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If we are going to talk about ethics and responsibilities in the 21st century classroom, we can’t just “add on” new digital tools but we have to rethink the basics of connected, interactive, participatory learning.

The Ethics and Responsibilities of the 21st Century Classroom: A Collaborative Guide to the Best Digital Learning Practices for K-12 Teachers and Administrators.” Here’s a link to the public Google Doc that, at the moment, is open to anyone. 

Roslyn's rush of attention obscures how the district has undertaken this pilot systematically. "We've been studying 1:1 programs and what's made them successful," says Edward Salina Jr., assistant superintendent for human resources and administration. Both he and Brenner have closely aligned themselves with this project, including overseeing teacher professional development and seemingly small details such as consulting with students about the best iPad covers to buy.

Jody Bowie, a high school physics and earth science teacher at Putnam City High School in Northwest, Oklahoma, uses this program to push his students to write their own textbook. He uses an iPad in the classroom, taking advantage of the long battery life and his ability to import Google documents into the program for maximum flexibility.

t “most teachers” just don’t put in the effort to incorporate technology into their instruction. I would have to agree, but I think it’s important to ask, “Why should they?”

Or do they?… Are their colleagues telling them they have to? Are their administrators telling them they have to? Are the parents telling them they have to? If not, then they don’t have to learn it.

I believe it is our responsibility as educators to integrate technology into instruction as much as we are able to

The 2013 results represent more than 400,000 surveys from 9,000 schools and 2,700 districts across the country. Respondents included 325,279 students, 32,151 teachers and librarians, 39,986 parents, 4,530 district administrators and, new to this year’s survey, 1,346 community members.

89 percent of high schools students have access to Internet-connected smart phones, while 50 percent of students in grades 3 through 5 have access to the same type of devices

students are designing “best-fit” solutions for their very specific needs.

Personal Learning Communities

the administration is going to be actively involved in the groups as participants with teachers still being the leaders. It’s their intent to be an equal participant in the process. Teachers have been asked to choose which of the four groups they would like to join. The topics are differentiated instruction, cross-curricular projects, teaching with technology, and school culture – character education. All are meaningful, current topic areas that are connected to our school and board’s SMART goals.

that factory-model schooling was not just ineffective but actually harmful to most students—a message which had been so radical and out of the mainstream twenty years ago, actually sounded very much like the messages of my other guests.

the Internet has become an unparalleled platform for learning, intitiative, participation, productivity, and creativity, almost all of this happens outside of formal educational institutions

technology as a liberating force

most dramatic technology-enabled transformations are still ahead of us.

second part is the mobility we now have, so that the resources and connections are in our hands wherever we go

“It’s absolutely unbelievable how slow change occurs in a school system. Even if something is proven to be a great idea or something we should try, it takes a long, long time to change the whole thing—administration, teachers, parents, students. I almost expect things to look not too different in the next 10 to 15 years, unfortunately, and that’s not something that I wish.”

Below are some suggestions for using Diigo: Annotate curriculum documents and add stickies to show where tech integration is happening and could happen. That could be annotated for a group of curriculum writers. Annotate state education agency memos for your administrators. We get memos every day and they are posted online. Immediately, among a team, share the implications of the ideas in the memo, the most important points, and so on.

Many 21st century teachers are out there.

By combining the power of Diigo and Twitter, I am able to track more easily ad-hoc professional learning opportunities as they occur, as well as have conversations about them before and after they occur

36 percent of students demonstrated no significant gains in critical thinking, complex reasoning and written communication over four years of college. After only two years of college, that percentage -- 45 -- is even higher.

students aren't studying enough; faculty members aren't demanding enough of students; administrators aren't paying attention to student learning outcomes;

Messaging via Celly happens without sharing phone numbers, for example, and there are a number of controls that allow group administrators to approve or kick people.

“Adaptive technologies presume that knowledge can be modularized and sequenced,” says Watters, the education writer. “This isn’t about the construction of knowledge. It’s still hierarchical, top-down, goal-driven.”

e latest techno-fad, destined to distract administrators and upset curricula for a few years until the next one comes along. But there are two reasons why adaptive learning might prove more durable than that. The first is that the textbook companies have invested in it so heavily that there may be no going back. The second: It might, in at least some settings, really work.

“I like to think of analogies to other places where science and technology have had an impact, like transportation. We went from walking to horse-drawn carriages to Model Ts, and now we have jet planes. So far in educational technology, we’re in the Model T stage.”

Gen Z, the first generation to be considered fully “phigital”—unwilling or unable to draw a distinction between the physical world and its digital equivalent.

Exploring Computational Thinking (ECT) is a curated collection of lesson plans, videos, and other resources on computational thinking (CT). This site was created to provide a better understanding of CT for educators and administrators, and to support those who want to integrate CT into their own classroom content, teaching practice, and learning.