In the last few days I have read enough articles about automation in areas one would assume could not be automated to make me wonder where we will draw the line. An article in the latest issue of Inc. magazine...

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They are called standards-based report cards, part of a new system flourishing around the country as the latest frontier in a 20-year push to establish rigorous academic standards and require state tests on the material.

Copyright laws for teachers. Answers to common questions about copyright laws in the classroom from Educational CyberPlayGround™.

We've all been in the place of covering material to survive yet another day. But when we understand that we're actually setting our students up for failure by doing so, profound things happen..we care enough to fix the problem by becoming Deep Teachers (us) or, hopefully, leave the profession.

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

Look up words in the Visuwords online graphical dictionary and thesaurus to find their meanings and associations with other words and concepts. Produce diagrams reminiscent of a neural net. Learn how words associate.

You need to be able to identify bias in every resource you use, so you know whether it is reliable, objective information.

On February 24, Common Core held a panel discussion to critique the idea of 21st century skills. Discussants included: Diane Ravitch, E.D. Hirsch Jr., Daniel Willingham, and Ken Kay. Remarks from panelists can found be here. We knew that this topic is a contentious one that would peak lots of interest.  It did: with more than 100 people in attendance, there was not an empty spot in the room (many attendees event found a semi-comfortable spot on the floor). Ravitch, Hirsch, and Willingham challenged Kay on the idea that learning skills is more important than understanding the content to which one applies skills.

Say you're a middle school principal who has just confiscated a cell phone from a 14-year-old boy, only to discover it contains a nude photo of his 13-year-old girlfriend. Do you: a) call the boy's parents in despair, b) call the girl's parents in despair, or c) call the police? More and more, the answer is d) all of the above. Which could result in criminal charges for both of your students and their eventual designation as sex offenders.

The Center for Social Media in the School of Communication at American University, the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property in American University Washington College of Law, and the Media Education Lab of Temple University are conducting a project 2007-2009 to clarify fair use in media education, with support from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. This project will help media literacy educators understand their rights under the doctrine of fair use in order to help them more effectively use media as an essential part of their teaching.

Plagiarism, believe it or not, comes from a Latin verb that means, "to kidnap." If you plagiarize you're kidnapping and stealing others' hard work and intellectual property. It is academic and public dishonesty. You wouldn't want someone stealing your hard work, intentionally or even unintentionally, would you? Of course not.