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MOOCs, or "Massive Open Online Courses", are a relatively new model of distance e-learning where hundreds and sometimes thousands of participants all take an online course together. The instructional mode of the courses is fairly decentralized; since there are so many participants in the course, the individual students cannot typically expect to have much individual interaction with the professors running the course. As a result, individual members of the MOOCs take on roles of peer teachers, and these roles are assumed organically (i.e. nobody invites them to become teachers in the course, they simply step up and take the reins). The assessment of MOOCs is extremely flexible; there are no grades and people only participate in what they want to participate in. The theory is that the MOOC creators put the learning environment into place, and the participants learn what they want to learn; less participation simply means that they will not learn as much. Thought this was a though-provoking model of eLearning and the changing role of the instructor in an eLearning environment.

"School of One uses technology to develop a unique learning path for each student and to provide a significant portion of the instruction that is both individualized and differentiated." I liked the definitions of individualized (pacing), differentiated (learning preferences/methods), and personalized (pacing, preferences, and content/objectives).

The idea of "showing what you know" and earning badges instead of degrees? In this economic downswing, could something like this become the new emergent way of learning and of assessing? Thoughts?

Sounds like the digital badge is more lke a digital portfolio- which I would more likely support. I find it interesting that our education system (which strives and struggles to provide consistent, high quality education from coast to coast) is seen as deficient but this badge proposal will be the answer? It's like the flood of support for home-schooling after a home-schooler wins a national competition but no one knows about the tens of homescholers I had to remediate in rural NH. Standardization is the key for any system to be integrated into another system. The variety of education models we have in our country makes it difficult for employers to integrate employees. If this digital badge concept relies on a variety of models, they will have the same problem.

The prospect of digital badges to show what you know is both exciting with its potential affordances and worrisome with some of its limitations and ambiguity. It'd be great if the ideal came to pass that digital badges would allow valid demonstration of super-specific skills and knowledge over a greater range of fields and topics than what having a B.A. or B.S. currently does. Digital badges could represent the most particular concepts or skills at a granular level even-- those that are essential in the real-world (whether that be desired by employers or otherwise). If the task or test or challenge, or whatever else would be the means of assessment for earning a badge, was carefully designed and evaluated to be a truly valid measure of proficiency, then earning a badge for something would be a clear indication that you know something. But like Allison said, standardization would be key. What would these assessments/ badge challenges be- so that they would be truly valid indicators of proficiency? Who would be the purveyors or authorities to determine the assessments or challenges to accomplish a badge? Given the medium (completing badge assessments on one's own computer or mobile device - from any site they're at potentially) - what's to stop a user from going "open book" or "opening another tab" in order to look up answers to questions or tutorials on how to do a task, in order to complete the assessment? Doing this would allow a user to ace the assessment and earn the badge- but would defeat any value of the badge in truly demonstrating knowledge or skill. By imagining if digital badges did reach mass-acceptance and use in the real world, and we were to ultimately find them all over the internet like we're now finding social media widgets, it made me realize that the "prove proficiency anywhere I am in any way I want" won't work. I changed fields and career paths from what I studied in college, so I definitely appreciate the value in being able to truly show e

"The national health care debate right now is all about giving more people affordable access to doctors and hospitals. Yet the vast majority of health care decisions - 80 percent or more, experts say - are really made by individuals, instead of medical professionals..."

go half way down the page for the WearCam, which is capable of perceiving and visualizing social-emotional information in real-time human interaction. The idea is to use this to help individuals with Autism and Asperger's understand and react appropriately to the emotions of the people with whom they interact.

This article describes the efforts that individual teachers in Utah are making to rewrite textbooks to be aligned to the standards that they are teaching in class. These teachers are writing eBooks and getting a lot of positive feedback from state officials because of the use of technology to meet student needs. They did not have a textbook that fit their integrated approach to teaching math, which they aligned to CCSS, so they took the matter of creating a textbook into their own hands. I think this is a prelude to how textbook creation is changing as a result of technology. Teachers are now able to construct books in a way that fit exactly the objectives they are covering and meeting there students where they are at.

For those interested in what individual states are doing, a database was just released that shows info on all fifty states for the following: broadband Internet access online assessment digital content

more about assessing blended learning

This page has a link to a compilation of articles on different types of blended models, including blended teacher PD. That article is particularly interesting, because it discusses modeling for teachers what they should be doing in classrooms. You can download the entire digital edition by hitting the link. Otherwise, you cannot access individual articles because there is a fee.

