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In general, these systems consist of a school photo ID card affixed to a lanyard that is worn around the student's neck. The ID has a RFID chip embedded in it. The tag includes a digit number assigned to each student. As a student enters the school or pass beneath a doorway equipped with an RFID reader, the tag ID is read, recorded and sent to a server in the school's administrative office. The captured data not only provides an attendance list (sent to the teacher's PDA), but tracks the student's movement throughout the day.

I like that it makes attendance easier to monitor but still seems kinda creepy...and there's always a way around those systems....

Great article about students using backchannels in schools. It discusses successes such as shy students speaking up more and students viewing their peers as more intelligent.

I agree that it allows shy students an opportunity to participate in way that gives them time to think through a response or in a less intense way

Building off of Jason's earlier post, here is more detail about the huge Education Open Data event at the White House today.

Richard Cordray hosted a roundtable with college presidents who pledged to provide clear, useful information to all incoming college students and their families, as part of their financial aid package, so that they can "know before they owe."

A rubric (in progress) designed for educational apps by a doctoral student at John Hopkins University. For those hesitant to make the shift to mobile devices, how would rubrics like this impact policy making, especially in regards to accountability?

I hesitated on this as it more specialized than general, but this is utilizing technology to engage a certain population of students, (many of whom were struggling) and producing a solid portfolio of "deliverables" . Talk about transfer!

This is what some very talented current students at HGSE are working on. It's a solid plan, with a talented and diverse team of educators and media producers. And it's taking off! So heads up everyone. This is part of the next phase of your plan too ;-) Just look at the production value!

oh, and give them money. lots of money. and tell your friends to give them money. 'cuz they're actually doing this. http://www.indiegogo.com/drmadd plus this is a great promo video anyway

TEP11 grad here. Now a math teacher in a Title 1 school. Interested. I follow this Diigo feed (since when I took this useful class) so saw the video just now ... edutainment.com not working yet :-( I wanted to see more. Fyi, here's a rare example of a math video my students "tolerated" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7MxGyEaN64

This group provides free and open source materials for K-12 environments. Customizable and aligned to student/teacher needs. Seems like physical textbooks only have a short time left.

Key concerns about the sudden rush to dump textbooks for open source content

This transition will happen relatively quickly given the current cost of textbooks and the low cost of tablets. Fortunately, I think we will find that the digital textbooks and other features on the tablets will be far more engaging and effective teaching tools than the traditional textbook. The ability of the digital text to read aloud (in several languages) and provide visual support including high def color diagrams, animation, and video, as well as create intuitive links to vocabulary and 'checking for understanding' will be a great support to students and teachers.

The author believe startups led by young students themselves rather than old brick-and-mortar colleges and universities that will be responsible for changing the way students learn.

Really good article about one teacher's experience with a flipped classroom, why she stopped using that model and how the idea of flipping made her a better teacher.

Wow, really interesting article, thanks Heather! Love how the teacher also learned from the experience and changed her in-class teaching style...

Thanks Heather, for posting, and Lauren, for suggesting...anybody who is taking T440 and loves the concept but feels skeptical about its real-world plausibility should read this article.

A financial / investment perspective of the Education industry is offered in this report. I think the interesting thing is this section: "With the implementation of the Common Core standardized curriculum, the focus on content is becoming less about differentiation and more about delivery through emerging technology platforms," stated Mary Jo Zandy, Managing Director at Berkery Noyes. "Interactive assessment tools that measure student progress, particularly in the quantitative disciplines, will thus become even more important in K-12 education as schools aim to meet specific testing benchmarks."

I've heard of 3D printers before. I thought it would be interesting to try out in schools. For example, if students were designing towns to learn volume and surface area. This could help with spatial learning, which is essential to understanding math. I don't know how feasible this it though...

Hi Irina, Yes! Nothing like seeing your ideas take a concrete shape. Looks like the cost of these printers is comparable to that of SmartBoards, so it may be feasible to try them out in classrooms pretty soon. That said, unless the projects are well integrated into the curriculum, they will end up as another fancy toy.

Harvey and I had a conversation about these last week - Harvey spoke of the way that these printers could open up opportunities for those who can visualize their creations in their heads, but have trouble putting those ideas in tangible form. We spoke of the potential in art and design.

Arizona State University is using data mining to collect information on their students and help guide them to the "most appropriate major". also, in class, using data collection methods, teachers collect information to be used in assessment Ex: "Ms. Galayda can monitor their progress. In her cubicle on a recent Monday, she sees the intimacies of students' study routines - or lack of them - from the last activity they worked on to how many tries they made at each end-of-lesson quiz. For one crammer, the system registers 57 attempts on multiple quizzes in seven days. Pulling back to the big picture, a chart shows 15 students falling behind (in red) and 17 on schedule (in green)."

wow this is kind of bothersome on some levels and kinda amazing on other levels. While I can see the benefit of understanding where and how a student is more likely to succeed, I think there are some potential dangers with such a system. There is the what I would imagine the psychological effect of such a program and I am thinking particularly about STEM fields where women are already way under-represented and often self conscious about their performance, do you really also need a system telling you you shouldn't be majoring in that as well cause you're not performing at that point....or what about a student who really wants to be an engineer but maybe hasn't been fully prepared with the appropriate math courses in high school, would he or she be filtered into another major? I understand using such a system as a means to target help for example if a student could get an assessment of where they currently are, where they want to go and how to get there....

This is discussed in the Productivity section of the NETP

Arizona is taking an interesting view on seat-time http://news.yahoo.com/high-school-less-four-years-070000848.html Hundreds of schools in Arizona are being given the chance to opt into an initiative called Move On When Ready where students are allowed to graduate after their sophomore year based on proving academic achievement. Some are arguing that it is the same option as getting a G.E.D. after one turns 16 but I would argue that there is a negative connotation to having a G.E.D. versus a high school diploma and that this program provides a way for students to achieve a diploma without "putting in" four years of high school seat-time.

This is a great article about the need to integrate mobile learning into mathematics learning. The article claims that right now there is a divide between personal experiences and mathematical problem solving that students learn in school. The article suggests much work and opportunity in using mobile technology to bridge the divide of formal and informal math learning, putting math learning into personal contexts. The article sheds light on how this will help students see mathematics as a discipline they will use outside of school. It is a very good, comprehensive look at the role technology can play in teaching math the "right" way.

It is worth remembering that there are anywhere between 1.5x - 2x more students in home school than in charter schools.

Updates stats on the largest "Massive Open Online Courses: or MOOC's. Coursera leading Udacity....

The most frequently heard criticism of the flipped classroom may be about accessibility. If you're doing a flipped classroom and you're providing this digital information, you want to make sure all students have access to this information. This is a problem if kids don't have internet access at home.

Is this based on research, or on opinion?

At Socrative we've received the same feedback about student comfort and improved fluency with their own devices. From a teacher perspective it has also been appreciated as they aren't expected to be experts in the technology. Especially for teachers who weren't previously in a 1 to 1 or high technology environment. However, from an IT perspective "Y" "O" has caused issues dealing with app updates, permissions, battery life etc. I guess tech isn't the wonder solution for all :)

A true next American revolution in education will not be a simple linear extension of our current system. It will involve a combination of lifelong learning and certification, a commitment to teaching students how to learn continually, an equally deep commitment to contextual training