July 27, 2011 - Online/Blended Learning, Common Core Assessments, Student Data, Electronic Textbooks, Social Media, Resources

Online / Blended Learning

New Fla. Law Enables Direct Full-Time Online Enrollment
Ian Quillen, Digital Education, Education Week, July 13, 2011
The 97,000-student Florida Virtual School announced Tuesday that in-state students in kindergarten, 1st grade, and grades 6-12 will be able to directly enroll in its Florida Virtual School Full Time , FLVS FT, regardless of those students' residential school district assignment. Changes in Florida Law Make It Easier to Take Classes Online Mary Kelli Palka, The Florida Times-Union, Jacksonville (MCT), July 14, 2011

Florida House of Representatives; CS/CS/HB 7197 - Digital Learning
Digital Learning: Creates Digital Learning Now Act; requires school districts to establish virtual instruction options; authorizes establishment of virtual charter schools & provides requirements; authorizes blended learning courses; provides additional requirements for Florida Virtual School; requires full-time & part-time school district virtual instruction program options; provides funding & accountability requirements; requires online learning course for high school graduation; redefines FTE student for purposes of virtual instruction. Effective Date:July 1, 2011

A Closer Look at Virtual Learning Models
Julie Young, THE Journal, July 26, 2011
Julie Young, President & CEO of Florida Virtual School, is reflecting on the recent passage of the Digital Learning Now Act that expands online learning options in Florida. The three models she focuses on here are online learning, blended learning and the hybrid classroom.

KIPP Blend Promising
edReformer Staff, July 14, 2011
KIPP Empower Academy in Los Angeles presented some amazing results from their blended learning pilot at the New School Summit. Almost none of the students were reading on grade level at the beginning of the year and 96% were proficient were at or above grade level in reading by the end of the year. Read the comments offered by Innosight Institute:

Year 1 results for the KIPP Empower Academy
Heather Clayton Staker, Innosight Institute, July 14, 2011
In The Rise of K-12 blended learning, Innosight profiled the Empower Academy as one of 40 emerging blended-learning operators. KIPP opened the school in the fall of 2010, so at the time of publication of the report, the program was still too new to offer substantial results. Now having completed year one, the Empower Academy reports that 96 percent of its students are proficient at or above grade level in reading, compared to only 9 percent at the beginning of the year. How did they do it? Read the description of the Empower Academy program that we published in our report.

Ranking the Online Colleges
Steve Kolowich, Inside Higher Ed, June 30, 2011
U.S. News & World Report, which in the last three decades has become one of the most successful and controversial kingmakers in higher education, is taking preliminary steps to apply its rankings to the increasingly important realm of online colleges. See what you think.

Traditional Higher Ed Opens Doors for Tuition-Free Online University
Sarah Kessler, Mashable, June 29, 2011
Online universities have earned a reputation among traditional higher education institutions as businesses that offer low-quality degrees in exchange for hefty debt. But online University of the People challenges the stereotype.

The University (Mashable description) is completely tuition free. Its mission is not to turn a profit, but rather to create a truly global opportunity for education. Members of the university’s core of 2,000 volunteers teach a thousand students who live in 115 different countries. Traditional universities are starting to open their doors to People’s free, nontraditional counterpart.

1,900 Apply for 600-Student Online Charter School
New Orleans City Business,Monday, July 11, 2011
Louisiana Connections Academy says it has 1,900 applications for 600 spots.

Blended Learning’s Impact on Teacher Development
Alex Hernandez, Innosight Institute, July 11, 2011
How do we train teachers for blended learning instruction? The author, a former math teacher, has a few suggestions.

Top Ten Trends in E-Learning
WorldWideLearn
Based on research from the Gartner Group, the University of Pennsylvania, and other prestigious think tanks, we can identify ten vital trends that will influence the growth of e-learning over the next ten years. (Research posted in 2009 — Is this still true?)

Online and Incomplete
Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed, July 19, 2011 A new study (Online and Hybrid Course Enrollment and Performance in Washington State Community and Technical Colleges (CCRC Working Paper No. 31)) urges caution to those who believe that online education is a panacea for educating more community college students. The study finds that students who enrolled in online courses -- controlling for various factors that tend to predict success -- were more likely to fail or drop out of the courses than were those who took the same courses in person. Notably, there was not a gap in completion between those enrolled in hybrid and in-person courses.

It's Not a Matter of Time: Highlights from the 2011 Competency-Based Summit
Sturgis, Patrick and Pittenger, iNACOL,July 2011
The It's Not a Matter of Time paper highlights the key issues from the proceedings at the March 2011 Competency-Based Learning Summit for advancing competency-based learning. The paper addresses the three main goals of the Summit:

• Sharing expertise across innovators and policy leaders
• Building a common working definition of competency-based learning
• Enhancing strategies for advancing competency-based options

A complementary paper (below), Cracking the Code: Synchronizing Policy and Practice for Performance-Based Learning, provides a more in-depth look at state policy issues discussed at the Summit.

The Competency-based Learning Summit, organized jointly by the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and iNACOL, discussed how the nation could make a major transformation in dramatically increasing opportunities for student learning through competency-based approaches. It was held in March 2011.

New video: YouTube - Online Teaching and Learning: National Online Teacher of the Year
Interview, June 8, 2011
The SREB/iNACOL 2011 National Online Teacher of the Year, Kristin Kipp discusses the most effective ways to engage and connect with online students. (You need Adobe Flash Player to watch this video.)

Electronic Textbooks — West Virginia

West Virginia Asks Counties to Plan for Electronic Textbooks
eClassroom News, July 13, 2011
The West Virginia Board of Education has suggested that all schools in the state start taking steps toward electronic textbooks and dependable ed-tech infrastructure for the future, state education department spokeswoman Liza Cordeiro said.

The state board of education recently implemented a two-year hiatus on the purchase of social studies textbooks, Cordeiro said. The money allocated for the books, roughly $36 million, instead will be spent on ed-tech infrastructure upgrades.

Common Core — Assessment

Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC or Partnership)
New Website: www.parcconline.org.
Twenty-four states have joined together to create the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC or Partnership). The goal is to create an assessment system and supporting tools that will help states dramatically increase the number of students who graduate high school ready for college and careers and provide students, parents, teachers and policymakers with the tools they need to help students - from grade three through high school - stay on track to graduate prepared. The Partnership will also develop formative tools for grades K-2. For more information, go to www.parcconline.org.

