Schools and Tech

SaTP_38_Learning_and_the_Brain_pt._2.mp3 Listen on Posterous News of the Week:1) The World is Obsessed with Facebook, a staggering kinetic typography video on how much the world uses Facebook. - KB2) Negative+Math+Stereotypes=Too few women  TATWomen earned only 18% of all Computer Science degrees and made up less than 25% of the workers in engineering- and computer-related fields in 2009. These statistics stand in stark contrast to the gains they have achieved in law, medicine, and other areas of the workforce.  3) QuickCite  TATScan your books. Rock your world.  Need to cite a reference?Don't worry, we got your back.  Just scan the barcode of a book and receive the citation in your email inbox.Main Topic:   Learning and the Brain Follow-Up A Growing Trend for Dealing with WMDs* in the Classroom: Tech Breaks “If you keep tech away/off for 15 minutes, then we will have a short tech break” - Students don't fret about checking (and surreptitiously try to check phones, etc)... and they report being happier *Wireless Mobile Devices”   The Marshmallow Test - In the late 1960s, psychologist Walter Mischel performed a series of tests on preschoolers referred to as The Marshmallow Tests. Mischel would give a child a single marshmallow, then leave him or her alone in the room with it. Before he departed, he'd make each kid an offer: if they wanted to, they could eat it immediately -- but if they waited for him to return, they'd get two marshmallows. The tests were designed to examine willpower and the mental processes behind delayed gratification. Watching kids go through the experiment can be poignant... and adorable. Open Phone Tests - is this the wave of the future? Global Assessment Alternatives PISA testing - OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development)     actual numbers from The Principal Difference Erik Hanushek’s take on the PISA cross-comparisons Tim's Tech Tidbit: Home Broadband continued:  Wireless Access Point Security (“use the password!”) and change the channel (conflicts with phones and microwaves) Endorsements: Roger: Teach Genetics - Great background material and hands-on labs designed for educators.  Down-loadable lesson plans, plus can go online to do virtual labs & Sherry Turkle - Alone Together -- Why We Expect More from Technology and less from each other. Cammy:  Vassar’s Sistine Chapel in Second Life (YouTube Clip) Kevin:  Kindle for Windows or Mac OSX Tim: Learn to Code: The Full Beginner’s Guide (LifeHacker) - Learn How to Code this Weekend - Programmer 101: Teach Yourself How to Code   Permalink | Leave a comment  »

SaTP_37_Learning_and_the_Brain_Conference.mp3 Listen on Posterous 1)   iPad passes Reed College higher ed test  TAT (tuaw.com)Reed College took the Apple iPad for a spin in 2010 and was pleased with the tablet's performance as an educational tool.2) A Dozen or So Reasons I Applaud Lamar High School for Ditching School Library Books by Lisa Nielsen  TAT (Tech&Learning)Librarians, educators, and parents are up in arms after Principal James McSwain of Lamar High School in Houston, Texas ditched many of the books in his library and re-opened the facility as a high-tech Reading / Research Center & Coffee Shop this year.3) Watson wins ‘Jeopardy!’ bout against humans KB http://blog.seattlepi.com/thebigblog/2011/02/16/watson-wins-jeopardy-bout-against-humans/Main Topic: Learning and The Brain - iGeneration: How the Digital Age Is Altering Student Brains, Learning & TeachingTim's Tech Tidbit:Home networking, broadband connectivity and NAT (Network Address Translation) (wired vs. wireless) Endorsements: Sean: Anti-endorsement! Down with PowerPoint!   Endorsing Presentation Zen and writings of Guy Kawasaki Cammy: Notability Kevin: Portal videogame The Race for the Double Helix Watson and Crick race to find the structure of DNA before Linus Pauling, Maurice Wilkins, or Rosalind Franklin can find the key to unlocking the secret. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093815/ Tim:   Permalink | Leave a comment  »

SaTP_#36_Nextvista.org_and_Rushton_Hurley.mp3 Listen on Posterous News of the Week: 1) Introducing TEDbooksWe're thrilled to announce the launch of TEDBooks, an imprint of short nonfiction works designed for digital distribution. Shorter than traditional books, TEDBooks run less than 20,000 words each -- long enough to explain a powerful idea, but short enough to be read in a single sitting. … Does this mean the dumbing down of reading? Actually, we suspect people reading TEDBooks will be trading up rather than down. They'll be reading a short, compelling book instead of browsing a magazine or doing crossword puzzles. Our goal is to make ideas accessible in a way that matches modern attention spans. … TEDBooks are available from Amazon.com as Kindle Singles. They can be purchased for $2.99 each, and can be read on any device equipped with the Kindle app: iPad, Mac, PC, Android, iPhone, Blackberry and Windows 7 smartphones.Gunn High School in Palo Altohttp://gunnlibrary.tumblr.com/2) New A.P. Bio Ready to Roll but US History Isn’t - NYT 3) Future Shock  2.2  Alvin Toffler was “spot on” in his prescient disquisition of 1966.  Now his associates have offered another rubric for thinking about what may well be coming down the pike. They offer these thoughts free on line at   http://www.toffler.com/docs/40%20for%20the%20Next%2040%20101011%20FINAL.pdf4) Study Finds Social-Skills Teaching Boosts Academics - EdWeek Social and emotional education seeks to provide a foundation for academic instruction by teaching students skills in self-awareness and management, getting along with others and decision-making. 5) Apple patents an iPad stylus... For students? - NYTBill Gates, founder of Microsoft, made this observation last year when he said students need a pen to be able to interact with a tablet in a school setting. Mr. Gates said that the iPad is good for reading, but not necessarily creating.Others are thinking about it. What if Apple were to make a stylus for the iPad that also was a recording device like the Livescribe pen?Or better, imagine your professor talks and it’s all auto-transcribed to your iPad.6) Technology and Schools: Should We Add More or Pull the Plug? - HuffPost - Laurie David is the author of The Family Dinner. Susan Stiffelman is the author of Parenting Without Power StrugglesIt is time to engage in a purposeful, reasoned debate about where we're headed with the use of digital devices in the classroom. We recognize that there is tremendous value in technology and learning, and are by no means advocating abstinence. But we need to be cautious about plugging our kids in more, pushing them into an even greater dependence on electronics. We need balance that stems from understanding that more isn't necessarily better.7) Tree octopus exposes internet illiteracy mySA Most students “simply have very little in the way of critical evaluation skills,” Leu said. “They may tell you they don’t believe everything they read on the Internet, but they do.”Main Topic: Rushton Hurley from NextVista.org Permalink | Leave a comment  »

