April+30,+2012

=Worthy of Note: April 30, 2012=



In this Worthy of Note ...
Webinars Digital Books Mobile Learning Cloud Computing Flipped Classrooms Social Media and Apps for Educators Competency-Based Education Career and Technical Education Vendor Partnerships and Higher Education iPads: The Future? Smart Glasses: The Future? Disruptive Innovation Augmented Reality Blackboard Shifts Strategy Resources: Math Resources: Language Arts <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Resources: Technology <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Resources: Videos <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Resources: Sharing <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Just Interesting Topics

Webinars
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The Art of a Flipped Classroom – Turning Learning on its Head Cisco Webex//<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">, May 3, 2012 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Jonathan Bergmann, Lead Technology Facilitator, Kenilworth School District 38, and Aaron Sams, Science Teacher, Woodland Park School District, Woodland Park, CO.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Digital School Districts Survey Webinar //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Converge, May 10, 2012 // //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">2 p.m. Eastern / 11 a.m. Pacific // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Duration: 60 minutes <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Each year, the Center for Digital Education, in partnership with the National School Boards Association, invites all U.S. public school districts to participate in its annual Digital School Districts Survey.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">This survey recognizes districts and school boards that are making exemplary use of technology to provide better communication, to support student learning and to track district results.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">This webinar will feature some of the ranked winners of the 2011-2012 Digital School Districts Survey. Each presenter will share how their district is utilizing technology to more effectively serve students, educators and the community.

Digital Books
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">1 in 4 College Textbooks Will Be Digital By 2015 //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Audrey Watters, Read Write Web, March 16, 2011 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Sales of digital textbooks still only account for a small fraction of the U.S. college market. But according to the latest report by the social learning platform Xplana, we have reached the tipping point for e-textbooks, and the company predicts that in the next five years digital textbook sales will surpass 25% of sales for the higher education and career education markets.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">That figure is a revision from the company's report last year, which predicted that one in five college textbooks would be digital by the year 2014. Due to the rate at which colleges are embracing digital textbooks, Xplana now projects that sales will grow by 80 to 100% over the next four years.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Digital Textbooks May Save Schools $250 per Student per Year //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Posted by Lee Crockett, 21st Century Fluency Project, April 21, 2012 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Digital textbooks are sweeping the face of education with interactive interfaces and immersive learning experiences that help get students thinking, learning, and creating. But if you needed one more good reason why e-textbooks are a good idea, how about the money schools will save implementing them? This article from Electronista has more.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The Digital Classroom [Infographic] <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">This info graphic from [|OnlineUniversities.com] illustrates many of the factors relevant to eBook integration in the classroom.

Mobile Learning
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Mobile Perspectives: On teaching Mobile Literacy //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">David Parry, Educause, March/April 2012 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The future our students will inherit is one that will be mediated and stitched together by the mobileweb, and I think that ethically, we are called on as teachers to teach them how to use these technologies effectively, to ensure that they end up on the right side of the digital divide: the side that knows how to use social media to band together. Teaching mobile web literacy seems to me as crucial as teaching basic literacy. The authors offer a few literacies that we ought to be striving to teach our students.

__<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Reduce the Risk – and Cost – of Mobility (White Paper – Tech&Learning) __ <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Download here //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Sponsored by Absolute Software // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The proper use of technology will allow you to save money, protect existing assets, and even discover additional sources of revenue. All over the country, school districts are trying to find ways to upgrade or improve their technology without spending money. One way they are doing this is by examining how they use technology. This includes:
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Replacing Old Resources with New, Improved, and Free Options
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Using Technology to Improve Business Practices
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Using Technology to Save Money
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Bring Your Own Device to School
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">and Theft Recovery vs. Theft Replacement

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) – Being Practical About Mobile Learning //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Rob De Lorenzo, Blog, April 9, 2012 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Where as the conversation was mainly dominated by costs, allowing students to bring their own devices will allow more financial flexibility to schools and school districts. This ultimately shifts the focus from purchasing equipment to teaching acceptable use and integration of technology into day-to-day instruction. We really are reaching that point of ubiquity in society where access to Internet-enabled devices is becoming less and less of an issue and acceptable use and leveraging them for learning has become more and more important.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The 2012 State of the Mobile Web in Higher Ed //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Karine Joly, University Business Magazine Digest, March 28, 2012 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">According to a recent survey, 59 percent of institutions reported providing a mobile-friendly website or mobile app, compared with 37 percent a year earlier.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">In the Digital Age, Welcoming Cell Phones in the Class //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Mindshift, April 6, 2012 // <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">No longer afraid of giving kids access to the Internet, a growing number of school districts are developing digital media policies that emphasize responsibility over fear.