Check out the PARCC Assessment
June 28, 2011
PARCC’s next-generation assessment system will provide students, educators, policymakers and the public with the tools needed to identify whether students — from grade 3 through high school — are on track for postsecondary success and, critically, where gaps may exist and how they can be addressed well before students enter college or the workforce. A search on the PARCC site for assessment provides a number of useful recent links not included above.

Center for K-12 Assessment and Performance Management at ETS
The K–12 Center will analyze the assessment system models proposed within Race to the Top Assessment Program applications and develop short, concise summaries to aid discussions among educators, policymakers and the public. Coming Together to Raise Achievement, New Assessment for Common Core Standards was published in February 2011 but an update is expected in late July 2011. The assessment Consortia described in this publication will be building comprehensive assessment systems for the primary purpose of measuring student progress against these new CCSS.

Linking Assessments to Common Core Standards
Katie Ash, Digital Education, Ed Week, July 11, 2011
The State Educational Technology Directors Association, or SETDA, launched a new website and published a whitepaper to help navigate the new technology-based assessments coming out in 2014-15 that will be aligned with the common core state standards. The website, Assess4ed.net, will provide a platform for state and district education leaders to discuss and tackle the challenges of preparing for this assessment transition.

The SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC)
This is a national consortium of states that have been working collaboratively since December 2009 to develop a student assessment system aligned to a common core of academic content standards to apply for a Race-to-the-Top Assessment grant. They received a grant by the US Department of Education (USED) to develop a student assessment system aligned to a common core of academic standards.

Technology Integration — Common Core
LiveBinders, July 7, 2011
A resource: This binder is the work of the Woodstock Technology Integration Team. They have assembled all of the links in their Framework--whether technology tools or learning resources--in this binder. Resources will be added on a continuing basis...so please check back for new ideas!
Assessment - Frequently Asked Questions
Illinois State Board of Education

Online assessment is getting much attention these days. You may refer to the last July 11 Worthy of Note that included links to Pearson’s Next Generation Assessments: A Roadmap to 2014.

Charter Schools

Eliminating the Achievement Gap: A White Paper on How Charter Schools Can Help District Leaders
Robin Lake and Alex Hernandez, Center on Reinventing Public Education, June 2011
The Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) was founded in 1993 at the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington. In 2008, CRPE changed its affiliation to the University of Washington Bothell. The Center's offices are located off campus, in Seattle's South Lake Union neighborhood.

CRPE engages in independent research and policy analysis on a range of K-12 public education reform issues, including choice & charters, finance & productivity, teachers, urban district reform, leadership, and state & federal reform.

Authors Lake and Hernandez discuss how these successful charters focus on school culture and parent involvement, use an extended school day, employ ongoing diagnostics and interventions, and provide intensive professional development.

Professional Development

Tightened Professional-Development Standards Released
Stephen Sawchuk Teacher Beat, Education Week, July 19, 2011
Learning Forward, a.k.a. the nonprofit formerly known as the National Staff Development Council has unveiled an updated set of standards for guiding choices about quality teacher professional development.

The Standards for Professional Learning describe the "context, process, and content" of effective professional development across seven key areas.

Read the standards here.

Blended Learning’s Impact on Teacher Development
Alex Hernandez, Innosight Institute, July 11, 2011
How do we train teachers for blended learning instruction? The author, a former math teacher, has a few suggestions.

Student Data

Dell Foundation Launches Tool to Connect Student Data
Sarah D. Sparks, Spotlight, Education Week, July 19, 2011
The Austin, Texas-based Michael and Susan Dell Foundation is hoping its new Ed-Fi data standard will allow educators and researchers to access information on kindergarten through 12th grade from state and local systems even before the systems have been aligned.

Common Data Initiative Proposes New Postsecondary Standards
Sarah D. Sparks, Spotlight, Education Week, July 19, 2011
The first version of the initiative focused primarily on the types of data needed for kindergarten through 12th grade accountability reporting, according to Gary West, the strategic initiatives director for information systems at the Council of Chief State School Officers, one of the partner groups of the initiative.

The newly proposed second version, West says, is "a much broader set of data elements with a broader set of relationships. We're very interested in expanding the common language for states to be able to talk to each other and do research together on how to improve student performance, program effectiveness and things like that."

Predictive Data Tools Find Uses in Schools
Sarah D. Sparks, Ed Week, July 12, 2011
The use of analytic tools to predict student performance is exploding in higher education, and experts say the tools show even more promise for K-12 schools, in everything from teacher placement to dropout prevention. This is a follow-up to Sarah Sparks’ earlier article, Schools Find Uses for Predictive Data Techniques, mentioned in the July 11 WON.

Webinars

Sloan Consortium
Quality Standards for Using Mobile Apps for Teaching, Learning and Workforce Development, PreK-20
Event Date: August 10, 2011 - 2:00pm - 3:30pm
This webinar will outline the standards of quality measures for mobile apps in education including how to search for appropriate apps and how to submit apps for peer reviews. It will also include the system wide approach for identifying, purchasing, piloting, and evaluating mobile devices and apps. In addition, mobile app resources will be presented of apps by discipline areas including PreK though Ph.D., subject areas including various specialized disciplines in higher education, education level from preschool to professional development, and workforce development and clusters; providing app resources and accessories for specialized areas such as student services, special needs, assistive technology (partnering with Griffin Technologies) educational games, and productivity apps for office and businesses.

The webinar will conclude with participants providing feedback of the quality standards and in sharing mobile apps that they have found to impact teaching and learning.

Tennessee Board of Regents is the featured presenter.

Non-member and Guest ($99/participant)

Educational Technology Cooperative (SREB)
Here’s a repeat listing of the first two Webinars noted earlier (there are five more). For a complete listing see the July 11 Worthy of Note on our wiki page:

Registration and instruction for the series of webinars can be found here.

Case Study of the Florida Virtual School Blended Learning Models
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 10:00 AM (ET)
Dianna Miller (Florida Virtual School)

Elementary Students: Back and Forth between Online and Face-to-Face Instruction
Wednesday, August 10, 2011 at 4:00 PM (ET)
Michelle Lee (Fayette County Public Schools)
BYOD (Bring Your Own Device)

Wolf Creek Public Schools Embraces BYOD, Puts Pedagogy First
Tanya Roscoria, Converge, July 5, 2011
Alberta, Canada: Over the past two years, students and staff in Wolf Creek Public Schools have brought their own mobile devices to class. But this district isn't mesmerized by the shiny technology. Instead, it places pedagogy before technology. "It's about enhancing and building excellent learning environments,"

BYOD and Security
Ellen Ullman, Tech & Learning, March 1, 2011
How do you protect students from themselves? The author looks at several school districts, including two in Texas, that are setting policy for students to use their own technology at school.

