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Plan now to join in on an "hour of code" December 9-15. Even if you don't have computers or have limited access, there are options for you to host an event. (As a bonus, educators who register will receive 10GB of free storage for Dropbox.) Plan an event and plan now. There are great tutorials and information for all ages about this event December 9-15. Join in. "Even if you aren't a student, you can take the Hour of Code yourself during Dec. 9-15. And you can help us recruit others to join the movement - at school, in your workplace, in the community. If you are an educator, host the Hour of Code as an activity in your classroom. If you're an organizer or employer, host an Hour of Code event as a team-building exercise, after-school activity in a club, or elsewhere in your community. Click the appropriate tab, and start planning your Hour of Code!"

Students across the country have already started working on their IWitness Challenge project sponsored by the USC Shoah Foundation - The Institute for Visual History and Education, but there's still time for youngsters in your community to enter this free online program geared to all secondary-school students. The deadline to enter the Challenge is Dec. 2, 2013. The winning student, along with their teacher and a family member will be brought to Los Angeles to showcase their work as part of the 20th anniversary activities for the Shoah Foundation, which was founded by director Steven Spielberg in 1994 after making "Schindler's List." Tthe IWitness Challenge (iwitness.usc.edu) connects students with the past in a very personal way that spurs them to take action to improve the future. With access to many of the Shoah Foundation's 52,000 testimonies of survivors, liberators and rescuers, students experience history in a way that hits home. Instead of reading facts from textbooks, students feel the emotions and build relationships with those who lived through seemingly impossible situations. But students do more than watch the testimony. The IWitness Challenge compels them to think, to make smart choices and to create their own project and video from what they've learned. By encouraging teachers and students to create their own lesson plans, IWitness allows them to expand on practically any subject they wish to pursue. From civics, government and history to poetry, art and ethics, educators can tailor lessons appropriate for their classrooms. And by using the embedded editor, participants not only learn valuable searching and editing skills, but also how to make ethical editing decisions that ensure their finished assignments are a fair and accurate reflection of what they've seen. All work is kept safe inside the IWitness site and not accessible to the public. Using IWitness is free, but teachers or homeschool parents must register at iwitness.usc.edu.

Tackk is a quick, simple way to create a page (without really having a website.) This page links to all of the tackk's relating to education. This is a cool, unique idea and I haven't seen anything quite like it. Sort of pinterest/ glogster mixed together. Cool. Writing teachers or anyone who has students do quick projects might be interested in this.

This article is ripe for Diigo commentary!

This article is ripe for Diigo commentary!

This article is ripe for Diigo commentary!

Faculty members at Stanford University's School of Education have voted to make scholarly articles available to the public for free, a policy change that the university says makes Stanford's education school the first such school in the nation to join the growing "open access" movement in academia.

President Obama's newly proposed education agency - ARPA-ED.

Excellent overview of the term community of practice. The origin of the term and the use of it in education is important as many of us are working through the social aspects of learning. I have seen that when established community habits and expectations occur, that learning is facilitated and the group as a whole becomes more engaged and focused. I'm citing this research in my new book about collaborative writing from Eye on education.

Awesome guide to share with teachers who are trying to figure out all of the terminology.

Stephen Downes pointed out this great resource that is planning to be the "alternative" to MOOCS. "Open Educational Resources University course will be able to pay a fee to have their work assessed for academic credit, which would then be recognised by all the universities participating in the OERu."

In Australia, a new social network for children ages 6-12 accessible only to students and teachers at Australian primary schools is launched. Called SuperClubsPLUS -- what a GREAT idea. Now, this is something other countries should be doing -- flattening at least the schools under their jurisdiction. Hope they have their disciplinary and reporting issues worked out b/c any where two students are gathered, online or off, there are always issues. Still don't understand why they are calling it a SOCIAL NETWORK. It is an educational network -- unless they are going to let it be social.

Educational Network launches for Australian kids ages 6-12.

This is a very honest, open discussion between educators about why diigo or delicious -- I think the fact we can have this conversation within diigo at all says a lot for the usefulness of the tool. Diigo is an emerging tool for social bookmarking and collective intelligence.

