May+13,+2011+-+Blended+learning;+Social+Media+and+Web+2.0+Tools,+Copyright,+Literacies+and+Plagiarism;+Resources

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=**Worthy of Note: May 12, 2011**=

**Blended Learning**
The Rise of K-12 Blended Learning: Profiles of Emerging Models //Heather Staker, with contributions from Eric Chan, Matthew Clayton, Alex Hernandez, Michael B. Horn, and Katherine Mackey, Innosight Institute, May 2011// This paper profiles 40 organizations that are blending online learning with brick-and-mortar classrooms. These represent a range of operators, including state virtual schools, charter management organizations, individual charter schools, independent schools, districts, and private entities. The organizations profiled in this paper are not a “top 40” list. Thousands of other schools are currently participating in blended learning and may have superior programs.

Three SREB state virtual schools are included in this profile: ACCESS Alabama Distance Learning, Florida Virtual School and Kentucky Virtual High School.

Report: 6 Blended Learning Models Emerge //David Nagel, THE Journal, May 05, 2011// Nagel describes the six "distinct clusters" of blended learning models that shared some common characteristics.

Report Cites 40 Diverse Examples of Blended Learning //Meris Stansbury, Associate Editor, eSchool News, May 3, 2011// Educators also give their ‘wish lists’ for blended learning technology, policy. Author Heather Taker responds to this review and explains how the study unfolded. Forty blended-learning profiles—behind the scenes

Read comments about the earlier //Innosight// paper: The Rise of K-12 Blended Learning //(Michael Horn and Heather Staker, Innosight Institute, January 2011)//

eLearning Update: Blended Learning Key for Growth //Ian Quillen, Education Week, Digital Education, January 24, 2011//

Trends: Rise of K-12 Blended Learning //Victor Rivero, EdTech Digest, January 26, 2011.//

Jeffco County Pubic Schools //Innosight Institute, Blended Learning, May 06, 2011// Jeffco Public Schools is the largest district in Colorado. Not unlike other school systems, they are facing huge budget cuts. Jeffco started looking at how online education could help school districts with challenges they have been facing for years. District challenges include improving graduation and dropout rates, ensuring 21st century teaching/learning in a digital world, supporting 21st century community and staff, student engagement -- digital learners, access and options for accelerated students, and expanding the learning space to meet student and school needs.

These various models they have adopted are described in the article: Face-to-Face Driver, Rotation, Flex, Online Lab, Self-Blend, and Online Driver.

And BTW, Jeffco County Public Schools is home to Kristin Kipp, SREB/iNACOL National Online Teacher of the Year. Read her impressions about her day in D.C. with Karen Cator and Arnie Duncan.

Three Trends That Define the Future of Teaching and Learning Tina Bareghian, Mind/Shift KQED,February 5, 2011 The three trends: Collaborative, Tech-Powered and Blended.

Online School for Girls White Paper on Blended Learning //Molly Rumsey and Brad Rathgeber, Online School for Girls, April 2011// Also, catch it in Google Docs.

Before I add this item, perhaps I should add sort of a disclaimer for its representation of independent education in the world of online learning. I spent 13 years as a librarian in an NAIS 9-12 school (long before SREB) and Holton Arms School (one of the four founding schools of the Online School for Girls) in Bethesda, MD is the alma mater of Holly Lynde, also on our staff at SREB.

The Online School for Girls is a consortium of schools dedicated to creating the best online courses for girls. Four all-girls schools founded the School in June 2009, and since then, the group of schools has grown to over forty schools.

This is not a //new// paper, but it is a look at what higher education is thinking about blended learning. ELI Releases New White Paper on Blended Learning //Peggy Kurkowski, EDUCAUSE, November 22, 2010// On September 15 and 16, 2010, the ELI teaching and learning community gathered for an online focus session on blended learning. This white paper is a synthesis of the key ideas, themes, and concepts that emerged from those sessions. This white paper also includes links to supporting focus session materials, recordings, and resources. It represents a harvesting of the key elements that we, as a teaching and learning community, need to keep in mind as we work to refine the blended instructional delivery model in higher education.

