October+27,+2011



=Worthy of Note: October 27, 2011=

The last few weeks have been filled with some notable conferences far and wide, and back here at SREB Matlea Parker is gearing up for choosing the 2012 SREB/iNACOL National Online Teacher of the Year. Nominations have closed and now the hard work begins.

Here are links to some of those meetings I mentioned, in case you are interested. There are a few references to them in links below, too.

Excellence in Action National Summit on Education Reform 2011 — The Roadmap for Reform provides Governors, lawmakers and policymakers with tangible steps to transform education.

E-LEARN 2011 - World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare & Higher Education met in Hawaii and was sponsored by AACE.

23rd WCET Annual Conference is ongoing now in Denver.

2011 Virtual School Symposium November 9 - 11, 2011, Indianapolis, IN

What's Happening to Learning Management Systems?
The race to platform education //George Siemens, eLearnSpace, October 13, 2011 // Across the full spectrum of education – primary, secondary, and higher – we are witnessing a race to develop platforms for content, learning, teaching, and evaluation. As liberating as the web is, tremendous centralization of control is occurring in numerous spaces: Google in search/advertising/Android, Amazon in books/cloud computing, Facebook in social networks, etc. I use a smaller range of tools today than I did five years ago. And the reason is simple: companies are in a land rush to create platforms that will tie together previously disconnected activities and tools. Numerous companies are eager to platform the educational sector, with Pearson being the lead runner to date.

Pearson and Google Jump Into Learning Management With a New, Free System //Josh Fischman, Wired Campus, October 13, 2011 // Pearson, the publishing and learning technology group, has teamed up with the software giant Google to launch OpenClass //, // a free LMS that combines standard course-management tools with advanced social networking and community-building, and an open architecture that allows instructors to import whatever material they want, from e-books to YouTube videos.

Freeing the LMS //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Steve Kolowich, Inside Higher Ed, October 13, 2011 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Pearson’s new platform, called OpenClass, is only in beta phase; the company does not expect to take over the LMS market overnight. But by moving to turn the learning management platform into a free commodity — like campus e-mail has become for many institutions — Pearson is striking at the foundation of an industry that currently bills colleges for hundreds of millions per year.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Pearson Should Engage In An Open Discussion On Open Class: 15 IHE Community Questions //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Joshua Kim, Inside Higher Ed Learn Blog, October 16, 2011 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">As of this writing, (10/16 at 1:30pm), no one from Pearson has engaged the IHE community in our discussion about OpenClass. The OpenClass website does not have a place for discussion. Steve Kolowich's 10/13 article has 15 comments and my blog post on OpenClass from 10/16 has 5. Members of the IHE community raise a number of important questions about OpenClass, questions I'd think that Pearson would want to address.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Pearson Answers Pointed Questions About Its New Course System, OpenClass //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Josh Fischman, The Chronicle, October 19, 2011 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The news from Pearson prompted tough questions from college technology officials. Would this system accommodate other popular software? Who would have control, Pearson or the colleges? Would it be hard to integrate the product, which will be released later this year, with a student information system? Read more for some answers to these questions.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Opener Than Thou? //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Steve Kolowich, Inside Higher Ed, October 19, 2011 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">PHILADELPHIA -- Blackboard found itself playing defense last week when, right before most higher education technologists were set to ship out for Educause 2011, a competitor announced a free and “open” learning management system (LMS) -- a technology Blackboard sells for a pretty penny. (See article above.)