SaTP_35_State_of_the_Union.mp3 Listen on Posterous News of the Week: 1) Kevin’s new Chrome Laptop 2) Internet Down in Egypt. Yahoo and Fox News - Thurs pmCAIRO – Internet service in Egypt was disrupted and the government deployed an elite special operations force in Cairo on Friday, hours before an anticipated new wave of anti-government protests.Jeff Jarvis on the Huffington Post  Support for the Disconnected in Egypt 3) Keep All the Top Teachers - OpEd by Michelle Rhee, Sunday (Jan 22) - NYT(toward the end) - In his State of the Union address, President Obama should call for a federal law that would require states to help parents ascertain whether their children are getting the high-quality instruction they need to prepare for college and the work force. Parents who find that their children are not being taught by an effective teacher in a successful school should have the right to vote with their feet by choosing a different school.Now that 12 of the 50 states have laws that allow school administrators to consider teacher effectiveness in making layoff decisions, one in four children in America stand to benefit. President Obama must make an all-out effort to help the other three.4) Does College Make You Smarter - OpEd Debate, Mon (Jan 24) - NYT A recent book titled "Academically Adrift," claims that 45 percent of the nation's undergraduates learn very little in their first two years of college.The study, by two sociologists, Richard Arum of New York University and Josipa Roksa of the University of Virginia, also found that half of the students surveyed did not take any classes requiring 20 pages of writing in their prior semester, and one-third did not take any courses requiring 40 pages of reading a week.The research has come in for some criticism. But a larger question is: Have colleges, in their efforts to keep graduation rates high and students happy, dumbed down their curriculums?5) Google and Mozilla Announce New Privacy Features - Tanzina Vega, Mon (Jan 24) - NYT [In Firefox] The mechanism, being called a Do Not Track HTTP header, would rely on companies that receive the information to agree not to collect data.... Tracking Protection for Internet Explorer 9 that would rely on lists that users create that indicate which sites they do not want to share information with....Google’s approach relies on a browser extension, or plug-in, called Keep My Opt-Outs that will work with all versions of its Chrome browser. The extension would allow users to permanently opt out of being tracked by online advertisers who already offer opt-out options through self-regulation programs6) Severe Mental Health Disorders Untreated in Many U.S. Teens - MedicineNet.ComResearchers examined data from a nationally representative sample of 6,483 adolescents, aged 13 to 18, and found that only 36.2% of those with any mental disorder received treatment.The disorders most likely to be treated were attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (59.8%) and behavior disorders, such as oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder (combined 45.4%), study author Kathleen Ries Merikangas, of the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health, and colleagues found.On the other hand, only about one in five teens with anxiety, eating or substance abuse disorders received treatment. In addition, Hispanic and black adolescents were less likely than whites to receive treatment for mood and anxiety disorders, even when the disorders caused severe impairment, the researchers noted.7) Barak Obama’s State of the Union Address - Racing to the Top =?= our Sputnik Moment Tim's Tech Tidbit:The era of the appstore - discussing the arrival of the MacAppStore on the sceneEndorsements: Cammy: The Wave by Susan Casey Kevin: the friend ID game in facebook when abraod and increased security in facebook Tim: introducing the Apps Marketplace’s new EDU category Permalink | Leave a comment  »

SaTP_34_Cal_Leage_of_Schools_PLC_and_Tech_Conference.mp3 Listen on Posterous News of the week: 1) In Florida, virtual classrooms with no teachers - NYTimes  MIAMI — On the first day of her senior year at North Miami Beach Senior High School, Naomi Baptiste expected to be greeted by a teacher when she walked into her precalculus class. “All there were were computers in the class,” said Naomi, who walked into a room of confused students. “We found out that over the summer they signed us up for these courses.”Naomi is one of over 7,000 students in Miami-Dade County Public Schools enrolled in a program in which core subjects are taken using computers in a classroom with no teacher. A “facilitator” is in the room to make sure students progress. That person also deals with any technical problems. 2) (On a related note) Bill Gates Says Tech Is The Key to Driving Down College Costs (3 min clip) “trying to provide a $200,000 education to every kid who wants it- and only technology can bring that down not just to $20,000 but to $2,000” pro-KIPP & charter schools’ immersing students in learning - “Thank god for charters. There’s no room for innovation in the standard system.... There should be about 20 times as much [experimentation] as there is.” note he doesn’t predict radical changes in K-12 by virtue of parents’ need for someone to “babysit” - ouch Dissent Magazine on Bill Gates in education via Arts & Lettershttp://dissentmagazine.org/article/?article=37813) New MIT OpenCourseWare Initiative Aims to Improve Independent Online Learning These aren't distance learning classes - there is no instructor, no contact with MIT, no credit. But the courses are meant to be stand-alone offerings, not requiring any additional materials for learning.4) Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, Amy Chua I haven’t read the book, but I’ve been enjoying the national dialog over it. Anyone else? - KBhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/margaret-heffernan-/if-youll-do-anything-for-_b_810350.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/18/opinion/18brooks.html?src=me&ref=homepagehttp://www.montereyherald.com/entertainment/ci_170877055) 3 Big Reasons Harvard Has A Record Number of Applicants - Edudemic - CT (#1 and # also fit for Stanford according to recent articles...Stanford received 23,956 applications for admission to the Class of 2011. This number represents an increase of more than 7 percent from last year.  2,465 applicants, or 10.3 percent, were admitted.) Harvard had nearly 35,000 applications versus last year’s 30,489. That’s 15 percent more applicants than last year, which was also a record-setting year. This meteoric rise has a reason. It’s not just because Harvard is a good school with a good reputation. It’s in part due to the generous financial aid program.  -- Harvard College’s financial aid program requires no contribution from families with annual incomes below $60,000, and asks, on average, no more than 10 percent of income from families with typical assets who make up to $180,000 Two other factors also may have played a role in this year’s record total. The new School of Engineering and Applied Sciences continues to attract greater numbers of students who aspire to study engineering, computer science, and related fields. In addition, more students than ever before, nearly 99 percent, are using online application services. Such services enable students, especially those with few counseling or economic resources, to apply to college more easily. -- Applications increased from all geographic areas, but particularly from the South, the Midwest, the Mountain states, the Pacific region, and abroad. Gender breakdown is close to last year’s 50/50 ratio, and minority numbers have continued to rise. Main Topic:  Kevin’s Snapshot from the CLMS & CLHS Professional Learning Communities and Tech Conference Google Moderator - feedback and questions/comments during presentations for differentiated instruction Rushton Hurley - simple multimedia tools for instructional use; teachers as meaningful professionals Audience Response Systems in the Classroom - “dedicated clickers” vs. “poll anywhere” Tim's Tech Tidbit:Recording voice for making poetry mp3s the low-brow way - Audacity (Windows or Mac) http://www.how-to-podcast-tutorial.com/17-audacity-tutorial.htm - Sound Recorder (Windows) http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/dl/dl-help/help-SoundRecorder.htm - TapeDeck (Mac) http://tapedeckapp.com/Endorsements: Cammy:  Chaser the Border Collie and Animal Cognition - NYT Kevin: ctrl-f or command-f the mini search engine that can save you tons of time Tim: Why and How I Switched to a Standing Desk - SmarterWare.com   Permalink | Leave a comment  »

