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By Will Richardson, on his blog "weblogg-ed: learning from the read/write web," posted 22 June 2010. Richardson's main focus seems to be K-12 (as is the focus of many of the very interesting comments that this post has received), but the questions he asks are relevant to students of all ages and at all levels: how do we measure more esoteric qualities like the ability to follow "passion," how to "earn...a living solving problems and helping to make the world a better place." It's as much about the quality of education as of assessment.

Part of Edutopia (The George Lucas Educational Foundation), there are some really interesting and inspiring portraits of young people (ages 11-18) and how they use technology. While some have ready access to cell phones and computers, others do not; examples of students who are self-taught, as well as those who have learned in the classroom.

By Katie Ash in the Digital Education blog of Education Week, Sept 1 2010. Ash quotes a study by e-Learning for Educators that finds online PD improved teachers' "instruction and subject knowledge" and "produced gains in student achievement."

By Ros Smith, published by JISC, Sept 6 2010. Announcement and podcast posted on the JISC site. This newly published guide raises questions about the meaning of assessment, and how more effective assessment (ideally taking advantage of current technologies) might also promote the idea of students becoming lifelong learners. There is a 13 minute podcast with Ros Smith, the author. The new guide can be downloaded by chapter, of full guide (as PDF or Word docs). Also, until Oct 31, 2010, printed copies can be ordered for free.

By Wick Sloane, in a column called The Devil's Workshop in Inside Higher Ed, September 20 2010. Sloane, previously the CFO of a public university, has embedded himself as a writing teacher at Bunker Hill Community College. In this column, he ties completion to the many varied needs of under-served students, many of whom live in poverty.

This Center began as a collaboration between Columbia University Law School and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. From "What We Do," "The Center works primarily through projects in different institutional settings, such as higher education, low-wage work, criminal justice, and housing. Each of the projects brings together creative and committed researchers, practitioners, and students to address problems involving structural inequality, and to do so through examining innovation."

Quia is short for Quintessential Instructional Archive. It provides instructional tools including: templates for creating online activities, online testing tools, access to over 3 million online activities and quizzes, a schoolwide network to promote collaboration, a centralized classroom management system, a class Web page creator and online surveys for gathering student and teacher feedback.

Conrad Wolfram presentation on TED.com (filmed July 2010; posted Nov 2010). Wolfram argues that math applications are all around us, and that people in a ever-wider variety of workplaces are excited about math...but students are not. Wolfram argues that bringing computers into the math classroom would help improve math's relevancy -- and build excitement as well. Use the tag wolfram to look at his "knowledge engine," Wolfram Alpha.

By Beth Fertig, reported on WNYC March 24, 2010. In this education feature, Fertig reports on an experimental afterschool program called School of One, an individualized math program where students work online with math tutors and also occasionally work together. Their self-paced work plan is based on frequent online assessments. Daniel Willingham is quoted for his work on learning styles. MP3 is available, in addition to the transcript.

Blogged on Open Culture, March 24, 2010. According to the review, "tech guru Tim O'Reilly asks how universities can ... let developers (in this case, the professors) innovate and distribute content to users (students) in new and efficient ways?"

This organization works with New York City public schools to establish innovative strategies that make success more likely for struggling students. The organization offers a website, The KnowledgeBase (https://knowledgebase.newvisions.org), that offers toolkits, strategies, resources and networking.

By Doug Lederman in Inside Higher Ed, May 12 2010. Review of the Action Analytics Symposium, which was co-sponsored by the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (29 public 2-year and 4-year institutions) and Capella Univesrity (a for-profit, online institution). The concept is "a multi-dimensional effort aimed squarely at fundamental and strategic education reform in the context of massive economic, social, and technological change... [A]ction analytics strategically uses data, statistics, predictive modeling and visualization to promote student success, achieve institutional efficiency, and demonstrate transparency."

Posted by Gerry on (blog) Spectrum > Mobile Learning, Libraries, And Technologies, Feb 6 2010. Cites article by John Dew in The Futurist, vol 44(2), p 46-51, Mar/Apr 2010. Basic trends include global standardization of curriculum, greater diversity of student body, and more options for when/where learning takes place.

Headed by Amy Bruckman, Associate professor at Georgia Tech, this Electronic Learning Communities center engages Ph.D. level students in studying the application of constructionist social learning online. They are doing some fascinating work, such as developing software to support leaders of learning communities, offering young A-A males the chance to be game testers and to use that experience credential as a route into computer science studies and careers, etc. These are but two research examples; there are more.

I am into my work because the following excerpt says so much to me..."goal state is initially only partially described" (every time!); the need to "scaffold the work of leaders" while "making a more improvisational style of collaboration possible". These phrases express truth and learning goals for me. "Her research on leadership in creative collaboration online explores how people can collaborate across distance on projects where the goal state is initially only partially described. Amy and her students are creating tools both to support existing creative collaborative practice by scaffolding the work of leaders, and also to try to transform that practice by making a more improvisational style of collaboration possible."

"What used to be known as remedial education now goes by either developmental education or basic skills. Lexicon aside, it's become apparent that these classes don't work. At least half a dozen reports released in the past year (two in the past couple of weeks alone) warn that the United States is headed for an economic calamity unless we can figure out how to get more students to successfully complete some type of postsecondary education program. It doesn't have to be a baccalaureate degree. It could be an associate's degree or a professional certification, but by the year 2018 about two-thirds of all jobs will require some college education, according to the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce. Of those, 22 million will require actual degrees, AA or better, but at the current rate, we're already off track by some 3 million degrees."

Posted by dskmag on the blog Design for Learning, May 28 2011. This blog is written by Dean Groom, who has an interest in "embedding new pedagogical classroom practice to create authentic, realistic and relevant learning for today's learners." This post describes ways to make LMS (and online courses) more engaging, following a gaming/Xbox model.

"Corporations use TWO process form, BOTH missing entirely from dowdy lazy sloppy dishonest (Harvard) universities; a) process weaves----emediated process flows PUNCTUATED with mass workshop EVENTS b) pulsed systems---rhythms of engagement with disengagement, sameness with difference, local with global---so that mere addition of connectedness is not allowed to destroy all creativity. "

Hosted by The New York Times September 22, 2011, a panel of distinguished speakers (see Speakers on left navigation) on how technology can transform how students learn. A live stream of the conference will be available here on September 22.

By Virginia Heffernan in Opinionator in the New York Times. A review of Cathy Davidson's new book,Now You See It. Heffernan's review suggests that Davidson's new book argues that we not hold current students to out of date standards for education. Educators must not just embrace new technologies, but understand the position of these technologies in the changing world. Follow the davidson tag for her blog.