Social Media

Pinellas Teachers No Longer Allowed to use Social Media to Communicate with Students
Sylvia Lim, St. Petersburg Times, June 19, 2011
Pinellas County School Board (FL) members last week banned teachers from using social media tools to communicate with students. They signed off on a policy requiring teachers to use district-provided e-mails and electronic platforms to correspond with students.

Social Media Sparks Policy Debate
Tanya Roscorla, Converge, July 17, 2009
The explosion of social media has sparked discussions about how teachers can use blogs, wikis, Twitter and other tools while keeping students safe online. This article offers a discussion of various options for social media policies.

We would like to know about your policies on Social Media use.
If your school, district, state or higher ed entity have established a policy related to social media use, would you please send us a link or a file. This would be a useful resource to compile. Thanks for answering this request.

Web 2.0 (Social Media) Policies in Higher Education
Slideshare (Last updated 11.05.09)
Social media yools and the policies associated with them.

Social Media Governance
The Social Media Management Handbook was prepared for the business community, but there may ideas useful in education. There are 177 social media policies included.

Plus It All: Google Bets Its Brand on Pervasive Social Media (Google+)
ContentBlogger, July 5, 2011
Insights and headlines from Shore analysts on trends in enterprise and media content markets. The hows and whys of Google+.

Random News and Information

Liberal Activists: For-profit Colleges ‘Ripping off’ Students, taxpayers
Ralshay Lin, eCampus News, July 11, 2011
Campus Progress National Conference, headlined by former President Clinton, accuses corporations of abusing federal education aid. In a speech at the conference July 6, an official condemned for-profit colleges—many of which are the nation’s largest online education providers—as ineffective and financially crippling for students.

Survey Reveals Need for Tech Skills in College, Workforce
eSchool News, July 11, 2011
Students say that high schools are not imparting adequate technology education.

The second annual 21st Century Classroom Report from CDW-G reveals that 94 percent of students said learning and mastering technology skills would improve their educational and career opportunities, and 97 percent of school faculty agreed. But in spite of those results, only 39 percent of students said their high schools meet those technology expectations with technology in the classroom.

Texas Pulls Out of Chiefs Group
Sean Cavanagh, Ed Week, July 12, 2011
Texas has withdrawn from the Council of Chief State School Officers.

Creative Commons, AEP Team for K-12 Metadata Search Framework
Therese Mageau, THE Journal, July 18, 2011
Creative Commons and AEP team up to develop an education-specific tagging system for Internet searches.

Schools Struggle to Balance Digital Innovation, Academic Accountability
Michelle R. Davis, Ed Week, June 15, 2011
Educators struggle through trial and error to forge new approaches that work Read about how 1-to-1 laptop initiative in a North Carolina district didn’t turn out as expected.

Khan Academy: Great Idea- With One Glaring Hole
Daniel Rezac, EdReach, March 15, 2011
According to this math teacher, the Khan Academy is not teaching concepts and ideas. Khan Academy teaches answers. 1 + 1 = 2. Read how he and his colleagues have taken the concept a few steps further.

New Report Focuses on STEM Education
K-12 Computing Blueprint, July 12, 2011
The publication: Successful K-12 STEM Education: Identifying Effective Approaches in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. (New Academics Press)
Read the book online, free.

Quo Vadis, LMS? Trends, Predictions, Commentary
Campus Technology, July 01, 2011
A panel of leading technologists, educators, and vendors discusses the future of the LMS and the innovations needed to make it integral to 21st century learning.

Resources

Guide to Cloud Computing for Policy Makers
SIIA, 2011
The basic recommendation of this white paper is that there is no need for cloud-specific legislation to provide for the safe and rapid growth of cloud computing.

The Tech Commandments
Adam S. Bellow, Scribd.com
Ten ideas to help revitalize education using ed tech. Adam S. Bellow’s website.

20 Best Blogs in Instructional Technology

Have you checked out HippoCampus lately; and what about SAS Curriculum Pathways?

Open Educational Resources
OK CareerTech Testing Center

The Top 6 Emerging Technologies in K-12 Education
Tanya Roscoria, Converge, May 17, 2011
Comments on the NMC Horizon Report: 2011 K-12 Edition: Over the next five years, the publication suggests that the education community will embrace cloud computing, mobiles, game-based learning, open content, learning analytics and personal learning environments.

One Hundred Incredibly Useful YouTube Channels for Teachers
Online Courses, October 10, 2010

July 11, 2011 - Online and blended learning, social media, SREB webinars, online assessments, and iPads

A few random thoughts and articles at the beginning ...

Guest Blog: A Glimpse of the Future
WCET Learn
Myk Garn, SREB, and Hae Okimoto, University of Hawaii, have been thinking up an exciting new addition to the WCET Annual Conference. WCET asked them to share their idea with you.

The future is relatively hard to predict. But, future possibilities are easy to imagine. Knowing what we should do (or not do) today to be successful tomorrow is hard…and high risk. If you predict (okay, guess) wrong…and commit too many resources you could lose. If you guess right, and commit too few resources…you may not be able to capitalize on your prescience. Getting the balance right makes all the difference. Read more to examine some heuristics that could help achieve this balance. Your thoughts?

In Lean Times, Schools Squeeze Out Librarians
Fernanda Santos, New York Times, June 24, 2011
This front-page NY Times article describes a pervasive practice in school districts across the county. Budget belt-tightening threatens to send school librarians the way of the card catalog.

The article has spawned lots of discussion responses about whether school librarians are expendable. Here are a couple of responses:

Teaching research and information literacy without a librarian is like teaching football by handing the kids a football and pointing out where the field is.

It will be a very sorry mistake to continue to view librarians as dispensable when they are so desperately needed to navigate the information explosion. As we have more and different types of tsunamis of information, we need more technologically advanced librarians to get us through it.

When I was a school librarian not so long ago, I was the come-to person by students and faculty in my school for answers on how-to questions about using and understanding information technology. As important as information literacy and critical thinking skills are and even touted as vital to students’ success in the work-world, the concepts are not fully understood. There is also a lack of understanding on how important the librarian is to help students and faculty wade through and evaluate the vast sea of information.

Of course, it goes without saying that it is incumbent on librarians to continue to be on the cutting-edge of information technology — quite a challenge, I’d say, and not one that can be taken lightly. Nor can the task be left to teachers to inform.