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"Well the iPad has really hit the news in education circles since it's release last year. I'm sure lots of teachers are wondering whether it's hype and what the true potential of these devices are as tools for learners. I've had my iPad for about 8 months now, so I've decided to share my reflections so far on what I like about the iPad, what potential I feel it offers for developing course books and course materials and some of the problems."

Well the iPad has really hit the news in education circles since it's release last year. I'm sure lots of teachers are wondering whether it's hype and what the true potential of these devices are as tools for learners. I've had my iPad for about 8 months now, so I've decided to share my reflections so far on what I like about the iPad, what potential I feel it offers for developing course books and course materials and some of the problems.

Student Voice Summit is in New York this Saturday. You can participate. Here's some more information from my friend Anne Ostholthoff, host of the Ignite Show. "Listening: This Saturday, April 13 in NYC, the first-ever Student Voice Summit happens. It is presented LIVE and sponsored by Dell and hosted by Microsoft in their NYC Office. You can be there - no matter where you are via Livestream: http://new.livestream.com/Dell/stuvoicelive . Also, be sure to follow these students via the #StuVoice hashtag on Twitter @stu_voice and http://www.stuvoice.org/ Here the hope is for a meaningful exchange between stakeholders in the education policy debate"

This publication is a weekly news update on what's happening in the ICT for education and development arena. Read and subscribe free at: http://paper.li/f-1325685118

Liz B Davis Sep. 4, 2011 "The front page of today's New York Times boasted an article about the "failure" of technology in the classroom. Titled, In Classroom of the Future, Stagnant Scores , the article describes a school in Arizona where, despite a huge investment in technology, there hasn't been an increase in test scores. The article is based on one school in one town in Arizona, hardly a statistically significant sample. Larry Cuban, an outspoken critic of technology in schools since the early 1990s, is quoted multiple times. Not one of the many experts in the field of educational technology, whom we know and love, was interviewed (or at least quoted) in the article."

Disgusting. Via the Washington Post So many things going wrong. "Talk about corporate-based school reform. New high-stakes standardized tests aligned with the Common Core State Standards are featuring plugs for commercial products. And the companies didn't have to pay a penny. Yes, New York state students who this past week took Pearson-designed exams were just treated to plugs for LEGO, Mug Root Beer and more products from at least half a dozen companies, according to  the New York Post."

Nice article at edweek about the informational texts versus great works of literature debate and what Common Core will do to lit. The one important, practical issue that all parties to this discussion MUST recognize - the classroom time is FINITE. Teachers would love to cover EVERYTHING but it just isn't practical. So, if one thing is emphasized over another, it may push something out. Unintended consequences are happening as people "align" their curriculum to common core standards. As all of the pundits and advocates argue this, it would be telling to sit down with an actual aligned curriculum to SEE what happens where the standards meet the lesson plans and what is actually pushed out - until then - it is all, rhetoric. Give us practical application, we're teachers, after all. From the edweek article: "Until recently, the closest we'd come to a major speech on the nonfiction-versus-fiction question was a piece in the Huffington Post by the English/language arts standards' co-authors, David Coleman and Sue Pimentel, insisting that literature "is not being left by the wayside." The message to rally the troops must have gone out, however. Because since the Coleman/Pimentel piece appeared, the common core's defenders have stepped up to counterbalance the literature-pushout crowd. The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation's Kathleen Porter-Magee, for instance, posted a piece arguing that it's a misinterpretation of the standards to say that teachers will have to teach less literature. In a recent email blast, the Foundation for Excellence in Education-led by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, one of the common core's biggest backers-declaimed the "misinformation flying around" about what will happen to literature under the common standards. "Contrary to reports," it said, "classic literature will not be lost with the implementation of the new standards." A glance at the standards' own suggested text lists, it noted, "reveals that the common core recognizes the importance of b

Back in 2011 I was working in the Middle East when a colleague introduced me to Twitter as a tool for professional development and connecting with fellow educators. Prior to this I was aware of Facebook and Twitter, however I considered both as being about nothing more than apps for sharing cute cat videos and status updates. I had a Twitter account for years, however hadn't thought about how it might be a powerful tool to help me become a better educator and provide me with a wealth of new ideas and resources which I previously had not had access to. I had barely used the account beyond the initial setup...