SaTP33.mp3 Listen on Posterous   1) Rethinking Advanced Placement NYTimes - KB“Next month, the board, the nonprofit organization that owns the A.P. exams as well as the SAT, will release a wholesale revamping of A.P. biology as well as United States history — with 387,000 test-takers the most popular A.P. subject. A preview of the changes shows that the board will slash the amount of material students need to know for the tests and provide, for the first time, a curriculum framework for what courses should look like. The goal is to clear students’ minds to focus on bigger concepts and stimulate more analytic thinking. In biology, a host of more creative, hands-on experiments are intended to help students think more like scientists.”2) PBS Newshour - “Is Technology Wiring Teens to Have Better Brains?” - (10 min video) http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/science/jan-june11/digitalbrain_01-05.html  3)  KhanApp Offers Free Education To Go Education on-the-go is now easier thanks to Khan Academy's mobile application. KhanApp is a mobile webapp that offers a full-fledged application experience around your favorite Khan Academy videos.4) Virginia Poised to Ban Teacher-Student Texting, Facebooking - (ReadWriteWeb) Such is the case with a set of guidelines, set to be voted on this week by the Virginia Board of Education, that will establish the state's policy for how students and teachers can interact via text-messaging, social networking, and online gaming. In a nutshell: they can't. 5) Connectomics from NYT’s “In Pursuit of a Mind Map, Slice by Slice”  - mapping memory and personality in the brain; “The connectome is a product of your genes and your experiences. It’s where nature meets nurture.” The project’s actual website: http://www.humanconnectomeproject.org/   Image from Flickr This project is presently working to achieve the following goals: 1) develop sophisticated tools to process high-angular diffusion (HARDI) and diffusion spectrum imaging (DSI) from normal individuals to provide the foundation for the detailed mapping of the human connectome; 2) optimize advanced high-field imaging technologies and neurocognitive tests to map the human connectome; 3) collect connectomic, behavioral, and genotype data using optimized methods in a representative sample of normal subjects; 4) design and deploy a robust, web-based informatics infrastructure, 5) develop and disseminate data acquisition and analysis, educational, and training outreach materials. Main Topic: A Quaker Education in a High-Tech Era with Guybe Slangen, Assistant Head of San Francisco Friends School - a K–8 co-educational independent school that combines outstanding academics with Quaker values of simplicity, integrity, mutual respect, and peaceful problem-solving.Endorsements: Cammy:  http://www.teachparentstech.org/ Kevin: backpacks! I like the Kata DR 467i Tim: How to Audit and Update Your Passwords Researcher Develops Password Hacking Software for Wi-Fi Networks Using Amazon Web Services Permalink | Leave a comment  »

SaTP32.mp3 Listen on Posterous News of the Week:1) Teacher Ratings Get New Look, Pushed by a Rich Watcher NYTimes KB2) Rethinking Bullying: Kids Don't See It As Bullying TechDirt TATDanah Boyd, who actually studies social interactions online among young people, recently put up a fascinating post about how kids and adults seem to totally talk past each other on these issues, in large part, because kids don't think of these things as "bullying."3) Edmodo Is a Social Network for Teachers and Students LifeHacker TATEdmodo is a teaching tool modeled after social networks with a focus on communication and not merely distribution of information from the teacher and grade reporting -- Curiously, I just made an account on Friday, based on a recommendation from the PBS gang. Would use it for sure if we didn’t have moodle. -CT4) Legislator Wants to Mandate Homework Help - TribStar - CT An Indiana state legislator intends to introduce a bill to require mandatory homework assignments for early elementary school students and measure parental involvement in its completion. State Rep. Jeff Thompson, R-Lizton, said the legislation is aimed at identifying students who lack parental support and increasing community efforts to assist those students.... Teachers would then be required to report that information to school administrators, who would then make the homework completion rate public without identifying the individual student or classroom teacher. 5) Minority Teachers: Hard to Get, Hard to Keep - Miller-McClune - CT Past studies have shown that teachers of colors are drawn to poor urban schools out of a desire to “give back” to their communities, and they tend to stay there longer than whites. But previous research by Ingersoll found that in 1995 and 2005, minority teachers had turnover rates that were 20 percent and 18 percent higher, respectively, than for whites, which was puzzling. 6) Google Chrome OS Notebooks and Education: What Cr-48 Means for Classrooms - www.chanatown.net - KB7) Study: Blame parents, not teachers - Portland Press Herald - TAT An Associated Press-Stanford University Poll on education found that 68 percent of adults believe parents deserve heavy blame for what's wrong with the U.S. education system 8) California's education outlook: huge classes, shorter school years, less learning - Redlands Daily Facts - CTHeadline is premature and possibly hyperbolic but still... fair warning to state districts: It ain’t gonna be easy.“The budget picture is so grainy that no one has specifics. But supposing a $4 billion cut, districts would lose $644per student....To save enough simply by reducing the school year, the state would have to cut back the school year to 150 days, said Ron Bennett, president of School Services of California, which advises school districts.”Endorsements: Cammy: RSS feed Psychology Headlines Around The World from The Social Psychology Network Kevin: Google Lit Trips Exploring the settings of great literature with Google Earth Tim: EFF guide to E-Book Privacy Permalink | Leave a comment  »

