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"What Makes a Great Teacher? Image credit: Veronika Lukasova Also in our Special Report: National: "How America Can Rise Again" Is the nation in terminal decline? Not necessarily. But securing the future will require fixing a system that has become a joke. Video: "One Nation, On Edge" James Fallows talks to Atlantic editor James Bennet about a uniquely American tradition-cycles of despair followed by triumphant rebirths. Interactive Graphic: "The State of the Union Is ..." ... thrifty, overextended, admired, twitchy, filthy, and clean: the nation in numbers. By Rachael Brown Chart: "The Happiness Index" Times were tough in 2009. But according to a cool Facebook app, people were happier. By Justin Miller On August 25, 2008, two little boys walked into public elementary schools in Southeast Washington, D.C. Both boys were African American fifth-graders. The previous spring, both had tested below grade level in math. One walked into Kimball Elementary School and climbed the stairs to Mr. William Taylor's math classroom, a tidy, powder-blue space in which neither the clocks nor most of the electrical outlets worked. The other walked into a very similar classroom a mile away at Plummer Elementary School. In both schools, more than 80 percent of the children received free or reduced-price lunches. At night, all the children went home to the same urban ecosystem, a zip code in which almost a quarter of the families lived below the poverty line and a police district in which somebody was murdered every week or so. Video: Four teachers in Four different classrooms demonstrate methods that work (Courtesy of Teach for America's video archive, available in February at teachingasleadership.org) At the end of the school year, both little boys took the same standardized test given at all D.C. public schools-not a perfect test of their learning, to be sure, but a relatively objective one (and, it's worth noting, not a very hard one). After a year in Mr. Taylo

"NOVA takes you simply, quickly and directly to resources that will inform your own strategic thinking on innovation in schools. for articles in the current issue addressing: assessment; case studies; curriculum; leadership; pedagogy; research; and thought leaders. NOVA focuses on leadership, curriculum, assessment, pedagogy and research, as well as bringing you thought leaders and case studies that address innovation." "

This paper describes the findings of an exploratory, qualitative case study and examines problems and impediments faculty members encountered in blended learning environments in Turkish Higher Education system. A total of 117 faculty members from 4 universities responded to 8 interview questions. Findings were based on content analyses of interview transcripts. The results show that faculty members' problems with blended teaching resulted in the identification of three inductive categories: instructional processes, community concerns and technical issues. The eight themes emerged from these three categories include the following: (1) complexity of the instruction, (2) lack of planning and organization, (3) lack of effective communication, (4) need for more time, (5) lack of institutional support, (6) changing roles, (7) difficulty of adoption to new technologies and (8) lack of electronic means. This study indicates that teaching blended courses can be highly complex and have different teaching patterns, which, in turn, impacts successful implementation of the blended college courses.

"Spongelab Interactive is a group of scientists, teachers, animators, artists, and programmers passionate about science education. We believe that cutting-edge technology and stunning interactive media should be available to everyone, regardless of fiscal constraints. Most of the content on our site is free. Like what you see? It's yours. To use anything identified as premium (usually full games, interactives or case studies) you can: Redeem the credits you have earned while using our site - each piece of premium content is marked with a "P" and can be redeemed when you select it from the search results page Buy a bank of credits through our PayPal ordering system - In the My Profile area, order blocks of credits in the Buy Credits section. Purchase a Site License - Get access to all content, unlimited student seats, all for $600 CAD, contact us and we do the rest. "

"Educating the Net Generation Implications for learning and teaching in Australian Universities Despite the considerable recent attention devoted to the 'Net Generation', few Australian studies have documented the characteristics of this group and little evidence has been provided to support claims made about the Net Generation and its implications for higher education in Australia. "

8 case studies are available for consideration that have been carried out at various Australian Universities. May relate to secondary education.

"A theoretical justification for curation and present six key ways that curation can be used to teach about critical thinking, analysis and expression online. We utilize a case study of the digital curation platform Storify to explore how curation works in the classroom, and present a framework that integrates curation pedagogy into core media literacy education learning outcomes."

EducationEye allows the user to discover, explore and share new ideas. It maps hundreds of top educational websites, blogs, forums and case studies to provide up to date information about innovative ideas being explored in the education community. The information is then present in a visual format that is itself interactive. Type in your search term and let it find the relevant articles, websites or links. This is a innovative tool from Futurelab and well worth a visit

Aimed at those in further and higher education who design and support learning, the guide draws on recent JISC reports and case studies to investigate how the emergence of new and more powerful technologies together with an increase in personal ownership of these technologies are changing the way we connect, communicate and collaborate, and how these changes can benefit learning. The focus of this guide is on emerging practice rather than emerging technology.

"A summery about the report that offers a guide that provides references to research supporting the teaching methods used in flipped classrooms and includes three case studies focusing on flipped classrooms in action at the high school and college level." Links to the full report

In this issue we present articles that push the boundaries of research on digital cultures, teaching, and technologies in fruitful and generative directions.  Researchers and practitioners in this issue present case studies and analysis of practical classroom use of copyright literacies, learning management systems, mobile/cell phones, social video, Twitter, and Google Reader.  The articles demonstrate how the affordances of digital culture have shifted our understandings of how pupils learn as content can be accessed, designed, and shared.  Despite the affordances of digital culture, teaching and learning-with and through digital technologies-requires effective pedagogy.  Digital technologies are not 'teacher-proof' tools; they require thoughtful and thorough integration into pedagogy, in a manner that reflects carefully articulated instructional and learning goals

six case studies of science inquiry in the elementary classroom written by teachers participating in the Institute for Inquiry Teacher Learning Group.

Gates says his foundation is currently focusing on using private funds to inform and redirect how public education dollars are spent, specifically in the form of research.- my note "agreeable findings" concern as "research" can then rapidly influence policy.

Integrating twenty-three different case studies-which include Harry Potter podcasting, video-game playing, music-sharing, and online romantic breakups-in a unique collaborative authorship style, Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out is distinctive for its combination of in-depth description of specific group dynamics with conceptual analysis. This book was written as a collaborative effort by members of the Digital Youth Project, a three-year research effort funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and conducted at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Southern California.

Various explanations and solutions have been proposed over the last ten years in relation to the ongoing problem of student lack of engagement with the middle years' curriculum in Australia. Identified contributors to this problem include an irrelevant or trivial curricular focus and ineffectual teaching and learning strategies.