February+1,+2012+-+Digital+Learning+Day



=Worthy of Note: Digital Learning Day= =February 1, 2012=

Make your voice heard and help spread the word about the value of learning with technology!
Join **Kristin Kipp**, 2011 National Online Teacher of the Year and other Online Teachers!


 * Tweet ** your response to this question,
 * “How do you make a difference using digital tools?” ** and then make sure you add the hashtags below.

#onlinevoice #DLDay
 * Twitter: **

Remember to read the **Blog Post:** @http://educationfrontier.org/?p=184

A few quick facts:
 * Over 17,000 teachers and nearly 1.7 million students have registered directly as part of the national Digital Learning Day effort.
 * 38 states, many with their own registration processes are hosting their own Digital Learning Day activities and celebrations. This state program covers 88% of US students.
 * President Obama has provided a statement sending greetings to Digital Learning Day participants and encouraging every educator to think about how technology can support effective teaching and learning.
 * Dignitaries from across the aisle will be stopping by or on video to support the potential for digital learning in schools.
 * 13 states have issued Governor Proclamations for Digital Learning Day, including Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, New Hampshire, Ohio, Rhode Island, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Digital Learning Day, February 1, 2012 <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Today, February 1, 2012, the Alliance for Excellent Education will host an in-depth webcast featuring moderated discussion of video footage of innovation in action looking at leadership, instruction, innovation, every subject area, and effective teaching.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Alliance Publications on Digital Learning <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Alliance for Excellent Education provides a number of articles and reports essential to understanding and promoting digital learning.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The good news is that we know a great deal about how to educate low-performing adolescents to high standards, and many high schools across the country are doing so. Many suggested solutions are outlined here, ranging from effective teachers and principals to college preparation and more.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Center for Secondary School Digital Learning and Policy <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The Alliance for Excellent Education (Alliance) created the Center for Secondary School Digital Learning and Policy (Center) to focus specifically on how technology and digital learning can offer bold and innovative ways to accelerate secondary education transformation to ensure that all students—especially those most at risk and disadvantaged—graduate from high school prepared for college and a career. The Center will allow the Alliance to identify and share broadly how innovation, technology, and online/blended learning accelerate and support transforming secondary schools. The Digital Learning Imperative: How Teaching and Technology Meet Today's Educational Challenges, the first report from the Center for Secondary School Digital Learning and Policy at the Alliance for Excellent Education. Read comments written by //Katie Ash, Education Week// about this publication.

==<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Follow Bob Wise, President of the Alliance for Excellent Education and former governor of West Virginia on Twitter: <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">all4ed_BW ==

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Digital Learning Day cometh //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Michael Horn, Innosight, January 17, 2012 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">With the arrival on February 1, 2012 of the first-ever national Digital Learning Day, the disruptive innovation of K-12 online learning—from in blended-learning environments to remote ones—seems to be taking yet another step toward the mainstream. As we approach this day, and as district schools, charter schools, and states around the country participate, we must make sure that this doesn’t become a day that is all about technology for technology’s sake…. read more.

Other Worthy Articles and Publications About Digital Learning
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Keeping Pace with K-12 Online Learning: An Annual Review of Policy and Practice (2011) //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Keeping Pace i //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">s the latest in a series of annual reports that began in 2004 that examine the status of K-12 online education across the country. The report provides an overview of the latest policies, practices, and trends affecting online learning programs across all 50 states.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Quality Control in K-12 Digital Learning: Three (Imperfect) Approaches //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Frederick M. Hess, Thomas B. Fordham Institute, July 27, 2011 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">In this first of six papers on digital learning commissioned by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, Frederick M. Hess explores the challenges of quality control. As he notes, “one of the great advantages of online learning is that it makes ‘unbundling’ school provision possible—that is, it allows children to be served by providers from almost anywhere, in new and more customized ways. But taking advantage of all the opportunities online learning offers means that there is no longer one conventional “school” to hold accountable. Instead, students in a given building or district may be taking courses (or just sections of courses) from a variety of providers, each with varying approaches to technology, instruction, mastery, and so forth…Finding ways to define, monitor, and police quality in this brave new world is one of the central challenges in realizing the potential of digital learning.”

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Download other publications from Fordham Institute here. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">[|The Costs of Online Learning] <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Read comments about this publication by //Katie Ash of Education Week//, January 11, 2012… <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Online Ed. Less Expensive Than Blended, Traditional Models <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Read //Keeping Pace// comments about this publication here.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">School Finance in the Digital-Learning Era <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Read Tom Vander Ark’s comments about this publication here.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Teachers in the Age of Digital Instruction <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Read Tom Vander Ark’s comments about this publication here.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">…Plus other publications of interest about digital learning here.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">e-learning outlook for 2012: will it be a rough ride? //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Tony Bates, Online Learning and Distance Education Resources, January 2, 2012 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Another year, and online learning, e-learning, learning technologies, educational technologies, digital learning, or whatever you call it or them, will continue to grow, become more prevalent, and more a central part of teaching and learning in higher education – but exactly how and in what ways?