Highlights from the 8th Annual Sloan-C Blended Learning Conference //Nancy Gordon,// [|//IDEA//] //Instructional Design & Education in Action, April 6, 2011// The keynote speaker, Josh Jarrett from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, spoke on what he sees as future trends for blended learning. Two trends that were of particular interest were: blending data analytics and learning and blending formal and informal learning. Read more….

**Just Plain Online Learning**
Competition to Fund a Center on Online Learning and Students with Disabilities (Federal Register announcement) The Office of Special Education Programs in U.S. Department of Education has announced a competition to fund a Center on Online Learning and Students with Disabilities. The Center will conduct a program of research to study (1) current and emerging trends and issues related to the participation of all children with disabilities in online learning, (2) potential positive outcomes and negative consequences of online learning for children with disabilities, and (3) promising approaches for effectively including children with disabilities in online learning. The due date for applications is June 20, 2011. Application packages are available [|here].

Introducing Online Learning in Your District //eSchool News editors// With the support of Connections Learning, //eSchool News// editors put together this collection of stories, along with other relevant materials, to help you examine all the options as you think about launching an online program in your own schools.

**Open Source**
OER Glue: 'Use Open Education Resources Where They Are; Integrate With Everyone' //Trent Batson, Campus Technology, May 04, 2011// If you find a good OER (open education resource) and copy it into your project, and meanwhile the OER keeps evolving, your project may quickly become obsolete. But OER Glue (from Tatemae), recognizing the transience of Web 2.0 resources, lets you mash live OERs into your project. "Your content stays fresh," according to OER Glue's Web site. OER Glue also integrates with many important educational and cultural Web 2.0 platforms and sites.

Open Source Group Seeks Support from Higher Ed for Mobile Initiative (This link is correct but for some reason it does not connect; paste the title in Google.) //David Nagel, Campus Technology, April 25, 2011// Jasig is launching a new open source project called uMobile and is calling on colleges and universities to contribute to the effort. Jasig's uMobile project will develop native mobile campus portal apps for smart phones, initially iOS and Android devices.

Wisc-Online Wisc-Online is a "no cost" digital library of Web-based learning resources called "learning objects." Find lists of learning objects here.

** Other Resources **
Snip.ly and SnipSnip.It: Sharing the Best Parts of Webpages and Videos //Career Tech Testing Center, May 3, 2011// Snip.ly is a service for snipping and sharing parts of webpages. SnipSnip.it is a service for snipping and sharing a small portion of a whole video

10 of the Best Apps for Education // Jenna Zwand, eSchool News, January 7, 2011 // As iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches become included in curriculum, //eSchool News// recommends these apps as possibly useful in the classroom.

Creating an Interactive Classroom //Bridget McCrea, THE Journal, May 5, 2011// An Iowa high school teacher is using cloud technology to encourage collaboration among students.

**Educational Technology Access**
Bridging the Digital Divide: Spectrum Policy, Program Diversity and Consumer Rights //Center for Technology Innovation, Brookings////, May 9, 2011// On May 5, the Center for Technology Innovation at Brookings hosted a forum on innovative solutions that the government can implement to expand citizen access to digital and information technology, focusing on spectrum policies.

Closing the “digital divide” ― the gap between society’s tech-enabled haves and have-nots ― hinges on enhancing the quality and breadth of consumer access to digital and information and technology in areas such as education, employment, health care, news and entertainment. As digital citizenship gains traction as a fundamental right, what should the government do to bridge the technology divide? How should access options be reformed, and what will programming offerings look like in the future? How will legislative and regulatory policies shape future access to further benefit consumers? How will spectrum policy changes impact under-served, geographically isolated populations and consumers at different economic levels in our society?

Online and On Time: Supporting Technology Implementation for All Students //CITEd Learn Center// Center for Implementing Technology in Education Meeting the diverse needs of students is a challenge - technology can make it work for you. CITEd recently participated in a video conference with members of the Texas Education Telecommunications Network (TETN), presenting educators with an overview of differentiating instruction through the use of technology, UDL and numerous examples and resources to support practitioners in their technology implementation efforts. Download the slides to find a toolkit of resources, strategies, and practice guides that address your needs to differentiate planning, instruction, management, and student assessment. Learn how the stages of implementation can guide your efforts to get started, scale-up, and evaluate your success.

