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This article proposes that one of the reasons to integrate technology into the curriculum is to support active engagement in learning.  

Quest to Learn supports a uniquely vibrant learning community that brings together students, educators, game designers, curriculum specialists and parents. - See more at: http://q2l.org/about#sthash.zlTuuiwE.dpuf

I agree that some students may be more musically inclined but will integrating music into all aspects of the curriculum, as the article suggests, really help students learn?

Thanks for sharing Sandra. I think it depends on how well the teacher designs the activity. It also depends on how the music is used. For example, music in a game is really important, but it's in the background. So the player doesn't really pay attention to it, until it's turned off. I think music can really help us learn, but it depends on the context in which it's used.

Thanks for this link, Matthew, and for the comment on it, Sandra! I think that music is a great avenue for learning. From personal experience, I seem to study better and with more focus and future recollection when music is playing in the background. It would be great to see if music truly does have a connection with the acquisition and recollection of knowledge.

report documenting measurement of STEM interest

If computers can score writing, of course the first use will be for assessment. No surprise there. But how might we use this more creatively?

I tried to bring an scoring software program into my school. Nobody liked it except for myself. I thought the objective measure would be more motivating to students. But the other teachers thought that the students should have more practice with rubrics themselves. My school focused heavily on peer editing and scoring. Also, when teachers see such a large number of average scores they tend to disbelieve the results. For example, when I score the essays, there may be a lot of 'B's but I've sees the difference in between Betty's 'B' and Joe's 'B'. The grade is more of a reminder of my experience scoring Betty's writing. When the software scores it, I haven't necessarily seen the essay therefore the score doesn't mean as much. Of course the scoring makes much more sense for official assessments. Open Ended Responses are a much better measure of a student's understanding than multiple choice, if the software is able to distinguish the nuance of language. Some programs are scoring grammatical patterns, sentence length, and paragraph length; therefore, a student can be totally off topic and get a high score. I'm curious if this latest software corrected for this.

A profile of a school district that has successfully woven technology into the curriculum after issuing laptops to nearly 4,500 students in grades 4-12 three years ago. Statewide, the district now ranks third in test scores and second in graduation rates.

This is one of the premier resource sites containing links to rich media for educational applications. I have yet to see the notion of games or simulations mentioned in the literature as a rich media source, or "learning object" for curriculum integration.

This ~3min video is a description of how a school integrates the use of games (eg. guitar hero) into their curriculum. It utilizes this game as a starting point for multiple explorations in music. I am very unsure of the value of incorporating the game. Any thoughts ?

I'm not sure how I feel about the commercial aspect of this... it feels a bit like a marketing tool for Guitar Hero. But, I do think that it sounds like they're doing interesting things with the surrounding curriculum. When I was in grade school I remember participating in a special unit on the Oregon Trail where we did related activities in every subject: managing our money and supplies in math class, learning about atmospheric conditions/obstacles in science class, and negotiating through historically-situated group decisions in social studies. I found this particular unit so much more engaging than everyday coursework, as I was able to both employ my imagination and see real-world application for skills that I was building. The Microsoft program stuck me as a 21st century adaptation of this (albeit grounded in a commercial product), where students were building various skill sets across subjects that were all tied together by a common narrative.

More fodder for STEM education. Diverse units of business and industry are joining forces to rev up support for STEM.

"Quest supports a dynamic curriculum that uses the underlying design principles of games to create academically challenging, immersive, game-like learning experiences for students. Games and other forms of digital media also model the complexity and promise of "systems." Understanding and accounting for this complexity is a fundamental literacy of the 21st century."

I met this woman this morning and her story made me think of a project based curriculum design. She created her own major in college around issues of equity in communities around the world. She combined that with an interest in ecological sustainability and she proceeded into a career with the question: How are all of these things related and how can we approach social issues with systemic interventions? Her work in New Bedford is as promising as initiatives like Geoffrey Canada's.

To be piloted in New York City schools to get parents more engaged

I would have loved this when I was in the classroom!!! Our principal used to make home visits, but some parents felt this was really intrusive (understandably); this sounds like a great easy & quick to implement intervention.

This article addresses how to foster motivation in a child - including being interested in the child's interests, pinpoint the source of frustrations, encourage the child at every step, focus on the child's strengths, and take time to overcome the frustrations.

Beautiful article Jing Jing. Thanks for sharing. Too often we push children through "our" timelines and curriculum without bothering to consider their interest or their development level. This article is a nice reminder that some kids are on their own clock and page.

My reaction to this article was "aren't these five principles common sense? Why doesn't everybody follow them?". And I realized that I haven't followed them either. Not all of them. Not all the time. Seems to me that either as a parent bringing up a child or as a society tasked with shaping the next generation we usually know the right things to do, but don't do them.

Students at George R. Staley Upper Elementary School compete in a math video game that incorporates the STEM curriculum

Managing engagement in the classroom;

The expansion of virtual education puts companies that provide e-learning services under the microscope As researchers, politicians, and the general public have begun to question the results of fully online virtual schooling, private providers-particularly for-profit companies-that supply curriculum, content, and sometimes instruction and school management for online education are facing the most scrutiny.

Students learn how to make educational web games. Globaloria is sponsoring some of the events for the Digital Learning Day (posted below) and are "opening their Globaloria game design classes to parents, friends, educators, administrators, policy makers and media. Visitors will get to experience first-hand the innovative, hands-on "game design studio" that these classes engage in daily. They will see students developing original STEM learning games, collaborating with peers and their teacher, using a digital curriculum, and receiving support through an online learning network."

Bjork, the Hall of Science and middle school students from Queens have been participating in a month-long series of science/music explorations that are "part spectacle, part ipad app emporium, part new instrument laboratory and part curriculum." From The New Yorker Digital Edition : Feb 27, 2012