Project Information Literacy
Project Information Literacy is a national study about early adults and their information-seeking behaviors, competencies, and the challenges they face when conducting research in the digital age.

Based in University of Washington's iSchool, the large-scale research project investigates how early adults on different college campuses conduct research for course work and how they conduct "everyday research" for use in their daily lives...

Committee Approves Second Education Reform Bill
The Education and Workforce Committee
H.R. 2218 Will Expand Access to High-Quality Charter Schools
WASHINGTON, D.C., June 22, 2011
The U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce today approved the second in a series of education reform bills designed to overhaul current elementary and secondary education law. The Empowering Parents through Quality Charter Schools Act (H.R. 2218), sponsored by Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education Chairman Duncan Hunter (R-CA), passed by a strong bipartisan vote of 34 to 5.

PLAYBACK: Games Have Changed the World ... Can the World Change Games to Save Itself?
Christine C., Spotlight on Digital Media and Learning, June 24, 2011
The 8th Annual Games for Change festival convened in mid-June in New York City and big names in politics, the gaming industry and academia discussed, played and celebrated games that have a social impact.

Why Schools Need Wi-Fi
Schools need wireless networks to make the most of today's learning opportunities. This Ebook provides insight on how to choose and use technology to create a better learning experience.


Social Media

Web 2.0 and Social Media in Education 2.0
99 Essential Twitter Tools And Applications #EDTECH20 #ISTE11 #SOCIALMEDIA #EDCHAT
#edtech20 project in Technology, June 23, 2011
This project was finalist in ELEARNING AWARDS 2010. Teachers worldwide can join free this #edtech20 #curation and #semantic project in XXI Century Education to discover together semantic web 3.0.

Interactive Learning in the Connected Classroom
The editors of eSchool News have assembled this collection of ten articles related to interactive learning. Examples are Ten Ideas for Interactive Teaching and Teaching in a Socially Networked Classroom.

When Social Networking Goes 'Live'
Bridget McCrea, THE Journal, June 22, 2011
An English teacher in Iowa talks about how she parlayed Twitter interactions into a class trip halfway around the world.

Big Think: If You Were on Twitter
Scott McLeod, June 2, 2011
Scott McLeod, an Associate Professor in the Educational Administration program at Iowa State University, posts these “what-ifs” for educators.

Social Networking
Social Networking Sites and Our Lives
Pew Internet and American Life Project
Keith Hampton, Lauren Sessions Goulet, Lee Rainie, Kristen Purcell, Jun 16, 2011
Questions have been raised about the social impact of widespread use of social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, and Twitter. Do these technologies isolate people and truncate their relationships? Or are there benefits associated with being connected to others in this way? The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project decided to examine social networking sites in a survey that explored people’s overall social networks and how use of these technologies is related to trust, tolerance, social support, and community and political engagement.

This is report is part of a Pew series entitled The Social Impact of Technology.

Twitter Update 2011
Aaron Smith, Pew Internet and American Life Project, Jun 1, 2011
13% of online adults use the status update service Twitter, which represents a significant increase from the 8% of online adults who identified themselves as Twitter users in November 2010. 95% of Twitter users own a mobile phone, and half of these users access the service on their handheld device.

The Best Social Media Tool for the Classroom
Richard Kassissieh, Social Media, April 04, 2011
What is the best social media tool for the classroom? Blog? Facebook? Wiki? Twitter? Chat? Surprise! It’s the discussion forum. Really? How can a discussion forum be best suited to the classroom, when newer social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter receive all of the hype? Read on….

When it’s Time to Use Twitter in the Classroom
William Stites, Social Media, June 14, 2011
“A survey of 1,920 U.S. teachers published in April found that 2% of them use the micro-blogging site in college lectures. About half those polled said the use of Twitter and Facebook in class is harmful to the learning experience, according to the study from consulting firm Pearson Learning Solutions.”

How do you find this balance between giving students a vehicle to find their voice and the perception that these tools are “harmful to the learning experience”? When is it time to use Twitter in the classroom? Read more.

Teaching, Learning, and Sharing: How Today's Higher Education Faculty Use Social Media for Work and for Play
Pearson Learning Solutions, April 2011
For the past several years, Pearson has been researching faculty use of social media. Pearson's collaboration with other thought leaders, including Babson Survey Research Group and Converseon, is one of the ways we're gaining that understanding. As a reflection of our commitment to sharing our knowledge with the higher education community, the following pages contain the findings of our most recent social media survey.

Improving Web Searches for Students
Steve, Kolowich, Inside Higher Ed, June 8, 2011
The problem with students using Google is not that the search giant is incapable of retrieving useful educational content. It’s that finding that content using simple search terms is a difficult art to master.

But a coalition of education-oriented companies and organizations aims to make it easier to find useful educational content amid the detritus of the Web. The Association of Educational Publishers (AEP) and Creative Commons, the leaders of the group, announced on Tuesday that they are forming a working group to come up with more detailed criteria that could eventually be incorporated into the search interfaces for Google, Bing, and Yahoo!

Future Trends: Are Browsers Becoming a Thing of the Past?
Tom Green, WebDesign Tuts+, June 8, 2011
Browsers just might be an endangered species. The author will take you on a fun ride to find out if it is true.

The Problem of 'Pedagogy' in a Web 2.0 Era
Trent Batson, Campus Technology, June 15, 2011
In a time of knowledge stability, teach; in a time of rapid change in knowledge, learn… There is no requirement that faculty in higher education understand learning theory. Even saying that, and knowing it is true, seems astonishing. How is it possible to make the turn from teaching to learning without knowing what that means? Read more.

How To Get Better Grades Using Social Media (Infographic)
It’s summertime and you know what that means…students are not paying attention to teachers. They’re likely dreaming about what they’re going to do this summer, texting friends every chance they get, or updating their social networks.

But is that such a terrible thing? According to a new infographic by Masters in Education, social media may actually help students get better grades. One of the most jaw-dropping figures featured in the image here is that ‘heavy’ social media users actually got better grades than ‘light’ social media users. While there is obviously more to this story than this boiled-down infographic, it is both entertaining and informative (just like all infogrpahics, no?)

Google

The Google+ Project
This blog offers a good introduction to Google+. Take a tour.

Introducing the Google+ project: Real-life sharing, Rethought for the Web
6/28/2011

Google+ and the LMS: Ads and Education
Joshua Kim, Inside Higher Ed, June 29, 2011
A critique of the ups and downs of Google+.

