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"GFW High school  in Minnesota is really leading the race at this point.  I  read the blog Ed Galaxy by Kevin Cummins regularly.  Kevin frequently shares great stuff.  Today is a wonderful article, The Ultimate Guide to Using iPads in the Classroom. In that article, he links to the GFW iPad Policy, Procedures and information.  It is chalked full of good information for any school thinking about 1:1 with iPads.  So, I did a little diggin and found their school website, including the iPad initiative pages that has even more useful information.  They are in their 2nd year of this, so, clearly they have a lot of the bugs worked out.  No need to re-invent the wheel, take their lead and learn from them!!  What more can I say, but WOW!!"

"suggestions for keeping students engaged in a project and accountable for their time with computers"

A passionate and eloquent plea from a university lecturer, attesting to the continued relevance of the lecture as a learning tool. I value her point that a lecture promotes active listening, but I disagree with the notion that a technology that has worked for thousands of years should see continued use simply because it has worked in the past.[1] Given the multitudes of other means of delivery of information today (remember, the lecture was developed when the only other means to spread information was handwriting), the lecture as transmission of information is a tool, not THE tool. She also equates books to lectures, and says that if we abandon one we move toward abandoning the other. A bit of tenuous logic, if you ask me. Still, perhaps worth a read.  [1] See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scriptorium#Trithemius.27_Praise_of_Scribes

Math teacher Katie Gimbar shares her whole flipped Algebra 1 class. Lots of great videos here, plus her rationale on how and why to flip.

Another advance in the flipped classroom construct. What I found most interesting was the use of the students as peer assessors when they were given papers to write instead of quizzes. not sure how effective it would be, but it might be very effective to have 1000 or so thoughtful critiques of a paper you've written. You would see a trend of the responses, and it might weed out subjectivity. That kind of "crowdsourcing" is something unique that technology could provide. There is a module in moodle which was not ready for primetime in version 1.9, but in Moodle 2.0 it might be. It was called Workshop, and allowed teachers and students to do peer editing and grading in an organized way. If it works better in 2.0, we should consider using it for peer editing exercises... ben

Overview and stage 1 of UbD (Wiggins/McTighe)

Good thoughts on setting goals for technology use in a school, rather than allowing the technology to define the school's goals. "In the end, our advice is: be sure your school defines clear goals for what it seeks to achieve by having computing devices in the hands of its students."

Basic article on the concept of Khan Academy. My takeaway was the importance of the following quote: "It can give the teacher additional class time to do more creative and customized teaching. " If you are not taking up classtime imparting knowledge where the teacher is speaking more of the time, you give students the voice to explain what is going on in their heads, or working on collaborative problem solving.

from their promo materials "If you are interested in flipping, or are a veteran flipper, The Flipped Learning Network [http://flippedlearning.org] wants to invite everyone to Flip One Lesson on our second annual Flipped Day on October 1, 2014."

2008 multitasking study. From the conclusion: "Our results suggest that interruptions lead people to change not only work rhythms but also strategies and mental states. Another possibility is that interruptions do in fact lengthen the time to perform a task but that this extra time only occurs directly after the interruption when reorienting back to the task, and it can be compensated for by a faster and more stressful working style."

Recently, Christine Wiser T&L's Managing Editor, asked the Tech Advisors the following question: What do you think are the top three most important issues facing K-12 edtech this year? 1. Mobile device adoption. Especially bring your own device program implementation. 2. Getting people to really understand what is meant by 21st century teaching and learning. 3. Anytime, anywhere learning.

Grant Wiggins' website on all aspects of UbD, great and small. 

Good background information on blended learning. Pay particular attention to the footnotes.

A wonderful authentic learning scenario in which 3rd graders create a multimedia documentation of their community. They team with high school kids who help with the use of technology, and with local experts to gain knowledge; then the students create a lasting document of their understanding. Just great stuff, and totally relevant across many age levels. "Third graders become historians, writers, and videographers as they explore the geography and geology of their community."

Amazing compendium of what we've learned about learning.

The key sentence for me is in the second paragraph:"And the plan envisions a fundamental change in the role of teachers, making them less a lecturer at the front of the room and more of a guide helping students through lessons delivered on computers" - I see that as not just related to technology but to the new strucyure for how classrooms should be organized. To make technology the scapegoat for this new organization is deflecting from the bigger issue of how to teach effectively, through lecture or through inquiry-based, project based, and constructivist methodologies.

New York Times magazine article on RCS and KIPP character education programs.

Includes articles on video games, the LiveScribe pen, and other classroom technology.