This report highlights key issues to facilitate understanding of how a systemic approach to technology-based school innovations can contribute to quality education for all while promoting a more equal and effective education system. It focuses on the novel concept of systemic innovation, as well as presenting the emerging opportunities to generate innovations that stem from Web 2.0 and the important investments and efforts that have gone into the development and promotion of digital resources. It also shows alternative ways to monitor, assess and scale up technology-based innovations. Some country cases, as well as fresh and alternative research frameworks, are presented.

The scientists at the University of Arizona say their prototype "holographic three-dimensional telepresence" is the world's first practical 3D transmission system that works without requiring viewers to wear special glasses or other devices. The research is published in the journal Nature.

A system for personalized learning will not grow from inside formal education. Education is like a field that's been overplanted, with only patches of fertile soil. Too many stakeholders (parents, Unions, adhow to change, acting like weeds or plagues that choke off plant growth. The fresh and fertile soil of the open web can foster the quick growth of a personalized learning system. ministration, faculty) compete with each other with various ideas about

Principles of networked learning, constructivism, and connectivism inform the design of a test case through which secondary students construct personal learning environments for the purpose of independent inquiry. Emerging web applications and open educational resources are integrated to support a Networked Student Model that promotes inquiry-based learning and digital literacy, empowers the learner, and offers flexibility as new technologies emerge. The Networked Student Model and a test case are described in detail along with implications and considerations for additional research. The article is meant to facilitate further discussion about K-12 student construction of personal learning environments and offer the practitioner a foundation on which to facilitate a networked learning experience. It seeks to determine how a teacher can scaffold a networked learning approach while providing a foundation on which students take more control of the learning process.

Technology has changed the way we live and - with increasing frequency - the way our youngest generations are learning.

Media tablets, private cloud computing, and 3D flat-panel TVs and displays are some of the technologies that have moved into the Peak of Inflated Expectations, according to the 2010 Emerging Technologies Hype Cycle by Gartner, Inc.

A small but very pertinent article in the recent edition of the International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning (IRRODL) by Seth Gurell, Yu-Chun Kuo and Andrew Walker called The Pedagogical Enhancement of Open Education: An Examination of Problem-Based Learning1 is a real gem. The Pedagogical Enhancement of Open Education is a gem because it is focussed on pedagogy and online open learning. Gurell et al argue from a review of the literature and practical experience that problem based learning can work well with online open education. For example, traditional problem-based learning requires the learner to find and review resources which are usually print based materials such as books, journals, newspapers and so on, many of which take time to locate and access. However, using problem-based online learning using open education resources can remove much of the distraction of finding resources and enable greater attention to the learning task. Although problem-based learning (PBL) may not be suitable for all types of learning, a review of the research does indicate that students perform equally well using PBL as they do in traditional learning. Students engaged with PBL also perform better on retention tasks and on explanatory tasks, reveal Gurell et al. There are many sources of open educational resources. Two such examples that are well known are the Open Education Resource (OER) Commons, the Open Courseware Consortium. However, others such as Academic Earth, Scientific Commons, and Project OSCAR are also interesting. The Pedagogical Enhancement of Open Education is a very succinct review of online PBL and its fit with open online learning. Gurell et al have provided an excellent review of the versatility of online open education and how to maximise pedagogy to achieve improved learner outcomes.

Ford T. Smith is helping to bulldoze one of the most durable pillars of academic life: the semester.

Karl Royle has produced the following research reports regarding games based learning. You can click the links to download. These reports have been commissioned by Becta, the government agency leading the national drive to ensure the effective and innovative use of technology throughout learning.

How does this affect education? Imagine no age limit on using a car. No school buses. Kids are more mobile. The need for standardised school times disappears...

More than 70,000 school-age children wake up each morning for class and walk as far as the nearest Web-enabled gadget. If that's an iPad or laptop, they may not even need to leave their bed.

Understanding the information source use of contributors helps us to understand how new Wikipedia articles emerge, how edits are motivated, where the information actually comes from and more generally, what kind of information may be expected to be found in Wikipedia.

If you haven't yet seen it, there is a fascinating video of Sal Khan speaking at the Gel 2010 conference. For those who haven't been following, Khan is the creator of the Khan Academy-a non-profit that has over 1,800 videos for free on the Web that teach topics in Math, Science, the Humanities, and so forth-and have attracted such an impressive following that they have more viewers than even MIT's open courses on YouTube. The Khan Academy reaches people all over the world with these videos, and recently Google awarded it $2 million to create more videos and translate them into additional languages.

Youth at Risk makes the sobering point in its findings that 'ICT driven initiatives targeting YAR are taking place but there is little systematic and in-depth information about them. Knowledge sharing and collaboration among stakeholders involved in YAR is still too limited (p. 29)'. Further, Youth at Risk states, 'There is evidence that ICT-driven initiatives can foster the reengagement of YAR in a variety of dimensions (education, vocational training, job searching, social engagement) by using ICT in their back-office activities and in their interaction with YAR (p. 29)'.

Meeting Hope In the next few decades, hundreds of millions of young, poor families will migrate to cities in the developing world in search of work and opportunity. Education provides them with a shared sense of hope. Many will be the first generation in their families to go to school. It is vital that the hopes they invest are not disappointed.

Michael Horn, co-author of "Disrupting Class" and Executive Director for Education and the Innosight Institute, has agreed to do a live chat with me and Andrew Barras on Wednesday, September 29. Right now the time is looking like 12Noon EST. This is a great one-on-one interaction opportunity for teachers, education reformers, education administrators and anyone interested in the role that digital learning plays in the delivery of equity to every student in America.

Justin, would be great to post this on the lists you mention.

This project aims to identify and document the usage, definition, and as far as possible pedagogy of serious games. That is, games where the educational goal takes precendence in training outside of the school education system.

This paper presents the first experimental evidence on the effects of live versus internet media of instruction. Students in a large introductory microeconomics course at a major research university were randomly assigned to live lectures versus watching these same lectures in an internet setting, where all other factors (e.g., instruction, supplemental materials) were the same. Counter to the conclusions drawn by a recent U.S. Department of Education meta-analysis of non-experimental analyses of internet instruction in higher education, we find modest evidence that live-only instruction dominates internet instruction. These results are particularly strong for Hispanic students, male students, and lower-achieving students. We also provide suggestions for future experimentation in other settings.

A wide range of approaches to personalised learning is being adopted in schools.