What You Need to Know About Google's New Social Network
Kristin Burnham, CIO, June 28, 2011
While the similarities between Facebook and Google+ are obvious, Google's new network may make it a contender in the social media arena. Here's a look at the features it unveiled today.

Google+: Huddle and Hangout Look Promising
Eric Stoller, Inside Higher Ed, July 4, 2011
Let's face it. Google and Facebook aren't creating social networks for altruistic reasons. While Google and Facebook compete in the multi-gazillion-dollar ad revenue space, we, as social media consumers/communicators, get to benefit from their innovations. Google+ has been getting a lot of "buzz" lately as it is Google's latest foray into creating a service that can compete with Facebook.

It may be hard to get a Google+ account.

Google For Educators
Here, you’ll find a teacher’s guide to Google Tools for Your Classroom. And to spark your imagination, you'll find examples of innovative ways that other educators are using these tools in the classroom.

While you’re here, you can sign up for the quarterly Google for Educators newsletter, as well as check out the latest from The Infinite Thinking Machine, a Google-sponsored, WestEd-produced blog for educators, by educators. + more.

On the Google for Educators site you will find a link to Google Web Search - Classroom Lessons and Resources, which was developed by Google Certified Teachers to help teach better search skills. The lessons are short, modular and not specific to any discipline so you can mix and match to what best fits the needs of your classroom. Additionally, all lessons come with a companion set of slides (and some with additional resources) to help you guide your in-class discussions.

Daniel Russell's Home Page
Dan works for Google and his specialty is research…. searching, that is. He tries to find out what makes Google searchers tick. You might check out some of the several links he has here about searching. I especially liked this one:
Google Search Education Evangelism web site . Lots of teaching resources there.

This Google site also has tips/directions for creating a Website.

Textbooks / iPads / eReaders

Is the iPad Ready To Replace the Printed Textbook?
Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology, June 15, 2011
After trying out the Apple iPad for a short period--about three weeks--three out of four college freshmen said they'd be willing to purchase an Apple iPad personally if at least half of the textbooks they used during their college career were available digitally, according to the results of a classroom poll.

A majority of students who had the chance to work on the devices within their classes reported that reading on the iPad was "more convenient" than reading from traditional paper textbooks. But they also rated paper texts as "easier" when asked to compare the two.

E-reader Ownership Doubles in Six Months
Kristen Purcell, Pew Internet and American Life, June 27, 2011
The percent of U.S. adults with an e-book reader doubled from 6% to 12% between November 2010 and May 2011. Hispanic adults, adults younger than age 65, college graduates and those living in households with incomes of at least $75,000 are most likely to own e-book readers. Parents are also more likely than non-parents to own these devices. Read/download the full report.

Online Learning / Blended Learning

2010 Report on State Virtual Schools
SREB Educational Technology Cooperative
All responses reflect the 2009-10 academic year, unless otherwise noted. For the purposes of this survey, the academic year is defined as summer 2009, fall 2009 and spring 2010. Included are the Executive Summary, Survey Responses from all states and Course Lists.

Other topics of interest may be found on the SREB Ed Tech Policy Wiki.

Knewton Debuts Blended Learning Infographic
Michael B. Horn, Innosight, Posted on June 28th, 2011
Blended Learning; A Disruptive Innovation — Blended learning is a disruptive innovation in education that can take many forms. Here is a look at what blended learning is, why it’s spreading, and how it works in real and virtual classrooms.

Horn: Blended learning is growing fast, and our friends at Knewton created this graphic to summarize our report, The rise of K-12 blended learning: Profiles of emerging models, with the Charter School Growth Fund.
Read about Knewton here.

Who the Students Are, Part 1
Dean Dad, Inside Higher Ed, June 14, 2011
Over 90 percent of our online students aren't online students. They're onsite students who also take online classes. They use online classes to round out their schedules and reduce conflicts with work. In most cases, the majority of their coursework is onsite. The pure “online student” is very much the exception.

Demand For Online Learning Increases
Staff, eSchool News, June 29, 2011
Number of high school students learning online triples in three years, survey shows—but there is still 'untapped potential' In just three years, the number of high school students who have access to online learning has tripled, while twice as many middle school students are now learning online, according to a new report.

These figures come from the nonprofit group Project Tomorrow and its most recent Speak Up survey on school technology use. Project Tomorrow first released data from its this survey earlier this spring, but the organization has teamed up with learning management system provider Blackboard Inc. to dig deeper into the results that pertain to online learning.

Project Tomorrow and Blackboard issued a report on these findings during the International Society for Technology (ISTE) in Education’s annual conference June 28.

Online Learning Portals: Customizing Colleges Right Out of Higher Education?
David Glenn, The Chronicle, May 29, 2011
Another look at ending-higher-education-as-we-know-it. An online infrastructure is emerging that could someday offer a different alternative. Depending on how it evolves, this infrastructure might profoundly change how Americans certify their skills and transform their relationship with colleges.

Education Week's 2011 Spotlight on E-Learning
brings together a FREE collection of articles hand-picked by our editors for their insights on several topics, such as How Elementary Schools Incorporate E-learning and Understanding Different Models of Online Learning.

10 Ways Wikipedia Has Changed Education
Online Courses, June 21, 2011
Just about as many ideas about Wikipedia’s influence exist as there are individuals to even hold them, but nobody can deny that the online encyclopedia, not to mention the other Wikimedia websites, certainly left a splash in the classroom and mainstream society alike. Here are several ideas.

How the Internet is Revolutionizing Education
Check out this Infographic from OnlineEducation.net about how the world of online learning has changed and grown over the years.

Then you may like to read comments about this by Jolie O’Dell at Mashable: How Online Education is Changing the Way We Learn (Infographic)

As Costs of New Rule Are Felt, Colleges Rethink Online Course Offerings in Other States
Kelly Field, The Chronicle of Higher Education, July 1, 2011
Bismarck State College, a two-year institution located in the capital of North Dakota, offers something few colleges do: online degrees in power-plant technology. Utilities across the country send workers to the community college for specialized training in electric power, nuclear power, and other fields. This may change with the new federal rule. Read more.

There’s No Going Back on the rule (Libby A. Nelson, Inside Higher Ed, June 24, 2011).
 

Information Technology

New Initiatives To Drive IT Growth Through 2011
David Nagel, Campus Technology, June 30, 2011
Growth in IT spending is expected to outpace overall economic growth in the United States for the remainder of the year, though IT growth in education will lag behind most other sectors, according to a new report from market research firm International Data Corp.

