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Many of the schools with which I come in to contact- including mine- reinvent the wheel when it comes to acceptable use policy at great expense of time and often little influence of "best practice." Why not make use of the good work and attention that has been deliberated by other educators who have already wrestled through the problem.

Someone else over the weekend posted about the U of Wisconsin accepting edX courses as transfer credit--found this other article that a university in Colorado is also going to accept Udacity credit!

This page has countless links on developing acceptable use policies for mobile technology, as well as examples of policies in existence, varying from traditional "no mobile devices" in school to BYOD related policies. It offers a broad view of what schools are doing with regards to mobile technology policy.

"The advent of this so-called "lousy product" - the MOOC - may be triggering a change, however. Indeed, recent survey evidence suggests that the acceptance of online learning among certain constituencies may be plateauing. Is it possible that a backlash against MOOCs could even precipitate a decline in the broader acceptance of online learning?"

Don't be a B.L.O.B.

Great blog posts on Acceptable Use, BYOT and pointers for educators on how to support responsible use. There are also sections on connected learning and digital citizenship.

Teens today say that the ability to freely use Facebook and Twitter at work could influence their decision to accept a job

Three long-time Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, veterans from Yahoo, Sun Microsystems, and Google, started funding education start-ups last Spring. Their incubator, Imagine K12, has now "graduated" its first group of startups. If accepted, Imagine K12 give $15k to $20k to startups and empower them with "dazzling network of connections."

Big companies like Tata Interactive Systems (TIS) are involved. Affordability is made high through 3-5yr contract with monthly payments. ''Child centric concepts'' are widely being accepted the article says. The challenge they mention here is internet connectivity. No mention about PD or reaction from parents. Also there seem to be still a wide gap in access between private schools and public schools there. 

The possibility for MOOC's to gain some legitimacy by offering credit through the administration of a fee-based exam.

There is an "uncollege" movement that encourages people to complete college degrees by pursuing self-study, then taking CLEP exams to gain college credits. The problem has always been that many higher-priced/name-brand colleges (e.g. Harvard) don't accept CLEP credits, requiring students to pay for credits the old-fashioned way. I wonder whether established schools will accept credits from MOOC courses.

The American Council of Education will review some Coursera classes to see if they will recommend them to other universities as "acceptable." This involves a review by existing professors for course quality. Other interesting tidbits: looks like Coursera will pilot remote-proctoring to verify identity of students; Gates Foundation just gave away $3 million to study MOOCs and create remedial / introductory classes.

An interview with Shai Reshef, who founded the University of the People, a free online university. I think one really interesting part is that NYU agreed that students who finished their first year could apply to NYU Abu Dhabi and finish their free education if accepted! So it's like a portal or proving ground...but for a traditional university.

This article highlights some schools that are rewriting their mobile use policies and some successes of bringing mobile technology to classrooms.

When a teacher must accept their restriction of their rights, as a special class of individuals, because it protects a district from the abuses of a free, everyone else must understand they are accepting the lost of freedoms for us all.

Insight on process of how schools are rewriting the acceptable use policies, and which schools are participating.

Contains many arguments for rewriting AUPs, with insight on how to make the policies work. For example, there is a focus on implementing acceptable use lessons, focusing on web safety, in classes.

The PULP platform is an example of a writer trying to respond to people wanting more than traditional publishing. If this platform, or something like it, was widely accepted by people it might build a better case for alternative forms of publishing in education

WSJ looks at teenagers' text messaging habits and whether texting will be accepted in the workplace, and whether technological multitasking will be beneficial to the next generation of workers.

I'm seeing a lot of this "today's kids are just different" rhetoric. Do you buy it?

MOOCs unanswered questions: How can they offer secure and reliable assessment over the internet? Will employers accept their qualifications? How do you assess courses in the humanities which are not suited to multiple-choice testing marked by computer?

Georgetown University has been accepted by the leadership of EdX : "The addition of Georgetown to edX, which officials plan to announce Monday, marks the latest development in a fast-growing movement that aspires to connect the ivory tower to the world."

I just found a current MOOC, highly relevant to the conversation in class today. --free and accepting new participants now. "Weekly Topics: Change pressures: What is influencing higher education? (Oct 8-14) Net pedagogies: New models of teaching and learning (Oct 15-21) Entrepreneurship and commercial activity in education (Oct 22-28) Big data and Analytics (Oct 29-Nov 4) Leadership in Education (Nov 4-11) Distributed Research: new models of inquiry (Nov 12- 18)"