Social Media: Policies and Thoughts About Use
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">University’s Proposed Social-Media Policy Draws Cries of Censorship //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Alexandra Rice, The Chronicle, October 24, 2011 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">A draft social-media policy at Sam Houston State University—which would force anyone with a campus-related Twitter, Facebook, or other online account to give university administrators editing privileges—led to calls of censorship by students. Now officials say they will revisit the plan.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The backlash followed the university’s release last month of a new social-media portal, called Social Universe.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">UTSA – Social Media Task Force <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">(Provided by Michael Anderson, University Texas at San Antonio) <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The following guidelines are for the use of social media by UTSA staff and faculty.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">AECT Social Media Policy //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Philip Harris, Executive Director, AECT // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Provided to WCET <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">(Thanks to Russ Poulin for sending this along; it was approved by AECT a few weeks ago.) <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The intent of this Social Media Policy is to identify the purposes for using social media in support of AECT’s strategic communications goals and to provide guidelines outlining how social media may be used. A list of social media covered by this policy is contained in Appendix A, which will be updated as AECT changes social media over time.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The World's Simplest Social Media Policy //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The Innovative Educator, March 27, 2011 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The author says <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">we don't need a complicated policy that runs on for pages that no one can understand. What we do need is a common sense policy like the he shares in this article. But don’t we need to be sure students understand what “offend” means?

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">[|USM plans to unveil new social media guidelines] //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Van Arnold, Hattisburg American, October 17, 2011 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Here are the specific steps officials at the University of Southern Mississippi have taken to point out the risks of social media use and provide guidelines for students and employees on their Hattiesburg campus.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Finding a Voice Through Twitter //<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Tina Barseghian, Mind/Shift, October 18, 2011 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">“I think that using Twitter to do an assignment is maybe the coolest assignment in school.” The class assignment focused on how technology has changed how we communicate, particularly with mobile devices and social media. They talked about the value of these tools in their everyday lives and how students could use these tools in school and as citizens of the digital world.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Ironically cell phones are currently not allowed at Burton. Facebook is blocked. But the teacher, Wendy Berkelman, recognizes the importance of using media to connect students to important local and global issues and gives them a voice in the conversation.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Ten ways schools are using social media effectively //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Meris Stansbury, eSchool News, October 21, 2011 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Question to //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">eSchool News // readers: “Name one way you use social networking in your school/district. Or, if you can’t/don’t currently use social networking, how would you like to?”

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">From professional development to providing real-world examples of mathematics, readers say it’s time to make the best of what can be a valuable resource for education. Here are some of the top ways they’re using social networking in their schools.

Online Learning and Online Technology
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The Scout Report <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Library of Online Technology Articles <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">This rather useful website was created via the TechCast forecasting system, which was developed by Professor William E. Halal and his associates at George Washington University and George Mason University. They were interested in forecasting which technologies were expanding, and they used their system to identify these technologies by reviewing the academic literature and other publications. Visitors to the site can find a list of all the articles arranged chronologically and they include links to the TechCast radio program. Some of the more recent pieces include "The Virtual Assistant Arrives", "The Mystery and Power of Light", and "Can a Green Economy Save the Earth?" Visitors can also create their own profile to save articles of note for future reference and they can also offer their own feedback on different aspects of the site.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">What do you get when you combine Sal Khan and New Tech Schools? //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Heather Clayton Staker, Innosight Institute, October 19, 2011 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">What would a school look like if it were to combine some of the most popular online-content providers (such the Khan Academy), with the most developed project-based programs (such as the New Tech Network model)?

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Fraud and Online Learning //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">New York Times, Editorial, October 5, 2011 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">A report from the Department of Education’s Office of the Inspector General says that since 2005 it has opened 100 investigations and is evaluating 49 additional complaints, including one that could potentially involve as many as 10,000 participants.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Kindergartners Blend E-Learning, Face-to-Face Instruction //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Jill Barshay, The Heckinger Report in Education Week, October 25, 2011 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">At the KIPP Empower Academy in Los Angeles, which serves kindergartners and 1st graders, Principal Mike Kerr has devised a schedule for kindergartners in which they spend about 30 minutes on laptops in their classrooms twice a day. He says the blended learning approach has allowed him to preserve small-group instruction. Principal Kerr said he’s “underwhelmed” by software offerings for 5- and 6-year-olds. “One of the biggest challenges was finding computer programs,” he said.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Curtis Bonk Playlist on Teaching Online //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">TravelinEdMan, July 31, 2010 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Dr. Curtis Bonk's TravelinEdman distance education videos. Video Series on Teaching Online, Indiana University, School of Education 2009-2010. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">A series of 27 brief (7-10 minute) videos related to teaching online.<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Not new but still relevant.