Cloud Computing
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Cloud Computing Resources <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Information and security policy information on the topic from Indiana University.

Flipped Classrooms
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Five Best Practices for the Flipped Classroom //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Andrew Miller, Edutopia, February 24, 2012 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">I get very nervous when I hear education reformists and politicians tout how "incredible" the flipped classroom model, or how it will "solve" many of the problems of education. It doesn't //solve// anything. It //is// a great first step in reframing the role of the teacher in the classroom. It fosters the "guide on the side" mentality and role, rather than that of the "sage of the stage." It helps move a classroom culture towards student construction of knowledge rather than the teacher having to tell the knowledge to students. Even Salman Khan says that the teacher is now "liberated to communicate with [their students]."

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">It also creates the opportunity for differentiated roles to meet the needs of students through a variety of instructional activities. But again, just because I "free" someone, doesn't mean that he/she will know what to do next, nor how to do it effectively. This is where the work must occur as the conversation of the flipped classroom moves forward and becomes more mainstream in public and private education. Read more….

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Syded <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Check out this blog produced by Daniel Edwards. Among lots of other topics, it contains current information about flipped classrooms and iPads,

Social Media and Apps for Educators
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Why Teachers Should Try Out Tumblr //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Edudemic, ////<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">April 17, 2012 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">So what is it about Tumblr that makes it so popular? Quite simply, it’s Tumblr’s simplicity. Like Twitter, it’s beyond easy to slap up a picture, quote, video, and other content that interests you. But it doesn’t stop there. Tumblr is essentially a social network where users can easily like (a la Facebook) but quickly ‘reblog’ your posts. This then puts your article into their blog that may or may not have a wider audience. Either way, it gets your content quickly shared across a plethora of locations. And all you did was click like, what, 3 times? Ridiculously easy. That’s where teachers come in.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">PLN’s on Twitter <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Blog: Through the Eyes of an Educator <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Earlier this school year my principal @rondmac and I (@jamburgy) shared a few tech sessions with our staff about the uses of Twitter in education. Quickly, several teachers saw the benefits as well, and we have been sharing ideas in our building that we learn from others literally from all over the world.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">In the last 24 hours I have connected with teacher leaders all over the world through “shout-outs” using the #FF hashtag where you mention others who are worth following. Having others share my username with their followers opens up even more opportunities for me to connect to others that I would never have the chance to meet otherwise. I would highly recommend participating in the #FF mentions on Fridays.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Using Pinterest in the Classroom //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Educational Technology Guy, March 28, 2012 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Pinterest is the newest member to arrive on to the social media scene, and it has taken social media users by storm – quickly becoming one of the most popular social media platforms today. However, this site is not solely to be seen by educators as yet another classroom distraction. Pinterest can actually be highly beneficial for a number of reasons.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Must See: A New Web 2.0 App Store Just For Educators //<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Jeff Dunn, Edudemic, April 19, 2012 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">[|Edshelf] and is an easy-to-use directory all the great web 2.0 tools out there just waiting for educators to try them out. You can share your experience with the tools, add your own, store a ‘shelf’ of your favorite tools, and more. All in all, it’s a useful site that you should probably bookmark right now. And it’s free!

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">New: 10 shiny Apple apps for education //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">eClassroom News, April 22,2012 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Last year we presented “10 of the best apps for education,” which highlighted some of the best apps for iPhones and iPods. However, with new upgrades in touch technology, HD and 3D features, and the debut of the iPad, we’ve come up with a new list of the best Apple-based education apps for 2012.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">This year’s list includes some of the most highly rated apps, both by teachers and by Apple, and features a range that spans from simple math games to a revolutionary special-education app, and from 3D imaging of the elements included in the periodic table to secure file sharing for students and teachers.

