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"About Our Motivation: Challenges and opportunities, created by our global society, invite teachers, administrators, and students to rethink the way they teach, lead, and learn. The rise of social networking, the ease with which information is shared, and the growth of our global economy are just a few factors that have made it obvious that the 21st century is a much different world than the 20th century. And yet, when we take a good, hard look at the culture within our schools, do we see that much has changed from yesterday to today? We may see more technology used in the classroom and maybe more discussions on the "content vs. skills" debate in the faculty rooms. But underneath it all, have things really changed? Have we successfully forged a culture where life-long learning, personal growth, and collaboration are valued and practiced among all members of the school community? In Richard DuFour's article "Why Look Elsewhere?: Improving Schools from Within," he states that "it is context-the beliefs, expectations, behaviors and norms that constitute the culture of a given school-that plays the largest role in deciding whether a professional development program will make a difference in that school." If a school's goal is to improve student achievement, and a school considers learning to be the crux of its community, then effective professional development-where teachers and administrators themselves become learners-is the bridge to achieving that goal."

Free K12 Online Software Tutorials Give your school Free Online Software Training for the 2008-2009 school year. An unlimited number of users can access over 10,000 Online Software Tutor

Classifieds for schools, teachers & homeschools - like "ebay" or "craig's list" for school supplies and needs

Soshiku is a simple but powerful tool that manages your high school or college assignments. Soshiku keeps track of when your assignments are due and can even notify you via email or SMS. And it's totally free.

Digital Learning Day, February 6, 2013, is a national celebration of teachers that shines a spotlight on successful instructional technology practice in classrooms across the country. Add your voice and expertise to tens of thousands of educators representing nearly 2 million students in ongoing activities, idea sharing, and collaboration leading up to the big event. Mark your calendar for February 6, 2013 and join the wave of innovation sweeping through our nation's schools. Participation is free and easy

We often hear about tech-savvy educators and administrators who have an array of best practices and whose love for technology is evident. But as anyone who's ever been part of a school or district knows, not all teachers and administrators are as comfortable or familiar with technology.In a recent "Question of the Week," we asked our tech-savvy readers: "How do you get tech-reluctant teachers and administrators to use technology effectively?" Here are our readers' top answers (edited for brevity).

"With approximately six hours of actual instructional time per school day, what percentage of that time are students actively engaged and cognitively invested in what is being taught or learned in your classroom? What evidence do we as teachers have that students are actually cognitively in tune with us? And what wonderful and deep critical thinking are we missing out on by not requiring evidence of processing and content-based interaction by our students? Listening Objects"

"Summer has officially started for many of you! I know that you will probably be relaxing for the first few days, but eventually you may feel the need to be inspired and motivated for the upcoming school year! Social media provides us with incredible opportunities to choose the way we want to develop professionally. You can choose the topic, the medium, and who you want to learn from. You can choose the way you like to learn, because social media provides us with several multimedia experiences, such as webinars, LMS, live video, and more. The experience is usually dynamic and motivating because you are learning with others around the world! Additionally, you will be developing your Personal/ Passionate Learning Network (PLN)."

Professional Development is no longer a "one-size fits all" experience. There are many different free technology tools that can be used to deliver sustainable professional development. Administrators, Teachers and Staff can experience professional development in their classroom, office, school district or even from the comfort of home. This workshop will give you free and different ways to deliver professional development to your staff and colleagues, keeping in mind that all of us, at some time or another, feel like the teacher in the teacher tube video below.

A Professional Learning Community (PLC) is defined as a school in which the professionals (administrators and teachers) continuously seek and share learning to increase their effectiveness for students, and act on what they learn

Great teachers help create great students, agreed? In fact, research shows that an inspiring and informed teacher is the single most important school-related factor influencing student achievement. So, what helps teachers become great? What equips them in helping students reach their highest potential?

Being a lead teacher is a big responsibility and it is important to work out a 'job description' with your principal. You need to know exactly what is expected of you. A lot of lead teachers find they become over loaded with work auditing, upgrading, maintaining etc the school ICT infrastructure. You may enjoy taking on this responsibility it is just a good idea to understand the expectations of the role in the first place.

"Chris Dede, a professor of learning technology at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, is a leading authority on online teacher professional development. For 16 years, beginning in the early 1990s, Dede taught a course at HGSE called "Learning Media That Bridge Distance and Time." The rapid changes in interactive technology during that period brought the potential of online teacher learning into sharp focus for Dede. "I saw it as an important way of scaling up quality instructional practice, and an important lever for education reform, but also I saw that it wasn't going far very fast," he explains. Dede's investigations into online professional development led him to gather a group of researchers, distance-learning experts, and professional development providers at a conference at Harvard in 2005, and subsequently to publish, as editor, Online Professional Development for Teachers: Emerging Models and Methods (2006). The book, which explores the strengths and tensions of online teacher training, has become a key resource in the field."

"Welcome to the workspace for the Horizon.K12 Project. This space is a place for the members of the Horizon.K12 Advisory Board to manage the process of researching, discussing, and ultimately, selecting the topics for the 2010 Horizon Report: K-12 Edition. The annual K12-focused report, which summarizes the qualitative research that will be conducted on this wiki, and the K12 Project as a whole are a collaboration between The New Media Consortium and the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN). The generous support of the Office of Global Social Innovation at Hewlett Packard makes this research possible and is thankfully acknowledged."

"With classes, homework, and projects-not to mention your social life-time is truly at a premium for you, so why not latch onto the wide world that Google has to offer? From super-effective search tricks to Google hacks specifically for education to tricks and tips for using Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Calendar, these tricks will surely save you some precious time."

"Colllabo is a sharing and collaboration community for educators. As technology improves, access to quality resources and information does not need to be limited to inside your school. Educators around the globe are doing amazing work with students every day, and we need a place for this work to be shared, discussed, and developed. Colllabo is a community where educators can ask and answer questions, share and recommend lessons, as well as collaborate together on projects."

We, at LoTi, are proud to announce the release of the free LoTi Digital-Age Survey to all public schools in the United States. The LoTi Digital-Age Survey provides each participant with an empirically-validated tool that creates a personalized digital-age professional development profile aligned to the NETS for Teachers (NETS-T). This profile offers recommendations aligned to five popular instructional initiatives including (1) Level of Teaching Innovation (LoTi), (2) Partnership for 21st Century Skills, (3) Marzano's Research-based Instructional Practices, (4) Daggett's Rigor & Relevance, and (5) Webb's Depth of Knowledge.

"The problem is that to have a Google Docs account, you need an email address. You need it to verify your Google Docs account. Most elementary and some middle school students don't have email addresses and their parents may not want them to have one. If a teacher helps a student create an email account and the student uses that account for troublemaking or connects to the wrong people, there could be some liability issues. At least that's what scares teachers."

"I created this blog as a place to share SMART Board resources with teachers at my school, the district, or anyone else who stops by. Thanks for visiting, and please feel free to leave a comment."

What goes on in the mind of a cheating student? Most educators would love to peek inside those young brains to see what motivates the eye wandering or cell-phone sneaking, in an attempt to prevent it. Researcher and expert on cheating Eric Andermann, director of Ohio State University's School of Education Policy and Leadership, has found that the goal that students are encouraged to work toward significantly affects whether they cheat or not.