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Introducing this work
For the purposes of this Scoop.it site, the history of human interaction with information may be divided into 4 eras. The first era ended with the invention of writing around 3000 BC. The second era ended with the invention of the printing press in 1440. The third era ended, and the fourth began, with the invention of the Internet (depending how one defines its operational beginning) somewhere between 1969 and 1982. We now exist early, but decidedly, in the fourth era.
All readers may not agree with this interpretation of history, especially with the division and numbering of the eras. That is not the main point here. Rather, it is that humankind is presently existing in an era distinctly different from the one that preceded it -- that in fact, this new era is accompanied with, and characterized by, a new information landscape. This new Internet landscape will challenge, disrupt, and overpower the print-oriented one that came before it. It will not completely obliterate that which preceded it, but it will render it to a subsidiary, rather than primary, level of influence.
Just as the printing press altered humanity's relationship with information, thereby resulting in massive restructuring of political, religious, economic, social, educational, cultural, and other realms of life; so too will the Internet occasion analogous transformations in the same areas of human activity.
This site will concern itself primarily with how K-20 education in the US, and the people who comprise its constituencies, may be affected by this transformative movement from one era to the next. -JL 
From the website:
"Former U. S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley and 20 other leaders have been invited to explore the regulation of postsecondary distance education on a new national commission organized by the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (A۰P۰L۰U) and the State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEO). (List of members is below.)
"The Commission on Regulation of Postsecondary Distance Education will invite testimony and information and develop recommendations to address the regulatory costs and inefficiencies faced by postsecondary institutions that must comply with multiple and often inconsistent state laws and regulations when providing educational opportunities in multiple state jurisdictions. A۰P۰L۰U President Peter McPherson and SHEEO President Paul Lingenfelter will both serve on the Commission and will assist Secretary Riley in leading its work. The Commission’s first session will be June 12, 2012 in Washington, DC." 
By Maria H. Anderson
"Mass education is adequate, as long as students are highly motivated to learn and get ahead of their peers. In developing countries, a student who is successful in education will be able to climb the ladder of personal economic prosperity faster than those who are not successful. But in industrialized countries, where prosperity is the norm, an education does not necessarily translate into a significantly higher standard of living. In these countries, there is no longer a large economic incentive to learn, so the motivation to learn must become intrinsic. As we redesign en masse education, we must address learners’ intrinsic motivations, which means that education must circle back to being personal again.
"The vision of a modern education built around personalized learning is not new, but it is definitely tantalizing. Neal Stephenson’s novel The Diamond Age (Spectra, 1995) shares a vision of personalized learning in the future via an interactive book that possesses a conversational interface (CI) and “pseudo-intelligence,” a kind of artificial intelligence (AI) that is inferior to human intelligence. It’s likely that we’ll see decent conversational interfaces within the next decade, and certainly applications like Google Voice are moving us much closer to this reality. AI that is capable of directing the learning needs of a human will take much longer, developing in the next 20–50 years, but we can’t wait that long for the technology to catch up with education. The need for personalized learning exists in the here and now. So how does one bridge this vision of the future with the realities of the present?
"...A system for personalized learning will not grow from inside formal education. Education is like a field that’s been overplanted with only small patches of fertile soil. Too many stakeholders (parents, unions, administration, faculty, etc.) compete to promote various ideas about how to change, acting like weeds or plagues that choke off plant growth. The fresh and fertile soil of the open Web can foster the quick growth of a personalized learning system. Then, like a good fertilizer, it can be used to replenish the soil of formal education and help us to reach that “Holy Grail” of education: personalized learning for all." 
By Dominic Basulto
"A paralyzed woman completing the London Marathon using a bionic exoskeleton suit. A quadriplegic woman using a brain-computer interface to move objects in 3D space. Men and women opting to amputate entire limbs in order to replace them with a new generation of “beautiful” prosthetics. Welcome to the brave new world of Machine Beauty, where our new willingness to replace our limbs with superior prosthetic devices hints at our technological future as a species. Maybe futurist Ray Kurzweil was right after all when he predicted the merging of man and machine within our lifetime as part of the great Singularity.
"Versions of these human enhancements have been around a decade or more, thanks to mind-blowing advances in fields such as robotics. What’s changed now is how we – as a society – view these enhancements. Are we somehow becoming "more than human"? If, in the past, we made every effort to salvage our human limbs, we now are making a different type of cost-benefit analysis: whether we might be better off with beautiful, life-like prosthetics. The New York Times profiled an extraordinary number of men and women making the unthinkable choice – they are choosing to amputate entire limbs in order to have access to the next generation of prosthetics from companies like iWalk. Whereas before they may have tried to salvage part of a leg, they are now opting to amputate the entire limb and replace it with a full prosthesis." 
Linda Darling-Hammond interviewed by Marge Scherer Summary by ASCD Worldwide by SmartBrief
"Educational Leadership editor-in-chief Marge Scherer recently spoke with educator Linda Darling-Hammond about the preparation and support new educators need in order to survive their first years in the profession. During the interview, Darling-Hammond discussed teacher preparation factors that matter for keeping educators in the teaching profession. She also pointed to professional development schools with model programmes and took the time to dispel the notion that teachers are not academically able." 