All Things Digital ... or at least some
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">A National Digital Public Library Begins to Take Shape //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Jennifer Howard, The Chronicle, October 25, 2011 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The Digital Public Library of America doesn't exist yet, but it's closer to becoming a reality. At an energized meeting held here at the National Archives on Friday, representatives from top cultural institutions and public and research libraries expressed robust support for the proposed library, which would create a portal to allow the public to get easy online access to collections held at many different institutions.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The National Archives, the Library of Congress, and the Smithsonian demonstrated a search tool that can work across the three institutions' holdings. The Harvard Library Innovation Laboratory and several partners unveiled //ShelfLife//, which got an enthusiastic response from the crowd with visual representations that use the image of bookshelves to present search results.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">A Silicon Valley School That Doesn’t Compute //<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Matt Richtel, New York Times, Grading the Digital School, October 22, 2011 (Third in series) // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">LOS ALTOS, Calif. — The chief technology officer of eBay sends his children to a nine-classroom school here. So do employees of Silicon Valley giants like Google, Apple, Yahoo and Hewlett-Packard.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">But the school’s chief teaching tools are anything but high-tech: pens and paper, knitting needles and, occasionally, mud. Not a computer to be found. No screens at all. They are not allowed in the classroom, and the school even frowns on their use at home.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">This is the Waldorf School of the Peninsula, one of around 160 Waldorf schools in the country that subscribe to a teaching philosophy focused on physical activity and learning through creative, hands-on tasks. Those who endorse this approach say computers inhibit creative thinking, movement, human interaction and attention spans.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">I have some first-hand experience with the Waldorf School in Atlanta. It is easy to understand these parents’ choice.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Gov. Bob Wise Announces Digital Learning Day, February 1, 2012 //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Alliance for Excellent Education, October 13, 2011 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">SAN FRANCISCO, CA – Building upon a growing movement, the Alliance for Excellent Education and its partners are calling on teachers, schools, principals, community leaders, parents, and students to participate in the first-ever national Digital Learning Day on February 1, 2012. Digital Learning Day will celebrate innovative teaching practices that make learning more personalized and engaging and encourage exploration of how digital learning can provide more students with more opportunities to get the skills they need to succeed in college, a career, and life.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">“Digital Learning Day is more than just a day,” said Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education, co-chair of Digital Learning Now!, and former governor of West Virginia. “It is about building a digital learning movement that provides teachers with better tools to truly provide a quality education for every child.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Read comments about this and protests at the San Francisco conference in Digital Education taken from an interview on CNN.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Nation’s Digital Learning Report Card //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Digital Learning Now // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">To help state leaders get started on the road to reform, the Foundation for Excellence in Education assessed each state’s alignment to 72 metrics which were developed based on the 10 Elements of High Quality Digital Learning. While all 72 metrics are important, 7 are transformational. See Building a Bold Agenda to learn more.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">(Please note that Digital Learning Now! has given all states until December 31, 2011 to send feedback on their report card.) View and compare all states’ digital report cards.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Michael Horn at Innosight Institute touts Ohio, <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">which he says proves why Digital Learning Now Element #9 matters most.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Building the Digital District //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Ian Quillen, Education Week Digital Directions, October 17, 2011 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">One North Carolina district posts great success with the 1-to-1-laptop program.

