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NCLB provides strong incentives to choose education policies and programs that work. Yet traditional educational research has rarely been designed with the goal of providing scientific evidence of "what works," and relatively few educational researchers have been trained in how to do that kind of rigorous quantitatively sound research. WCER's Interdisciplinary Training Program (ITP) in the Education Sciences is preparing a new generation of scholars who can provide solid evidence of "what works" in education.

Professional Learning Communities at Work Best Practices for Enhancing Student Achievement Professional Learning Communities at Work Best Practices for Enhancing Student Achievement by Richard DuFour & Robert Eaker

It's already hooked America's youth, and now Facebook is set on winning the hearts of two potentially lucrative demographics: Adults and the rest of the world. First, the adults: Facebook this week took on LinkedIn and other popular networking sites for working professionals with a new set of privacy controls that will give users greater control over who can see their profiles. Now a member can restrict who gets to see that drunken St. Patrick's Day photo - an important tool for working-age adults worried about a boss catching wind of their extracurricular activities. LinkedIn

Good-bye to work hours.

So imagine this: A student arrives in school in the morning and answers five questions that will be calculated in a customized algorithm to figure out what she'll be doing that day. That algorithm will decide which teacher she'll work with, her level of learning based on what she learned the previous day, and her specific activities. The system completely subverts the traditional classroom model of one teacher for 25- 30 students per classroom. And each student learns in different modalities throughout the day: individually with computer software, with groups, with a virtual tutor, with a live tutor, and so on.

Hotels are under such pressure to keep up with their gadget-obsessed guests that they are working with technology companies to regain their edge.

The Pew Internet & American Life Project will create and fund original, academic-quality research that explores the impact of the Internet on children, families, communities, the work place, schools, health care and civic/political life. The Project aims to be an authoritative source for timely information on the Internet's growth and societal impact, through research that is scrupulously impartial.

Digital Natives are used to receiving information really fast. They like to parallel process and multi-task. They prefer their graphics before their text rather than the opposite. They prefer random access (like hypertext). They function best when networked. They thrive on instant gratification and frequent rewards. They prefer games to "serious" work.

For decades, the way the TV networks and advertisers worked together was simple. A lot of people watched TV, the Nielsen company estimated just how many, and the advertisers paid for airtime based on the Nielsen ratings. Now, the TV industry is changing and Nielsen is trying to keep up.">@import "/templates/css/mainstyles.css";@import "/templates/css/bucket_alt.css";@import "/templates/css/stories.css";@import "/templates/css/print_stories.css"; metatext/html; charset=iso-8859-1

The term professional learning community has become quite commonplace in education circles. The term describes a collegial group who are united in their commitment to an outcome. In the case of education, the commitment would be to student learning. The community engages in a variety of activities including sharing a vision, working and learning collaboratively, visiting and observing other classrooms, and participating in shared decision making. The benefits of professional learning community to educators and students include reduced isolation of teachers, better informed and committed teachers, and academic gains for students. Shirley Hord of the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory says, that as an organizational arrangement, the professional learning community is seen as a powerful staff-development approach and a potent strategy for school change and improvement.

John Medina's principles for surviving and thriving at work, home and school. Check out his new book at www.brainrules.net!

Critical Mass: How Digital Technology Will Define the Way You Live Digital communities are where you live-that's "you" as in Time magazine's Person of the Year for 2006, which recognizes and celebrates "the small contributions of millions of people and making them matter." This Digital Communities Special Report discusses how the 120 million Americans who are active online users and creators of content and services are changing the world by redefining it around their preferences and predilections, and by the technologies they use and the way they use them. Also see http://www.accela.com/products/whitepapers.asp

From davegray | dot info: Dave Gray is the Founder and Chairman of XPLANE, the visual thinking company. Founded in 1993, XPLANE has grown to be the world's leading consulting and design firm focused on information-driven communications. Dave's time is spent researching and writing on visual business, as well as speaking, coaching and delivering workshops to corporate clients.

Americans value mobility across the country and through the class ranks. This mobility remains especially important in times of economic stress. As educators, we can move to new schools or educational settings.

Many educators will need the support and ideas of their peers over the next few years.