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I've been hearing about his PA Cyberschool on NPR and it really sparked my interest, so I decided to check it out. I wonder how this use of technology is going to impact students long term educational prospects?

This is really interesting! I've been looking at e-learning, so it's interesting to see this example. I wonder how enrolled students would fare if they choose to attend higher education? Adjusting to the social aspect that the level of technology used might be difficult.

http://jewishvoiceandopinion.com/2010/11/pre-college-learning-center-nj%E2%80%99s-new-jewish-high-school-offering-customized-education-for-5000-per-year/ Just saw this today. Jewish Day Schools have been in trouble financially for a number of years; one is opening in New Brunswick this fall that will only charge $5,000 tuition because they are taking a similar approach to the PA Cyberschool (though I doubt it costs them $5K per student). I have doubts whether this model is sustainable at this cost; having experienced online classes it's more work for teachers and professors, not less.

If you don't have time to read, there's a video about the new school. I thought this was going to be a "distance learning" sort of school, but was glad to see that they simply have prioritized integrating technology into the school. This article is from 2009. I wonder how well the school is doing two years later?

It will be even more interesting to see the effects once they move on to college and graduate. The kids seemed really excited about this new system too!

Yes, very interesting.... I wonder if this might not be a new school media specialists opportunity.

I felt like I hit the jackpot when I found this article on eSchool news. A company called 3D Game Lab offers workshops to teachers on how to design/incorporate games into their curriculum. As the article says, lessons learned from "Worlds of Warcraft" are applied to the design of games that cover school curriculum topics. Check out the link to the company and the You-tube video.

I really like the idea of teacher training on this topic. I have the feeling that gaming is a real "outlier" in the world of education... but isn't this where many students go after their school day is over? Why not start training teachers on how to make this part of the curriculum.

Elisa - I agree with you. I also think that just as necessary as training teachers, is getting administrators/directors of curriculum on board with the idea...! I think that's the bigger challenge...

Found this wiki - the point of it is to "build a 'best of the web' reading / watching list for school leadership regarding using social media for school advancement. Rather than talk about how great social media is we're using social media to build this reading list." It's got a TON of information in a useful format. Check it out.

Research Impacting Lives. Everyday. Making a difference in the world is no easy task, but it happens every day at the School of Informatics. Our world-class faculty use their diverse research backgrounds and passion for computing and technology to solve pressing problems facing our society today.

I swear I just posted this to the group but it didn't show up, so apologies for a potential duplicate. This blogger observes the fact that a traditional mass media (think Nightly News with Walter Cronkite) doesn't really exist anymore, thanks to social news sites, YouTube, and the explosion of TV channels.

i always wonder about this...if the nightly news will ever "die out." i think about how older people (like my parents and grandparents) still turn the tv on to watch the news every single night, no matter what. personally i hope the nightly news sticks around. i find myself overwhelmed by online content. the news program gives me a summary of some issues...and if i want to do addition research on my own online, i can (don't have to trust them as the only 'authority'). maybe it's lazy that i want them to choose for me. but i like watching regular news programs...especially because i know those stories will come up on the daily show/colbert report :)

I took a class called "Internet and Democracy" at the UT school of journalism last year. It was fascinating to see how the journalism folks are getting used to social media. A lot of the same questions as LIS, but really working from a different model.

I often get frustrated by my 77 year old mother, who recently got a nice new computer (under much pressure from her daughters), but has a lot of reluctance about using it. This journal (iJETS) had many articles such as this one, that I believe could shed light on tactics to motivate this segment of society.

I really enjoyed this article, because my 63 year old mother in law is very computer-resistant, and I find it very frustrating. She wants to talk to me on the phone, but I really only want to use email. A generation difference really can make a technology difference.

My mom is also not online and no interest in the iPad. She often comments how the newspaper in her city is getting thinner and thinner so I often wonder if her view of the world and events if filtered by the fact that she's not online, and so much news and opinion is. Conversely, I met up with an old friend from high school last week who told me he refuses to really activate his Facebook account because his 70-something mom is on it and very active. I also know 30 year olds who only use computers and email at work because they have to and eschew everything else. Generalizations aside, I'm not convinced it's physical age, but more of a state of mind when it comes to new technology.

Zizi Papacharissi is a professor and head of the communications department at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She has written a lot of really interesting stuff on social media and internet culture that she links to on the "research" page of her website. I've come across her stuff before and I think she's pretty cool!

It seems to be that Indiana University is a top school for social informatics research. Any others out there that we should be looking at in particular?

I went on Social-informatics.org which gives a list of study programs around the country and world.

Interesting perspective on the benefits of having a smartphone. I still haven't committed to getting one yet, but I can see his point. It's also interesting to think about his 4th point about always having answers after having read the JSB essays. Is it actually limiting us? Also, as Kelly pointed out, if fire is an external stomach, would the smartphone/computer be the external mind? Maybe he said that in there and I missed it, but having an external mind is pretty useful.

I am still getting used to my iPhone; the main thing I feel that I get from it when I'm delayed or away from a computer, I can do small tasks, which is mostly check email and Facebook, use Notes if I want to jot down a few thoughts related to school/work. Small stuff, but it makes me feel more productive. I'm not a big app user yet, but I do think I have to get that public restroom one.

I really enjoyed reading this article because I'm not yet a smartphone user... which I guess means that I still get lost and I still waste time. It was a little scary though, as if the smartphone makes you a little closer to being perfect...

I actually just finished a meeting with a first year teacher in Philadelphia who also found Facebook to be an important tool in her professional development. It worked as an outlet to share ideas and push one-anothers thinking

I agree that social media can be a very powerful force for teachers as a teaching tool that crossing all types of boundaries. It really all depends on how teachers use these resources. I'm particularly interested in policies that school districts come up with in terms of regulating how teachers use facebook versus their right to free speech.

Two examples of using social media in the classroom. It basically comes down to this quote at the end of the article - "The bottom line is this: Anyone can be involved in solving the problems of our era. With 21st century tools, a small group of students can stand up to the devastation of nature, and a small group of teachers can be strengthened by the shared opinions of a larger group and take a stand against the devastation of certain policies that may control our practice."

While searching web 2.0 and social software applications in K-12, I cam across this interesting article about how the success of gaming is based on perceptions of teachers. This idea of "perception" I becomes really important when trying to implement new technologies in schools.

A CS professor in a business school talks about cheating -- interesting intersection of technology, social behavior, and ethics from a SI perspective.

Posted: Monday, June 27, 2011 10:00 am | Updated: 10:50 am, Mon Jun 27, 2011. By EMILY DUPUIS / Sun Staff Writer The Westerly Sun | WESTERLY - Some local families will be receiving much-needed computers, thanks to teens studying computer repair at Westerly High School.

I never realized there were so many categories of games. Check out the video about the piano staircase, designed to get more people to take the stairs. It's an example of gamification, creating a game that encourages people to buy a product or to behave in a particular way.

Using this definition, "serious games" are the types that we would use in schools to teach a particular concept, while "gamification" is turning anything into a game. It seems to me that many of is in this class would be more interested in the idea of "serious games", unless we were trying to do some sort of public relations effort in our library, which might bring more of "gamification" into play.

I've been having some technical problems starting a new link to a US Depart. of State sponsored Serious Games Conference, so here it is: http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2011/05/164134.htm Further down the page is a link to live streaming of the conference. It really is starting to look like serious business..!

This is a newsletter about the virtual education movement as it confronts state politics, as chronicled in the "Liberating Learning Wiki Project." According to one report, NJ has been approved for two virtual H.S. in the next two years.