‘Bring Your Own Device’ Catching on in Schools //Laura Devaney, eSchool News, April 29, 2011// Ed-tech access is an issue, but students' personal devices are an attractive option to a growing number of districts

** Social Media and Web-based Tools **
Social Media & FERPA Guidelines for Schools & Educators This collection highlights recent articles on social media policy and practices of educators (higher ed and k-12). Also contains links to social media policy examples.

How Web-based Tools Change Teaching and Learning (eBook) //Digital Learning Environment// Today's students are online and using Web 2.0 tools, and schools are beginning to capitalize on this phenomenon by integrating web-based tools in the classroom. This eBook will help you understand how valuable Web 2.0 technologies are and how we can help educators to use these tools to meet the challenges ahead.

Social Media Classroom The Social Media Classroom project was initiated by Howard Rheingold as an application to the HASTAC awards and was funded by the HASTAC award, provided by the MacArthur Foundation. He wrote most of the text on the site at launch.

Welcome to the Social Media Classroom and Collaboratory. It’s all free, as in both “freedom of speech” and “almost totally free beer.” We invite you to build on what we’ve started to create more free value. The Social Media Classroom (we’ll call it SMC) includes a free and open-source (Drupal-based) web service that provides teachers and learners with an integrated set of social media that each course can use for its own purposes—integrated forum, blog, comment, wiki, chat, social bookmarking, RSS, micro blogging, widgets, and video commenting are the first set of tools. The Classroom also includes curricular material: syllabi, lesson plans, resource repositories, screencasts and videos. Read more….

You can find //Ten Trends// on most any topic of interest, and often writers are listing the same trends. This topic was particularly interesting, //Ten Trends in K-12 Education// or //eEducation,// and there were several discussions about the trends, but I was interested in the source of the trends. Who says these are trends? These two sites provided descriptions and a link to the source for each trend.

Social Networking for K-12 eLearning is one of the Top 10 Latest Trends //John Hillsman, Interactyx,// //April 8, 2011// Also at this blog: 10 Latest E-Learning Trends in K-12 Education. Notice this is K-12 topic originates from www.accreditedonlinecolleges.com. 1. iPads in the classroom 2. More mobile devices 3. Tech-based monitoring of student progress 4. Cloud computing 5. Truly educational gaming 6. Social networking for learning 7. Adaptive learning environments 8. Electronic, interactive textbooks 9. Online summer school 10. Simulation learning

The 35 Best Web 2.0 Classroom Tools Chosen By You //Edudemic: Connecting Education and Technology// Be sure to check out the additional ones at the end of the list….those added by people like you.

** Copyright, Literacies and Plagiarism **
Teaching about Copyright and Fair Use for Media Literacy Education // Center for Social Media, Temple University // The Media Education Lab at Temple University has created a whole set of Curriculum Materials for teaching and understanding copyright and fair use. The materials include lesson plans, songs, case studies, and videos. If you're interested in learning more about Fair Use in Media Literacy Education, make sure to check out these materials!

Educational Sites Provide Ample Fodder for Plagiarism //Dian Schaffhauser, THE Journal, May 2, 2011// Paper mills and cheat sites are losing ground to social and user-generated Web sites as sources of material for student papers, and Wikipedia rules above all others as a source for plagiarism. A third of matched content derives from online sites where people contribute and share content, while only 15 percent of content matches have ties to sites specifically promoting "academic dishonesty." At the same time, legitimate educational sites end up providing a quarter of matched material. Those conclusions come out a new study by iParadigms, a company that develops applications for detecting plagiarism in written work. The study, "Plagiarism: Myths and Realities," is available with registration. (See next article.)

Plagiarism and the Web: Myths and Realities (White Paper) //Turitin// The move to a digital culture is raising a new set of challenges for educators. This study examines the Internet sources that students commonly use and provides educators with ideas to help students develop better citation and writing skills. Read comments in the [|Washington Post] (  Daniel de Vise, May 3, 2011).