Competency-Based Education
__<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">2 blogs below from Innosight __ //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Heather Clayton Staker, Innosight, April 2-3, 2012 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Yesterday in this blog (part 1, below) I said that there’s an organization that is already using a sophisticated data system to deliver a fully competency-based education model and producing remarkable results. That organization is Western Governors University (WGU), and its success offers a compelling template for K-12.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">6 dreams for state education systems <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Imagine if each state provided its K-12 students a simple, navigable portal that linked them to the best learning resources in the world and they could choose their favorite path from a menu of possibilities. Imagine if K-12 students, with protections in place, could connect to learning teams, mentors, and experts worldwide in convenient, accessible…Read more and follow with Part II below.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">6 dreams for state education systems, part II

Career and Technical Education
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Feds release blueprint to spur career, technical education //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">eClassroom News, April 20, 2012 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The U.S. Department of Education (ED) has released a blueprint to transform career and technical education (CTE) in order to provide high-quality job-training opportunities for students. These efforts aim to reduce skill shortages, promote business growth, encourage new investments and hires, and prompt innovation and economic growth.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The FY 2013 budget proposes an additional $1 billion to help 500,000 (a 50 percent increase) high school students participate in Career Academies, programs offered in high school that combine college curricula with a career emphasis, such as healthcare or engineering.

Vendor Partnerships and Higher Education
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Funding Campus IT: The Partnership Strategy //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Bridget McCrae, Campus Technology, April 19, 2012 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Traditional vendor-higher education relationships were built on the premise of giving out money in exchange for goods. Today's competitive funding environment requires a more creative approach and finds more colleges turning to IT manufacturers for funding, support, and resources. In this series we'll look at how three different schools have successfully funded IT infrastructure changes with the help of their vendors, tell how the processes worked, and the benefits they've reaped as a result.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The Vendor Solution Series **

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">This article is the second in a three-part monthly series, "The Vendor Solution." Read part 1 here. Part 3 will be published in May.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">3 Start-Up Announcements From the Education Innovation Summit //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Nick DeSantis, Wired Campus, Chronicle of Higher Ed, April 18, 2012 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The theme of disrupting higher education was buzzing among hundreds of conference attendees this week at the Education Innovation Summit at Arizona State University. The event offered start-up companies a captive audience for pitching their products. Here’s a small sample of announcements they made.

iPads: The Future?
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">How the iPad Is Changing Education //<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">John Paul Titlow, ReadWriteWeb, April 23, 2012 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">There's also some early evidence that an iPad could provide a more engaging learning experience and might even improve student performance. It's purely anecdotal, but students at Riverside Unified School District have said that using an iPad makes learning and doing homework more enjoyable. Their teachers confirmed that students seem more eager to participate thanks to the iPad. Anybody who's ever spent a long stretch of uninterrupted time reading or watching video on their iPad can see why this might be the case.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">One small-scale study conducted at Riverside indicated that Algebra students using iPads tested at 90% proficiency, compared to 60% among their traditional textbook-toting counterparts. Read more….

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">25 Ways To Use iPads In The Classroom by Degree of Difficulty //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Jeff Dunn, Edudemic, April 18, 2012 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">This is worth checking out. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The Teacher’s Ipad Spectrum //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Consume, Collaborate, Produce // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">So you’ve got one or a few iPads that you want to use in the classroom. You could visit the Apple App Store’s education section and peruse the many offerings… do some Google searches to figure out what’s good… or just use this print-friendly image below to get started!

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">14 Must-Know iPad Tips & Tricks A few of these are intended for using on the <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">new iPad <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">, but most of them will be relevant to all <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">iPad models <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> of all ages.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Five Websites that present useful tips on lots of topics, especially using the new iPAD in instruction: **

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Mentormob allows you to organize any video, article, or website into a Playlist. It features lots of ideas for using the new iPAD with students. Check out the blog.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The 6Techs Daily Created by Cathy Moak and updated daily with tips, news and education features.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Scoop It! iPad in Education! Created by Daniel Edwards and updated almost daily.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Syded Check out this blog:. Also produced by Daniel Edwards. Among lots of other topics, it contains current information especially about flipped classrooms and iPads,

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Google's Chromebook Challenges iPad in the Classroom //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Julio Ojeda-Zapata, TwinCities.com, March 18, 2012 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Like many K-12 school administrators pondering how to modernize their classroom technology, Peter Iles considered iPads as way to outfit his students and replenish an aging PC lab. "We considered the iPad," said Iles, the principal and technology coordinator at Grace Lutheran School in Oshkosh, Wis. "But we did not consider it for long." Instead, Iles went with the Google Chromebook, a Web-focused new kind of computer that, like the iPad, is being touted as a revolutionary educational device.

