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3D classroom created for learning would be helpful where cost cutting measures are required without compromising on the quality of instruction, it would also help in giving confidence to students who are shy to interact in real life to collaborate in the virtual world, speak their minds and raise questions without fear or hesitancy

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

It's interesting to compare the conversations around ICT and education throughout the world.

Tennessee Technology Centers (a "career-training program" that is state funded) is using strictly enforced scheduling to help retain students with 1 in 4 odds of completing their program. The school is taking the opposite approach that most higher education schools take. Instead of having the freedom to create their own schedule, they work with the school to determine a schedule from the beginning which is permanent throughout the duration of their time at the school and is strictly enforced. The school is hoping to increase retention of students in 1 to 2 year programs that have low graduation rates, and produce more graduates in emerging technology fields.

iSchool, a student led non-profit initiative, inspiring students to go bookless and paperless. These digital natives plan to bring together business and education to create a sustainable eco-system for mobile learners.

A great example of integrating tech into a lesson plan, breaking down steps to create your own TED talk with social bookmarks and dogpile!

An online university offer free online education to students in more than 120 countries. The university recruits volunteers from Brigham Young, Columbia, Harvard, Insead, N.Y.U. and Yale. "We're not trying to create Oxford or Harvard...This is low-cost, high-quality education for people who can't afford anything else."

Connecticut State University created a workspace for students to work remotely, giving companies such as Cigna the opportunity to outsource jobs within the United States. 

States are expanding their offerings of online courses, and in conjunction with this, they are beginning to create policy mandating that students take a set number of online courses in order to graduate from high school. I'm not sure how I feel about this. While I believe that online courses have a way to go and could one day be a solution for all kinds of learners, I believe that right now, online courses are not necessarily for all learners all the time. There are simply some learners who would benefit more from classroom instruction and the built in motivation that face-to-face provides.

Here is a highly populated list of open course offerings at various universities on the internet. This is certainly going to be disruptive to the pay-for-learning model of higher education. Some issues: does it make sense to attach some sort of certification of completion? Is it feasible or desirable to offer complete open courses, or would it be better to make the offerings more granular in nature? Should users be able to remix offerings from various courses to create custom courses?

This is fantastic! Thank, Steve.

Good article highlighting the tension created by Idaho's push to incorporate online-learning and computers into state education. 

Great article James! THey show the full range of teachers' reachtion to top down directives. I wonder what their reaction would be if the directive was NOT about technology but rather a requirement to customize instruction. Customization is too hard to do as an individual teacher. You would have to rely on technology to get it done. I love the teacher who insists that she teaches kids "how to think" by using her lecture style. Oh Boy!

This is a program developed at WPI out in Worcester. It allows teachers to load in questions and create assessments. Pretty useful.

Technology in the classroom --> only works with parental participation. This is an angle that has not been covered much in our class. But, my experience tells me it is more important than whether technology helps pedagogy.

In line with this past week's lecture on AI and computers attempting to capture human-like learning. This work my MIT researchers is trying to replicate 'plasticity' in our learning - how our brain neurons adapt to new info, creating new connections.

edtech platforms should truly empower teachers to teach effectively, control their content, and engage their students. The platform does this by making all content created within, regardless of type, property of whoever creates it.

universities barrier mobile learning

SIIA (Software & Information Industry Association) is hosting a webinar about its efforts to create a standard metadata framework for tagging and delivering learning resources matched to individuals' needs, in line with . Unfortunately, it is during next week's section, but perhaps it will be archived...

A Norwegian center of ICT created a video on how they envision the future of education. 

Here is the link to the archived version of the SIIA webinar I posted about a few days ago: "The Learning Resource Metadata Initiative (LRMI) is working to create a standard metadata framework for tagging educational resources on the web to enhance search, discovery and delivery of educational content. The project is funded by the Gates and Hewlett Foundations, administered through AEP and Creative Commons, and builds on the broader Schema.org project by leading search engines Bing, Google, and Yahoo! This webinar provides an overview of the LRMI goals and deliverables, an update on progress and timelines, a look at the technical specifications, and a discussion of its implementation and impact with a focus on content publishers, aggregators and other digital learning providers."