HGSET561

Looking for web-based teaching tools to prepare its students for the future, Kello School in Finland deployed Microsoft Live@edu to give students a rich online learning experience, foster peer collaboration and enable students to work away from school all within a secure online environment.

Interesting report on the slowing move to cloud-basted email. 3 reasons for this are inertia, lack of strategic value and disappointment w/ vendor offerings

WE ARE IN FOR A REALLY RUDE AWAKENING IN THE USA: South Korea will redefine primary school education within three years while creating a massive market for home-grown electronics By 2014, all of South Korea's elementary-level educational materials will be digitized, and by 2015, the entire school-age curriculum will be delivered on an array of computers, smart phones and tablets.

The last decade expanded what we could do online, but the Web's basic programming couldn't keep up. That threatened to fracture the world's greatest innovation engine-until a small group of Web rivals joined forces to save it. The Web has been showing its age.

"SOUTH KENT, Conn., Sep 26, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- South Kent School is pleased to announce that it has continued an innovative new platform for curriculum delivery, including digital textbooks and media tools for the 2011-2012 school year, said Head of School Andrew Vadnais." iPads are clearly entering classrooms...how do we make sure that we are making the most out of these tools and not just getting caught up in the hype?

Very sharp insight into games!

This is great demonstration of twitter maximizing student participation, as well as reflective learning.

David Walter Banks/Luceo for Education Week Susan Kramer watched her packed 10th grade biology class weave through rows of desks, pretending to be proteins and picking up plastic-bead "carbohydrates" and goofy "phosphate" hats as they navigated their "cell." As they went, they explained how the cell's interior system works.

Using Facebook in the classroom has come up a few times in our discussions. In the same vein, this is a look at an interesting way of using Google Docs in the classroom.

Watch Twitter used in classroom -- prompts particiaption, more thinking and relfection, gets kids out of their comfort zone

This is an editorial discussing how emerging technologies can help eliminate the need for annual standardized testing of students by tracking their progress constantly throughout the year through technology use. IPads, Khan Academy, data analysis, KIPP schools, the achievement gap, online courses and their innovations through emerging technologies are discussed.

LitReactor is a new web site offering writing classes, workshops and social networking, but only a small portion of it's content is free. 

This caught my attention - "systems must be designed not just to show how much children have improved, but also to provide guidance so that ineffective teachers get better."

what is gained, what is lost

I am really surprised to see that teachers are using facebook for class assignments. Why can't students and teachers use the school website for posts and responses. I don't expect to get work related information through facebook, so why should students be expected to do their 'work' in a social medium? Should schools post homework in facebook? Almost all schools have a website. Use it.

WISE is an international initiative and platform for a multitude of established and new educational actors to collaborate proactively all year round. They recently selected 6 high-impact projects for the finals of their awards.

access to information leads to greater economic opportunities. I am sure there are several explanations but.. I post this article, because it got me thinking about a concept from a paper on universal design for learning : access to information is not the same as access to learning. As more and more people have increasing access to large amounts of information , progress for all will depend on making it easily accessible How can we do that online ? I am not sure where I am going with this thread, but it all seems interesting to me.... any thoughts ?

Well, I guess if we equate the spread of the printing press to creating a new market (i.e. purchasing printed materials) then this is how economic opportunities increased. But those printed materials spread more quickly when the readers received content that was designed by the people similar to themselves. Likewise, the spread of online learning environments must also connect to greater usage in general; however, learning may be limited for the user with sites that are designed by an alternative culture that does not represent the user's. What do you think?

I feel like this is one more instance of expecting schools to be everything to everybody. The filtering issue is there because of the blurring lines between student's home-life and school-life. Student's experience cyberbullying should not expect that the medium in which they are harrassed is also accessible during school hours. I agree with you Chris that filtering is ineffective but the schools are stuck. They are leaving themselves wide open to a lawsuit without it.