

Collaborative book written by education professionals and teachers with descriptions of a vast array of technology tools for all levels of the K-12 curriculum.  P. 67 - Addresses school filtering and CIPA.

Important article for integrators and IT directors to read.

Excellent reading for IT Directors and Technology Integrators - I particularly like the part about doing your homework and the thorough needs assessment - this fits with excellent books like the Influencer that have researched positive change.

A fun discussion topic with technology students, this blog post about futuristic inventions in wearable tech includes buttons that are really mp3 players, a dress with room for a sim card that makes it funciton as a mobile phone when you lift your wrist, and the one I want -- the Massage Me Massage Video game - that makes a game out of having someone massage your back! (Oh yeah!) This would be a great area to review and then have students invent their own.

A report by the US Department of Education Technology from February 2013 (anyone know why this is still a draft?) that shares how we should measure and promote non cognitive factors like grit, tenacity and perseverance. This is one paper to share and discuss.

This infographic is an impactful one helping school boards and IT departments understand the important of BYOD environments. In 2011 70% of the workforce between 22-34 used tablets and globally 46% of the mobile workforce has a smartphone. Using, managing, and maximizing these tools is an important part of modern life. Perhaps today's issues are helping students learn to focus, but keeping them out of school is shortsighted decision that will be looked back upon as a lack of vision... that is if you can help kids focus and help teachers encourage the use of them effectively. "Smartphones and Tablet sales will soon take over laptop and desktop computer sales: Don't stick just to books - why not let students use the technology they'll need in the future?"

Doug Johnson is a great read for his blunt, in your face honesty and his point about how technology companies are trying to differentiate is a great one. I think, however, we should extend this to schools as well. If your school is great, say why, but dissing the competition is no way to compete. If you think your school has no competition, think again. So, read this in light of the arriving and coming competition on the edulandscape and have an honest take on how you should "sell" the virtues of your school. If you can't talk about how great your school is and have to resort to how bad the other one is, prepare for a day when you'll shutter the windows and wonder how they're going to keep the bugs out of your empty building. Wake up and smell the wires burning their way into your student's computers and tablets, great teachers are just a click away and we've all got to learn how to blend and trend our courses, teaching, and to bridge our classrooms to add real value as teachers. It isn't hard as you think but if you just sit and teach like you've always taught, you're setting yourself up for some unpleasant days. You can't do everything but you can do something to improve yourself. Next practices are an important part of your best practice. Always innovate and never settle. Standards are only the beginning, you must have purpose if you're going to be a great teacher. Doug says: "But what I do know that when competitors trash each other, I tend to tune out. And I flat out hate it when I know they are lying - and I will NOT buy from a liar. A salesman recently promoted his video storage service by stating "unlike YouTube, we don't own your movies." That's just not true. (YouTube doesn't own your movies, GoogleApps doesn't own your Docs, CIPA, FERPA, etc. do not ban social media.)"

OK. I think this will be great news for many schools who are still clinging to Windows XP. Microsoft will keep supplying anti-malware updates to Windows XP until april 15, 2014. The March 2013 date caused an outcry among many and we've been working hard to update all the XP machines with extra RAM so they could go to Windows 7. But with the machines working so well on XP many of us wonder why we should dispose of machines that work so well especially in cash crunched times. Take your time - you've got a little longer although for us in the US if they'd go through June 2015 it means we can get 2 more school years out of XP machines. In a sign of the times, it can make all the difference between some kids using technology and some not.

Artificial Intelligence and the "deep learning" movement are hitting it big time: big bucks and big influence on our future. Geoff Hinton is working for Google to help improve voice recognition, image tagging and more. Microsoft, IBM, Baidu (search enging in China) and others are getting into AI. This is part of education as AI and learning tools can be greatly impacted. Read and share this article if you're an education or technology futurist. Fascinating.

Free textbooks will be available beginning Jan '09. Not sure what grade levels this will be available to (just college?).

Open source textbooks - this is a movement in that direction.

Interesting tidbit in their press release this week: "Flat World has announced 17 new author titles under contract. Flat World's in-classroom beta test gets underway this week, with 20 participating colleges and universities nationwide." Open Textbooks may be closer -- this model is a more hybridized version. If we had a "wiki to print" tool or technology, then we could literally have grassroots teachers writing and creating textbooks together. This is interesting to follow

This is an amazing description of what is happening at Suffern Middle School, one of the leaders in the digital revolution.

Kevin Jarrett talks about his week at one of the leaders in innovative technology, suffern Middle School. An excellent read to see what this digital revolution is all about. Wow!

This is an interesting article that presents some interesting commentary on students today. It is very brief but makes some excellent points.

Alice shared this earlier, but I went back and added annotations AND the tagging standard -- this will show up in the links and make this article rise to the top as we discuss it.

A wiki about Web 2.0 and education.

Astounding!

Via @pcwoessner on Twitter. Great development of Digital Citizenship/Internet Safety resources. He has combined NETS-S, Ribble & Bailey's Digital Citizneship in Schools, iKeepSafe C3 Matrix, Microsoft's Digital Citizenship & Creative Content, and SimpleK12's Protecting Students in the 21st Century.