Professional Development (ISTE Conference White Paper)
The white paper, Technology, Coaching, and Community: Power Partners for Improved Professional Development in Primary and Secondary Education, released in conjunction with a first look at ISTE’s new standards for coaching, NETS*C, focuses on the transformation of professional development for a new digital generation. ISTE recommends a three-pronged approach to better prepare teachers to help students learn and unlock their potential. The approach embraces

• An effective coaching model
• Online communities for greater collaborative
• A fully embedded use of technology

Emerging Trends in Technology — K-12 and Higher Education

CoSN Toolkit - NMC Horizon Report: 2011 K-12 Edition
New Media Consortium with eSchoolMedia Eduvision
Overview of the Report: Identification of key trends and critical challenges as well as six emerging technologies likely seen in mainstream use within five years; and CoSN Toolkit. There are many videos at this site that vividly describe the components of the NMC Horizon Report 2011 K-12 Edition.

Check out NMC WikiSpaces

And here is the 2011 Horizon Report: Emerging Trends in Higher Education Technology (April 21, 2011).
 

Webinars

Educational Technology Cooperative (SREB)
You are invited to a series of webinars focusing on practitioners sharing how blended teaching and learning works and how it can be successfully incorporated into classroom instruction. Registration and instruction for the series of webinars can be found here.

Case Study of the Florida Virtual School Blended Learning Models
Tuesday, August 9, 2011 at 10:00 AM (ET)
Dianna Miller (Florida Virtual School)

Elementary Students: Back and Forth between Online and Face-to-Face Instruction
Wednesday, August 10, 2011 at 4:00 PM (ET)
Michelle Lee (Fayette County Public Schools)

Online Driver Case Study of Jeffco Virtual Academy Blended Learning Models
Thursday, August 11, 2011 at 4:00 PM (ET)
Kristin Kipp (Jeffco's 21st Century Virtual Academy)

Time Management, Lesson Planning and Instruction for Blended Learners)
Friday, August 12, 2011 at 10:00 AM (ET)
(SAS® Curriculum Pathways )
Katie Higgins (Mooresville Graded School District – North Carolina)

How to Avoid Blended Learning Obstacles and Roadblocks
Monday, August 15, 2011 at 10:00 AM (ET)
(CourseSites Platform)
Norka Ratnavale (Maryland Middle School ESL)

How to Communicate with Blended Learning Students and Parents
Wednesday, August 17, 2011 at 10:00 AM (ET)
Tracy Seiler and Trixi DeRosa-Davis (South Carolina Virtual School)

Overview of The Six Blended Learning Models: How each one works best, its strengths and shortcomings
Thursday 18, 2011 at 4:00 PM (ET)
Heather Staker (Innosight Institute)

Bring Your Own Device: More Tools, Less Money, Better Security
Tech & Learning
Thursday July 21, 2011, 1 pm PST / 4 pm EST
With increasing demands for greater access to technology and school budgets strained to the limit, many districts turn to a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) strategy. Classroom technologies now include smartphones, tablets, handheld game machines and more. The biggest issue in using these outside devices is keeping students and data safe online.

This webinar will provide information on how districts are managing student and staff devices on their networks, how they are providing cost effective support, and how they make sure that all of their systems are secure both on and off site. You’ll hear from Kevin Hogan, editorial director of Tech & Learning magazine, who will discuss this trend and how it is working. And speakers from a public school district and a charter school system will explain how they are managing their BYOD strategy.

Webinar: Integrating the Arts Across the Curriculum (edweek.org)
Tuesday, July 19, 2011, 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. Eastern time
Many arts advocates suggest integrating dance, music, theater, and visual arts across the curriculum holds great promise to enhance student learning—and revitalize the arts in public schools.

Online Assessment / Analytic Tools

Next Generation Assessments: A Roadmap to 2014
The Pearson Roadmap to 2014 outlines how the use of more innovative question types, online delivery, automated and artificial-intelligence powered scoring engines, and immediate web-based reporting of results can transform learning, and offers concrete resources to help states navigate and mitigate the challenges they will encounter as they transition to online assessments. Download the print version of the Roadmap to 2014. Includes benefits of online assessing, guidelines for making the transition, important considerations and case studies.

Pearson’s Roadmap for Online Assessments
Heather Clayton Staker, Innosight, July 6, 2011
Following a meeting in June with several states about The Roadmap, Heather Staker notes that she left the conference with two impressions. The first was that online assessments pose an enormous opportunity. In the short term, they eliminate the sizable hassle of shipping, storing, securing, and grading reams of pencil and paper assessments. They also allow states to report results much faster and iterate more quickly based on results. Read more…..

Schools Find Uses for Predictive Data Techniques
Sarah D. Sparks, Education Week, Education Week, June 30, 2011
The use of analytic tools to predict student performance is exploding in higher education, and experts say the tools show even more promise for K-12 schools, in everything from teacher placement to dropout prevention.

Blackboard / Providence 
(Thanks to Russell Poulin, WCET, for these articles.)

The Future of Blackboard
Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology, July 01, 2011
Gartner researcher Marti Harris provides her perspective on the Blackboard acquisition and what it means for the company and its customers.

Investment Bankers and Blackboard’s Future, Part One: If …
e-Literate, Michael Feldstein
Jim Farmer, July 2, 2011
This is a guest post by Jim Farmer, Chairman of Sigma Group Inc., who looks at the impact of the buyout on higher education.

Some Other Resources

TeacherWeb Tutorial Videos
TeacherWeb will be releasing short tutorial videos for teachers on the go. These videos will help you with creation, modification and customization of your site. You can currently view these videos here by clicking a topic on the left.

TeacherWeb provides numerous links to topics on 21st Century Learning here.

Wiki: K-12 Tech Tools
This website features a collection of free, kid-safe, online resources categorized by subject, grade level, and standard.

NOAA Education Resources
A wealth of resources from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Worthy of Note: June 14, 2011: Recent Reports, Online and Mobile Learning, iPads, Accessibility, Information Literacy and more

Achievement Through Technology and Innovation (ATTAIN) Act

Education Groups Applaud New Ed-tech Legislation
Laura Devaney, eSchool News, June 14, 2011
Educational technology stakeholders are applauding the U.S. Senate’s introduction of a bill called the Achievement Through Technology and Innovation (ATTAIN) Act and note that, if passed, the legislation will work to bolster technology literacy and will increase access to educational opportunities through online learning.

