Phillips Corp, has been pioneering lighting designs in schools and offices to increase reading retention and attention rates. Interesting to think about emerging educatinal technologies in terms of incremental improvements to infrastructure as opposed to disruptive innovations.
Having students use electronic devices is one part of a broader plan for the two high schools, which will eventually include other areas of focus such as distance learning, student assessments, infrastructure, teacher observation and evaluation, course management systems and instructional tools.
A quick overview of digital badges (including pros/cons re intrinsic/extrinsic motivation) and introduction of "Badge Economy" ["With support from the MacArthur Foundation, Mozilla has developed an Open Badge Infrastructure, or OBI, designed to become the underlying technical scaffolding for badges," where user can collect badges earned in a digital backpack.]