By Ted Purinton Summary by The Accomplsihed Teacher by SmartBrief
"Ted Purinton, an assistant professor at the American University in Cairo, writes in this opinion article about the potential fallout from the Harvard Graduate School of Education's decision to offer its first Ph.D. and eventually phase out its Ed.D. He writes that other universities are likely to follow suit and adopt the stance that research in education is preferable to practice." 
By Rasha Mourtada
"Liam Martin, along with his partner Rob Rawson, has 50 employees helping him run Staff.com – an agency that remotely connects employers to full-time staff around the world. But Staff.com doesn’t have a physical office where the team works together. In fact, Ottawa-based Mr. Martin spends most of his time working in coffee shops alone.
"Not only is he in the business of helping companies build remote teams, but it’s also how he runs his own company. “We have 50 employees in nine different countries,” he explains.
"A slew of websites, such as Elance.com, oDesk.com, Guru.com and Staff.com, have made hiring freelancers for small businesses easier than ever. And, it seems, more employers are giving it a try."
Via The Committed Sardine 
Comment by Ian Jukes
"The idea of transforming the traditional classroom into an engaging digital learning environment can be a duanting task in the minds of many teachers. True, it isn't an easy switch, and some of those teachers who see that change swirling around them begin to feel left behind, wonder about where they may be headed. Have no fear, says educational innovator and Khan Academy founder Sal Khan. Establishments like Khan are not out to supplant any teacher, but rather to inspire and motivate them as they move into digital learning landscapes." 
By Rebecca Trounson Summary by ASCD SmartBrief
"The latest Census Bureau demographic report shows children born to Latino, Asian, African American and mixed-race parents constituted 50.4% of all births in the United States, with non-Hispanic whites representing 49.6 of births during the year ending July 1. Demographers said the change in racial makeup has widespread implications for the U.S. economy, politics and identity." 
Small schools rule in the 14th year of the high school list. Private school numbers are revealed for the first time.
by Jay Mathews
"The little schools that dominate the top of The Washington Post’s 2012 high school rankings confirm an accelerating trend in American education: We are moving away from the something-for-everyone shopping mall campuses that were once a national model.
"Instead of big schools that offer football, auto shop and a wide choice of easy courses, the schools that lead the new national list are small magnets and charters that focus on college-level courses and tests.
"There are hints of the same change in The Post’s local high school rankings, led by small schools seeking rigor for average students. They include St. Anselm’s Abbey and Washington International, among the first private schools to appear on The Post’s list. These small, intense schools reflect a movement to apply international standards to American education, using programs like Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and the Advanced International Certificate of Education." 
What is the Learning Registry and why does it matter? In this paper, we introduce some of the core ideas behind the Learning Registry, and describe how state education agencies can benefit from using it. The paper offers examples of how the Learning Registry is being used today, and discusses data services and applications that are being developed on top of the Learning Registry infrastructure. The technical appendix includes a case study on how two educator portals in California have integrated with the Learning Registry. Via Lars-Göran Hedström Eight years ago George Siemens coined the term ‘Connectivism’ to describe learning networks1 and has been generous enough to share it with me. This volume represents the bulk of my contribution to the field since then. Connectivism is the thesis that knowledge is distributed across a network of connections, and therefore that learning consists of the ability to construct and traverse those networks. An account of connectivism is therefore necessarily preceded by an account of networks. But the bulk of this work is devoted to tracing the implications of this thesis in learning. Read more on Connectivism and Connective Knowledge in Stephen Dowes essays in this PDF.
For those who may not know of Downes...this is important work...well worth the effort to become familiar with. -JL Via Andreas Link, Lars-Göran Hedström 
By Dan Cogan-Drew
"We’re at a point now where we feel confident that the pilot flip of a bio class at Amistad Academy High School has demonstrated that it is working and deserves to be sustained – and expanded. The results come in a number of highly suggestive (though admittedly not ironclad) forms: data on student homework completion, student testimonials praising the new class format, and glowing observations by a number of key administrators. Here’s one:
"In a recent observation of a teacher using a flipped classroom design, I saw some of the most rigorous inquiry and discussions I have seen in any class and in any school. Free from the challenges of finding ways for scholars to successfully internalize basic content, the blended approach helped this teacher make room for a rigorous course that is truly preparing scholars for the rigors of college. This model has tremendous potential for our network and for our country." |
Summary by Carnegie Perspectives
"Thomas Toch writes in The New Republic: Some school reformers said it would never happen. But after spending nearly two decades launching thousands of charter schools to challenge traditional public school systems, the Teach for America generation of social entrepreneurs who poured out of the nation’s best colleges bent on transforming urban education are now moving into leadership positions in the very school systems they sought to replace. Not surprisingly, they’re working hard to introduce a new performance-driven brand of public schooling into often-dysfunctional government bureaucracies. But they’re also speaking candidly about the downsides of charter schools and openly questioning the reach of a charter-centric reform strategy—unlikely commentary from leading voices within the entrepreneurial wing of school reform even a few years ago." 
