September 2009 Archives

California launched a digital-textbook initiative this year to help high schools in the state find suitable free materials online. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called for a review of open-source digital math and science textbooks in part to help districts save money in the midst of the state's budget crisis.

I've been following California's effort, as well as similar moves in other states, to encourage the use of more digital resources for instruction. So I thought these survey results from the California Learning Resources Network were interesting. The CLRN conducted the review of 11 digital texts submitted for the state program.

CLRN Director Brian Bridges surveyed teachers and administrators throughout the state to get a read on the level of awareness and interest in the digital-textbook initiative. Some 850 responded.

Only a few of the respondents had actually downloaded the texts, which were evaluated based on their alignment with state standards in their respective subjects. But more than six in 10 believe the initiative will save schools money if they use the digital texts in place of traditional schoolbooks. A majority also see digital texts as "an important first step" to move California schools into the "the digital age," and a way to increase learning opportunities for students. Close to 90 percent of the educators in the survey would like to see the initiative expanded to include other subjects and other formats, from PDF versions of texts, for example, to more interactive formats

The full results are here.

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Students often complain that they don't see the relevance in class lessons. And many teachers are hard-pressed to spark students' interest in content that can be complex or dry. But here's a story about how some teachers are using technology to bring science to life and make the subject more appealing for students.

In this EdWeek piece, my colleague Sean Cavanagh writes about projects that connect students to scientists for firsthand accounts and discussions of real-world investigations. He describes how one middle school class in New Hampshire followed the work of scientists conducting research in the Phoenix Islands, in the central Pacific.

"[The project] is just one of many aimed at connecting students through technology with scientists doing research in the field, an increasingly common practice in schools. Museums, colleges, federal agencies, and individual teachers have become more adept at putting students in direct contact with scientists, even those working in very remote locations—like aboard the NAI'A in the central Pacific, 6,000 miles away."

The students were able to ask the scientists questions and follow their adventures through a blog that chronicled the expedition, which ended yesterday in Fiji. It includes written entries and photos.

Photo courtesy of the New England Aquarium

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If you haven't seen the "Did You Know; Shift Happens" video created by Karl Fisch, the director of technology for Arapahoe High School in Centennial, Colo., and modified by Scott McLeod, an associate professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Iowa State University, it's worth checking out. It's a few years old at this point, but the video (embedded below) explores the effects of technology and globalization on education. Check it out:

There have been a couple of follow-up videos since the original, and the pair just released "Did You Know? 4.0." It's not as education-related and more focused on the changing media landscape, but provides interesting insights into the way that people relate to each other, which has major implications for students and teachers. Check out that video below:

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From guest blogger Kevin Bushweller:

Disrupting Class co-author Michael Horn gave the final keynote address at Smart Ed-Tech Strategies for Tough Times, sending the audience on their way home with new ideas for disruptive innovations for K-12 schools. One of the potentially most powerful forms of such innovation is the use of online learning, which he said is growing at a rate of 30 percent a year in K-12. Online courses for students to recover credits and online advanced placement courses are especially popular.

The conference also featured a panel of students from Bloomfield, N.J. They addressed questions from the audience about how technology is working well and not working well in their schools. One interesting point they made is that they do not want schools using social-networking sites such as Facebook for official educational purposes because such sites are their personal domain that should not be invaded by educators.

Boston Public Schools CIO Kim Rice gave a very engaging and interactive presentation on balancing innovation and reality. She talked about having students drive innovation in schools but learning to deal with the consequences of empowering students.

Lots of great questions from the audience for all the panelists and speakers here today.

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One thing that struck me during my visit to Philadelphia's School of the Future last week was an awareness among many students that the unique school provides them opportunities they likely would not have at their neighborhood schools. With its new, airy building, high-tech features, online curriculum, and small student population, the School of the Future is a visual standout with big ideas about changing the way urban high schools operate.

The school has struggled to meet its mission, due to a range of organizational, technological, and demographic challenges, as I outline here in this EdWeek article. (Several readers have already written some very interesting comments at the bottom of the story.)

Now in its fourth school year, it is too early to tell what kind of impact the school can have on student achievement. And with its first class of seniors this school year, educators here can't yet answer the question of whether the school will help send more students to college, or whether they'll be prepared to do college-level work.

Teachers and school counselors, however, are working hard to put the school's 750 students in the right mindset by setting expectations that all of them will at least think seriously about and apply to college. Counselor Kate Hayes, for example, told me about several efforts she and her colleagues have made to get the school's first graduating class on the college track.

