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Bill Gates responds to NY ruling that teachers' performance assessments can be publicized. He calls for a rigorous and comprehensive teacher evaluation system that will provide educators with constructive feedback (not public humiliation) so they know what needs improvement.

This article suggests lessons that other teachers can learn from jazz teachers in motivating students and talks about the social, constructivist, and personal aspects of jazz that make it a passion for students who may otherwise be uninterested in school. "Students need to be doing something every day to demonstrate their learning."

This is a webinar chat that I sat in on today (A few questions I posed are featured in the Q&A at the end.) With the new SimCity release, they have also partnered with a company called GlassLab that has designed a teacher resource hub and also modified game that enables teachers to easily use the game in classrooms. There will be specific inquiry based challenges that allow students to interact in the game environment to investigate community issues (ranging from water shortages, power outages, labor disputes, earthquakes, budget concerns, etc.) and work with citizens and government to solve the issues. There is also an exciting multiplayer format where neighboring cities are controlled by other students and they must work together to solve problems. Glass Lab is partnering with EA Games, Gates Foundation, and ETS to build the teacher hub where educators can design and share best practices, lesson plans, etc. In addition, they will be doing a long term study to measure educational outcomes. It appears as though they are using this game as a pilot opportunity to build the framework for larger commercial game integration into the classroom.

Not available online - link to Journal of Technology and Teacher Education/SITE; 7 articles, I have copy if someone is interested. Franklin, T. & Annetta, L. (2011). PREFACE Special Issue: Digital Games and Simulations in Teacher Preparation. Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, 19(3), 239-242. Chesapeake, VA: AACE.Retrieved from http://www.editlib.org/p/38515.

I saw connections between this and Betty's Brain, though SimSchool is intended for actual teachers, rather than motivating students by placing them in the role of teacher. The "How does simSchool work..." and Academic sections were particularly interesting to me. For the teachers in the course, would you find this simulation motivating?

The URL just takes you to wikipedia... but anyone interested in joining a listserv about teaching/learning with wikipedia should read on. I just received this email and share it with all of you: Greetings, You're invited to join a new listserv that's been created to discuss teaching with Wikipedia. Dr. Robert Cummings of the University of Mississippi is leading this email group. This is a list for teachers of higher education who are interested in teaching with Wikipedia or researching teaching with Wikipedia. The goal is that list members will find support with pedagogy issues and find potential collaborators for scholarly research around teaching with Wikipedia. It's a list for teachers, by teachers. At the moment, there is no web interface, so the best method of joining the list is to send an e-mail to: md@listserv.olemiss.edu with the body of the message being: subscribe teaching-with-wikipedia You don't need a subject line or to include your signature or anything else. If you're interested in Wikipedia pedagogy, we highly encourage you to join the list and collaborate with others who share similar interests. The Wikipedia Education Program Team

Students at the Center Project Explores How Students Learn Best--Reports on Enhancing Literacy and on Math Instruction for Minorities also Released New educational technologies offer exciting ways to help teachers adapt classrooms to the interests, needs, and strengths of individual students, but they cannot replace the crucial creative and emotional work of teachers, according to a new research paper from the ambitious interdisciplinary project, Students at the Center: Teaching and Learning in the Era of the Common Core.

How a teacher incorporates educational technology into his KIPP classroom.

Resources for teachers, students, administrators to use/see educational benefits of web tools being used by the education community. Check out a long list of blogs including: Best class blog; Best student blog; Best ed tech blog; Most influential post; Best teacher blog; Best library / librarian blog; Best free web tool; Best use of media / podcast; Best educational use of a wiki AND MORE... And wikis: http://blog.wikispaces.com/2012/01/best-educational-wikis-of-2011.html

Education blogger Carl Heine created Internet Search Challenge to demonstrate techniques for students (and teachers) to improve their search results and find credible information. His blog introduces new challenges, discusses scams and difficulties and how they may be overcome.

Education blogger Carl Heine created Internet Search Challenge to demonstrate techniques for students (and teachers) to improve their search results and find credible information. His blog introduces new challenges, discusses scams and difficulties and how they may be overcome.

In light of this week's reading around equity, I question the impact apps such as these will have on low-SES communities. Also, this app may have the unintended consequence of creating an additional requirement for the teacher and as a result more pressure.

An interesting article with examples of schools that are "closing the loop"--successfully connecting students, teachers, and technologists to advance the use of technology within the classroom). Also contains a nice visual.

Very good synthesis of applying Flow in Education; in time for next Monday's topic on Flow. Good takeaways in the "Implications for Teachers" section.

Thanks for sharing Malik. I think this article provides a nice overview of flow and one main takeaway was the importance of positive affect. I agree that it is a good predictor of flow in an activity.

Thoughtful reflection by 8th grade teacher... enjoys experimenting with technology, but stresses the importance of questioning the pedagogical value of integrating tech in classrooms

Hi Leslie, Thanks for sharing. The article not only talks about the effectiveness of social media tools but a range ot technology which I found useful.

Using open source Virtual World software to intentionally disrupt an education system. A bold vision and I think an opportunity for bold research.

I am posting two articles: 1) Apple's recent announcement about getting into digital textbooks (article/link below) and 2) the criticism (this link) by Hack Education blogger Audrey Watters. Education needs to rethink the need for textbooks altogether. Digitizing them is not the answer. She states, "You can disassemble, reassemble, unbundle, disrupt, destroy the textbook. It is truly an irrelevant format."

Hi Emily - thanks for your thoughts! Bloggers (especially those who use the name Hack in their title) are going to be provocative (one-sided) in their writing... but it helps raise questions about standard practices. I too agree that eTextbooks or iBooks are going to be tremendously more engaging and up-to-date than the ones that weigh down kids bookbags. But now take a look at the other article I posted: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/01/flow-digital-textbooks that suggests how publishers are not open to new and niche ideas that might be incredibly beneficial to education. The publishing market has a hold on education. Is it possible that the textbooks will not be available across a range of platforms, but only on a few that the publishers agree to work with? Maybe it is time we push for a more open source model... that could also work towards digitizing textbooks... or would innovate other ways for students to access "textbook"" knowledge.

Thanks for the nudge to read the other article that you posted as well! It was a nice counterpoint to Watters and the FLOW platform seems like a promising stab at digital textbooks from an open-source standpoint.

Interesting read -- I wonder if giving the teachers the ability to modify the game enhances the engagemnent of students as much as allowing the students' modify the game.