Smart Glasses: The Future?
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Google Creates a Spectacle with 'Smart Glasses' Project //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">eCampus News, April 8, 2012 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">If you think it’s hard to keep students’ attention in class now, just wait until everyone starts wearing Google’s futuristic, internet-connected glasses. While wearing a pair, you can see directions to your destination appear literally before your eyes. You can talk to friends over video chat, take a photo, or even buy a few things online as you walk around. These glasses can do anything you now need a smart phone or tablet computer to do—and then some.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Google: Here's What Our Sci-Fi Glasses Look Like <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Chris Taylor, Mashable, April 4, 2012 <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">We’re more than a quarter of the way through 2012, and as you may have noticed, we have failed to acquire silver jumpsuits or jetpacks. In fact, aside from that headset in your ear, smartphone in your pocket and tablet in your purse, everything is looking quite boringly un-futuristic. But if Google has its way, we will start wearing some very science fiction-like glasses by year’s end.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">4 Problems Google Glasses Have To Solve Before Becoming a Hit //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Co Design // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Yesterday, Google officially revealed a project that will push them to their creative limits. It’s called Project Glass, and it’s a pair of glasses that layers digital information over the real world. It’s your smartphone, right in your eyes. You can read text messages. You can take photos. You can listen to music (thanks to some built-in earbuds). You can even be told that the subway is closed as you walk up to it, and be redirected to your destination by foot.

Disruptive Innovation
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Disruptive innovation — in education //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Lynn Hardesty, MIT News, April 20, 2012 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">For Anant Agarwal, //MITx//, the Institute’s new online-learning initiative, isn’t just a means of democratizing education. It’s a way to reinvent it. This is an inspirational description of [|MITX], a portfolio of MIT courses through an online interactive learning platform, and his thoughtful leadership.

Augmented Reality
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Augmented Reality: Coming Soon to a School Near You? //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Mindshift, April 20, 2012 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">As schools’ acceptance of mobile tools such as smartphones and tablets becomes more widespread, educators are struggling with how to incorporate them into current teaching models. Experts say schools need to get beyond the technology cart—treating these tools as accessories that get wheeled in and wheeled out an hour later—and educators need guidance on how to change their teaching practices to take advantage of what mobile learning has to offer. Yet examples of what these new pedagogical models might look like are hard to come by.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Gagnon and his team may be able to help. As the minds behind Augmented Reality and Interactive Storytelling (ARIS), they’ve developed an open-source mobile learning platform educators can download onto an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch to create place-based and narrative gaming activities that can be incorporated into classroom curriculum.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Education with Augmented Reality: AR textbooks released in Japan (video) //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Hana Stewart-Smith, ZDNet, April 4, 2012 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">A Tokyo publishing company has released textbooks that support Augmented Reality on smartphones. With apps downloadable for free, this textbook displays how AR might be a more practical choice than an iPad for classroom tech.

Blackboard Shifts Strategy
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Blackboard Makes Unlikely Move Into Open-Source World //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Jason Tomassini, Ed Week, April 3, 2012 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Signaling a dramatic shift in strategy and product offerings, Blackboard Inc. last week purchased two companies built on the Moodle platform, the free learning-management system popular mostly because it is an alternative to Blackboard.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">For an undisclosed amount, Blackboard bought Moodlerooms and NetSpot, two companies that help users manage and customize the Moodle learning-management-system, or LMS, software.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Many in the education technology community dismissed the move as Blackboard's attempt to join a community with values starkly different from its own.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">"Their behavior in the past … is about as diametrically opposed to open-source behavior as you could imagine," said David Wiley, an instructional technology professor at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Blackboard’s Identity Crisis, Desire2Learn’s Optimism, and Instructure’s Coolness //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">George Siemens, eLearnSpace, April 6, 2012 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">A common response to the longterm impact of these acquisitions has been to link Blackboard’s manoeuvre with the IBM’s transformation into a services company. This comparison is particularly silly because IBM was heavily invested in a hardware field that was being commoditized, whereas Blackboard is a software company (i.e. Microsoft). And the LMS is not being commoditized – it’s being integrated with new value adds including curriculum, eportfolios, analytics, learner relationship management, advising, mobile, etc. Blackboard has a history of not knowing what it is. Or the type of market in which it operates.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Summary of Statements by Key Players in Blackboard Announcement, Including Competitors //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Phil Hill, e-Literate, April 4, 2012 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Given all the news and discussion surrounding Blackboard’s strategy change last week, I thought that it would be useful to collect the public statements from Blackboard and their competitors in one place. No analysis, no interviews, just statements. I have a feeling that this might provide a rich source of analysis 6 – 12 months from now.