SaTP31.mp3 Listen on Posterous Special Guest - Ellen Masten, Academic and College Counselor Pacific Collegiate School News of the Week: 1) A world of misery left by bullying The Boston Globe - KBA dozen years have passed since Anthony Testaverde roamed the halls of Gloucester High School in fear. Yet the 29-year-old remembers the bullying like it was yesterday: the unsupervised locker room that flooded him with terror. The boy who held his arms while another classmate punched him. The day they slammed his head into a metal locker: “Why don’t you just kill yourself?’’ they asked. a growing body of research suggesting that the bullying experience stays with many victims into young adulthood, middle age, and even retirement, shaping their decisions and hindering them in nearly every aspect of life: education and career choices; social interactions and emotional well-being; even attitudes about having children.2) In class, texting is the new doodling AP - KBThe anonymous survey of 269 Wilkes [University] students found that nine in 10 admit to sending text messages during class — and nearly half say it's easy to do so undetected. Even more troubling, 10 percent say that they have sent or received texts during exams, and that 3 percent admit to using their phones to cheat.3) Hey! We're getting iPads! Isn't that great?!?!?  ZDNet Tech Ed - TAT“Although it’s a great step forward in a small, rural school that has struggled with technology implementations, I had to work pretty hard to hide my reservations and skepticism from them.”4) Why I Will Not Teach to the Test Education Week - TATIn the midst of controversy surrounding “value added” teacher assessment, which flared recently following the Los Angeles Times’ public teacher rankings, the real issue is often overlooked: The state tests being used to evaluate student progress—and, in turn, the effectiveness of teachers—virtually ensure mediocrity.Depth versus Content Learning Study5) Slate’s Classroom of the Future Pick - CT (Slate’s actual page)Main Topic: Charter Schools and College Counselling Cont’d w/ Ellen Masten What are the differences between charter schools, public schools and independent schools? What’s in the secret sauce for successful charter schools? Is admission into charter schools all conducted by lottery (as in Waiting for Superman)? What are the most influential trends in college admission processes these days? Endorsements: Cammy: 360 View of London @ http://www.360cities.net/london-photo-en.html and Tech & Learning’s Virtual Tech Forum -  8 Videos on Educating Innovatively Kevin: IPEVO camera Tim:  Desk of the Future?        5 Web-based alternatives to PowerPoint Permalink | Leave a comment  »

