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Content providers like Behrman House are looking to take learning beyond the classroom in race to the digital top. Imagine your child's Hebrew school homework isn't on some worksheet crumpled at the bottom of her backpack, forgotten until time to leave the house on Sunday morning.

An interesting read about Technology Reform in Education as presented by an official from the US Department of Education.

Is engagement in learning the most important characteristic you look for in a technology-rich school, then? Do you think that learning that occurs online is different from learning that happens in traditional classrooms? Access to rural areas?....

The New York Times takes on Khan Academy

I am getting a bit tired of the 'either/or' scenarios painted by some. Thankfully, some teachers like Ms.Tavenner seem to realize that they can use technology in a useful way to teach effectively. "Ms. Tavenner says she believes that computers cannot replace teachers. But the computer, she recognizes, can do some things a teacher cannot. It can offer personal feedback to a whole room of students as they work. And it can give the teacher additional class time to do more creative and customized teaching."

We live in digital and mobile world. Mobile learning forces us to rethink how to best utilize our time in school. We can focus more on questions that require collaboration, synthesis, critical thinking and creativity, and not just memorization of facts.

Here is a list of finalists and winners in a number of different categories from product or service to presentation solutions. This is only the list, but searching on their name will give more information. Pearson's Online Learning Exchange (born from my Science Business Unit) was a finalist for new product or service. Enjoy!

Quoting directly from the company-wide email (to Microsoft) "Microsoft YouthSpark is a new companywide initiative that will create opportunities for 300 million young people around the world over the next three years. We know young people everywhere face real challenges....Yet, this is more than philanthropy. We are mobilizing the company. From Partners-in-Learning to Office365 for EDU to Skype in the Classroom, we're marshaling a wide range of company's programs to support youth. As Steve said this morning, "We believe that working with our partners we can help empower young people to change their world, and we are committed to using our technology, talent, time and resources to do that."" (Personal Communication)

You just knew this was going to happen. Frankly, I'm amazed it hasn't happened sooner.

Faculty claim that their MOOC experiences actually will also change their classroom lectures.

Top 50 iPhone applications for educators and some of them are free.

While many of the apps listed are organization the teaching tools and media lists have some great apps for the classroom. For EDC

My first thought is "why would you want to be friends with your students on facebook?" It depends on the reasons people have a facebook page. If it is, indeed, going to be used as a tool to extend "learning" outside of the classroom, then I believe there are other platforms outside of Facebook. If teachers still want to use this for class, perhaps a better option is having a twitter account for school only where they can update students. I worked for two districts-one told us we were not allowed to be friends with our students and the other just warned against it. Most teachers I know do not add their students because it is a place for their friends where they do not see themselves as some child's teacher, but someone's friend. I know a high school chorus teacher who friends her students, and I think its inappropriate. She posts things about her personal life and they frequently chime in. However, discusses her personal life in class so it may not be that much of a difference than posting it online. I would take action as a teacher if I were disciplined for a facebook post. Ultimately people need to check their privacy settings if they can. There are even issues with friending other teachers. I refused to do this with other teachers, unless we were friends outside of school. I knew of teachers who would tell our principal what was posted on other teachers' pages.

I made this wiki for a class I took last semester on Authorship and Learning in the Digital Age. It was designed as a resource for teachers who are interested in using the internet in the classroom, but want to make sure they are preparing their students for safe internet use. It deals with COPPA, privacy and safety concerns, and touches on media literacy and informs teachers what researchers have found about young kids' processing of online content. I'd love to hear your feedback on the site, and if you find it useful, please forward the link along!

I read this article this afternoon, and thought of it when I was doing work for my wiki assignment. I am looking into the blog Teachers Love SMART Boards (http://smartboards.typepad.com/) and I saw that the author of the blog also works for Teacher Online Training, which offers courses (for a fee) for teachers interested in implementing technologies in their classroom, or using the technology they currently have in a more meaningful way. The majority of the blog was reviews of free sites or education-oriented tools from outside sources, but there were a few posts that dealt with the programs offered by TOT. It made me wonder whether the blog was intended to be impartial, or a form of advertising... He mentioned his job in the company at the beginning of most if not all of the posts that promoted their programs, but these new guidelines may put this blogger in a sticky situation.

I know that some of us in our other classes have been discussing iPads and their use in the education space, and I dug this up from my archives as some of what teachers and admins have to say about buying and using the iPad in their schools.

Bridget, The potential for iPad may realize even more with the availability of online textbooks, which may include videos. The availability of various apps will influence the proliferation of iPad. Upside - novelty, excitement, and no back breaking bag packs, downside- penmanship may suffer and teachers may have to do some extra homework! http://thejournal.com/articles/2011/07/11/putting-the-ipad-to-work-in-elementary-classrooms.aspx

Maung - I actually attended Gagliolo's session at ISTE this summer as I, too, am a proponent of this new technology, but as you point out, this means "extra homework" for the teacher. And most teachers I know are already strapped for time and professional development and are not interested in a new device that is "one more thing" they have to learn and use in an overwhelming standards based curriculum environment. The only way (in my opinion) that we can get teachers to embrace this new technology is to have it do something MORE efficiently and easily than something THEY ALREADY do. It cannot be an add-on. It has to replace something overtasking from their plate.

Published Online: October 25, 2011 Published in Print: October 26, 2011, as 'Blended Learning' for the Little Ones By Jill Barshay, The Hechinger Report Los Angeles 1st grader Lena Barrett clicks through a series of icons and logs on to a laptop under the fluorescent lights of her classroom.