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Professor MacFarlane discusses many issues which ring true to me. In particular: - lack of vision for what education could be like with new technology (around 4 min mark) - the web2.0 and technology revolution is great for the 15% of people who have a good life anyway because of their suituation and culture (5:30) - others don't benefit from the access to the technology - they need help (6:00) - no change in classroom over last 20 years with computers and in danger of no change in next 20 years (7:30) - instruction vs. construction (8:30) - expect learning to change with introduction of technology (10:30) - but hasn't really done so - student self-directed learning is separate from school work i.e. at home and not related to school (14:30) - much of what kids do on computers at home is trivial (16:00) - the ones that do have good experiences are the same 15% (16:30) - kids that are missing out have a computer at home probably but no access to the community that enables them to have these experiences (17:10) - doing something by themselves does not really benefit them - it is being part of a community that had benefit for learning - what are we dong for these people? (19:10) - talking about missing pedagogical model for how to teach (22:00) - teachers are expected to use technology to provide innovative learning but no model against which to do so, some don't use it at all, some use it inappropriately - there maybe some individual examples but not overall (23:00) - schools bad at connecting with their communities in a learning sense (26:00) - talks about chinese online writing community and how they comment, collaborate (34:00) - community (47:30) - communitites aren't formed when people are brought together in schools etc. - need to have a common problem or interest (48:30) - Plant's definition? - in education the problem is because assessment is done individually (49:00) - so forming groups and sharing ideas is not attractive for students - worried about not getti

This is a conference by educators for educators around the world interested in integrating emerging technologies into classroom practice. A goal of the conference is to help educators make sense of and meet the needs of a continually changing learning landscape.

An overview of ImmersED estate - a Open SImulator sim for educators to learn about the use of virtual worlds in education by actively engaging in learning exercises there. open and available for testing - please come by and kick the tyres! Built in OpenSim, hosted on ReacitonGrid.

A Free Learning Tool for Every Learning Problem?

Challenge to educators re integrating educational technologies. From another Diigo group.

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.

The Professional Learning Board community has free and low-cost resources for parents & teachers: professional development, instructional strategies, classroom management, online teaching and learning tools, virtual classrooms, continuing ed, and schools.

This wiki from Wes Fryer is all about cyberbullying and internet safety. "Generally adults help young people learn to drive safely before giving them car keys and turning them loose on the streets of the world. Young people also need guidance and adult assistance to learn how to safely navigate the virtual environments of the 21st Century. Schools must be proactive, rather than merely defensive, in helping students acquire the skills of digital citizenship needed today and in the future. Simply banning read/write web tools on school networks is an inadequate response: Educators must strive to learn alongside students and parents how these technologies can be safely and powerfully used to communicate and collaborate."

"There are some tools that educators need to embrace and learn how to use both in and out of the classroom. Each of the tools on these lists have some value either with students or for professional development. I encourage you, as part of a professional resolution for the coming year to investigate these tools. If you are already an expert, pass along the list to someone who isn't and perhaps resolve to take that educator under your wing and work with them this year. "

The content and technology are continually changing. This article reminds us that learners are also changing. For the past decade, faculty who won awards for teaching expressed concern that they could no longer hold the attention of their students. John Seely Brown, Chief Scientist at Xerox and director of its Palo Alto Research Center, hired 15 year olds to design future work environments and learning environments. He observed that the students did not conform to the traditional image of learners as permissive sponges. It requires us to rethink and redesign education for the Digital Age.

A simple chart featuring the characteristics of education in the different web stages 

NSW is set to lose one of its most energetic technology chiefs as Stephen Wilson prepares to exit the education department. It is understood the Department of Education and Training chief information officer has tendered his resignation and is expected to leave at the end of this week.

Innovative use of blended learning, using a rotating centres approach: Teacher instruction, Group work, Technology group. They are able to do more differentiated instruction within this model and looks like they're using some digital curriculum or an LMS.

Learning programming in primary school. And it's significance as a basic literacy.

Quizmaker that is frese for education use

There is an explosive growth in these tools and this page aims to provide an overview of some of the most interesting examples that are relevant to education

"Social media may have started out as a fun way to connect with friends, but it has evolved to become a powerful tool for education and business. Sites such as Facebook and Twitter and tools such as Skype are connecting students to learning opportunities in new and exciting ways. Whether you teach an elementary class, a traditional college class, or at an online university, you will find inspirational ways to incorporate social media in your classroom with this list."

A variety of uses for social media, linked to real examples by educators in the classroom.

Steve's online presetation on KnowledgeBank will be based around these trends.

"Learning how to "live" in a virtual world. Absorbing information. Setting up an Educational venue. What is a virtual world? A virtual world is "an online electronic presence that imitates real life in the form of a personal presence through someone's avatar (the alter ego which is a graphical representation of themself in the virtual world)". Sue Gregory "

Interesting graphic on the front of this site that visualises some of the current and emerging tools for online teaching in higher education.