SaTP30.mp3 Listen on Posterous Guests Ellen Masten Academic and College Counselor Pacific Collegiate School and Michele Radcliffe, Director of College Counseling at York SchoolNews of the Week:1) Thomas Friedman’s “Teaching For America” Op-Ed piece in Sunday’s NYT Honoring teachers as professionals, preparing & compensating them accordingly; role of parents - The more we demand from teachers the more we have to demand from students and parents. 2) Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction NYTimes Magazine “Their brains are rewarded not for staying on task but for jumping to the next thing,” said Michael Rich, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and executive director of the Center on Media and Child Health in Boston. And the effects could linger: “The worry is we’re raising a generation of kids in front of screens whose brains are going to be wired differently.”Allison Miller, 14, sends and receives 27,000 texts in a month, her fingers clicking at a blistering pace as she carries on as many as seven text conversations at a time. She texts between classes, at the moment soccer practice ends, while being driven to and from school “The headline is: bring back boredom,” added Dr. Rich, who last month gave a speech to the American Academy of Pediatrics entitled, “Finding Huck Finn: Reclaiming Childhood from the River of Electronic Screens.”3) Computers In Schools Are A Failure, Says Computer Pioneer Alan Kay [Apple in Educ] Kay says the education system has squandered 30 years of technology in classrooms. He likens the modern factory educatory system to a monkey with a microscope. The monkey looks at its reflection in the microscope’s barrel but doesn’t look through the eyepiece — it utterly misses the point.4) Project Red: Do 1:1 right or don't do it at all ZDNet EducationLast month, Project Red, an initiative to “Revolutionize Education” through technology, released findings on the utility and factors for success in 1:1 computing. Their research, which spanned almost 1000 schools using a comprehensive survey instrument over the 2009-2010 school year suggested that, when done correctly, 1:1 computing can have measurable and significant impacts on teaching and learning. When done poorly, 1:1 is just an added cost without any added educational value. 5) The Secret To Getting Every Student Excited About Writing Tech&Learning “A lot of student writing is of little interest to anyone beyond the teacher.”Main Topic:  College Admission: 2010: Part I (through submitting applications) Guests Ellen Masten and Michele Radcliffe 8 Big Changes to College Admission in 2010-2011 - Yahoo News http://www.nacacnet.org/PublicationsResources/steps/Pages/default.aspx .  This is a subsection of the NACAC website, the National Association of College Admissions Counselors.  The URL gives students and parents information about various topics in the college admission process. Questions on our minds: When should students first start thinking actively about college admission and what should their initial steps entail? What are your tips for helping high school students identify the best college/universities to match their interests & personalities? How many schools should a student be applying to?  Is there a notion of applying to too many? How important are college visits? interviews with reps? teacher evaluations? course rigor vs. SAT scores? What are the trends now that admission offices with smaller staffs are inundated with more applications? (See “Application Inflation” from previous podcast) How can an applicant make his or her application stand out from the crowd? Do DVDs and ePortfolios help showcase student work effectively or are they ignored for lack of time? How has the role of private counselors evolved and are parents getting their money’s worth? A new ethics code for college admissions counselors - EducationNews.Org & USA Today 6.7.10 - The number of families hiring private counselors to advise them on the college application process continues to grow, with one recent study estimating that 26% of "high achieving" students now make use of such counselors. The field is unregulated and includes many one- or two-person operations, as well as large, slick businesses that boast about their clients' track records. Tim's Tech Tidbit: Facebook Connect (and what you give away by using it) Facebook Developer Documentation Endorsements: Cammy: VoiceThread - a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents, and videos and allows people to navigate slides and leave comments in 5 ways Kevin: 20 Things I learned about Browsers and the Web  by Google: http://www.20thingsilearned.com/ Tim: My endorsement is the same as Kevin’s! Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Schools_and_Tech_29_The_Federal_Ed-Tech_Plan.mp3 Listen on Posterous News of the Week:1) How Kinect Got an Autistic Kid Gaming  (from Gizmodo)GamingNexus editor John Yan has a four-year-old son with a mild form of autism. The little guy's tried to play 360 and PS3 but has trouble getting a hold on the controllers. With Kinect, though, he was an instant pro.2) Electrical Brain Stimulation Improves Math Skills - New Scientist 3) Teacher’s Death Exposes Tensions in Los Angeles - NYT When The Los Angeles Times released a database of “value-added analysis” of every teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District in August, Mr. [Rigoberto ] Ruelas was rated “less effective than average.” Colleagues said he became noticeably depressed, and family members have guessed that the rating contributed to his death. A moderate voice of reason? - “Not including value-added measures is not acceptable,” said Yolie Flores, a board member of the Los Angeles Unified School District. “But it also has to be part of a more comprehensive system of evaluation.” - or the contrary view - Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, argued that reliance on value-added assessments actually hindered efforts to carry out comprehensive teacher evaluations.4) from eSchoolNews -- Study: Teacher bonuses failed to raise test scores -- School of One Boosts Individual learningMain Topic: 2010 National Education Technology Plan U.S. Announces National Ed-Tech Plan Education Week The U.S. Department of Education intends to pay for research to study online professional-collaboration communities for teachers and other educators, according to the action plan in the final version of the Obama administration’s National Education Technology Plan.The final version of the plan, unveiled Tuesday by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, also pledges to finance development of open-source educational resources and launch an initiative dedicated to defining and increasing educational productivity. Mr. Duncan spotlighted the plan in a speech at a conference of the State Educational Technology Directors Association, held at the National Harbor complex in Prince George’s County, Md., just outside Washington.Tim's Tech Tidbit:  Testing your Connection Speed http://www.broadband.gov/qualitytest/about/ http://www.dslreports.com/speedtestaiming for DSL of 2-4 MBs, cable 2-6MBs, “burst capabilities” 10-20direct connections = T-1 1.2 MBs fixed, T-3 much higherEndorsements: Cammy: 16: Moments (short YouTube clip by creators of RadioLab - powerful model of digital storytelling using only 50 or so words) Kevin: California Dreaming a Creative Commons Dutch film on California’s Economic Crisis. Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Schools_and_Tech_28_The_Education_Project.mp3 Listen on Posterous News of the Week: 1) The Truthy Project  TAT  Truthy is a research project that helps you understand how memes spread online. With our images and statistics, you can help identify misuse of Twitter.2) AP History Students in Virginia High School Forbidden to Research Outside Classroom  TATABC News: Students in one Virginia history course will have to take what they learn in the classroom at face value, as their teachers forbid the use of any outside resources, including conversations with their parents.3) Like a monitor more than a tutor KBHomework helpers are part of a growing a niche industry. But educators wonder if this is another facet of “helicopter parenting.”4) Application Inflation - NYT - CTThe numbers keep rising, the superlatives keep glowing. Each year, selective colleges promote their application totals, along with the virtues of their applicants.For this fall’s freshman class, the statistics reached remarkable levels. Stanford received a record 32,022 applications from students it called “simply amazing,” and accepted 7 percent of them. Brown saw an unprecedented 30,135 applicants, who left the admissions staff “deeply impressed and at times awed.” Nine percent were admitted.The biggest boast came from the University of California, Los Angeles. In a news release, U.C.L.A. said its accepted students had “demonstrated excellence in all aspects of their lives.” Citing its record 57,670 applications, the university proclaimed itself “the most popular campus in the nation.”Such announcements tell a story in which colleges get better — and students get more amazing — every year. In reality, the narrative is far more complex, and the implications far less sunny for students as well as colleges caught up in the cruel cycle of selectivity. 5) Xmarks: Alive and Kicking - TAT (just a quick update!)“...pleased to announce that we’re in the final stages of completing a sale of Xmarks to a new owner who is 100% committed to keep our great browser sync service running smoothly.”Main Topic:   The Education Project conference in Bahrain - dedicated to creating outcomes to education reform Tim's Tech Tidbit:  FiresheepHow to protect against Firesheep attacksCloak your connection to foil Firesheep snoopers Update to last episode:  Network Activity Monitor for Windows:  ZoneAlarm, Comodo PersonalFireWall, Avast!Endorsements: Cammy: Keep up on edtech topics with http://paper.li/ISILBOY and RSA Vision app for iPhone (watch those cool animations like Sir Ken Robinson’s on your iPhone!) Kevin: Google Calendar’s World Calendar Lab extension Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Schools_and_Tech_27_Waiting_for_Superman.mp3 Listen on Posterous Schools and Tech Podcast Episode #27   News of the Week:1) Cal State Bans Students from Using Online Note-Selling Service  Indeed, the provision of the state education code does some raise questions about intellectual property and the ownership of ideas and course content. If the students don't own their class-notes - or at least, cannot sell them commercially - who does? The professor? The university? The state?2) UK: Every email and website to be stored - UK TelegraphEvery email, phone call and website visit is to be recorded and stored after the Coalition Government revived controversial Big Brother snooping plans.3) Court: No Teacher Speech Rights on Curriculum, from Education Week  - Teachers have no First Amendment free-speech protection for curricular decisions they make in the classroom, a federal appeals court ruled on Thursday."Only the school board has ultimate responsibility for what goes on in the classroom, legitimately giving it a say over what teachers may (or may not) teach in the classroom," the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, in Cincinnati, said in its opinion. 4) Some snowed-in Ohio students to learn online from The Washington Post - Way to ruin snow days, Ohio.Main Topic:   Waiting for Superman, Our Take with Special Guest, Lucy Gray an education consultant in Chicago. What Superman Got Wrong Point By Point - The Washington Post - The Answer Sheet - by Rick Ayers - CTThe amped-up rhetoric of crisis and failure everywhere is being used to promote business-model reforms that are destabilizing even in successful schools and districts. A panel at NBC’s Education Nation Summit, taking place in New York today and tomorrow, was originally titled "Does Education Need a Katrina?" Such disgraceful rhetoric undermines reasonable debate.NYT Opinion Page on Waiting for Superman & The Education Debate - from Saturday 10/2New York Review of Books piece on Waiting for SupermanWhat I Learned from NBC’s Education Summit - by Brian Jones - CTOn the same thread - Here we have a message honed to perfection... for the wealthy: the unions are the problem; the teachers need to be cheaper; give me money now for a few beautiful schools that can help break the unions and open up the education market; but don't worry, we don't want too much; we certainly don't want what your children have.That's what I learned from NBC's Education Nation Summit. Beware CEOs who say teachers are the problem. And beware CEO solutions. You might find yourself in a room without windows.(CT’s markup page)  http://markup.io/v/qe0sgyt1c0knWaiting for Superman: Don't look for easy answers the film implies, panel of educators says - Stanford Report - TATEducation spending in America has more than doubled in the last four decades – yet math and reading scores have flat-lined.What's the remedy? A panel of educators at Stanford cautioned against the quick policy cures implied in the explosive Waiting for Superman.Grading School Choice - NYT Op Ed piece reminding us all of the dangers of overpromising (a la Waiting for Superman) - CTOverpromising leads inevitably to disappointment. When it comes to raising test scores, the grail of most reformers, school choice’s record is still ambiguous. For every charter school success story like the Harlem Children’s Zone and the KIPP network — both touted in Guggenheim’s documentary — there’s a charter school where scores are worse than the public school status quo. The same is true for vouchers and merit pay: the jury is still out on whether either policy consistently raises academic performance. This doesn’t mean that school choice doesn’t work, Hess argues. It just means that the benefits are often more modest and incremental than many reformers want to think.Tim's Tech Tidbit:  Hands Off! and Little Snitch - How to know when your machine is “calling home” to someone else!Endorsements: Roger: http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/envrnmnt/drugfree/sa2lk16.htm polychromatic syllacious styluses w/ concept mapping Kevin: The Tinkering School: Gever Tully (Woodie Flowers at MIT? Lucy: The Center for Graphic Facilitation - mapping through drawings; Global  Education Conference from Nov 15-19 w/ Steve Hargadon; YoLink searching and Sweetsearch.com elemenous@gmail.com; skype/twitter = elemenous Tim:  http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100913/00133010984.shtml - register your blog for DMCA protection with the copyright office Cammy: Brain Rules for Baby - John Medina & Bookster iPad app - takes a standard book, with illustrations, and adds an audio narration recorded by a child. Each time you flip the page, the audio automatically starts, and each word is highlighted on the screen as it's said aloud. Touch individual words and they’re read aloud to help with pronunciation skills. App also allows the user to record his or her own voice for each page of the story. Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Schools_and_Tech_#26_Dr._Collins_Rethinking_Education_in_the_Age_of_Technology.mp3 Listen on Posterous Dr. Allan Collins, Professor Emeritus of learning sciences at Northwestern and author of Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology: The Digital Revolution and Schooling in America http://allancollins.northwestern.edu/index.html  When we acknowledge that 3-5% of current K-12 students are being home-schooled (and that that number may grow to 15-18% by 2020), that distance and adult education programs are thriving, that growing bodies of knowledge are now available through video and online media, that learning centers like those offered by Kaplan are burgeoning forth and making a mint, we really must accept that learning is changing and that schooling will ultimately evolve as well.  What historically has been the role of education? How is that role changing? What are the gains and losses inherent in moving toward a more technological mode of teaching and learning? What factors account for the rise in home schooling in America? the rise of learning centers? What are the positive features of these forms of education worth incorporating in the broader educational system? How might national certification systems benefit our kids by allowing more learner control? What is important to know in this day and age? What knowledge and skill sets should guide our curriculum building? What might K-12 schools look like in 2012? Endorsements: Roger: A S Neill - Summerhill - school / concept / bookKevin: Ewan McIntosh’s blog: edu.blogs.comCammy: Clever Sheep’s goo.gl + QR post  Tim: Considering the Desk (and the DeskTop) - Permalink | Leave a comment  »

