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Internet is certaily playing an incredibly important role in our daily life, no matter in the United States, or China.

The author's top 5 keys to successful education technology... do you agree? Is it missing anything?

One of the more powerful messages I have learned in Stone's class is when you are designing an educational intervention you have to know WHEN to ask the question: what technology, if any, will improve our educational problem? Before you ask this question, the problem should be clearly identified, and the steps to assess if the problem is improving should be laid out. When you have this information, you can then tailor the technology to specifically meet the needs of your current problem. In this way, technology is sort of the means (not the ends!) towards improving education. So, in addition to the author's 5 key factors for educational technology, I would like to add: Is the technology a good fit for addressing our clearly defined educational problem?

$330 million given to 44 states to design new computer-based assessments that will "measure higher-order skills...including students' ability to read complex texts, synthesize information and do research projects."

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.

schools are starting to concede to allowing cell phones in school -- hopefully grabbing some benefits from them soon...

Administrators finally realize cellphones can aid education

virtual education meets some students' needs

Thanks for sharing this link. This is interesting for me to read because I grew up in this district. I also think virtual classrooms are a valuable tool for children who suffer from illness and might otherwise have to miss extended periods of class time. My younger brother is a college student and is currently stuck at home with Mono and might have to drop the semester- it would be great if he could keep up with his work online, while resting at home.

It is frustrating that his college does not have a distance learning option. Hope your brother feels better soon.

Jonah Lehrer on surprising effects of tech on cognition

an interesting article on procrastination. Perhaps worth reading to better understand our own behavior and the behavior of future students we attempt to engage. There is a not a direct technology angle here, but it would be important to think about this topic when looking at technologies for the classroom.

Perhaps a tool like this will provide students with even more realistic virtual experiences in the future.

Great article along with an infographic on the usage of social network in US education "Wikis are an excellent tool for open collaboration and knowledge sharing because they allow everyone to contribute. Roughly 22 percent of United States school districts are involved in creating or maintaining wikis. Educational wikis give teachers and students a place to contribute to the community on the ideas and projects they are working on in the classroom. Wikis teach students how teamwork and collaboration benefit society through knowledge sharing."

Article from the GSAS Bulletin about TFs using technology at Harvard. It's a PDF file of the publication. The article is on page 1 and 10.

thoughts on using iPad for people with physical disabilities

Interesting look at a few sites and technologies targeted toward college students to "assist" them in learning and studying. The question is...are these actual beneficial to students or is the focus simply on making money for the companies producing these sites?

Mixing social media and academic learning may be difficult

do wikis equalize classroom participation?

"When and where does it make sense to institute a longer school day, and how should it be designed?"

I think a case can be made for structuring school hours flexibly, to accommodate those who engage in sports and other extra currlicular activities and also those who desire or need additional academic learning time.

From my own experience, using technology was an effective way to maintain student engagement during a longer day. As a sped teacher, I offered students the opportunity to do an extra online-based reading intervention if they came to school early. I had a surprising number of students come - almost every single day. Additionally, using technology during afternoon tutoring sessions helped my students stay on-task. I think if the standard school day was to be extended, putting a substantial focus on technology would be both an effective learning tool and a good way to help prevent students from burning out by the last bell.