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This is a rather big deal: "Google now admits that it does data mine student emails for ad-targeting purposes outside of school, even when ad serving in school is turned off"

Free, open content geared toward high school students.

article in the Sydney Morning Herald

"This is a world in which public is the new default. Thought leader Michael Schrage (2010) notes that "the traditional two-page résumé has been turned into a 'personal productivity portal' that empowers prospective employers to quite literally interact with their candidate's work." The rules for building your personal brand are changing at light speed. It's not enough to suggest that we have those admirable skills of creativity, initiative, and entrepreneurship; now we have to show them in action online. In short, our résumé is becoming a Google search result, one that we build with the help of others and that requires our participation. Most students are beginning to face this reality without much assistance from the schools charged with preparing them for the world beyond school. That has to change. We need to help students understand more than just the safety and ethics of participating online; we also have to give them opportunities throughout the curriculum to find and follow their passions and publish meaningful, quality work for real global audiences to interact with." Article by Will RIchardson

It use to be you only had to worry about your school website Then it was the wikipedia entry Then came videos that kids were uploading to YouTube and Myspace Next came Facebook Shortly after that Twitter and now location services (Foursquare, Facebook Places, Gowalla and Google Latitude )

Very detailed post by Rob Newberry about setting up a minecraft activity at school. 

Digital Citizenship isn't an expression often heard outside of school. The ways in which it's discussed in main stream media are quite different from how it's discussed in schools. Most often the popular press shares sensational negative stories how kids use the internet and their phones to hurt each other. We have to have open and honest conversations about how things can and have gone wrong and what we can do to make things better in the aftermath of things like cyber bullying, online harassment, or sexting. That said, it's a far more powerful message to talk to kids and parents about how engendering empathy helps us understand each other so we choose not to hurt each other. It's also important to share stories and ideas how our modern mobile technologies empower us to effect positive change in the world around us in ways that weren't possible 10 or 15 years ago. We have to move beyond stranger danger and scare tactics. Sharing frightening stories (often overstated) does nothing to model positive outcomes or move the conversation to discussions of how to deal with something gone wrong. Kids need more models of empathy and empowerment. Parents do too.

Learn about a new "superpower" that isn't being taught in in 90% of US schools. 

"As the Council on Foreign Relations reported recently, America continues to slip down the international rankings in education, falling during the past three decades from first to tenth in the educational level of those leaving high school, and from third to 13th for college students. Education technology could reverse this trend-if it is not jinxed by politics, bureaucracy and outdated institutional structures. Countries where it is not now have the chance to race ahead. "

One of the most misunderstood terms in education is "classroom management," which is often seen as a synonym for discipline. Imagine asking the manager of a store to explain his job and he says, "My job is to discipline the customers." And when the same question is posed to the manager of a team, she says, "I discipline the players." Yet, discipline is the prevailing response of most educators when asked about classroom management.

Great source of information, research and news for international schools around the world

George Couros outlines the Why & How of social media for administrators. Great collection here.

"What School Leaders Need to Know About Digital Technologies and Social MediaThis page contains resources from the ASB Unplugged 2012 Leadership Institute in Mumbai, India. These materials are made available under a Creative Commons 3.0 attribution-share alike license, which means that you are both allowed and encouraged to use them! Please contact Drs. Scott McLeod or Jayson Richardson if you have any other questions about these resources."