“The ATTAIN Act recognizes that technology literacy is an essential skill our children need to be college and career ready and prepared to navigate and succeed in the competitive 21st-century environment,” said 11 leading education and ed-tech organizations in a joint statement.

An interesting note: I did a search for the Act and found this article: Education Leaders Applaud the Introduction of ATTAIN Act in the Senate. It was introduced in the Senate in 2007! 

FCC Seventh Broadband Progress Report

US Still Hasn't Gotten its Act Together on Broadband Deployment
Matthew Lasar, ars technica, May 20, 2011
The Federal Communications Commission is sticking to its guns when it comes to the state of high speed Internet deployment in the United States. Despite last year's protests from the cable industry, the agency's Seventh Broadband Progress Report reiterates the conclusion of its sixth survey. As many as 26 million Americans dwell in cities, towns, and counties in which there is no broadband capable of delivering video, graphics, data, and high quality voice services at affordable prices.

Find out how areas in your state fare. 

NCES New Report: The Condition of Education 2011  

The Condition of Education 2011
NCES, Released on May 26, 2011
The Condition of Education 2011 summarizes important developments and trends in education using the latest available data. The report presents 50 indicators on the status and condition of education, in addition to a closer look at postsecondary education by institutional level and control. The indicators represent a consensus of professional judgment on the most significant national measures of the condition and progress of education for which accurate data are available. The 2011 print edition includes indicators in five main areas: (1) participation in education; (2) learner outcomes; (3) student effort and educational progress; (4) the contexts of elementary and secondary education; and (5) the contexts of postsecondary education. 

Articles of Interest from Innosight and Ed Week

New Higher Education Regulations Discriminate, Block Established Organizations from Innovating
Michael B. Horn, Innosight, June 10, 2011
Michael Horn presents a good summary as things developed and a prognosis of what may be in store. In higher education, there are signs that this modular world may be emerging. More and more, traditional non-profit universities are partnering with for-profit actors that bring the know-how to take the traditional universities’ offerings online and reach many more students with innovative and modular revenue-sharing models.

Gainful Employment' Rules Leave Many Disappointed
Caralee Adams, Education Week, June 10, 2011
Ninety thousand comments and numerous meetings later, a yearlong effort to draft new regulations for career-college programs has resulted in scant satisfaction, from supporters and critics alike, though the programs clearly gained more time to change their ways. 

Online/Mobile Learning

CLRN Launches Online Course Review Web Site
Brian@CLRN, Brian Bridges, June 2, 2011
The California Learning Resource Network (CLRN) launched an online course review project on June 2, to provide K-12 educators, students, and parents with detailed information about online courses.

5 Surprising Perspectives About Online Schools
Sara Bernard, MindShift KQED, May 25, 2011
Interviews with Apex Learning CEO Cheryl Vedoe; Maureen Cottrell, a science teacher at iHigh Virtual Academy in San Diego, California; Rian Meadows, an economics instructor at Florida Virtual School; Patti Joubert, the mother of two full-time Florida Virtual School students; and Carylanne and Christiane Joubert, her two daughters.

Expanding STEM Education with Virtual Labs
eSchool News notes that virtual labs can help higher-education institutions meet the challenges of space, time, and budget. eSchool News and Dell have put together this collection of stories from the archives to help you learn how virtual labs can help your college or university.

iNACOL June 2011 Webinar
June 16, 2011
Cyberbullying: Trends and Law 

Accessbility
The following four articles discuss the new guide released from the U. S. DOE on May 26 that dictates laws and rules colleges (and K-12) must follow to insure e-reading devices and other emerging technologies are accessible to all students.

Education Department Clarifies E-Reader Accessibility Rules
Ben Wieder, The Chronicle, May 26, 2011
The U.S. Department of Education today released a new guide to laws and rules colleges must follow to ensure e-reading devices and other emerging technologies are accessible to all students. It focuses on students with vision problems, a group whose access issues have triggered official complaints against colleges. The document, in the form of “Frequently Asked Questions,” was published in response to the department’s “Dear Colleague” letter to college presidents on the subject last June.

Elaborating on Online Accessibility
Steve Kolowich, Inside Higher Ed, May 27, 2011
Further comment on the U. S. DOE guide: While the original “Dear Colleague” letter focused on recent controversies over the accessibility of classroom devices such as electronic readers. Thursday’s addendum made it clear that online courses and their content also must be accessible to disabled students -- even if none are currently enrolled.

Online Courses and Accessibility, Part 1
Brian@CLRN, Brian Bridges, CLRN, May 27, 2011
The June 29th letter noted that the Office of Civil Rights (OCR)/Department of Justice had entered into a settlement with colleges and universities that had used the Kindle DX in their classrooms. OCR’s concern was that students with visual disabilities did not enjoy the same access to content since the Kindle did not have a text to speech function and the colleges had not provided a reasonable accommodation…”

Here are a couple of questions Brian answers on his blog:
Does this apply to K-12 schools that are piloting e-readers in the classroom?
Oh, you bet. According to the FAQ (and common sense), “equal opportunity, equal treatment, and the obligation to make accommodations or modifications to avoid disability-based discrimination also apply to elementary and secondary schools…”
Does this apply to online courses?
Yes.

Read more….
Online Courses and Accessibility, Part Two
Brian@CLRN, Brian Bridges, CLRN, May 31, 2011
How do you know if an online course provides the same experience? What features should courses include to be compliant with the American Disabilities Act? Glad you asked…..

My Web My Way
BBC
This site provides accessibility help, enabling computer users to make the most of the Internet whatever their ability or disability. 

Literacy (mainly information literacy)
A sense of urgency about the need to teach information literacy both at the K-12 and higher ed levels permeates recent writings about this topic. These are just a few.

d-Convergence: A Digital Literacy Mashup
Literacy 2.0: Ruth Small, Center for Digital Literacy, Syracuse University
From the interview with Ruth Small:
You frequently use the word “information” in between digital and literacy. Isn’t that redundant given that most information is now in digital form?
I use that term because when I say “digital literacy” to people, they look at me like they know what I am talking about. When I say “information literacy”, they look at me like I’m wearing a funny hat. So I compromise with digital information literacy.

Information Illiteracy: A National Pandemic
Literacy 2.0: Glenn Warren, Classroom Teacher and Librarian, Orange County, CA
He is the co-creator of FBI-SOS, The Woogi World Cyber Hero Program, and Web Wise Kids (programs designed to enhance students’ information literacy skills).

