In January 2007, I was hired by Springfield Township School District to teach English. One of the first pieces of advice I received was, "Seek out Joyce Valenza." I took this advice and sought out Joyce, the STSD librarian, immediately. Joyce and I collaborated on several lessons and she was always excited to help my class find new ways to approach research and Language Arts. Although it was three years ago, Joyce was ahead of the curve and understood the necessity of information literacy and the importance of emerging technologies and the evolving the library. Many schools that have adopted a 1:1 program have made the mistake of forgetting the library. The library is the cornerstone of every school and is in a current state of flux. No one knows what to make of the library and some feel it is a relic in the context of schools. New information technologies emerge and the library is soon forgotten or pushed to the side, however, the library has never been more important.

Even when principals and teachers have access to data, they often aren't sure what to do with it. This site is intended to help K-12 educators work with raw student and school data. The tutorials on this site highlight many of the Excel skills that are helpful when working with building- and district-level data. These tutorials are targeted at data managers, principals, school counselors, teachers, and other school personnel who have the responsibility for collecting, analyzing, and reporting K-12 performance data.

Dr. Scott McLeod led a lively presentation at breakfast hosted by Learning.com at NECC in June 2009. He asked the question, "Why aren't you (the technology coordinator) having a bigger impact?" "I really believe district-level technology coordinators are probably putting in more hours and have maybe a broader range of responsibilities than anybody else in this room. The people (tech coordinators) that I meet are very dedicated and hard working. They're really trying their very best in doing a great job for their school in making everything run so smoothly," "Why do I hear so many complaints about you?"

What happens when you bring 6 educators and a video game developer together to discuss leadership for the future? Leadership 2.0. Leadership 2.0 is about modeling and facilitating best practices within administrative leadership for the purpose of supporting personalized learning for students, teachers, and fellow administrators. It moves past the status quo to push for reforms on multiple fronts, embracing the modern technologies today rather than relegating it to "the future" and tomorrow's leaders to implement.

Assumptions: [1] People will follow a person who inspires them. [2] A person with vision and passion can achieve great things. [3] The way to get things done is by injecting enthusiasm and energy.

Expert teachers consciously and unconsciously find ways to orchestrate and coordinate technology, pedagogy, and content into every act of teaching. They flexibly navigate the affordances and constraints of each technology and each possible teaching approach to find solutions that effectively combine content, pedagogy, and technology. They find solutions to complex, dynamic problems of practice by designing curricular solutions that fit their unique goals, situations, and student learners. They use naturally make changes to their pedagogical approach and the content they cover to create a new "curriculum" that is also highly effective.

For Steven L. Paine, state superintendent of schools for West Virginia, 21st century learning is not an option; it's a necessity for students who must go out and compete on a global level. "Students deserve it. The world demands it," he told an audience at the FETC Virtual Conference & Expo, held Thursday. And to make it happen, he said, changes need to be made in the way we assess students and in the way we develop teachers.

There are many theories comprising the concept of motivation, each providing insight into the begging question that many educators have: "How can I get students to remain interested, take ownership, forgo procrastination, and ultimately become a self-regulated learner?" In this short blog we will briefly examine the concept of motivation and assess how we as educators can foster a climate conducive to motivated learners who actually enjoy classroom instruction, are empowered education recipients, and don't require nagging to complete assignments.

Acceptable Use Policies developed as a result of legislation that attempted to govern how schools allowed students to use the Internet. While legislation usually did not directly call for their formation, it was sort of the implementation of choice for most schools around the country. The policy is basically a signed agreement documenting what's acceptable in using the Internet at school (although as Karl Fisch stated, it is really an unacceptable use policy as most of them are just a list of things that kids cannot do). Parents and students had to sign the AUP before they were granted any Internet privileges at school. In that way, it was sort of like a contract between the school and the student's family.

The focus of school administrators is graduation rates. As I understand it, Georgia has set its goal for all schools at graduating 100 percent of students by 2014. Fail to meet that goal and state funding will be cut. This puts a lot of pressure on teachers and principals to get students to pass state exams. My small-town high school, Fitzgerald High, wouldn't survive without state funding.

Just a quick review: In the 1950s and 1960s, the U.S. dominated the world in K-12 education. We also dominated economically. In the 1970s and 1980s, we still had a lead, albeit smaller, in educating our population through secondary school, and America continued to lead the world economically, albeit with other big economies, like China, closing in. Today, we have fallen behind in both per capita high school graduates and their quality. Consequences to follow.

This year marks the 15th anniversary of the LoTi Framework. Since its inception in 1994, the LoTi Framework has been used as a statewide technology use survey, a district school improvement model, and a classroom walkthrough tool impacting thousands of schools nationally. Today, the LoTi project has grown beyond classroom technology use and has become synonymous with innovative teaching practices.

If you could design your own school, what would it look like? This is not a question many educators actually get to answer, but it is this very question that we have been asking ourselves at The Episcopal Academy (Pennsylvania) for the last seven years - as we have planned, built, and now moved into our new 123-acre, nine-building campus. This tremendous opportunity to build an entire school is both the chance of a lifetime and an incredible challenge. How do you build a campus that not only meets the needs of today's students, but which will hold up over time, allowing for enough adaptability to grow and change in a climate where five-year strategic plans seem long-term? Even more challenging: how do you plan the technology for a campus like this?

TechYES is an innovative way for schools and community organizations to offer a technology certification program to students in grades 6-9. As with all Generation YES products, students are at the center of the solution - backed up with solid research and extensive resources. In TechYES, students show technology literacy by creating projects that meet state and local technology proficiency requirements. As part of TechYES, a structured peer-mentoring program assists the teacher or advisor, and provides student leadership opportunities that serve to further strengthen the program and enrich the learning community.

Plan, teach, and report on student technology literacy in an integrated, 21st century context. techSteps includes a district technology literacy framework, a sequential, project-based curriculum for K-8 technology literacy development and authentic assessment and reporting tools. For information go to www.techsteps.com

Taking A Good Look at Instructional Technology (TAGLIT) is a suite of online assessment tools designed to provide educational institutions effective data to evaluate technology use and integration in the teaching and learning environment. The suite includes assessments for School Leaders, Teachers, and Students. The Enhancing Education Through Technology Act of 2001, issued by the U.S. Department of Education (US DoE), has established requirements by which states must report the technology literacy of all 8th grade students. (SETDA document regarding this requirement) TAGLIT is an established, quick and inexpensive tool to assess 8th grade students and provide information to meet the reporting requirements under this mandate.

ProfilerPRO allows for the evaluation of knowledge, attitude, and skill based on simple surveys implemented via the World Wide Web. Group members can share knowledge and promote collaboration based on responses to skills-based survey items. Use ProfilerPRO to strengthen your school's, district's, or other educational group's ability to share expertise and grow as an organization.

Profiling Educational Technology Integration, or PETI, includes a framework aligned to No Child Left Behind, Title II D (NCLB IID), as well as a suite of tools designed to assist states, districts, schools, and researchers in profiling their progress with technology over time, documenting both readiness and effective use. Why are the profiling tools important? The tools were developed to assist states in making sound, data-driven decisions about educational technology. Metiri Group, which developed these resources under the advisement of the SETDA Common Data Elements committee, has worked over the last year with five states to pilot and revise the instruments and protocols based on data analysis to ensure reliability and validity. Used as outlined here, PETI offers valid, reliable data collection instruments and methodologies that answer the questions in the SETDA framework. Used over time, these tools can provide valuable baseline and trend data for accountability purposes.