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"The California Student Bill of Rights Initiative is proposed for the November 2012 ballot. It will break down the barriers between students and all of the education options available to them in the classroom and online, leading to continued education or career training beyond high school. This action on the part of the people of California will ensure California students do not fall behind their peers in other states and position California for maintaining an advantage in the U.S. and global economy."

"Technology is woven into every aspect of our lives, and education is no exception. With the belief that technology can make a substantial impact on schools and students, three research organizations - The Greaves Group, The Hayes Connection and One-to-One Institute - established Project RED: Revolutionizing Education. Initially these organizations conducted a national survey of technology programs in 1,000 schools, which is the first and only national research focusing on academic results and the financial implication of education technology. The findings showed that if effectively implemented, technology programs can lead to improved student achievement and significant return on investment."

"he Common Core State Standards Initiative is a state-led effort coordinated by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and the Council of Chief State School Officers to ensure that all students in the United States receive a world-class education and are prepared to be a literate person in the twenty-first century regardless of their zip code."

"Are 20% projects profitable? Email Print By Craig Buckler | November 14, 2012 | Business | General business | Marketing | Revenue 7 Apple has launched an internal initiative named "Blue Sky" which allows a number of employees to work on personal projects. Blue Sky appears similar to Google's 20% time where engineers spend one day per week working on systems which aren't related to their job. Employees are encouraged to develop something new or fix something which is broken. The policy led to the introduction of GMail and Maps - two of Google's most successful offerings."

"Camilla Gagliolo got the first inkling there could be some real use for iPads in the classroom when she tried them out initially with students who had learning disabilities. Today, the instructional technology coordinator with Arlington (VA) Public Schools said she thinks the iPad is emerging as a tool that can greatly enhance educational technology after what she believes has been a lull in the field's progress."

Six Ways to Look at Badging Systems Designed for Learning Initiated by Barry Joseph, Global Kids, Inc. Written by Barry with scores of others* Background For over four years, Global Kids has developed badging systems within, after and outside of schools. We are currently designing a badging system for dozens of civic and cultural institutions within the Hive Learning Networks in New York City and Chicago, as well as throughout our organization. We have had a frontline view of the growing interest which has emerged over the past year in the development of badging systems across a wide range of formal and informal learning environments. We have also followed the rise of opposition, and sometimes confusion, about what digital badging looks like or is designed to accomplish. In this context we felt it might be useful to delineate the various interests we see aligning themselves with badges, or make distinctions amongst the different goals people have for them.

""Digital citizenship is a worthy endeavor, and it is also the law. California AB 307 requires district technology plans to 'include a component to educate pupils and teachers on the appropriate and ethical use of information technology in the classroom.' Governor Arnold Scharzenegger's Executive Order S-06-09 established a California ICT Digital Literacy initiative, asserting that 'it is an important goal to ensure that California residents are digitally literate.' Similarly, the federal S 1492 Broadband Data Improvement Act (Public Law 110-385), also titled Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act, mandates that all schools receiving e-rate discounts must teach students "about appropriate online behavior, including interacting with other individuals on social networking sites and in chat rooms and cyberbullying awareness and response." Quoted from Digital Citizen, Farmer and Siminitus."

Zygote offers manipulable, three-dimensional, anatomical models of the male and female human bodies. This site is gorgeous. It's a singular page with either a female or male model, but those models are so beautifully rendered that users don't realize that they're only looking at a single page. Organs and entire systems jump off the screen when revealed. The attention to detail is impressive once users get passed the initial, clothed version of the models. (Because they will encounter only under-the-skin views of body parts, kids in grades six and up should be able zygote bodyto avoid inappropriate distractions while exploring this site.)

We often read that there are 4 C's in a true 21st century education: critical thinking and problem solving, communication, collaboration, and creativity and innovation. The iPad is a success at engaging individual students in critical thinking and creativity, but how about collaboration? After all, tablets are consumer products, designed to be used by one person at a time, not by teams of students. It's up to teachers and instructional technologists to figure out how best to deploy them in the classroom in a way that supports project-based learning and fosters teamwork. We asked several teachers involved in iPad initiatives which apps they've had the most success with on the collaboration front. Here is what they told us.

Creating content that supports policies on human behavior and technology.

"As part of Microsoft's continued focus on promoting digital literacy in education, the Bing for Schools program offers daily lesson plans designed to teach search skills, Bing Rewards enhancements to help earn Microsoft Surface RT tablets for schools, and, for schools admitted to the pilot program, a tailored Bing search experience for K-12 students when on the school network. Schools participating in the search pilot will receive ad-free Bing search, strict filtering to help block adult content, and augmented privacy protections. School districts can register for these search enhancements now; a limited number will be accepted into the initial pilot, with other schools being notified about future eligibility. But many of the educational features of Bing for Schools are available to non-pilot schools as well, so be sure to explore all the ways you can support digital literacy in your school."

"ighty-two percent of districts are "highly interested" in launching or expanding a 1:1 technology initiative within the next two years, according to a new report from Amplify and IESD."

While digital textbooks were reviewed for their alignment with the content standards, California's Social Content Review criteria were not applied during this phase. Districts, schools, and individuals planning to take advantage of these books are reminded to conduct their own reviews to determine whether these resources meet their needs.

Hi Randy, Great to have a chance to talk to you earlier this month.  As promised here is the Wave information: - A paper written by Educause Learning Initiative about Wave and its potential for Education to help get you started: http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7055.pdf - I've enabled your Google Apps domain (ocde.us ) to use Wave, so now anyone who has an account can access Wave at http://wave.google.com/a/ocde.us/ - CCed are a few additional folks from the Google Education team who can answer additional questions you might have about the OCDE using Google Apps and Wave. I hope that's a good start.  After you've had a chance to get started with Wave, let me know and we can set up additional time to talk if that would be useful. Thanks! Greg

"While digital textbooks were reviewed for their alignment with the content standards, California's Social Content Review criteria were not applied during this phase. Districts, schools, and individuals planning to take advantage of these books are reminded to conduct their own reviews to determine whether these resources meet their needs. "