Learning to Change

Gathering data. You do it all the time. With it, you've gained an expert understanding of how your school operates. But have you also capitalized on it to improve your students' learning? Data Retreats, two-day leadership institutes, help you focus on the important data you've gathered and create the strategies you want to help improve your school. A Data Retreat guides you through the discovery and analysis of four types of school data: Student achievement Demographic Program Perception

"I am learning to get online myself, and I will have that down fairly soon, getting on myself," McCain told the New York Times in an interview that appeared Sunday.  "I don't expect to be a great communicator, I don't expect to set up my own blog, but I am becoming computer literate to the point where I can get the information that I need." Even so, McCain bluntly admits, "I don't e-mail. I've never felt the particular need to e-mail."

Juggling requires maintaining your center. The idea is to stop managing life so much, and begin managing yourself. Long ago I learned that it's better to prepare the speaker than the speech, particularly when I'm well acquainted with the subject matter. If I meticulously outline a lecture, rehearsing the points as I get ready to begin, I'm likely to lose my center. But if I chat with the audience first, put myself at ease, or take a few minutes for some deep breathing, the talk always goes more smoothly.

Today's product holders have it easy. Computers were 10 times heavier in the 1980s, leading to rampant drug abuse from the Eastern Bloc holders and numerous injuries. Just look at the suspiciously wide jaws on this lot.

Every Monday, All Things Considered will air its new series called All Tech Considered to explore the sometimes daunting - always changing - world of technology. Are you baffled by your cell phone? Wondering what your kids mean when they say they're tweeting on Twitter? Whatever it may be, All Tech Considered is here to explore it with you."

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.

Online, what's personal is increasingly becoming what's professional, and vice versa. Locking down the bits streaming in from Facebook and other social networks may seem like a good idea at the time, but it's likely shutting down one of your employees' most powerful networking tools. We're in a knowledge economy, people. And people and relationships and who knows what and who knows whom are an integral element of the knowledge economy value chain. And you want to shut that down? Really? Seriously?

Mike Arrington, the TechCrunch uber-blogger, spoke for many when he wrote recently: "Voicemail is dead. Please tell everyone so they'll stop using it."

Have you bought any textbooks recently? K-12 book prices are outlandish; college textbooks border on criminal and publishers are moving slower than molasses in January when it comes to moving towards any sort of electronic publishing model. I know, let's cut down countless trees, print on them with toxic inks, and gouge the heck out of students when we could drastically cut costs and environmental impact by publishing books electronically! Good call.

Federal regulators are planning to meet on Friday and declare that Comcast violated Net neutrality principles when throttling BitTorrent traffic on its network. This would become the U.S. government's first Net neutrality-related ruling. There's just one problem with the Federal Communications Commission's plans: They may not be quite, well, legal. In other words, the FCC may not actually have the authority to make its ruling stick.

Big surprise: a lot of smarty-pants computer types have been snickering at John McCain lately.

According to the National Association of College Stores in a 2007 survey, the average cost of a new college textbook was $53. The founders of Flat World Knowledge, which launches with its first run of college textbooks this fall, consider that too high--so high, in fact, that they'll be offering textbooks for free, at least in versions that can be read online. If the student wants to buy a printed copy of the textbook, it will be printed on demand by the company and provided in color for one price or black and white for a lesser price. For the student who prefers to listen to the book on an MP3 player, audio versions will be available too. Each format will have its own cost structure, but on average, it'll tally up to about $30.

An important step in the school improvement process is to examine local data in order to determine future goals. The Cooperative Educational Service Agencies (CESAs) have developed a format for conducting data retreats. Contact your local CESA for more information. The following 8 steps are exerpted from the CESA 7 Data Retreat Participant's Guide.

explains how many of nature's information, including gene sequencing, etc are now OWNED by private croporations, ets

Have you ever had the nagging sense that there's something not quite right with the adulation that follows Malcolm Gladwell - the author of Tipping Point? But you couldn't quite put your finger on it? We're here to help, dear reader.