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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."

Although the idea of an iPad for every student may struggle to come to fruition for a few years, Augmented Reality textbooks are paving the way for a smooth transition. Japanese publishing company Tokyo Shoseki is producing textbooks that support AR apps on smartphones, bringing characters to life for students to listen to.

Since college recruiters know that only a small percentage of students open email, Ohio State is planning to let prospective students get in touch directly with current students via IM, email or phone.

Makers and users of mobile apps for children, take note!

The actual report itself is excellent, "Mobile Apps for Kids: Current Privacy Disclosures Are Disappointing." [The link is embedded in the article.] Improvement in this area is critical. When apps came on the market, they were like "valet parking"... where a user could get directly to a software without roaming the web. This was an attractive feature (and avoided unwanted advertising, a plus for parents.). Now, not only are apps collecting data that we are unaware of (PRIVACY!), but many are engaged in advertising, some that we are aware of and some that we are not (click through to a website, etc.) "Staff found that about 7% of the 400 app store promotion pages indicated that the app contained advertising. As above, this number is likely to understate the number of apps containing advertising because app stores do not appear to require developers to disclose in-app advertising on their promotion pages, and because advertising is a common way to monetize apps." Free? Not so much.

Seth Godin is giving away a book online, encouraging it to be spread among teachers and getting hundreds of thousands of readers. He usually writes about marketing and the spread of ideas, but he takes on education in this series of blog-post-provocative-conversation-starting writing. He states, "School was invented to create a constant stream of compliant factory workers to the growing businesses of the 1900s. It continues to do an excellent job at achieving this goal, but it's not a goal we need to achieve any longer."

The nonprofit group called TED, known for streaming 18-minute video lectures about big ideas, today opened a new YouTube channel designed for teachers and professors, with videos that are even shorter. The new channel, called TED-Ed, was announced a year ago, but its leaders are only now unveiling the project's first videos.

Roger Travis, Professor of Classics uses games to teach Homeric epics. The 1:1 mapping he used for learning objectives and play objectives led him to coin the term "practomime" from "praxis and mimesis," that is, a doing and representing.

I really liked the building points toward a grade concept and the idea that people were more willing to compose in Latin.

Here is the latest volley from NYC in its maneuvering with the teachers' union. No particular relevance to technology, except that I guess this loan repayment offer would attract young teachers with loans hanging over them.

Chronicle of Higher Education Q&A with researchers from Georgia Tech's Center for 21st Century Universities. Highlighted are many of the more recent technologies, as well as their effects on higher education's future.

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

Gee comments on video games and project-based learning.

Draw Something was acquired by Zynga this week for $180 million!!!!

An interesting article on "fun failure" and how failure can be powerful motivator for learning.

thoughts about flow

Professor Dede is mentioned in this article

yet another resource for games and learning

A free tool to create and visualize your own tag clouds. Useful to analyze group themes in student writing. Sharing this data and the corpus of students texts, either synchronously or asynchronously, seems to be the key to upping the level of engagement.