- as technology become more available everywhere, how to deal with its use among children in informal setting is a topic under discussion - for now, it seems like individual parents are providing their own guidance to their children (or no guidance) with no common understanding of what is best for the children of certain age - the pessimistic view in this article claims for the risk of ''the Nobody Scenario'' and seem to believe that there would be many negative cognitive consequences for the children if heavy-used (the definition of 'children' and 'technology' here is not clearly defined) Understanding and cooperation from children's parents would be very important in the process of implementing emerging technologies in school settings thus this type of controversy is interesting to watch.

This article explains why the district chose laptops over tablet and how the community is helping to turn the schools around.

"The teachers that were involved said that if every kid had their own computer, we could do amazing things". It would be interesting to know if the teachers presented some concrete ideas of 'amazing things'. It would also be interesting to know whether they have a bank of spare laptops to loan to the students while the defective ones are getting fixed. I have a feeling that in the not-so-distant future the choice between a tablet and a computer may become a moot point. The hardware that powers a MacBook Air and iPad is very similar. We have laptops that double as tablets and tablets that are paired with a keyboard to be used as a laptop. Eventually these two will merge.

Great overview of the issues -- I agree with Kasthuri -- I think the issue will become moot

Debate continues on virtual learning, on quality and assessment. Educators try to find how to exploit technology in a way that advances access to AP courses, specialized courses, customized individual learning, and full online school.

Pearson's adds new capabilities to allow teachers differentiate, individualize, and customize topics that can be learned at accelerated pace and topics that require additional help.

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...

Here's an individual analysis of each company and how it rated according to Technology, Business Model and Utility

This article is interesting in light of Haste's article for class. Gladwell dismisses the "Twitter revolution" in Moldova and explains that real activism--real civic participation--is not seen in low-risk online networks, such as Facebook and Twitter. Perhaps new technology cannot empower individuals enough for real-life civic engagement?

I am not sure that online networks only form weak ties. I am somewhat surprised there was no mention of http://www.meetup.com/ and the soon to be released http://www.jumo.com/ as they both appear to consider themselves to be a means for social change. There is another point raised that we seem to have forgotten activism. This point, if true, may be a good explination as to why social media is not commonly used for social change.

Thanks for posting this Jessica! I've been thinking about this for sometime now and I don't think Gladwell is right in saying that Twitter and FB form weak ties just as the SM folklore claiming that twitter or FB is in the middle of real activism. Social media is a tool for organizing civic participation. Civic engagement is defined by how many participate and only later by the platform/tool they use. Couple of reactions to Gladwell's piece: http://rburnett.ecuad.ca/main/2010/10/1/the-anti-gladwell-small-change-indeed.html http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/tipping_point_author_malcolm_gladwell_says_facebook_twitter_cant_change_world.php

In this video, IBM outlines what a smarter school, district, and city would look like. However, I feel that the video fail to say exactly what IBM is doing to hep schools, districts, and cities to become "smarter."As a side note, I find it interesting that IBM uses individuals with different accents - and wonder if this is a marketing tool. 

One teacher claims that "The idea is to invert the normal rhythms of school, so that lectures are viewed on the kids' own time and homework is done at school." - Do you agree that this is a good solution? 

I too am intrigued by this "inverting" of time spent in the classroom and at home. My idealized model would be to introduce learners to new material at their own pace out of the classroom (allowing for pausing, note taking, reflecting and/or rewinding) and focus classroom time on face to face guiding and coaching of clusters of students or individual students engaged in applying or exploring the current material. To help facilitate this (and assist with accountability) some brief form of pre-assessment before class or at the start of class could illuminate for student and teacher alike what material has been mastered and what needs more attention. The research report from the TIE Foundations summer reading appears to support this type of hybrid approach. => Marsha Lovett, Oded Meyer, and Candace Thille (2008). The Open Learning Initiative: Measuring the effectiveness of the OLI statistics course in accelerating student learning.

An added benefit of tools such as Khan Academy is the option for reinforcement. In a traditional K-12 school environment students do not have the option to watch a video of their class or spend personalized time reviewing a concept they need more time with during class time due to the required pace of school curriculum. An online learning tool allows a student to watch a lesson as many times as needed and to learn from an expert. Often if a student needs help outside the classroom the only people they turn to is parents, who may or may not know about the content themselves.

The future of smartphones, including "an electroactive polymer that vibrates beneath the glass, and gives your fingers the sense of touching individual keys." NYTimes article, may require login

Starfire Learning Studio provides education that is individualized, collaborative, passion-based, project-based and learning by doing. Interested to learn more about it!