As a first step, freshmen who helped open the school in Sept. 2006 were issued T-shirts with college logos that served as part of their uniform, and they were given a pep talk about that first day of high school being the start of their march toward college. Hayes then helped the students last year, when they were juniors, craft and hone personal statements that they can use on their college applications.

The school is going all out this year with those students, who are now seniors. Hayes has invited several college admissions counselors to talk with students about the process of applying for higher education. She's also been building a partnership with the Community College of Philadelphia, which offers a range of affordable programs for students for whom a four-year university is out of reach.

But Hayes and her colleagues aren't willing to just lead students to resources and potential options. Later this fall, she is planning a field trip to the community college, where each senior will be given the same assignment: to fill out an application and take the needed placement tests.

"If nothing else," Hayes said, "every kid in the [inaugural graduating class] of this school will have an acceptance letter from the Community College of Philadelphia before they graduate."

Photo by Jason Rearick for Education Week

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From guest poster Kevin Bushweller:

We are here in Jersey City on the Hudson with a beautiful view of Manhattan talking about smart ed tech strategies for tough times, the second of two ed tech conferences put together by Education Week.

We just heard an interesting panel discussion about getting the most out of your IT budget. Tim Magner, a panelist and a former director of ed tech for the US Department of Education, made the point that ed tech leaders need to be more creative about seeking federal dollars from programs such as Title II and Title V. Technology has always been seen as a parallel to educational strategy, but it should be seen as a foundation of education strategy, he told the audience of educators. He also cautioned schools to be very responsible with stimulus dollars.

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I'd like to point your attention to an interview Anthony Rebora, from Teacher Magazine, did with Chris Dede, a professor of learning technology at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, about online professional development. There's a lot of good advice in there for both teachers and administrators about what they should be looking for when exploring online professional development.

The interview serves as a nice follow-up to one of the panels I moderated at the Smart Ed-Tech Strategies for Tough Times event Education Week and Digital Directions held in Chicago last week. Ed-tech specialists from around the country came for a day of panel discussions about the topics that are most important to them—using IT to improve achievement, how to maximize IT budgets, and improving professional development, among other topics.

For the professional development panel, we were lucky enough to be joined by Myk Garn, the director of education technology for the Southern Regional Education Board; Robert Gravina, the chief technology officer for Poway Unified School District in Calif.; and Barbara Treacy, the director of EdTech Leaders Online, which is part of the Education Development Center. The panelists discussed what makes professional development most effective, how to tell whether it's working, and the importance of professional learning communities in both online and face-to-face professional development.

And if you couldn't make it to Chicago, there's still time to join in the discussion. We're holding the event again in Jersey City this Friday, September 25! Book your ticket today by clicking here, and get $50 off your registration by using blog50 as a discount code. Hope to see you there!

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Probably the highlight of yesterday's ed-tech conference, Smart Ed-Tech Strategies for Tough Times, was listening to the four students who came in from York Community High School in Elmhurst, Ill., talk about their experiences growing up using technology and how that relates to the way that they use technology in schools. All the students agreed that there needs to be more education about how to use technology safely and effectively in schools, and they also advocated opening up Internet and Web 2.0 resources for educational purposes.

One interesting point they touched on was the idea of using Facebook for educational purposes. Surprisingly, the students felt that while Facebook is a tool they enjoy using, they do not want it harnessed for education. It's a personal space, they said, that should be left to social, rather than educational, purposes. There is an opening, though, the students agreed, for a social-networking Web site that could be used specifically for education.

It was really refreshing to hear directly from students who are living through this technological evolution about the issues that they think are most important, and a nice addition to a conference that sparked lots of innovative ideas and interesting conversations about ed-tech solutions.

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Interesting discussion happpening here in Chicago today about getting the most out of your IT budget at EdWeek's Smart Ed Tech Strategies for Tough Times conference. One very interesting question was raised during the discussion about how schools might shift the cost of student tech tools like low cost laptops from schools to parents. What do you think?

And if you would like to hear more about this issue and other ed tech matters, consider attending our next live ed tech event in Jersey City next week. More on that event here.

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Susan Patrick, the president and the chief executive officer of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, gave a fascinating talk at the Education Week event in Chicago on Thursday that drew connections between the four assurances emphasized in the federal stimulus package and the power of online learning.