Noodle Tools Noodle Tools has been around almost as long as there has been the Internet. It was a great source for me as a librarian, and it has only gotten better with age. Find innovative software that teaches students and supports teachers and librarians throughout the entire research process. Be sure to see the Teacher Resources. This section feature Click on ten described literacies with resources accommodating each one.
 * 21st Century Literacies
 * Curriculum Collaboration Toolkit
 * The Ethical Researcher

Professional Development
For Professional Development Coordinators //CITEd Learn Center// Center for Implementing Technology in Education One Website – lots of resources. CITEd provides access to a variety of resources to help professional development coordinators better serve those personnel.

WCET A note from Russell Poulin In the 2010 Managing Online Education survey conducted by WCET and the Campus Computing Survey we found the following: Links are provided here to the executive summary for surveys in past years.
 * Only about half (51%) of institutions responding to the survey had mandatory training for online faculty.
 * For those who had training, it ranged from 17 to 60 hours with an average of 22 hours.
 * The average number of ongoing hours of training (past the first year) was about 2 hours.

**Pearson Foundation and Gates Foundation and Common Core Standards**
Pearson Foundation Partners with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to Create Digital Learning Programs //Press Release,// //April 27, 2011// NEW YORK–The Pearson Foundation today announced a partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support America’s teachers by creating a full series of digital instructional resources. Online courses in math and reading/English language arts will offer a coherent and systemic approach to teaching the new Common Core State Standards. Common Core Standards were developed by the National Governors Association, in partnership with the Council of Chief State School Officers. Forty-one states, two territories, and the District of Columbia have adopted the standards.

Gates Foundation Announces Portfolio of Innovative Grants to Develop New Teaching and Learning Tools that Support Teachers and Help Students //Press Release, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, April 27, 2011// These investments support the development of game-based learning applications (Serious Games); math, English language arts and science curricula built into digital formats; learning through social networking platforms; and embedded assessments through a real-time and engaging environment of experiences and journeys.

**Upcoming Webinars**
A common barrier faced by educators is the lack of access to online teaching tools and the requisite training to be successful. CourseSites by Blackboard™, a FREE, hosted online course creation and facilitation service, has removed those barriers and is being used by middle and high school teachers, as well as higher education instructors world-wide to help engage digital-age learners. CourseSites is powered by the latest asynchronous and synchronous technology from Blackboard Inc., provides self-paced and live training options, enables access to a community of practice of online and blended educators, and includes dedicated support for teachers and students. Come learn how simple it is to get started with creating an online learning environment and how this resource is helping to shape the future of education. Presenter: Jarl Jonas, Sr. Program Manager, CourseSites by Blackboard
 * SREB Educational Technology Cooperative**
 * No Barriers: Equipping Educators to Teach in Online & Blended Learning Environments**, Thursday, May 19, 2011 ~ 6:00 – 7:00 p.m.

//To join the session, please click on the link below within 15 minutes of the specified time.// @https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?password=M.7E404E9983466576007098E4D31171&sid=2010300

Project Based Learning Online - Essential Elements and Examples //iNACOL Webinar,// //May 19, 2011, 6:00 PM (Eastern)// Participants will explore the essentials elements of PBL design as well as look at example student projects from various courses, including English and Game Design. Andrew Miller will walk participants through the PBL projects of his and students' design, looking at student products and learning management design in Moodle. Andrew will focus on what PBL looks like in a completely online environment. Suzie Boss will describe how an online PBL Camp that uses a variety of Web 2.0 tools to support professional learning, helps teachers find collaborators, invest in planning time, and gain familiarity with project-based learning strategies.

The Online Learning Imperative: A Solution to Three Looming Crises in Education //Webinar Thursday, June 16, 2011, 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM EDT (sponsored by Pearson)// Bob Wise, former governor of West Virginia and current president of the Alliance for Excellent Education, presents The Online Learning Imperative: A Solution to Three Looming Crises in Education. In his presentation, he describes the three major crises in K-12 education in the United States—teacher shortages, state budget shortfalls, and low student achievement—and explains how technology and online learning can lead the U.S. education system out of them. Gov. Wise also cochairs Digital Learning Now! with Jeb Bush, former governor of Florida.

National Teacher of the Year Named //Liana Heitin, Education Week, May 2, 2011// Michelle Shearer, a chemistry teacher at Urbana High School in Ijamsville, Md., has been selected as the 61st National Teacher of the Year, according to the Council of Chief State School Officers.