Resources: Math
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Math Quack //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Dropdot Inc. // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">In the Alpha stage, MathQuack is a practical web software alternative to home tutoring for today’s web-savvy generation, presenting the advantages of privacy, endless patience, instant help without scheduling hassle, and the convenience of working from anywhere. MathQuack will also cost you a whole lot less than a human tutor. It will be fee-based apparently, but //Psst! Sign up now as part of our pilot program, and you’ll keep your all access account for **free** once we roll out the complete product.//

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Our lessons will hold your hand through each concept, providing instruction and requiring your input at every step, keeping you engaged. We’ve also got lots of exercises so you can refine your skills while our system closely monitors your work to identify precise knowledge gaps and tailor recommendations for revision. Once you’ve done some work, you’ll have a personal progress report to boast your achievements.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">We’re planned to cover the entire secondary school math curriculum, starting at the beginning and moving on up.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Great Math Teaching Ideas <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Check this one out. The source has gathered math-teaching ideas from lots of places with links here. **//<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Great Maths Teaching Ideas //** is the blog of William Emeny, a secondary school math teacher working at Wyvern College in Hampshire, England. He teaches Key Stage 3, GCSE and pre A-level (FSMQ) maths.

Resources: Language Arts
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">WordStash //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">ICT Magic, April 21, 2012 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">A great site for building vocabulary and looking up words with the simple dictionary and remember them with virtual flashcards. ICT Magic was winner of the best educational Wiki in 2011 by [|Edublog].

Resources: Technology
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Education Technology Guy <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Free resources for teachers, educational ideas and tips, educational topics, personal learning networks, project based learning, Google, Evernote, Discovery Education and more. David Andrade is a physics teacher and education technology specialist in Connecticut.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Plagiarism detection tools for educators <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">ISSUU, April 9, 2012 <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">You can use these tools to deter students from cheating on assignments, which raises the quality of work for your course. Instructors can see at a glance assignments that are original and ones that contain content copied from the Internet

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Google+ Hangouts SlideShare App //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Ross, SlideShare, March 28, 2012 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Google+ Hangouts are an ideal place for people to share experiences online just like they do in real life. Now, sharing slides live is even better with the Google+ Hangouts SlideShare App.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Evernote For The Classroom //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Steven Anderson, Digital Learning Environment Blogs // <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">These are sites, lists and ideas all for using Evernote for your personal use or in the classroom.

Resources: Videos
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Got video? Great video resources for your class! //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Jim Forde, Digital Learning Environment Blogs // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">One of the greatest things that the web offers is the myriad of video resources that can potentially enhance your lessons. Here is a short list of ones that blow me away and a few tips for video utilization. The list: NBC Learn - http://www.nbclearn.com, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Science 360 - http://www.science360.gov, TED - http://www.ted.com, You Tube Edu - @http://www.youtube.com/education, PBS - @http://video.pbs.org/, and Neo K12 - @http://www.neok12.com/

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">How 12 Schools Are Using Khan Academy Right Now //<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Jeff Dunn, Edudemic, April 23, 2012 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Whether you want to use it as a study tool for your own education or bring it in as an alternative way for students in your classes to learn a subject, it’s simple and free to get started with Khan Academy. This is perhaps a large part of the reason why it’s proving so popular nationwide. Here, we’ve highlighted twelve of the many schools that are using Salman Khan’s instructional videos to teach, learn, share, and grow from elementary school to high school. You may just find inspiration to start using Khan Academy on your own!

Resources: Sharing
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">[|Google+ Hangouts SlideShare App] //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Ross, SlideShare, March 28, 2012 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Google+ Hangouts are an ideal place for people to share experiences online just like they do in real life. Now, sharing slides live is even better with the Google+ Hangouts SlideShare App.