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The general trends are not going to change much from 2011 (which I identified as course redesign, mobile learning, more multimedia, learning analytics, and shared services), but some of the specifics are becoming clearer. I’ve ranked my predictions in order of significance for higher education, and also given a probability rating of the prediction actually happening.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The trends he writes about are **tablets, learning analytics, OER**, **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">disruption in the LMS market, integration of social media into formal learning, the digital university, watch India, ****<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">and ****<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">the great unknown. **

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">How Will You Use Technology to Revolutionize Your Learning? //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Patrick Ledesma, Leading from the Classroom, Education Week, January 30, 2012 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Patrick is responding to Apple and the iPad's Potential Game Changer for Education

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Access to Algebra I: The Effects of Online Mathematics for Grade 8 Students //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">IES Institute of Education Sciences // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">This study investigates the use of an online course to expand access to algebra I to students in grade 8 who are ready to take the course but unable to do so because their schools do not offer a full algebra I course to eighth graders (often because the schools are small or in rural areas). The goal of this randomized controlled trial is to ascertain the effects of online algebra I on the achievement and subsequent course-taking patterns of eighth graders in schools that do not typically offer algebra I. Read comments by //Dian Schaffhauser, THE Journal, December 16, 2011//, Online Classes Accelerate Math for Middle Schoolers, Research Finds

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Five Things Students Want Their Teachers to Know about Online Learning //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">TL Advisor Blog, Tech&Learning // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">At the recent iNACOL Virtual Schools Symposium I listened to high school students who have experience learning this way as well as teachers who have experience with these students, share some advice for making this type of learning even better. Here is their advice, as well as suggestions for tools that teachers can use to heed this advice.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">New Year Brings New Military Classification for Online High School Graduates //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Susan Patrick Blog, iNACOL, January 1, 2012 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Happy New Year, iNACOL colleagues and friends! As online learning continues to grow for K-12 students across the globe in 2012, a new resolution was signed into law by the President that benefits high school graduates of full-time online learning programs in the U.S. In the past, seniors graduating from full-time online high schools have faced obstacles in their efforts to join the U.S. military. With the Department of Defense classifying an online high school graduate’s diplomas as “non-traditional,” the graduate is given a different recruitment rank, or tier, than a graduate of a traditional, brick and mortar high school, who would be classified as “Tier I” military recruit, compared to the “Tier II” title given to a graduate with an online learning diploma.

//<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Marcia Clemmitt, // //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">CQ Researcher, December 2, 2011 (Subscription only) // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Refer to Curt Bonk’s blog:
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Digital Education; Can Technology Replace Classroom Teachers? **
 * //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">CQ Researcher //****<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> is only available by subscription but usually is easily located through academic databases to which you probably have access. **

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Covering today's most important issues and controversial subjects, //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">CQ Researcher // has been the choice of students and librarians for over 80 years. Each weekly issue—written by an experienced CQ Press reporter—is an in-depth, single topic report featuring more than 12,000 words of text and extensive bibliographies

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Digital technology is becoming increasingly commonplace in K-12 <span class="searchhit" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">education <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">, and many researchers argue that it will save money and transform schools into more effective institutions. But other experts contend that the evidence so far is slim on exactly what computers can accomplish in the classroom. The dominance of standardized testing means digital technologies must raise students test scores to levels administrators and policymaker deem significant. But computer-based learning may not be well suited for that task, and further efforts to computerize education may require schools to shift away from standardized testing, experts say. Until now, most successful computer-learning initiatives have required specialized training for teachers. But experts say developing technology that will be easy for nonspecialists to use remains a challenge. Meanwhile, despite the debate over the effectiveness of computerized education, all online K-12 schools are proliferating nationwide, and enrollment in online courses is soaring.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Also, pro/con on the issues in //CQ Researcher//, December 2011

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Pro: <span class="header2" style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Curt Bonk <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Professor, Instructional Systems Technology Department, Indiana University. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Written for //CQ Researcher//, December 2011
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Should schools use as much digital technology as they can afford? **

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Con: Paul Thomas <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Associate Professor of Education, Furman University. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Written for //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">CQ Researcher //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">, December 2011

