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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

Online college M State is offering 3D interactive instructional content

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. 

Interesting article about how technology is changing the way we define and share intellectual property. Is a professor's lecture the property of the professor, the University or neither? Does a student "own" the notes he takes in class?

U.S. State Department Unveils Online Game, and Web Site, to Teach English -- 3D video game designed to help students abroad acquire English language skills

The headline promises more than the article delivers. It mainly identifies the limited effectiveness that the federal government can have. There are no specific "how to's" here and no mention of technology whatsoever, perhaps because that would be too specific a focus for the scope of the article. These are prominent figures in a prominent publication having a conversation that could have taken place in 1980. How do we change that? The absence of real civic engagement on issues about education is the missing link in education reform. I wonder if we can organize public discourse on the internet more effectively to have formal impact on civic activism and administration.

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.

Last year's runner-up states in the "Race to the Top" initiative can now apply for a part of $200 million set aside for STEM education funding. 

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan leads a team to State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) Leadership Summit, "Leveraging Technology for Learning." Th panels focus on making shift to digital textbook, increasing broadband access, STEM, assessment, and improving teacher effectiveness - many of these we discussed in our T561 class.

Since 1990, the gap has remained fairly constant. In addition, Hispanic young adults in the United States continued to have a relatively high status dropout rate when compared to Asian/Pacific Islanders, Whites, or Blacks (table A and table

Very few virtual schools have worked with students this young, so there are interesting questions about jumping from no virtual schooling all the way to this model.

There is a really fascinating and controversial policy story behind this. Through "legislative sausage-making" the states first virtual school is being run by a single district out in Western Mass., mostly as a result of the entrepreneurial spirit of the superintendent. There are big questions about what will happen as students across the state sign up for the virtual school and their districts are required to pay tuition to Greenfield. And Greenfield isn't really providing a school, they are just enrolling students to be taught by a for-profit company, K-12. There are quite a few very interesting policy issues that would be worth digging into as the state launches this new venture in an unusual way.

When I first read the article, I immediately thought "an idealist gone rogue." I wondered if there was even any research/method behind this decision, and you mentioned there is a fee. Did I understand correctly that the school district will have to pay this fee for the student like some sort of voucher? If I get a chance I'm going to look for more articles out there on this project. Thanks for mentioning it, Justin. Interesting, indeed.

One of nations best University systems, University of California, is about to start its first group of fully online courses for undergraduates. At the same time, the California State Universities (CSU) starting its computer-based options for its 412,000 students. Currently, there are master's degrees in 63 disciplines entirely online. Some educators are skeptical and raise concern on cheating and of "walmartaization" of CSU education.

State of technology to use in Disruptive innovation

Interested in researching more what we talked about in class today, I found that some universities are actively trying to promote civic engagement in youth. Illinois State University students created a documentary to help them reflect on their learning. This is not at K-12, and maybe shows that (as we talked about in class), districts have less freedom to implement things like this...

The state of Michigan has allocated some funding to upgrade technology in K-12 schools. The expectation is that all students will take standardized tests online within a couple of years.

Article on how the government and philanthropies can support innovation in education.

What's the big barrier (besides government reluctance to spend money on education) to this? Historically, I thought that education funding was left to states as "states rights", hence the fact that the Federal government has even put up any money should be a step forward. I would be interested in hearing what people think are the levers for getting the Federal government to invest more...should education research be treated like NSF or NIH "basic research" and get core government support?

I believe that the federal government used to spend more dollars for basic research in education, but that number has been reduced dramatically over the years. I agree 100% that we need to increase this type of investment, and the federal government is the natural source. These social innovation funds are a separate type of investment, distinct from basic research. These grants are "translational" in that they seek to help commercialize promising research, but are not intended to fund the basic research. For a healthy and dynamic ecosystem of innovation in education, we need both.

A description of the current status of MOOC's for a broad audience. As well as the predictions on how this will change the state of education etc...

MindReader API enables the real time analysis, tagging and inference of cognitive-affective mental states from facial video. 

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.

Even with state budget crises, schools are funding the money to purchase tablets through a variety of sources: grant funding, voter-approved ballot measures, reallocation of money that used to go to computer purchases, and reallocating textbook funds. Interestingly, unlike for computers, Apple offers no education discount on the iPad...