In your view, what’s the most pressing issue right now?
There is a crisis of critical thinking in this country. We have a desperate need for kids—and adults for that matter—to be better critical thinkers.
Critical thinking has always been an important life skill. What makes it so urgent now?
The difference is the Information Age, or whatever you want to call it. More information equals more critical thinking. In my field we refer to the set of skills necessary for accessing, evaluating, integrating and using information as information literacy. Critical thinking, discernment and judgment are the underpinnings of information literacy.

Literacy in the Digital Age: Part V
Tracy Mitrano, Inside Higher Ed, May 26, 2011
In these five short blogs (the other four are linked from this page) the author expresses concern that literacy in our culture is at risk. Or at least a certain kind of literacy, one that is essential to the quality of society most of us believe in: reading and writing, critical thinking, incisive intelligence and verve grounded in civic discourse. Simply stated she makes the case for why higher education must invest meaningfully in information literacy. (Shouldn’t we also do this in K-12?)

Littered with Literacies
Literacy 2.0, February 05, 2011
How many literacies can you name? There are more than you may think, I’ll bet.

Teach Information Literacy & Critical Thinking!
Esther Grassian is retiring from UCLA Library. She has moved all materials on this topic from the UCLA site to a freely available Google site Website: under the same Creative Commons license as applies to all UCLA Library sites: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. 

Digital Textbooks, Tablets, and iPads

Digital Textbooks Slow to Catch On
Natalia Rachlin, New YorkTimes, June 8, 2011
Although sites like CourseSmart , a collective effort among the five biggest American academic publishers to offer digital content, have made e-textbooks widely available at prices that are as much as 60 percent lower than the print editions, sales have yet to catch up; e-textbooks made up only 2.8 percent of total U.S. textbook sales in 2010, according to the National Association of College Stores.

But a new study by the nonprofit arm of the Pearson Foundation shows that while 55 percent of students still prefer print over digital textbooks, among the 7 percent of students who own tablets devices like iPads, 73 percent prefer digital textbooks.

McGraw Hill and Pearson are moving to recreate their higher education textbooks for the iPad. In the process, Inkling has become the front-runner in the tablet-textbook market.

The Impact of the iPad on K-12 Schools
Tanya Roscorla, Classroom Technology, February 9, 2011
This article features school systems that have piloted iPads. Device advantages and limitations and challenges are discussed.

Virginia Shares School iPad, E-book Experiences
Tanya Roscorla, Classroom Technology, June 3, 2011
In four Virginia school divisions, a four-month pilot of e-books and iPads sheds light on the potential benefits and challenges these digital tools offer. 

Cloud Computing

Campus IT Plans for Increased Cloud Adoption
David Nagel, Campus Technology, May 26, 2011
American colleges and universities are expanding their adoption of cloud technologies. According to new research recently released, higher education institutions will spend about a quarter of their IT budgets on the cloud within five years.

From Tactic to Strategy: The 2011 Cloud Computing Tracking Poll
CDW's first Cloud Computing Tracking Poll surveyed 1,200 IT professionals in U.S. organizations to determine:

• Where organizations are with adoption
• What benefits are driving adoption
• What challenges hinder progress
• Recommendations for how organizations can successfully implement cloud computing 

Charter Schools (and other comments)
 
Rocketship Education
Rocketship Education is a national, non-profit elementary charter school network that opened the nation’s first hybrid school in 2007. They are building a school model that delivers on these four ambitions; it includes exceptional classroom teaching and individualized learning to enable students to master basic skills and higher order thinking skills, and an operational approach that minimizes expensive, unnecessary redundancy, while supporting academic innovation and excellence.

Tom Vander Ark puts it on a par with Khan Academy. Read what he has to say: Personal Digital Learning Taking Off.

Speaking of Kahn Academy
I ran across some reviews of Kahn Academy where it is frequently mentioned as “revolutionizing education.” But then I found some objections to that characterization. See if you agree.

Revolutionizing Education – Interview with Sal Khan
Sal Khan's 2,200+ educational videos are starting to revolutionize education worldwide.

But this physics teacher has a different opinion:
Khan Academy Gets It Right. Twice. Sort of
Khan Academy: My Final Remark 

Open Education

OERs: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Tony Bates, Blog, February 6, 2011
Prompted by several recent developments, such as the Walsh publication below and events and after 42 years of working in open learning. Tony Bates feels it’s time to provide a critique of the open educational resources “movement.” This is his take.

Unlocking the Gates: How and Why Leading Universities Are Opening Up Access to Their Courses (Book by Taylor Walsh) Ithaka
The research and analysis compiled in Unlocking the Gates captures some of the lessons learned in this young and evolving field. Drawing on specific examples from case studies of leading courseware initiatives—now-defunct for-profit initiatives like AllLearn and Fathom.com; free and open projects like MIT’s pioneering OpenCourseWare, Carnegie Mellon’s Open Learning Initiative, Open Yale Courses, and webcast.Berkeley; and the expansive NPTEL project by the Indian Institutes of Technology— this book provides insight into a number of relevant strategic questions, including:

• In a digital age, how can universities distinguish themselves in competition for reputation, students, and faculty?
• How will these projects continue to sustain themselves as they mature beyond the experimental phase?
• Can higher education institutions maintain the campus-based business model that has sustained them for centuries, while also leveraging new technology to expand access to the knowledge they produce?
• And, faced with fiscal uncertainty and the need to increase access to higher education while maintaining quality, could these projects eventually have more transformative applications than we are seeing at present?

A slightly modified, text-only version of the manuscript is available for download. The full version can be purchased at Amazon and other booksellers. 

Other Resources

Horizon Topics
Check out the variety of topics addressed by NMC in their new well-known Horizon K-12 Project. The one featured is “What is Game-Based Learning?”

Gary’s Social Media Count
This flash app (which is in constant development) shows how active and dynamic the Social Web, Mobile Industry and Game Business are. 

Bad News

Cutting the Cord
Steve Kolowich, Inside Higher Ed, June 14, 2011
The National Science Digital Library had ambitious goals when it started in 2000: create a massive open repository of STEM learning materials culled from projects funded by its benefactor, the National Science Foundation; then organize these materials so that they could be easily cherry-picked and used by science and math instructors, from higher ed all the way down. The NSF poured well over $100 million into the project.

Just over a decade later, the science digital library is on death row. It is set to be stripped of all funds in 2012, “based in part on recent evaluation findings that point to the challenges of sustaining such a program in the face of changing technology and the ways educators now find and use classroom materials,” according to a foundation directorate issued in February.