Incidental Yet Very Interesting
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Number of cellphones exceeds U.S. population: CTIA trade group //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Cecilia King, Washington Post Business, October 11, 2011 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">There are now more wireless devices being used in the United States than there are people, and Americans have doubled the amount of Internet data traffic they generate on smartphones, according to the trade group CTIA.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Big Changes Coming To Google Reader & Gmail [Video] //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Edudemic // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Google has just announced two big design changes to Gmail and Google Reader.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Look out: The 10 rising tech trends of 2012 //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Jason Hiner, Tech Republic, October 17, 2011 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">At its annual Symposium, Gartner unveiled its list of the 10 most strategic tech trends of 2012, including a controversial demotion of the cloud. Number One was Media Tablets and Beyond and Number Ten was Cloud Computing.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Tech&Learning Blog // //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs: Insanely Different Principles for Breakthrough Success by Carmine Gallo, //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">offers a glimpse with profound insights. Gallo aptly organizes //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Innovation Secrets // around Jobs’ seven core principles.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Carmine Gallo: “Perhaps the ultimate lesson that Steve Jobs has taught us is that risk taking requires courage and a bit of craziness. See genius in your craziness. Believe in yourself and your vision, and be prepared to constantly defend those beliefs. Only then will innovation be allowed to flourish, and only then will you be able to lead an “insanely great” life.”

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Yes, non-profits do have business models //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Michael Horn, Innosight Institute, October 19, 2011 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">In response to our recent article in the Harvard Magazine titled Colleges in Crisis and my coauthor Clayton Christensen’s recent book, The Innovative University, a curious counter-narrative has emerged: Our analysis is flawed because what we don’t understand is that non-profits do not have business models; they have missions. What are we to make of this claim? Read what Michael has to say.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Creating Education Success at Home //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Marc Tucker, Education Week, October 17, 2011 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Despite the fact that the United States spends more per student on elementary and secondary education than any other nation except Luxembourg, students in a growing number of nations outperform our students. Could this be some of the answers? First, most of these top-10 nations put more money behind their hardest-to-educate students than those who are easier to educate. Second, most have developed world-class academic standards for their students, a curriculum to match the standards, and high-quality examinations (not cheap multiple-choice tests) and instructional materials based on that curriculum. And teachers are prepared to teach the required curriculum, though they are treated like professionals and therefore often have considerable discretion in their practice.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Class Action <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Class Action is a national nonprofit founded in 2004. Class Action provides a dynamic framework and analysis, as well as a safe space, for people of all backgrounds to identify and address issues of <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">class <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">and <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">classism. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">We do this through powerful interactive trainings, workshops, presentations, organizational consulting, and public education.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Check out the K-12 section. Class Action offers tools that teachers can use in their classrooms to broach class issues with their students.

<span style="color: #0051a7; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The Top Three Most Important Issues Facing K-12 Educational Technology for 2011-12 //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Frank Pileiro, EdTech Innovations Blog, October 18, 2011 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Here are Frank’s top three:
 * 1) <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Mobile device adoption. Especially bring your own device program implementation.
 * 2) <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Getting people to really understand what is meant by 21st century teaching and learning.
 * 3) <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Anytime, anywhere learning.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">You may comment on the blog and add your suggestions.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Readers: These 10 education policies need to go //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Meris Stansbury, eSchool News, October 14, 2011 // <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Readers say seat-time requirements, policies than ban the use of personal technologies are some of the many rules that need to change.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Innovation Criteria Is a Model for Feds //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Sarah D. Sparks, Education Week, October 27, 2011 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The U.S. Department of Education’s Investing in Innovation Fund’s model of awarding bigger grants in return for greater evidence of program effectiveness may become the new norm for federal education and social programs, if a wide-scale interagency initiative proves successful.

Open Resources
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Shutting Down Open Resources //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Libby A. Nelson, Inside Higher Ed, October 18, 2011 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">WASHINGTON -- It’s been less than a month since the U.S. Labor Department announced $500 million in grants for community colleges to develop job-training programs and make them free for other institutions to use, but the program is already facing a threat to its existence.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">A provision in the proposed House of Representatives budget for fiscal year 2012 would stop the federal government from using grant programs to develop new courses, learning materials or other related projects unless the labor secretary verifies that similar programs are not already available for purchase or “under development.”