SaTP25.mp3 Listen on Posterous News of the Week:1) Bing’s “Our School Needs” contest - prizes up to $100,000 - Deadline Oct 22 2) NYT Pictorial Timeline of The Evolution of Learning Machines3) The demise of XMarks & Bloglines. Where do we go from here?    XmarksPremium Pledge?4) Skype Ideas and Resources  http://techlearning.com/blogs/32874 5) A little dated: Blogpost by Shelly Blake-Plock Increase Student Engagement by Getting Rid of Textbooks  TAT6) On a related note - kno.com - Snazzy but how expensive? - Hardware - Choose from single or dual screen versions that you can write on, highlight on, watch video on. The Kno is stunningly book-like and can display a complete textbook without scrolling. Opens flat like a book or folds back on itself as a single panel slate. - Software - Revolutionary digital note-taking using natural handwriting or a keyboard. Even drag highlights or graphics from your textbook or the web directly into your notes. Write directly on the page, highlight, add sticky notes, and even display two different parts of the book at once - Tech Crunch article - 9/8/10 - The company is still planning on getting its first dual-screen tablet computer to market by the end of the year, says CEO Osman Rashid, although he won’t get specific on the price. It will be less than $1,000, but that’s as close as they’ll get. 7) Follow up on the iPad Project (Frasier Speirs) What we're reaching in some classes is the transformation stage. We're seeing the iPad completely change the way that certain subjects are taught. ...At this point, all I can give you are some practical anecdotes which, I hope, will give you a flavour of the change.Google Docs Editing coming to the iPad.“... Second, today we demonstrated new mobile editing capabilities for Google Docs on the Android platform and the iPad. In the next few weeks, co-workers around the world will soon be able to co-edit files simultaneously from an even wider array of devices.”8) Harvard Study Finds Teens Online Lack Ethics - more of the sameRELATED? Cyberbullying and a Student's Suicide Main Topic:  Tim's Tech Tidbit:   “Micro” Blogging:  Tumble Logging Using TumblrEndorsements: Cammy: Humor - Alfie Kohn vs. Dwight Schrute - YouTube clip on meaningless rewards and learning (humor) Serious - Sebastian Seung: I am my connectome (TED) - Kevin: Alice Christie on Geocaching for Middle Schools Tim:  Jeff Jarvis post on publicness My Podcast Alley feed! {pca-e66f61b3f31c928c88b9a32b29fb8239} --> Permalink | Leave a comment  »

