With their bring-your-own-technology (BYOT) program, teachers in the Forsyth County (Ga.) School District are "learning along with our students how their devices work for their learning," Tim Clark, the district's instructional technology coordinator, told me in a phone interview. My excitement about the promise this represents for students grew as we talked. What this school district is doing … [Read more...] about All kinds of learning all at once with ‘BYOT’
education technology
What Net safety can learn from digital game design
Internet-safety experts should talk with game designers. Last week was for me a three-day-long, powerful confirmation that we need to de-silo the public discussion about young people's well-being online and offline. I attended the GLS (for Games+Learning+Society) conference at the University of Wisconsin and absorbed a lot of wisdom about learning in digital games and worlds. One key lesson … [Read more...] about What Net safety can learn from digital game design
Great contest for teen activist/app developers
Spread the word to young app developers and code writers at your house or school: ReachOut.com has just announced its national "Don't Just Stand By" Facebook App Developer Competition. Launched at the SxSW conference, the competition "calls on teens 13-17 to create a Facebook app that will help inform and empower potential bystanders of cyberbullying to take action," says Reach Out's press … [Read more...] about Great contest for teen activist/app developers
Obama administration’s e-textbook push
It's not just a cost-cutting measure, apparently and thankfully. In an effort to get "every US school to accelerate the transition to digital textbooks," the Obama administration is asking states to "modify the textbook adoption process" so that K-12 schools can use taxpayer funding that used to go paper textbooks to purchase Kindles, iPads, and other devices and the software that goes on them, … [Read more...] about Obama administration’s e-textbook push
Picturing social media in school
Not all infographics are equal. Some play it a little fast and loose with source data in the interest of grabbing eyeballs – watching out for that is a good lesson in media literacy. But this one from ASCD represents data from Pew/Internet, Project Tomorrow, National School Boards Assoc., and other credible sources. It says social media is "where students live"; "how they want to learn"; "where … [Read more...] about Picturing social media in school