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Definitely worth looking at for an overview and detailed look at applying big data in education. Overview slide deck: http://www.slideshare.net/marbienk/educational-data-mininglearning-analytics-issue-brief-overview-12328469 Detailed report: http://evidenceframework.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/EDM-LA-Brief-Draft_4_10_12c.pdf

Interesting stance from the UK, where the government hopes to raise up the importance of computer science in education, where ICT (information and communication technology) lessons are not up to date with the needs and skills of the 21st century. Kids engaged in ICT classes learn how to use software, and not how software works or how it's created. From the article: "Written by gaming guru Ian Livingstone and visual effects veteran Alex Hope, Next Gen called for programming skills to replace learning about business software in ICT lessons." direct link to the UK Government's response to the 'Next Gen' report: http://www.dcms.gov.uk/publications/8646.aspx

An effort in Oklahoma schools to better connect with families.  They've deployed a smartphone app "The School Connect Application" to share electronic report cards and email notifications with parents.  Not quite at the level of OneVille but a step in that direction

Keeping Pace with K-12 Online Learning: It's the latest report on the state of online learning that Christenson believes will encompass 50% of high school classes by 2018. Not sure I agree with this, but it's still interesting to see the latest data.

The report, titled "Conducting and Reporting Product Evaluation Research: Guidelines and Considerations for Educational Technology Publishers and Developers," is authored by Denis Newman, CEO of Empirical Education Inc., and produced by the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA). It's based on Empirical Education's many years of conducting this kind of research, both for publishers and for the U.S. Department of Education (ED). A working group of industry experts also was established for evaluation, and it met monthly for more than a year to sort through the issues and draft a set of considerations.

Canada's report card on schools will be handed out to the provinces Monday, revealing growing struggles in science and reading for boys across the country. Once every three years, the Pan-Canadian Assessment Program, or PCAP, measures the reading, math and science proficiency of Grade 8 students in every province and the Yukon.

The headline promises more than the article delivers. It mainly identifies the limited effectiveness that the federal government can have. There are no specific "how to's" here and no mention of technology whatsoever, perhaps because that would be too specific a focus for the scope of the article. These are prominent figures in a prominent publication having a conversation that could have taken place in 1980. How do we change that? The absence of real civic engagement on issues about education is the missing link in education reform. I wonder if we can organize public discourse on the internet more effectively to have formal impact on civic activism and administration.

OLPC report on 2011 - expanding in Peru, Rwanda, Palestine, and Afghanistan. Dedicated volunteers, with invitation from United Nations and African Union, continue to work with local governments and communities for such expansion.

Blended learning is saving cost for the State, while allowing students to learn at their own pace at half of the cost in Pennsylvania.

US News & World Report is adding online college programs to its rankings this year, sparking skepticism that it can accurately be done. This acknowledgement is significant for online learning programs, and puts them into the more mainstream higher education category rather than a fringe alternative to a brick and mortar program.

The latest Horizon Report focusing on most important technologies for STEM+ education over the next five years

Edmodo And Common Sense Media Partner (the authors of the 0-8 report some of us read for Joe Blatt's class this week) to offer free teaching tools based on Dr. Howard Gardner's work at HGSE. The partnership provides teachers with a set of student activities based on Common Sense Media's free K-12 curriculum, "Digital Literacy and Citizenship in a Connected Culture," for the Edmodo platform. The curriculum introduces the basics of using social networks and other digital technologies safely, responsibly and respectfully and is based on the work of Dr. Howard Gardner and the GoodPlay Project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

This seems a logical next step

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

A special report on the future of higher education and the role of innovation - lots of interesting and relevant topics here, including rethinking assessment standards, flipping classrooms, and reinventing the academic calendar.

"The report Pockets of Potential: Using Mobile Technologies to Promote Children's Learning, by Cooney Center Industry Fellow Carly Shuler, makes the case that our nation's leaders should not overlook the role mobile technologies can play, if well deployed, in building human capital and in helping to stimulate valuable innovation."

New Media Horizons 2013 report on STEM learning

A TV/Web report on the digital revolution and how it's changing our lives, with video stories, interviews, and user-generated video on relationships, information overload, education, the military, parenting, brain development, and more.

ITNews, an Australian business publication, is reporting that the Department of Education of the state of New South Wales is using a variety of management software and techniques 'to roll out 240,000 netbook computers into what CIO Stephen Wilson calls "the most hostile environment you can roll computers into" - the local high school.' Students are offered a netbook in 9th grade through 12th and can keep them if they graduate.

A report from Uruguay about the success (and troubles) of the One Laptop Per Child program