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"Collaborative schooling is a model where the school collaborates with, and provides direction and support for its homes and community. It recognizes the profound impact the home has upon education and that in most of the students' homes and communities there is a vast, largely untapped 'teaching' capacity. It therefore seeks to integrate the efforts of the home and the school. The school has already recognized the opportunities the network and digital technologies provide for the school to network and work collaboratively with their homes and desired parts of their school community. This is seen in the following:"

"Scott McLeod, in his blog, Dangerously Irrelevant, recently reminded us of a line from Mission Impossible, and we must apply that challenge to all of society. "Your assignment, should you choose to accept it" is to take education truly into the 21st century. It is not enough to say that we are already living there. Technically it is the 21st century, but our schools are not there, and our challenge now is to reinvent schools for the 21st century - for the sake of our children, our students and the welfare of our world. Making such a paradigm shift is not easy. After all, when any of us thinks of education, we usually think of what we knew as school - the way it has always been. That is how parents, policy makers, politicians and many students think of school. But we have to make the paradigm shift to 21st century education. So what is 21st century education? It is bold. It breaks the mold. It is flexible, creative, challenging, and complex. It addresses a rapidly changing world filled with fantastic new problems as well as exciting new possibilities. Fortunately, there is a growing body of research supporting an increasing number of 21st century schools. We have living proof, inspiring examples to follow, in schools across the United States. These schools vary, but are united in the fundamentals of 21st century education - see Critical Attributes of 21st Century Education and Multiple Literacies for the 21st Century. Scott McLeod has issued the challenge of creating a plan to get us from "here" to "there"."

"eduSTAR.ISP is the centralised internet service for schools (see School email "S582-2009 Centralised Internet Services for Schools"). The service started from 1 January 2010. Netspace Online Systems has been selected as the central supplier for internet services to schools."

Details about how eduSTAR.ISP works for Victorian state schools.

"Over the past few years, Forsyth County Schools in Georgia has been moving toward allowing students to bring their own technology to school. The district updated its acceptable use policies, beefed up its infrastructure and piloted the initiative. But the schools decide what that initiative would look like in their buildings. In all 35 schools, students can bring personal devices. In 25 schools, the initiative has permeated the buildings, and in the other 10, has made its way to some individual classes."

"A report commissioned by the Gillard government found rapid advances in technology and growth in students owning their own smartphones and tablets, combined with their declining cost, supported schools introducing a ''bring your own device'' policy. While this would ease pressure on schools faced with replacing the government-supplied computers it does raise equity issues for disadvantaged students."

"The Department has provided these templates to assist school communities to develop agreements as to what constitutes acceptable use of internet, Ultranet, netbooks and other online and digital technologies in their communities. These agreement are templates. Schools can add and/or delete information where necessary to make them relevant to their school environment."

"The Digital Learning Branch provides advice and manages a comprehensive suite of digital systems, tools and resources to support schools design and deliver contemporary curriculum and enhance outcomes for students. The key focus of the Branch is to influence schools to leverage the potential of investments in digital technologies, and embed their use into school practice."

"Welcome to the Google Apps Education Training Center. This is an online learning environment dedicated for educators and students to learn how to effectively use Google Apps in an educational context. Access to a Google Apps Education account is strongly recommended so that you can experiment and apply what you learn. There are six modules of training content available. Each module has several chapters with many lessons. After reviewing the entire training course, an individual will have a solid understanding of all the products in the Google Apps suite. Learning objectives include: * Customize Google Apps for your school * Organize your email more effectively * Create shared calendars for your school * Collaborate with others, online, on documents, presentations, and spreadsheets * Deliver and collect surveys, quizzes, and feedback * Develop a media-rich website without looking at code * Set-up an internal video portal just for your school Each chapter will take from 10 to 20 minutes to complete. Browse the modules on the right to see a list of chapters for each topic."

Following the launch of the iPad last spring, many schools made headlines by announcing their plans to distribute the devices to teachers and students and to incorporate the iPad into coursework. Now that the fall term is over, several of those schools are reporting on what was, for many, the first full semester using iPads in the classroom. So does the iPad make the grade? If so, will it usher in a new wave of educational tablets as some analysts are predicting?

Digital Leader programme "Show them something they are interested in and they want to know more. If they come up against a barrier, they want to overcome it. If they can find out something no-one else knows, they want to share it. Successful Digital Leaders are the epitome of the curious student with more to offer schools than perhaps any other student body at this time. The classroom environment is changing and students and teachers need their help."

"Mostly these correspondences are a few emails to support educators as they explore Evernote for their schools. Occasionally, however, I have the privilege of hearing over a whole year about how a teacher or a school has transformed the learning landscape of their students using Evernote for Portfolios."

"Victorian high schools will trial the country's first Year 12 computer science subject next year, in a bid to reverse a long-term decline in enrolments in hardcore computer science and engineering courses in Australian universities."

As more teachers and students adopt new technologies, including Evernote, they're looking for useful resources to help them along the way. We're excited to introduce them to Evernote for Schools, our new microsite devoted to helping those in the education community use Evernote more effectively.

"Let's get the harsh facts out there first - IT's in trouble, deep trouble. It has become way too reactionary. By IT I mean 'traditional' IT, the time honored 'old school' way of doing things. The pace of tech adoption is accelerating. By rights this should be a terrific opportunity for technologists and IT teams. In reality, old school IT has been shocked and awed by the consumerization of IT. "

"When we perceive of risk in sharing publicly and interacting online we nearly always risk obscuring huge benefits with our own inflated fear of the unknown. Research shows that digital risks are far outweighed, in fact, by challenges more close to home and school." From Ewan McIntosh comes this review of current research into issues of cyberbullying and connectivity

As part of its continued focus on optimising technology in schools, the Victorian Government, with support from Apple, is examining how iPads can be best used in schools. In a classroom with 1-to-1 devices such as the iPad, contemporary ways of learning can be optimised. ICT-rich learning and teaching opportunities can increase student participation, engagement and achievement.

"Free Software for Schools is a catalogue of open source computer programs for teaching and learning. The catalog is organised by the following categories, and contains an index that lists the name of each program listed."

Good catalgue of educational software, much of it free to download and share.

"Andrew has recently been described as an "interesting mixture of Billy Connolly, Tim Winton and Frasier Crane" and as someone who "puts the heart back into psychology". As a clinical psychologist, Andrew Fuller works with many schools and communities in Australia and internationally, specialising in the wellbeing of young people and their families."

Imaginative and engaging clinical psychologist who works with teachers and schools.

Mike Fisher's livebinder on iPads In Schools has lots of links to user guides, tips, for students, for teachers for special ed, for administrators and more.

" Video explaining how we are using design spaces in the #ultranet to organise the school daily bulletin"

Handy as I am also at a multi-campus school. Nice integration with GoogleDocs for online editing.