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The move is a boon to publishers, who have feared that government support for the freely available, modifiable course materials, known as “open educational resources,” or OERs, would eat into their profits and give the free programs an unfair advantage

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Appropriations Bill May Strip Federal Funding for Open Educational Resources //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Audrey Watters, Hack Education, October 5, 2011 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The House Appropriations Committee has just released the draft of the bill that would fund the Departments of Labor, Education and Health and Human Services for the 2012 fiscal year. There’s a lot to wade through, but tucked into a paragraph on page 37 is wording that appears to prevent the Department of Labor from supporting any further funding in open educational resources (OER).

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">In Victory for Open-Education Movement, Blackboard Embraces Sharing //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Jeffrey R. Young, The Chronicle, October 19, 2011 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Professors who use Blackboard’s software have long been forced to lock their course materials in an area effectively marked, “For Registered Students Only,” while using the system. Today the company announced plans to add a “Share” button that will let professors make those learning materials free and open online.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The move may be the biggest sign yet that the idea of “open educational materials” is going mainstream, nearly 10 years after the Massachusetts Institute of Technology first began giving away lecture notes online.

Cloud Computing and More (or less)
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Cloud Computing //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Tim Gibson, George Washington University // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">This study by Tim Gibson notes the different types of cloud computing – private, community, public, and hybrid. A survey of 79 computer users then shows that roughly 40% now use cloud, while another 20% are considering it. The survey also shows that people like the performance of cloud but are wary of its security and reliability.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Big Gains in Going Mobile; Slow Movement Towards Cloud Computing <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The Campus Computing Project, October 20, 2011 //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The 2011 Campus Computing Survey // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Colleges and universities have made significant gains in deploying mobile apps over the past year according to the 2011 Campus Computing Survey, the largest continuing study of computing, eLearning, and information technology in American higher education. However, the new survey data reveal that campuses have been slow to move key operational and research functions to Cloud Computing and also document the continuing consequences of the budget cuts that have affected many institutions in recent years. Explore the Campus Computing Project.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The proliferation of mobile apps is one of the more significant findings of the 2011 Campus Computing Survey, an annual study of technology officials at about 500 nonprofit colleges conducted by the Campus Computing Project. Find out more at Mobile Picks Up Speed <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">, //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Steve Kolowich, Inside Higher Ed, October 20, 2011 //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">And Cloud Computing is #10 in Gartner’s report (above): Look out: The 10 rising tech trends of 2012

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Critical Thinking Skills
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The Critical Thinking Community <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">High School Teachers <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">While there are numerous resources on our website applicable to the high school educator, the following are among the most relevant pages and articles on incorporating critical thinking concepts into high school curricula. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Here’s a sample of the many free resources available.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Learning the Elements and Standards of Critical Thinking
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Critical Thinking in Everyday Life: 9 Strategies
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Developing as Rational Persons: Viewing Our Development in Stages
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">How to Study and Learn (Part One) <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> (there are three more parts)

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The Critical Thinking Community <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">College and University Faculty <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">There are many articles on the website that are directly relevant to higher education instruction in critical thinking and are offered complementary. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Here’s a sample of these:
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The Role of Questions in Teaching, Thinking and Learning
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Ethics Without Indoctrination
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">An Overview of How to Design Instruction Using Critical Thinking Concepts

<span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Becoming a Critic of Your Own Thinking <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Subtitle: Why we cannot settle for “thinking it is true if I believe it.” //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Linda Elder, HR Matters, July 2011 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Insofar as we can understand others’ viewpoints or feelings, we do so only through our own point of view.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The single most important reason for deliberately evaluating your own thinking is that thinking, left to itself, just cannot be trusted. Everyone thinks, but everyone doesn’t think well. And no one thinks well all of the time.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">It is important to recognize that people already do evaluate their thinking. But they often fail to use intellectual standards to do so. In other words, they often fail to clarify their thinking, and to make sure it is accurate, logical, relevant, significant, broad, deep and fair (just to name a few intellectual standards).