By Sarah Kessler Summary by SmartBrief on EdTech
"A new product, Learnist, allows users to take educational content from websites such as YouTube and Wikis and post them to a board -- similar to Pinterest. The format of the site, according to its creators, helps to prevent against misinformation found on websites, such as Wikipedia, and still give users access to the resources they need." 
Summary by Accomplished Teacher
"Today's high-school students are more focused on school than students were a generation ago, according to an analysis by the National Center for Education Statistics. The report found that although the current high-school population is poorer and more diverse than ever, truancy and dropout rates are lower than they were in 1992 and on-time graduation rates have increased. The analysis also found that while many courses and assessment standards are more rigorous, students' standardized test scores have not noticeably improved." 
By Jake Russell Summary by SmartBrief on EdTech
"Jeremy DeGroot turned to technology for help when he learned he was going to teach a combined fifth- and sixth-grade class at Washington Elementary School in Jacksonville, Ill. Almost all of DeGroot's lessons this year had a technology component. In social studies, students created Facebook pages for historical figures and chatted about field trips on the classroom Wiki space." 
By Patrick Ledesma Summary by The Accomplished Teacher
"Preliminary results from a report to be released in June predict that in four to five years, augmented reality technology will make inroads in the classroom, along with tools used to assess 21st-century learning. National Board Certified Teacher Patrick Ledesma writes in this blog post about the report, which reveals that, in the short term, mobile devices and applications, cloud computing and tablet computing will be popular. The report also identifies trends in education technology and challenges, such as institutional barriers." 
By Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop Summary by ASCD Worldwide by SmartBrief
"Several schools worldwide have adopted cloud-based platforms that link education and social media. One start-up company, based in Singapore, offers its program in multiple languages, and one of the company's co-founders says it is seeking to capitalise on the popularity of social media to help engage students in learning. The company plans to begin marketing its software in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and elsewhere."
By Justin Reich Summary by SmartBrief on EdTech
"Education technology can be used to develop "creative agency" classrooms in which students use devices to collaborate and innovate, or they can further the traditional "factory" approach to education, offers Justin Reich, a fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. In this opinion piece, he writes about the successful integration of technology, which he says upends traditional learning and moves away from the assembly-line approach to education" 
By Heather Gawron
"A while back, I was asked, "What engages students?" Sure, I could respond, sharing anecdotes about what I believed to be engaging, but I thought it would be so much better to lob that question to my own eighth graders. The responses I received from all 220 of them seemed to fall under 10 categories, representing reoccurring themes that appeared again and again. So, from the mouths of babes, here are my students' answers to the question: "What engages students?" 
This Working Paper Series scans the globe to illuminate the ways in which mobile technologies can be used to support the United Nations Education for All Goals; respond to the challenges of particular educational contexts; supplement and enrich formal schooling; and make learning more accessible, equitable, personalized and flexible for students everywhere. Via Nik Peachey, Ricard Garcia, lelapin
By Rebecca Trounson Summary by ASCD SmartBrief
"The latest Census Bureau demographic report shows children born to Latino, Asian, African American and mixed-race parents constituted 50.4% of all births in the United States, with non-Hispanic whites representing 49.6 of births during the year ending July 1. Demographers said the change in racial makeup has widespread implications for the U.S. economy, politics and identity." 
By Pete Rorabaugh
"In an Intro to Psychology course, you might build an online discussion prompt that asks students to compare or contrast the differences between two competing theories. Pedagogically, the purpose of the discussion is to 1) make students responsible for demonstrating their learning and 2) to practice the skill of summary or analysis. However, without any preparation students will probably only type their response, hit submit, and consider the assignment “complete.” It will have lost a crucial dynamic component -- engagement with the ideas of others.
"Let’s take a step back to lively class discussion that happens in a brick-and-mortar class. Participants in a discussion are socially required to attend to the ideas of their peers. If someone blurts something out that was expressed just a moment ago, she reveals that she has not been listening and, thus, is weakening the conversation. There’s a sense of failed responsibility. In the online environment, we should encourage the same sense of communal responsibility by giving our class instructions that lead to engagement. Consider these:" Via Ana Cristina Pratas, João Greno Brogueira 
"We’ve been working on the Mozilla Webmaker badge system, or at least initial alpha badges for the Summer Campaign and it’s tough!
"I’ve since stepped back and looked at the process and realized that there were a few considerations that actually helped us move forward - and that those considerations were one or more steps removed from the badges themselves. I’m now calling this my 3 T’s of badge system design, and so far its proving to be a helpful place to start or at least move back to when you feel you getting buried in badge level decisions."
Via Andreas Link, Lars-Göran Hedström From the website:
"Dr. Doug Belshaw is a Researcher/Analyst at JISC Advance where he researches and advises on issues around open education and innovation. A former teacher and senior leader with experience of all sectors, Doug is also co-kickstarter of Purpos/ed which aims to encourage and sustain debate around the purpose(s) of education. Via Teresa Pombo, João Greno Brogueira |
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