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"This film introduces the story of connected learning, the outcome of a six-year research effort supported by the MacArthur Foundation into how learning, education, and schooling could be reimagined for a networked world. The film asks: 'Might the information age have presented us with the opportunity for a fundamental reimagining of the way we educate our children?' 'How might education come to life if children were to possess a burning need to know?' 'Might we each have a part to play?' 'Might this digital age hold the possibility of bringing us closer together?'"

"I see posts and videos about great educators and the great things that they're doing almost every day. And, being the self-reflective person that I am, it often makes me have the same reaction: "Wow, that's great! Look at what that teacher is doing. Look what her students have created. Look at the impact his classroom is having on the world. "Why am I not doing that? Why aren't my students doing that? Man, what kind of a teacher am I if we're not doing that?"

Get tools to educate yourself and your students from Common Sense Media for Educators. In addition to their K-12 curriculum on Digital Literacy and Citizenship, they offer an online tutorial designed to help you implement the curriculum in your classroom. Units are: Safety, Security, Digital Life, Privacy and Digital Footprints, Connected Culture, Respecting Creative Work, Searching, Research and Evaluation, Self-Expression and Identity. Common Sense Media has partnered with Edmodo. Together they have created the Digital Citizenship Starter Kit. Join the Digital Citizenship Community to obtain the resources!

a thought provoking blogpost about Where's The Authentic Audience? The author takes a closer look at the buzz word circulating among blogging educators and classrooms and asks tough questions: What happens when there is no audience coming to your or your students' blogs? She elaborates her point by reflecting on the importance of quality work, connected teachers, give and take, writing with an audience in mind, digital literacy and humility."

"Your personal footprint-and to some extent your school's-is most likely being written without you, thanks to the billions of us worldwide who now have our own printing presses and can publish what we want when we want to."

"It is essential that principals and other school leaders develop professional learning networks (PLNs) both within and beyond their local organizations. Although colleagues at the local level are often generous in their offerings of support, current technologies enable school leaders to reach far beyond the walls of their schools to access the expertise of school administrators and teachers from around the world and bring a wealth of resources to their schools."

In SBISD we have several hastags! #sbisd #sbleads and now the Early Adopters - #sbisdea

How does this finding impact our work with blended/flipped learning? How does this finding impact our conversations in the classroom?

This fosters the idea that classroom discussions and activities are necessary when a blended/flipped environment is practiced. The face to face interactions are were the true learning and connections are made.

One of my students described the flipped class as his "Reverse class, the one where we teach ourselves by watching videos and then doing the work in class" He viewed it as a teacher replacement. Video is cool, but a moving screen is not the draw, if it is a boring teacher, talking about boring stuff on a moving screen - I can't see how we magically think that is more engaging than a stand and deliver, sit and get lecture.

"We want a team to think about action research as a collaborative endeavor, where principals and teachers work together to improve something over time. It's not just about gathering data, it's about working hard to improve something. Maybe you see a need to improve writing in the building, and you're going to figure out whether there's a way to take a techno-constructivist approach to strengthening students' writing skills. Maybe you feel the culture of your school is very mired in antiquated approaches to teaching and learning, and you want to build a new culture of innovation and collaboration, so you're going to develop your project around that goal."

"where principals and teachers work together to improve something over time" HA! Techno-constructivist? Could this term be applicable to the age of chalkboard and chalk innovation? I just don't think research resultant data is going to lead the way to anything but more "initiatives". As learning facilitators, we are drowning in them and the learner targets are confused beyond measure. Maybe, the answer is as simple as priority setting AND the genuine wherewithal to put those priorities in place. If I were an instructional leader, rather than a innovative pariah or low tech Luddite, I might say that my campus community is going to tackle a learning fundamental, close reading. I form a committee, we plan activities, we go...in isolated boxes of 41 minutes x 7, while filing out reams of busy work paper & electronic documentation, while building character, fostering the whole child, honoring the best spitters of knowledge with assembly recognition and the rounds and rounds of testing - not a measure of learning, but a measure of the course and scope delivery of bloated curricula....all on a schedule determined and unchangeable by the number of buses owned and operated...that developed project is actually doomed to ineffectiveness not because of its inherent flaws, but because that leader is both structurally and functionally prevented from making it a reality. Study and Commission and White Paper away, the results are predetermined! The really sadness here is that we KNOW how to pull this off - High Tech High and New Tech Network Schools and others I can't think of that have freed themselves from structural inertia...but we wring our hands and continue to fashion work-around initiatives....that we know in advance simply will not work.