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LearningSpace, a new tool from ePals that is also COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act) and FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) compliant, provides K-12 appropriate selective access to the applications within a protected, customizable social learning environment. Schools and districts can customize the rules and policies that determine which groups, classes and projects have access to third-party applications.

Interesting to look at some of the federal policies that restrict internet use in schools. The incentive for schools to participate is access to an E-rate saver program. This is a bit controversial because it utilizes censorship and restricts the students' freedom to take full advantage of the information available on the Web. The reasons behind the CIPA act are pretty obvious- safety.

The Federal Trade Commission is working on updates to COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act) with implications for how children's data can be collected online. Is this an opportunity for a new generation of ed tech to use student data in more comprehensive and smarter ways, or a threat to children's privacy?

Obama's American job act to spend $944 million for modernization projects for schools in Pennsylvania. Karen Cator, Director of Education Technology for the U.S. Department of Education, says US classrooms are in the midst of transition from print to digital learning environment, that is highly engaging and people focused.

Duncan pushes technology verbally, but does not act on the national ed tech plan and has eliminated funding for technology. This is bad reporting by someone who does not understand the subject and does not ask tough questions

Wonder if this will impact how people search online/ gather info beyond just shaving off time from the act.

Milton Chen and Tina Barseghian interviewed on KQED's Forum (San Francisco public radio) about using technology and media in the classroom.

A system for personalized learning will not grow from inside formal education. Education is like a field that's been overplanted, with only patches of fertile soil. Too many stakeholders (parents, Unions, adhow to change, acting like weeds or plagues that choke off plant growth. The fresh and fertile soil of the open web can foster the quick growth of a personalized learning system. ministration, faculty) compete with each other with various ideas about

Data on college preparedness.

Tying into discussions this week about bringing access to mobile devices to all via non-prohibitive costs, while still reaching a set of bare-minmum technical specs for actual use: India's "$35 tablet" has been a pipedream in the tech blog-o-sphere for awhile now, but it's finally available (though for a price of roughly $60). Still though, as an actual Android color touch tablet, with WiFi and cellular data capability - I'm curious to see how it's received and if it's adopted in any sort of large scale

I had heard months ago that India was creating this, but was not going to offer it commercially - rather, just for its own country. Just like the Little Professor (Prof Dede) calculator, when tablets get this affordable, educational systems can afford classroom sets of them and then use them regularly. But to Prof Dede's point - can they do everything that more expensive tablets can do? Or better yet - do they HAVE to?

I think this is what they're aiming to do - all classrooms/students across the country having this particular tablet. They won't be able to do everything today's expensive tablets can do, but I think they'll still be able too to do plenty. This $35 tablet's specs are comparable to the mobile devices we had here in the US in 2008/2009. Even back then, we were able to web browse, check email, use social networking (sharing pics and video too), watching streaming online video, and play basic 2D games. But even beyond those basic features, I think this tablet will be able to do more than we expect from something at this price point and basic hardware, for 2 reasons: 1. Wide-spread adoption of a single hardware. If this thing truly does become THE tablet for India's students, it will have such a massive userbase that software developers and designers who create educational software will have to cater to it. They will have to study this tablet and learn the ins-and-outs of its hardware in order to deliver content for it. "Underpowered" hardware is able to deliver experiences well beyond what would normally be expected from it when developers are able to optimize heavily for that particular set of components. This is why software for Apple's iPhone and iPad, and games for video game consoles (xbox, PS3, wii) are so polished. For the consoles especially, all the users have the same exact hardware, with the same features and components. Developers are able to create software that is very specialized for that hardware- opposed to spending their resources and time making sure the software works on a wide variety of hardware (like in the PC world). With this development style in mind, and with a fixed hardware model remaining widely used in the market for many years- the resultant software is very polished and goes beyond what users expect from it. This is why today's game consoles, which have been around since 2005/6, produce visuals that are still really impressive and sta

A new idea for text books: "Books are one of the defining inventions of the civilisation-and today they are poised for a revolution. Our aim is to create a new kind of book that makes use of emerging technology to redefine the book, reinvent publishing, and forever transform the act of reading."

Move toward moving away from filtering web access at New Mexico public schools.

Using third-party resources and having students act as investigators are some of the many ways educators are teaching about online safety and responsibility

An article discussing the use of video games being used to replace the traditional "chalk talk". The games also combines the traditional subject-based curriculum into "domains".

An article discussing the use of video games being used to replace the traditional "chalk talk". The games also combine the traditional subject-based curriculum into "domains".

DC is keeping/firing teachers based on "grading" teachers in their successes with their students on standardized tests.

The further along I go, the more I am realizing that we have fully arrived in the information age. For our nation to compete globally - we must get out of the trap of growing media consumers, technology consumers, and information consumers. We must grow a generation of students who not only use technology, but understand technology so that they can become active technology producers, so that they can create, innovate, imagine, and disrupt. Possibly, understanding computer science will be as important as learning to read and write - the new literacy.

Timely article about ideas of ownership and authorship and collaboration on wikipedia. Mentions that you can type "WP: OWN" into Wikipedia to read its policy about "ownership" of articles. "The page is fascinating for anyone who has ever been part of a collaborative effort to create anything."