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A Teach for America spin-off that encourages young programmers to use their skills to help governments work better.  Some of the featured apps/projects are education related.  I like the idea of supporting people who want to innovate but may not have the resources and/or inclination to go it alone.  

"Coastline Community College is set to create low-cost, online bachelor's degree pathways where students can enroll simultaneously at one of three public universities, none of which are in California."

Through an example of the University of the People (online, tuition-free, non profit university), the article highlights the hardships such organization face to be successful in achieving their vision/mission. Credibility issue for online university issued certificate is also mentioned.   

Interesting article. I am still trying to figure out what Prof Dede said on the first day of class about top down vs bottom up and the characteristics of education in this country. (I am not from the states and I haven't worked at schools either so still struggling to understand the overall context of this article). From Japanese standard, this thing happening in NY (I am suspecting it is happening else where too like IL?) is pretty progressive. One thing I didn't really get here .... what kind of 'school information' will be texted going forward??

Found http://www.oecd.org/edu/eag2012%20(eng)--Ebook%20(FINAL%2011%2009%202012).pdf Chart D6.1. Percentage of decisions taken at each level of government in public lower secondary education (2011) in P500 to be somewhat helpful to answer my own question. (the first one)

The author identifies areas for skepticism about ed. tech research: MONEY-DRIVEN RESEARCH. LACK OF CONSENSUS. PUBLICATION REPUTABILITY AUTHOR TIMIDITY AND PRAGMATISM.

Making ed tech decisions based on "best guesses," Richard Rhodes advocates, strikes me as a pretty weak recipe. I'm not saying that a healthy amount of skepticism isn't required, but Rhodes seems to have a bone to pick with experts of any kind.

Georgia's Gwinnett County Public Schools (GCPS) has taken a huge step forward in its move to an all-digital education for its students: The district has partnered with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) to implement a single sign-on platform for delivering curriculum, assessment, analytics, professional development, parent information, and more.

A high school senior, who faces a Monday morning deadline to apologize to Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback for a disparaging tweet, has said she will not write the apology letter. Interesting look at how issues can arise when Twitter is mixed with schools and public relations.

An interesting read about Technology Reform in Education as presented by an official from the US Department of Education.

Is engagement in learning the most important characteristic you look for in a technology-rich school, then? Do you think that learning that occurs online is different from learning that happens in traditional classrooms? Access to rural areas?....

The public school district in St. Louis, Missouri was awarded an Innovative Technology Education Fund grant to buy iPads for all students with autism in six autism-specific classrooms. This seems to be an example of utilizing an emerging technology in an excellent way with proper teacher training, rather than using technology for technology's sake. The schools will be advised on how to implement the iPads by an autism science and advocacy organization and have two full days of professional development planned.

This is great news on the autism-rights front! I know a severely autistic 21-year-old who is highly communicative because of the technology he has used since he was young.

Article from July 2011 that is an example of how to transistion to a BYOD school.

I like it that "the district has focused on making sure that technical staff understand the educational goals of the initiative and that educators understand the technical challenges to enabling it". I my previous experience in non-educational settings, whenever the user community and the technology community were aligned and focused on solving a 'business' problem it was likely to lead to a successful conclusion.

"Yet one of the most significant things Sahlberg said passed practically unnoticed. "Oh," he mentioned at one point, "and there are no private schools in Finland." This notion may seem difficult for an American to digest, but it's true. Only a small number of independent schools exist in Finland, and even they are all publicly financed. None is allowed to charge tuition fees. There are no private universities, either. This means that practically every person in Finland attends public school, whether for pre-K or a Ph.D."

Equity in teaching education would be a good start.

I love this quote, too: 'As for accountability of teachers and administrators, Sahlberg shrugs. "There's no word for accountability in Finnish," he later told an audience at the Teachers College of Columbia University. "Accountability is something that is left when responsibility has been subtracted."' American's are SO good at blaming everything and everyone ELSE for what is wrong with education in this country. Good for Sahlberg. I might just have to move my family to Finland!

Online education for high school students is not an option, it is mandatory. Idaho Education Board approved that at least two credits of online class is required to graduate from high school. Idaho is first in the nation to mandate online class. We have read articles and discussed in class pros and cons of online learning. However, should online learning be mandatory for high school students? Do you think it is a good idea?

Having online education for the sake of online education does not seem like a good idea to me. If it saves them enough money that they can improve classroom education, that might be worth it, but I'm not convinced that this is worth doing.

Agree with Ayelet. Idaho board of education went through this despite heavy criticism from public. Instead of making it an option, Idaho makes it mandatory. Online education may not work for some students. They may feel that it has been pushed down their throat.

Gives classroom examples of some of the technologies we've been looking at this semester.

This is a Facebook page started by parents at our local Elementary school about school.

Much of the conversation seems reasonable enough but it will be interesting to see how adults can model public conversation. I'm not comfortable with having adult conversation displayed for kids within the school environment. I think that this is the equivalent of parents fighting in front of their children. Kids don't process it in a healthy manner and adults who do it I think do so for their own convenience and at the peril of kids. I think if adult in this community can be disciplined in their comments and stick strictly to logistical information with the understanding that kids are watching (FB will never replace parent oversight), it may be a useful tool. I also think the only way teachers can influence this page is by jumping on and using it to communicate because it seems to me that is the real "ask" in establishing the page.

CNN on "Fixing Education." Secrets of Seoul and Mr. Bill Gates focus on teachers.

Obama's American job act to spend $944 million for modernization projects for schools in Pennsylvania. Karen Cator, Director of Education Technology for the U.S. Department of Education, says US classrooms are in the midst of transition from print to digital learning environment, that is highly engaging and people focused.

Cord cutting, tablets go mass market, and twitter takes over.

Free iPad app for ESL learners ranked by community member votes

For EDC research group