SaTP24.mp3 Listen on Posterous News of the Week:1) Forget What You Know About Good Study Habits - NYTimes 2) In a New Role, Teachers Move to Run Schools - NYTimesNEWARK — Shortly after landing at Malcolm X Shabazz High School as a Teach for America recruit, Dominique D. Lee grew disgusted with a system that produced ninth graders who could not name the seven continents or the governor of their state. He started wondering: What if I were in charge?       Three years later, Mr. Lee, at just 25, is getting a chance to find out. Today, Mr. Lee and five other teachers — all veterans of Teach for America, a corps of college graduates who undergo five weeks of training and make a two-year commitment to teaching — are running a public school here with 650 children from kindergarten through eighth grade.       3) A Full Year of Algebra Class on Your iPad - Gizmodo ...Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is launching the app, a new Algebra 1 app,  in a year-long pilot program in California, allowing students to work through practice questions, take notes, watch video lessons and more on their iPads. The app is the first on HMH Fuse, a platform developed by the publisher for delivering interactive educational content to mobile and touchscreen devices.4) Public Schools Face Lawsuit Over Fees - NYTimes...In the suit, to be filed in a state court in Los Angeles on Friday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California names 35 school districts across California that list on their Web sites the fees their schools charge for courses including art, home economics and music, for Advanced Placement tests and for materials including gym uniforms.5) Article on The iConnected Parent - Inside Higher Ed - on the new book, The iConnected Parent: Staying Close to Your Kids in College (and Beyond) While Letting Them Grow Up...Students who were in the most frequent contact were the least autonomous. Some of these students have parents who are using the calls to continue regulating their behavior as they did in high school, reminding them what and when to study, for example, and these students are the least satisfied with the parental relationship, describing it as controlling and conflictual. Others report a “best friend” phenomenon with their parents, wanting to talk to them daily to tell them everything that is going on, and these students seem to be trading off autonomy for closeness. By contrast, there are families with moderate contact who have learned how to maintain a connection but in healthy ways that permit growing independence of thought and behavior.6) Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Stanford Report ...Students, here's an Internet site you can footnote. The entries in the online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy are written by leading experts and vetted by others before they appear. From quantum mechanics to "Human/Non-Human Chimeras," these articles, based on serious research, attract 700,000 visits per week.Main Topic: Creative Commons, Licensing, Fair Use & Copyright - joined by Student Success Teacher from Kamoka, Ontario, Rodd Lucier of the blog TheCleverSheep. Creative Commons - what is it? what's its history? how can students and educators use it effectively? The Creative Commons site A helpful Scribd synopsis & good starting point for understanding what CC is and how it might benefit student publishing *borrowed from http://www.masternewmedia.org/how-to-publish-a-book-under-a-creative-commons-license/ Open Educational Resources (OER) movement Open High School of Utah’s DeLaina Tonks: Open Education and Policy How do you see the role of Creative Commons within the OER movement? How can CC help?The mission of Creative Commons, to increase sharing and improve collaboration, is powerful for all of the right reasons. It hearkens back to the things we learned in Kindergarten about sharing and playing nice with others. The best part about Creative Commons is the breadth of licensing options available to educators in all arenas, and how nicely they dovetail with open-source curriculum, giving us the ability to select the license that best fits our needs. The challenge becomes increasing awareness, helping educators to understand how best to use Creative Commons and why it is important, and providing a forum in which to publish. The Open High School of Utah is doing its part by releasing several courses at the end of this month, all appropriately CC licensed, of course, which will draw attention to the merits of Creative Commons licensing. Keep up the good work! Connextions - a place to view and share educational material made of small knowledge chunks called modules that can be organized as courses, books, reports, etc. Steven Downes - highlights a variety of resources for open education. A final word on the origin of copyright: Article I, section 8, clause 8 of the United States Constitution provides that Congress shall have the power: "to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries." ... At the time of the writing of the Constitution "science" denoted, broadly, knowledge and learning. So the core purpose of copyright law, as expressly stated in the Constitution is: to promote the progress of knowledge and learning. Tim's Tech Tidbit:  Skype and Call RecorderEndorsements: Roger: Reusable Prezi Templates Kevin: Jonathan Coulton: Great music licensed with Creative Commons Tim: Microsoft CyberSecurity Book for Teens (FREE) Cammy: Sugata Mitra’s TED talk (Child-Driven Education) & Quiz Buzzer for IWB   Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Today on Schools and Tech we’ve got more controversy over teacher evaluations, gender bias in favor of girls and the fate of the complete book in the hands of generation text. Our main topic is service-learning.  SaTP23.mp3 Listen on Posterous News of the Week:1) Method to Grade Teachers Provokes Battle - NYT - CT the value-added modeling system calculates the value teachers add to their students’ achievement, based on changes in test scores from year to year and how the students perform compared with others in their grade.    In value-added modeling, researchers use students’ scores on state tests administered at the end of third grade, for instance, to predict how they are likely to score on state tests at the end of fourth grade.        A student whose third-grade scores were higher than 60 percent of peers statewide is predicted to score higher than 60 percent of fourth graders a year later.        If, when actually taking the state tests at the end of fourth grade, the student scores higher than 70 percent of fourth graders, the leap in achievement represents the value the fourth-grade teacher added.2) Experts caution against heavily relying on student test scores to evaluate teachers  TATStudent test scores are not reliable indicators of teacher effectiveness, even with the addition of value-added modeling (VAM), a new Economic Policy Institute report by leading testing experts finds. Though VAM methods have allowed for more sophisticated comparisons of teachers than were possible in the past, they are still inaccurate...3) Girls Think They Are Cleverer Than Boys From Age 4 & Teachers May Reinforce This Gender Gap - The Guardian - CT4) Will the Book Survive Generation Text? Chronicle of Higher Education - KBI am talking about the growing feeling among humanities professors—intuitive and anecdotal, shared over lunch like an embarrassing tale about a colleague—that for too many of today's undergraduates, reading a whole book, from A to Z, feels like a marathon unfairly imposed on a jogger.Everywhere they turn, but particularly in mainstream, sophisticated venues—where middle-aged fogies desperately seek to stay ahead of the tech curve—young people hear, through the apotheosis of tweets, blog posts, Facebook updates, and sound bites as the core of communication, that short is always smarter and better than long, even though most everyone knows it's usually dumber and worse.Reading a book, however, requires concentration, endurance, the ability to disconnect from other connections. You have to be there rather than not there. Hyperwired young people may be making it to age 17 without acquiring that ability, let alone losing it.Main Topic:  Blurring the Line b/w School and Real Life - service-learning see blog post - Minding the Hyphen If you get a chance, watch this TED video before the podcast.Kiran Bir Sethi shows her groundbreaking Riverside School in India - the “I Can” ApproachAware - Enable - EmpowerMore info:National Service-Learning Clearinghouse (www.servicelearning.org)Endorsements: Cammy: The Paradox of Time Kevin: Teach Like a Champion by Doug Lemov Tim: ExpertLabs - open programming for civic good Permalink | Leave a comment  »

