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The results found that both the implementation and outcomes of the program were varied across the five 1:1 settings and over the three years of the student laptop implementation. Despite these differences, there was evidence that the types of educational access and opportunities afforded by 1:1 computing through the pilot program led to measurable changes in teacher practices, student achievement, student engagement, and students’ research skills.

few subjects inspire more intellectual dishonesty and political puffery than "school reform." Since the 1960s, waves of "reform" haven't produced meaningful achievement gains.

no one has yet discovered transformative changes in curriculum or pedagogy, especially for inner-city schools, that are (in business lingo) "scalable" -- easily transferable to other schools, where they would predictably produce achievement gains.

The larger cause of failure is almost unmentionable: shrunken student motivation. Students, after all, have to do the work. If they aren't motivated, even capable teachers may fail.

Personalized learning like this requires students to reflect deeply on their effort and assess their work and progress, a fundamental part of developing the skills and dispositions to continue learning after the class ends

technology facilitates both the learning and the assessment process.

Web 2.0 technologies are at the heart of personalization

What students are really motivated by are opportunities to be social — to interact around challenging concepts in powerful conversations with their peers. They are motivated by issues connected to fairness and justice. They are motivated by the important people in their lives, by the opportunity to wrestle with the big ideas rolling around in their minds, and by the often-troubling changes they see happening in the world around them. Technology’s role in today’s classroom, then, isn’t to motivate. It’s to give students opportunities to efficiently and effectively participate in motivating activities built around the individuals and ideas that matter to them.

Basically what I’m arguing is that finding ways to motivate students in our classrooms shouldn’t start with conversations about technology. Instead, it should start with conversations about our kids. What are they deeply moved by? What are they most interested in? What would surprise them? Challenge them? Leave them wondering? Once you have the answers to these questions — only after you have the answers to these questions — are you ready to make choices about the kinds of digital tools that are worth embracing.

As teachers and students become PRODUCERS of content on their blogs it is becoming essential that we model good behavior when it comes to Copyright issues.

Today, in the PC world, whether a computer is a Dell, a Gateway, a Sony, etc., one puts a layer of software on that device, and then from a user's perspective all those different devices are the same. That is what is going to happen shortly in the mobile device space. Different companies are going to build a layer of software that makes every smart phone--android, [Windows Phone 7], iOS, etc.--appear the same to the teacher and the student.

We need to accept the fact that mobile technologies are an integral part of the kids lives and an integral part of 21st century knowledge workers' lives. We need to stop looking at the past and look to the future. We need to step forward and say: We need to do 21st century education in the same ways we are doing 21st century commerce, 21st century health, etc. There are risks; absolutely. But staying where we are in schools--using 19th century technology and fooling ourselves that we are teaching 21st century skills and content--is truly doing our students a huge disservice. You can't teach 21st century skills and content with 18th century paper and pencil tools.