Her talk prompted many follow up discussions during other panels and informally during breaks at the event.

We're really looking forward to next week's event in New Jersey, as well. Check out the Jersey panels and panelists here.

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Students applauded politely for the dignitaries who were visiting Jefferson Junior High School in Washington yesterday for the launch of a new grant program to promote technology-based learning. But most had never heard of John Holdren (from the White House technology office), William Wilhoyte (the instructional superintendent for D.C. public schools), or Don Knezek (executive director of the International Society for Technology in Education).

The students waited patiently, however, for each introduction, and listened quietly to remarks about the initiative, called HP Digital Assist. But they broke into wild clapping and cheering for the real celebrity, professional basketball player Antawn Jamison.

Jamison, who plays for the Washington Wizards, was there to represent the NBA, which is partnering with ISTE and Hewlett Packard to encourage students in D.C., Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Miami, and the San Francisco Bay Area to create multimedia, sports-themed projects that demonstrate their math, science, and technology skills.

The best presentations from each region will be selected in December, with the winners earning HP products for their classrooms and NBA tickets and merchandise.

Once they hone their technology skills, students at Jefferson are planning on creating photo essays and Web sites, as well as producing videos, all of which will require them to build their math and technology proficiency, according to teacher Taiwanna Anthony.

"We want them to get a broad ranger of technology skills and utilize math and science concepts and see how they relate to each other across content areas," said Anthony.

I'm not sure the students see those kinds of content-area lessons as the real benefits of the program. It was clear that the basketball connection was the exciting part for them. A cynic might question whether the HP and NBA sponsorships are all about the potential for learning, given the inherent public relations potential of such a program, but Anthony and others say that linking learning to something that students are passionate about can engage them more deeply in the subject matter.

Holdren pointed to President Obama's combined passions for education, technology, and basketball as evidence of the president's support for such approaches.

"I can't think of a better way for students to learn math and science by engaging them, by making it fun, linking it to technology, and linking it to basketball," said Holdren.

Photo: Antawn Jamison, center, at the launch of HP Digital Assist program at Jefferson Junior High School in Washington. Photo by Kathleen Kennedy Manzo/Education Week

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As you might expect, the United States is not the only country struggling with the issue of Internet filtering in schools, as Kathleen's story last week outlined. This Washington Post article talks about the filters that Chinese government officials require in schools. Apparently, the software, called the Green Dam filter, is causing other programs on school computers to crash and malfunction. And although the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology says that the software blocks inappropriate content, some critics suspect it could be used to track Internet usage and block politically controversial Web sites, says the article.

Last month the Chinese government backed away from a plan to install the filter on personal computers sold in the country in response to those concerns, according to this Wall Street Journal online article. But the requirement continues for computers used in schools and public facilities.

Either way, some schools are uninstalling the software simply because of the computer problems that they are encountering with Green Dam in place. The software has been criticized for its poor programming, which some say opens the door for security concerns. To learn more about that, check out this report written by researchers at the computer science and engineering division of the University of Michigan.

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When I wrote about the draft of the national assessment in technological literacy that is scheduled for 2012 it was summer break for most educators and few people in the field had had time to digest its contents. But now some education technology experts are expressing concerns that the first National Assessment in Educational Progress to gauge students' understanding of and proficiency at using technology will be inconsistent with common practice in most American classrooms.

You can catch up on the conflict with this post on the Curriculum Matters blog, by my colleague Sean Cavanagh. He outlines the sharp criticism coming out of the State Educational Technology Directors Association.

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In the fall of 2001, many classes were consumed with discussions about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, as students, teachers, and most Americans were trying to recover from the emotional toll of the events. Eight years later, many textbooks used across the country do not have comprehensive coverage of the 2001 attacks on New York City, the Pentagon, and Flight 93, which crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. But the September 11th Education Trust, founded by a group representing survivors and families of the victims of the World Trade Center destruction, has been working for years to develop lessons to ensure that schoolchildren learn about them.

The group unveiled the resulting program on its Teaching 9/11 Web site to coincide with this year's anniversary. The site includes multimedia lessons, video interviews, and an online forum where educators can discuss instructional strategies.

"The September 11th Education Program: A National Interdisciplinary Curriculum" features oral histories and primary documents that "teach about understanding 9/11 as history, debating the government's role during disasters, discussing the nature of heroism, evaluating foreign policy vis-à-vis national security, and clarifying how informed citizens can take beneficial action," according to the trust.