SaTP22.mp3 Listen on Posterous News of the Week: 1) Later school start times and Zzzs to A'sA growing body of evidence demonstrates that growing bodies benefit from more sleep. When districts push back the start of the school day, good things happen. KB2) TeacherMate - http://www.innovationsforlearning.org/about_teachermate.php  RL3) Monterey College of Law Pilots iPad Programs for Students and Faculty As the centerpiece of a new mobile computing initiative, Monterey College of Law in California is distributing Apple iPads to all students enrolled in a supplemental curriculum program that helps them prepare for the state's bar exam. All entering first-year students signed up for the program within the first week, as did 70 percent of the remainder of the student body. CT4) Oregon State Physics  Class Experiments in Space Design Oregon State University is trying out a new type of classroom for its introductory physics courses, which typically have 75 to 100 students. The space, introduced in spring 2010, replaces rows of desks with round tables and covers the walls with giant interactive whiteboards. CT5) A triple short shot of news from today’s SJMerc. Bay Area virtual school for at risk, L A Teacher Assessment, FB.  CT (Related note - “A decade later, Pa. cyber schools go viral” - but the state's 11 digital academies have mostly failed to meet state testing standards. http://www.eveningsun.com/localnews/ci_15924871?source=rss ) 6) Internet may phase out printed Oxford Dictionary By SYLVIA HUI, The Associated Press, Sunday, August 29, 2010; 6:43 PMLONDON -- It weighs in at more than 130 pounds, but the authoritative guide to the English language, the Oxford English Dictionary, may eventually slim down to nothing. Oxford University Press, the publisher, said Sunday so many people prefer to look up words using its online product that it's uncertain whether the 126-year-old dictionary's next edition will be printed on paper at all. KB7) Anya Kamenetz , blogger, thinker, author, and staff writer for Fast Company has publisher a prescient probe into where future education may lie.  Titled DIY U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs, and the future of Higher Education it reviews some interesting applications and developments alrady underway as well as analyzes why traditional educational models fail with this generation.   If you don’t know what DIY stands for then you are not of this current generation! 8) http://www.readwriteweb.com/start/2010/08/5-ways-tech-startups-can-disru.php5 Ways Tech Startups Can Disrupt the Education SystemMain Topic:Confusing Tech Integration with Instructional Reform by Larry Cuban (whose blog is worth checking out - http://larrycuban.wordpress.com/ ) - a word of caution against jumping wholesale into the technocentric education revolution. CTEndorsements Cammy: Caffeine freeware for Mac (click a tiny icon in menu bar to keep mac from going to sleep) Permalink | Leave a comment  »

SaTP21.mp3 Listen on Posterous   News of the Week:  1) Waiting for Superman http://waitingforsuperman.com 2) Helping autistic children with iOS devices - TUAW - more help for spectrum kids3) A College Student Reviews a Smartpen - NYT - a mixed bag4) Inkling... interactive college etexts for iPad... cool... A unique feature lets you highlight text and create notes which can be shared over the air with fellow students or teachers. Once a note is displayed on another person's iPad, s/he can respond to the note's author. (TUAW) but... Prices start at $2.99 for individual chapters and $69.99 for full textbooks. (SJ Merc) 5) Unplugged Challenge http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/08/02/technology/unplugged.html?ref=t...Main Topic: Social Networking: Personal and ProfessionalFired Teacher Called Students “Germ Bags” on FB - KSBW - (Who could ask for a better lead in to a discussion of social networking at the start of the school year?) On a related note - Good Morning America’s spot w/ Middle School Principal encouraging parents to ban FB Do’s and don’ts - teachers use of social networking On a related note - Ning alternatives grouply.com grou.ps google.me Tim's Tech Tidbit:Spear-phishing Endorsements: Cammy: http://www.printwhatyoulike.com/ Kevin: Google Moderator http://www.google.com/moderator/ Permalink | Leave a comment  »

SaTP20.mp3 Listen on Posterous Schools and Tech Podcast Episode #20 Shownotes  News of the Week:1) Who's teaching L.A.'s kids?A LA Times analysis, using data largely ignored by LAUSD, looks at which educators help students learn, and which hold them back. 2) ADHD Diagnosis Rate May Vary by Age at School Entry The timing of a child's entry into kindergarten may influence the chances of receiving a diagnosis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which suggests that some diagnoses are inappropriate, researchers found. 3) Lifehacker article on getting-the-best-free-education-online 4) Encouraging entrepreneurship in schoolshttp://gizmodo.com/5612145/how-a-16+yo-kid-made-his-first-million-dollars-following-his-hero-steve-jobs Main Topic/Tim's Tech Tidbit: a 2 for 1 sale Net Neutrality http://edudemic.com/2010/08/how-and-why-to-teach-about-net-neutrality-right-now/ http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/15_facts_about_net_neutrality_infographic.php Wired Article - Decline of the Web Endorsements: Cammy:   1) Edudemic http://edudemic.com/  & Edudatum http://www.edudatum.com/2010/08/the-rise-of-text-messaging/  2) How To Do 11 Techy Things http://content.yudu.com/Library/A1oryg/Howtodo11TechyThings/resources/index.htm Kevin: Graph Jam - http://graphjam.com/ -  Google Custom Search Engine Roger: Lumosity - http://www.lumosity.com/ Permalink | Leave a comment  »

SaTP19.mp3 Listen on Posterous It's back to school time! News of the Week: 1) And just like that it’s gone? Google Wave development discontinued  TAT2) Civil War History Class as iPad app  TAT3) Putting Our Brains on Hold - NYT op ed by BOB HERBERTAccording to a new report from the College Board, the U.S. is 12th among developed nations in the percentage of 25- to 34-year-olds with college degrees. The report said, “As America’s aging and highly educated work force moves into retirement, the nation will rely on young Americans to increase our standing in the world.”        The problem is that today’s young Americans are not coming close to acquiring the education and training needed to carry out that mission. They’re not even in the ballpark. In that key group, 25- to 34-year-olds with a college degree, the U.S. ranks behind Canada, South Korea, Russia, Japan, New Zealand, Ireland, Norway, Israel, France, Belgium and Australia. That is beyond pathetic.        4) Stanford School of Medicine to distribute iPads to incoming students  TATThe Stanford University School of Medicine will be distributing iPads to its incoming class of 91 first-year medical school and master’s of medicine students during orientation later in August as part of a trial program to integrate the mobile device into academics.5) Bay Area science teachers put on lab coats and go to work at Stanford  TAT...two dozen teachers – one from a middle school in San Jose, two from junior high schools in Silicon Valley, and 21 from high schools all over the Bay Area – who are taking part in Stanford's Summer Research Program for Teachers.6) You Can Now Discount Your iOS Apps 50% For Schools from The Next Web - CTbulk educational discounts (Quells some of our fellow educators’ fears about practicality of incorporating these devices in the classroom)Main Topic: Back to School!  Tips for the First Day of Class preplanning - how many days does it take to prep? physical setup of the space setting the tone dealing with summer reading (and what is the goal anyway?) the highs and lows of tech integration - what we have to think about these days that we didn’t 5 years ago AUP or RUP? social networking policy Tim's Tech Tidbit:open ID - http://openid.net/Creative Commons on OpenID - helpful summary and list of things to considerEndorsements: Cammy: Neurofocus lab in Berkeley, CA - where neuroscience and marketing meet. Check out the video - Will this kind of research have educational applications? (I’ve just downloaded the sample of Dr. Pradeep‘s The Buying Brain on my iPad) Kevin: zero inbox: gmail labs: send and archive Permalink | Leave a comment  »