Global Collaboration Projects that Go Way Beyond Skype

By Stephen Noonoo, THE Journal

One project, called Digiteen, is designed for students in grades 8-12. Teams consisting of students in two or more classrooms around the world introduce themselves via Edmodo and Skype and then, together, explore different aspects of digital citizenship, eventually co-creating a Wikispaces page on a given theme. Individual schools then work on an action project that students can share with their peers at school, across the street or around the world. Other Flat Connections projects focus on bringing students together for debates or to foster cultural awareness among young learners through the creation and use of multimedia. “The goal is that schools offer a global collaborative opportunity at every grade level,” Lindsay said, adding that teachers often interpret that advice to mean they have to be doing global collaboration projects all the time. “It’s hard work. You cannot do it all the time, but it’s important that every student at every grade level needs at least one experience.”

http://thejournal.com/articles/2014/03/26/global-collaboration-projects-that-go-way-beyond-skype.aspx

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Khan Academy Launches Blended Learning 101

by the Clayton Christensen Institute

Through the lens of three high-performing schools, the content explores how to support students and teachers in the transition from traditional learning to blended learning to combine the best of traditional schools with the transformative power of technology. .Brian Greenberg of the Silicon Schools Fund and Michael Horn of the Clayton Christensen Institute lead the blended learning discussions, touring real classrooms using blended learning and providing insights on the operational challenges and potential solutions. “Blended learning isn’t just about putting computers in classrooms,” said Horn, co-founder and executive director of education at the Christensen Institute. “It’s about combining the best methods of online learning with one-on-one mentoring from teachers and small-group interaction to educate students in a way that gives them what they need, when they need it.”

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/khan-academy-launches-blended-learning-155700181.html

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‘Cloudification’ Is the Future of the Internet

By Tanya Roscorla, Center for Digital Education

Cloud computing will power the largest network in the world: the Internet. That’s what Larry Peterson, chief architect of the Open Networking Lab, predicted in a keynote speech on the Internet’s future at the Internet2 Global Summit on April 9. Cloudification, as he called it, will bring scalable, elastic technology to the Internet in a network built by service blocks. “Cloudification says the services are the key thing,” Peterson said. “Devices are just implementation choices.”

http://www.centerdigitaled.com/news/The-Cloudification-of-the-Internet.html

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State Lawmakers Ramp Up Attention to Student Data Privacy

By Andrew Ujifusa, McClatchy News Service

As the appetite for educational data on students has grown across the K-12 sector, so has the stated desire among many state lawmakers to try to protect the privacy and security of sensitive student information. Spurred by concerns that the rise of education technology and the increasing prevalence of new assessments will place student data in unreliable hands or be put to nefarious uses, lawmakers in dozens of states have acted this year to clarify who has what access to student data and to specify the best practices for shielding that data. In total, for the 2014 legislative sessions, 83 bills in 32 states have addressed student-data protection issues, according to the Data Quality Campaign, a Washington-based group that seeks to promote the use of educational data to inform classroom and policy decisions.

http://www.centerdigitaled.com/news/State-Lawmakers-Ramp-Up-Attention-to-Data-Privacy.html

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3 Must-Know Tips For Anyone Nervous About EdTech

By Colleen Lee, Edudemic

You know when you spoke with me the other day and told me that that introducing more tech into my class was fine for me because I was ‘into it’ and ‘understood’ it? That you were not going to try a new way of doing things (edtech-wise) because your students would see that you weren’t an expert. Well I need to let you in on a secret. Neither am I. It would probably shock you that me, a proponent of choice/more edtech started exactly where you are now in terms of knowledge and confidence. It took, it takes, some courage, and a big leap of faith to step out and try something new in class – in front of 30 teenagers? How do I do it? I remember 3 key things linked below.

http://www.edudemic.com/nervous-edtech-tips/

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10 Innovative EdTech Programs Happening In Schools

By Katie Lepi, Edudemic

This year marked the third year of the $200,000 Follett Challenge, which encourages K-12 schools around the US to share their innovative programs that have been put in place to prepare our modern students for the demands of the 21st century.Recently, the 4 semifinalists plus the “People’s Choice” winners —were announced. We thought that their programs were pretty cool and worth sharing. The winners were based on the number of votes they received from the public.

http://www.edudemic.com/innovative-edtech-programs/

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Blended learning revolution: Tech meets tradition in the classroom

by Amanda Paulson, Christian Science Monitor

Fourteen-year-old Gabi Directo is technically in the middle of her freshman year. But in bursts of learning, hunched over her laptop in her Summit Shasta High School classroom, she has managed to zoom at her own rapid pace to the completion of all of her ninth-grade English, history, science, and math classes. By February, she was digging into her sophomore year Advanced Placement biology, physics, and Algebra II classes. But in her school’s “blended learning” program, Gabi has had as much face-time with teachers and classmates as solitary face-to-screen time. The serious and soft-spoken teen is able to “blend” the best of online learning (progress at her own pace through subject content) with the best of classroom work (practicing new knowledge with peers and teachers).

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Education/2014/0420/Blended-learning-revolution-Tech-meets-tradition-in-the-classroom

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