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Further summary: 2011 <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">New Florida law allows charter schools and individual school districts to offer online instruction and permits elementary-school students to study full time at Florida Virtual School…. Idaho becomes first state to require students to complete two or more online courses as a graduation requirement…. Computer Science Education Act introduced in the House and Senate to bring more programming and computer-problem-solving classes to K-12 schools…. New York City announces new investments in school technology while laying off teachers and canceling school construction projects…. Young Scratch hobbyists have posted more than 2 million media projects online.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Converge Special Report: The Evolving Classroom //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Center for Digital Education and Converge, December 2, 2011 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The 2011 Q4 Special Report focuses on the evolution of learning settings from traditional, instructor-led classrooms to completely virtual, student-centric classes and schools. It describes and illustrates myriad K-12, college and university learning environments, gives examples of how evolving classroom models impact students and teachers, and highlights the technologies that make it possible. To bring students into a digital learning age, the classroom must evolve.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Is Mandating Online Learning Good Policy? //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Michael B. Horn, Innosight Institute, December 7, 2011 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">An increasing number of advocates for online learning have come out in favor of mandating that states require students take at least one college- or career-prep course online to earn a high school diploma. Digital Learning Now!, a national campaign chaired by former Governors Jeb Bush and Bob Wise to advance policies to create a high quality digital learning environment for each student–and where I serve as a “Digital Luminary,” is on board as well.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">States are taking notice. Michigan jumped in first with an online-learning requirement for graduation 5 years ago, and Alabama quickly followed suit. In the last year, Florida and Idaho have jumped on board as well, and districts, such as Tennessee’s Putnam County schools, have adopted an online-learning graduation requirement, too.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">But is an online-learning requirement a good idea? For someone who advocates for a transformed student-centric education system powered by digital learning, you might think my quick answer would be an emphatic yes, but I’m not so sure.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">California's Online 'Bill Of Rights' Expands High School Digital Learning //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">John Fensterwald, Thoughts on Public Education, Huffington Post, November 14, 2011 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Students whose high schools don't offer the required courses or enough sections to qualify them for admission to the University of California or California State University would have a right to take those courses online, under an initiative that sponsors are targeting for next November's ballot.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The California Student Bill of Rights would greatly expand high school online education, while breaking down geographic and other barriers that are denying many rural and urban students equal opportunities to attend a four-year public university.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Acceptable Use Policies in the Web 2.0 and Mobile Era; a Guide for School Districts //COSN, Updated September 2011// <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Web 2.0 applications and mobile Internet devices have added new issues to the safety/access situation for schools. The purpose of this guide is to assist school districts in developing, rethinking, or revising Internet policies as a consequence of the emergence of Web 2.0, and the growing pervasiveness of smart phone use.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">When Computers Become Classrooms //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">eSchool News, December 01, 2011 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">As school districts nationwide cut back on essentials, three quarters of them plan to expand their digital offerings over the next three years, according to a new survey reported by the National Center for Education Statistics, the federal Education Department’s research arm. The new report, Distance Education Courses for Public Elementary and Secondary School Students: 2009–10, released Tuesday looks specifically at “distance education courses” in public schools: full-credit courses that are taught remotely through technology. The national survey, conducted in fall and winter of the 2010-2011 school year, found that 55 percent of 2,310 school districts had students enrolled in these courses, ninety-six percent of which were given at the high school level. Half of those districts reported that students were participating in distance courses provided by a higher education institution, 47 percent from independent vendors, and 33 percent from state virtual schools.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Georgia’s largest district, Gwinnett County Public Schools (GCPS), has taken a huge step forward in its move to an all-digital education for its students: The district has partnered with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) to implement a single sign-on platform for delivering curriculum, assessment, analytics, professional development, parent information, and more. Read more here.

A Great Idea!
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The Center for Puppetry Arts (Atlanta) <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Here is a good example of how one organization, The Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta, is promoting Digital Learning Day.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The Center for Puppetry Arts is joining the national technology-in-education awareness campaign by participating in Digital Learning Day on Wednesday, Feb 1! <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Celebrate Digital Learning Day by exploring everything our Distance Learning department has to offer. We’ll walk you through our great educational content on LearnItLive.com, as well as discuss our videoconferencing, webinar, and streamed content offerings. Our live and streamed programs are perfect for groups who are unable come to the Center in person, as follow-up activities after your group or family trip to the Center, or for anyone interested in learning more about puppetry in general
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">On February 1, **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> **our Distance Learning department invites you to a Digital Open House!**

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">To join our **Distance Learning Digital Open House**, follow these instructions:
 * 1) <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Visit www.learnitlive.com/centerforpuppetryarts and sign in or create an account by clicking the “Sign up for free” button located at the top right corner of the page. (If you navigate away from the Center’s profile, simply search for “Center for Puppetry Arts” under Expert Academies.)
 * 2) <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Browse offerings (under the introductory video) under Group Classes and Events.
 * 3) <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Click the “Register Now” button.
 * 4) <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">You will receive an email confirmation with further instructions from LearnItLive.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The open house will run from 9 am-7 pm ET on Wednesday, February 1. **Certain time slots will be geared toward educators!** Please check the //Learn It Live// program page to find a complete list of 30-minute program slots.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Questions? Contact us at distancelearning@puppet.org or 404.881.5117.