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I have found Zaid's blog postings to be very appealing visually (with good use of colors) and to the point (with higher signal to noise ratio). Here is an example of a "1, 2, 3" style posting on the important topic of Autism with Dr. Martha Hebert (a prominent Harvard Medical School researcher and clinician).

In light of our recent Blackboard Collaborate class during Sandy, I got curious as to what other good online delivery platforms are out there. I am preparing to teach the MIT App Inventor curriculum to some high school girls on the other side of the world and am wondering if maybe there's a better alternative to Skype. I came across Piazza, which is free and seems to be gaining traction in higher ed. I also once took an online course with Kaplan and really liked their interface, but don't remember what it was and now it seems they are moving toward a platform called "KapX." If anyone can recommend additional platforms, please let me know.

Rupangi posted some educational tools for educators below in his link, so here is another post that shows some productivity tools from the student-side.

Kind of like Professor Dede's post about McGraw-Hill's interest in e-learning, here is a blog post from Pearson about MOOCs. I think his take (Jeff Borden, one of their VPs) is pretty accurate, in that we need a version 2 where it's not as lecture-based as version 1. I would guess that they are working on their own "version 2" solution (perhaps with Knewton?).

Maria, do you know if this event is open to the public, or more a "sponsor-day" event? I would love to go!

Not sure if it's public event, I only know about it because I will be helping with the App Inventor demo. I'll let you know once I know more info.

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.

Really good article about one teacher's experience with a flipped classroom, why she stopped using that model and how the idea of flipping made her a better teacher.

Wow, really interesting article, thanks Heather! Love how the teacher also learned from the experience and changed her in-class teaching style...

Thanks Heather, for posting, and Lauren, for suggesting...anybody who is taking T440 and loves the concept but feels skeptical about its real-world plausibility should read this article.

Thoughtful post about technology integration for tablets

Yes, very interesting indeed. We've discussed a lot about the lack of professional development for implementation of iPads in the classroom, but not too much about the SAMR model (substitution, augmentation, modification, redefinition), developed by Ruben R. Puentendura. He is spot on in saying "For technology to be truly innovative and impactful on students, we must get to the stage of Redefinition, in which we use technology to create and perform tasks that - prior to the existence of the technology - were inconceivable" I think this is going to be tough to overcome with the iPad. Schools are so caught up in their fad. It seems as though it's hard for anyone, even smart creative people, to use their ipads in truly creative, richer, deeper, redefining ways.

Thank you for sharing this post Prof Chris. I agree that we cannot 'throw the iPad in, mix and stir' to develop a new program. However, where I disagree with the approach is that it does not start with the learner. The author began with pedagogy and then technology, but I feel that there should be learning theory first and then pedagogy and technology to support both.

In follow-up to previously posted video, this full article details MIT's Media Lab research on monitoring electrodermal activity (EDA), a measure of sympathetic arousal, and on advancing autism communication through 4 active research areas.

This article further details the research behind the video I previously posted relating to emerging technology related to autism emotion and communication.

A growing number of classroom teachers are posting student work online. Recent advancements in online technology have made it easier and cheaper, yet many educators hesitate, not quite sure of how to begin.

A fascinating approach to internet privacy for children. In addition to a "no post" policy for content related to their daughter, these parents have created a "digital trust" of pre-registered accounts and domain names for her to access when she's mature enough.

Check out the video at http://vimeo.com/11731351 (It's the same info Cameron posted a while ago but this time it's made the widely read Huffington Post ... and I think it's a good repeat post since I, for one, didn't pay enough attention to this the first time I heard about it.)

information appliances and ubiquitous computing

A recent study looking at Facebook use and student grades found some evidence that students who share links and participate in "lurking" had higher grades while students who posted status updates had a higher likelihood of lower grades. 

Kate, Intesting post. Does this take into account of personality or social desirability bias? Sharing links and chatting may not be considered same type of activity.Since it relies on self reporting, there is also margin for error.

Some quick "look fors" for schools when assessing what type of edtech venture to partner with.

Great post! We definitely need more discussion about how edtech ventures can partner with schools, districts, and CMO's. This post is right to the point- helpful to both the schools and the edtech companies.

Schools describe what is needed to build a strong relationship between startups and schools. 

As mentioned in previous posts- there are a ton of apps out there. It is nice to find curated lists, even if they are a little out of date.

Definitely worthwhile to keep a pulse on Dr. Bror Saxberg's work, esp. if you are interested in learning science. He is the Chief Learning Office at Kaplan and has a unique academic background (a Rhodes Scholar with MD from Harvard, PhD from MIT, Masters from Oxford, etc.) Professor Dede had also mentioned him in one of our previous lectures. Your's truly had the honor of having breakfast, one-on-one, with Dr. Bror Saxberg at his office in DC. :-) This posting talks about a beta course at Kaplan to train "learning architects" on how to build learning environments.

Ok... maybe the tie in to education is not immediately obvious. Mostly, I just think this is so cool that I had to post it. But think for a moment about carpool, soccer practice, and sports as a starter. No longer does a kid's participation in extracurricular activities require them to get a ride from mom. Go a little further... field trips, classes that are only offered at the charter school across town, on-site science explorations. How many more kids could venture out of their neighborhood for educational opportunities? There was a time 20 years ago I never would have believed that elementary school children would be carrying their own phone, but now will they all get their own car in 2nd grade??

Sherry Turkle's TED Talk from April 2012

TED talk by Dr. Sherry Turkle (Feb 2012) on "Alone Together" (similar to the one posted on t561 syllabus but 'TED style' for TED audience)

Just thinking about Professor Dede's experience with the Bush Foundation, I found this interview with Jeb Bush interesting. He talks some about the Bush Foundation's recent Education in Excellence conference and what kinds of issues are at stake for education reform to stick. Obviously a little bit political, but not too much. Building on some of the previous posts, politics does impact change in education so I think it's important for us to keep these things in mind.

One of two articles in the NYTimes they just posted about MOOCs. This one talks about the revolution!