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Getting Specific About Critical Thinking //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Daniel McMahon, Education Week Teacher, September 27, 2011 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Teachers should, as always, be prepared to answer queries about what material will be presented in class, what kind of homework children will have, and what evaluation will be like. But they should also be prepared with answers about exactly what mental processes students will be working on, how they will work on those processes, and in what ways those processes will be evaluated. Let’s not say we're teaching "critical thinking" without delineating exactly what that entails.

WCET Study and Results
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Big Data Comes to US Higher Education //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Ellen Wagner, WCET, October 17, 2011 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">WCET, the WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies, today announced the successful federation of datasets from the six institutions participating in the PAR (Predictive Analytics Reporting) Framework proof of concept project, just four months after the project’s early June launch. The goal of the PAR Framework is to identify variables that influence student retention and progression and to determine the impact of various demographic data on factors influencing loss and momentum. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">A summary of first findings is scheduled for presentations at the 23rd Annual WCET Conference in Denver, Colorado October 27th (@https://wcetconference.wiche.edu/).

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Project Tomorrow and Speak Up Survey
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Project Tomorrow Speak Up <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Take the Survey Invite students, parents and administrators to take the survey, too.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Speak Up, a national online research project facilitated by Project Tomorrow®, gives individuals the opportunity to share their viewpoints about key educational issues. Each year, findings are summarized and shared with national and state policy makers. Participating schools and districts can access their data online, free-of-charge.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">The vision of Project Tomorrow is to ensure that today’s students are well prepared to be tomorrow’s innovators, leaders and engaged citizens of the world. We believe that by supporting the innovative uses of science, math and technology resources in our K-12 schools and communities, students will develop the critical thinking, problem solving and creativity skills needed to compete and thrive in the 21st century.

Financial Literacy Resources
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Warren Buffett’s free financial literacy lessons //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Valerie Strauss, Washington Post, October 20, 2011 // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Warren Buffett just launched a financial literacy program that offers free lessons for children (and adults).

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The program, called the Secret Millionaire’s Club, offers animated episodes that teach financial literacy, entrepreneurship and core math skills. One of them, for example, has a cartoon Buffett helping some kids figure out why a girl’s lemonade stand isn’t profitable. The episodes all include a stock ticker with companies, including Hershey’s, Google, Kraft, Sony, Time Warner, Apple, and Build a Bear.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Free material based on lessons in the series will be made available to more than 100,000 teachers as part of the “Learn & Earn” educational program.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Upcoming Webinars
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Webinar on Blended Learning //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Center for Digital Education // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">November 2, 2011 at 2:00pm EDT / 11:00 PDT <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Duration: 60 minutes

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Join us on November 2nd at 2 PM ET to hear from Dr. Laura Berry, Dean of Arts & Sciences and Title III Coordinator, and Valerie Martin, Director of Distance Learning and Instructional Support, from North Arkansas College who will share how blended learning is benefiting faculty and students both on and off campus.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Converge Yearbook – 2011 Overview and Highlights <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Webinar in Technology Innovation in Education //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Center for Digital Education // <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">November 1, 2011 at 2:00pm EDT / 11:00 PDT <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Duration: 60 minutes

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The webinar will address the latest research and trends in:
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Digital Content
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">How schools are keeping costs down
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Tailored classroom technologies
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Assessment tools
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Personal computing devices
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">And more!

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Want a copy of Center for Digital Education’s Converge Yearbook: Technology Innovation in Education? Download it here.


 * //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Keeping Pace with K-12 Online Learning 2011 //**<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">will be presented at the VSS Conference (above) and a webinar about findings will follow in December.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">Keeping Pace with K-12 Online Learning <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">December 14, 2011