Just Interesting Topics
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The History of Learning Tools (Infographic) //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Jeff Dunn, Edudemic April 17, 2012 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">You’re going to want to print out this infographic and, at the very least, share it with your fellow teachers and even students. It’s all about the history of education technology and could be used to educate just about anyone on how far we’ve come in a short period of time. We did a more in-depth look at the history of education technology about a year ago but this infographic is a lot more… fun.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">IT Spending To Reach $3.7 Trillion in 2012 //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">David Nagel, THE Journal, April 10, 2012 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Spending on IT software, equipment, and services is projected to reach $3.75 trillion worldwide this year, driven by solid growth in computer hardware and enterprise software. While that represents roughly 2.5 percent growth over 2011's spending figures, according to market research firm Gartner, the forecast is a bit lower than previously predicted--owing mainly to currency fluctuation.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Cui Bono? The Question Rarely Asked, Let Alone Investigated //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Anthony Cody, Education Week Teacher, April 17, 2012 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">As our public schools are systematically re-engineered for dubious reasons, with questionable results, by people of uncertain motives, there is a disturbing lack of skepticism on the part of our watchdogs for the public good, journalists. One of the basic principles of reporting is to ask "cui bono" - who benefits? In the Watergate scandal, the key informant whispered to reporters Woodward and Bernstein, "Follow the money." But very few reporters today seem to be "following the money" in the field of education.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Veteran education reporter John Merrow recently delved into cheating scandals on his blog, **Taking Note:** In other words, we're cheating kids on their tests and stealing essential courses like art and music from them! Add to that, we are lying -- because when kids get phony scores telling them they are proficient when they need help, that's an out-and-out lie.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">At what point does this trifecta -- lying, cheating and stealing -- become a felony? Seriously! Read more….

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Digital Scholarship Publications Overview //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Open Access Publishing Since 1989 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Digital Scholarship provides information and commentary about digital copyright, digital curation, digital repository, open access, scholarly communication, and other digital information issues.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Remaking education in the image of our desires //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">George Siemens, eLearnSpace, April 19, 2012 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">This is a stimulating article with equally stimulating/agreeable/disagreeable responses.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The current generation of students will witness the remaking of our education system. Change is happening on many fronts: economic, technological, paradigmatic, social, and the natural cycles of change that occur in complex social/technical systems.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">People have attempted to define change principles: Christensen’s disruptive innovation, Schumpeter’s creative destruction, Kuhn’s revolution structures, Paul A. David’s model of long systemic change, and (my personal favorite) Carlota Perez’ techno-economic revolutions. Each of these is a different lens for viewing big, dramatic, change.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">This isn’t small micro-change. It’s not about adding a new technology into a classroom. It’s much, much bigger. It is part of the big shift: new rules, global market, capital shifts, emerging markets, new economies, and dying economies.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">In education, there are many points of innovation in response to global trends: open education resources, internationalization, joint partnerships with universities in developing economies, adoption of new technology, and new pedagogical models.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">One of the most significant points of innovation in education is in the increase in startups, venture capital, and general corporate interest in filling gaps or correcting inefficiencies.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Jeb Bush on the Right to Rise and The Future of Learning //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Getting Smart Staff, April 18, 2012 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">This article speaks to George’s presentation above.

<span style="color: #330033; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">A Florida Killing, Virtual Charter Schools: ALEC at Its Worst //<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Independent Source Pac // //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">, ////<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">March 26, 2012 // <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Today in //The New York Times// Nobel-prize-winning economist Paul Krugman spoke about the dangers of corporatizing politics and the real reason a man in Florida could get away with killing an unarmed teenager in the street. He noted the law is "virtually identical" to a template given lawmakers nation-wide by the American Legislative Exchange Council. ALEC, as it's known. Read more about how these two topics relates to each other.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Other articles related to ALEC and virtual learning: <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Controversial Policy Group Casts Long K-12 Shadow <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> (//Andrew Ujifusa, Ed Week, April 20, 2012//); <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">ALEC and corporate fingerprints are all over national push for online learning <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> (//Beth Hawkins, MINNPOST, March 26,2012//); <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">How Online Learning Companies Bought America's Schools (//Lee Fang, The Nation, November 16, 2011//); Fight the #1 Enemy of Education with Online Learning, (//ALEC, January, 2012//).

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Duncan Outlines Four Rural Education Priority Areas //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Diette Courrege, Ed Week, April 18, 2012 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said on Tuesday his rural education agenda centers on four priorities: teachers, capacity, technology and college access.