The seven units include technology features such as an interactive timeline and visual exploration of Ground Zero in New York City using Google Earth.

When I was writing about the influence of the attacks on curriculum and instruction at the time (see here, here, and here), teachers and administrators were struggling with how to engage students in discussions about Sept. 11 and the complex issues of domestic and foreign policy that were being fiercely debated.

I've lost track of just how much material and support are available to classroom teachers on the topic, but I'm sure many teachers are still seeking out guidance on 9/11-related instruction.

(Photo: The World Trade Center flag is folded after being presented as friends and relatives of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks gather at Zuccotti Park, adjacent to ground zero, on the eighth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York. CREDIT: Jason DeCrow/AP)

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We here at Education Week and Digital Directions have some exciting events coming up in the next week or so—one in Chicago and one in Jersey City—with some big name speakers and lots of innovative ideas. We've been working hard to address the topics and concerns that interest you most, and we're really happy with what we've come up with.

Our panelists will be discussing how to do more with less in tough budget times, how to turbocharge your professional development, and how to leverage technology to improve student achievement. In addition, there will be a panel of students at each event to share their thoughts about how schools are integrating technology and what changes might be made.

I'll be attending the event next week in Chicago, and I'm very excited to hear what all of our panelists have to say about these important topics. I strongly encourage you to check out Smart Ed-Tech Strategies for Tough Times, and sign up to join in the discussion!

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There's a new report up at the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, or iNACOL, called "Examining Communication and Interaction in Online Teaching," which examines the communication methods and policies in place at virtual schools. The schools range from state-sponsored programs to cyber charter schools to for-profit online education providers such as K12 Inc.

The survey examined policies for teacher-student, teacher-parent, and student-student communication and what details were in those policies. A large percentage of the programs—65 out of 81 that responded to the survey—outlined specific policies for student-teacher communication, while the number of schools with policies regarding teacher-parent and student-student communication were far lower (43 and 47 out of 81, respectively.)

Most of the communication policies in place outlined the frequency of contact, as well as the way that teachers were responsible for contacting students and parents. Contact methods included phone, e-mail, and message boards. Both the method of contact as well as the frequency of contact required varied widely from program to program.

The report is worth a look if you're curious as to how different online programs handle communication, but it's somewhat difficult to draw any serious conclusions from the data gathered. There's no discussion of how the communication policies in each school relate to student achievement or engagement, or any recommendations made regarding effective communication between students, parents, and teachers. Check it out here.

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The annual Technology, Entertainment, and Design conference, known as TED brings together some of the most creative and intriguing thinkers in their fields to discuss societal problems, promising innovations, and human potential. The presentations are almost always engaging and thought-provoking. And some even touch on the topic of education, either directly or indirectly.

Thanks to @AngelaMaiers on Twitter, I found this spreadsheet with descriptions and links to all the TED talks to date. I warn you that it might lead you to spend more time than you have getting a taste of all the fascinating topics and speakers. But most of the talks are just 15 minutes, and may serve as a kind of professional development or personal enrichment.

For you ed-tech enthusiasts, there's one by Nicholas Negroponte about the One Laptop Per Child vision, and another with Ross Lovegrove on open-source learning.

In one compelling and very funny presentation a few years ago, Creativity Expert Sir Ken Robinson laments how education systems around the world tend to educate the creative spirit out of students.

"Every education system on Earth has the same hierarchy of subjects...at the top are mathematics and languages, then the humanities, and at the bottom are the arts," he said. "The most useful subjects for work are at the top. As students you are steered away from things you like on the grounds you they will never get a job doing that. So the result is that many highly talented, brilliant, creative people think they're not."

Robinson argues that we need to rethink how we nurture students' intellectual and creative capacity in order to help them thrive in a community and economy that requires innovative and out-of-the-box thinking.

"Our education system has mined our minds in the way that we've strip-mined the Earth: for a particular commodity," he said, referring to the traditional skills needed for work, such as math and language. "For the future it won't service."

Maybe we can help each other out by watching some select videos and sharing the best. Let me know what gems you find in the archives, and I'll do the same.

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Seems like it was just the weekend.. Oh, it was just the weekend, and a nice long one at that. That must be why Tuesday crept up on me this week. Anyway, there has been a lot of tweeting going on.

All these educators I follow are either getting their last round of tweets in before they dive into the new school year, picking the habit back up again after the summer break, or they are totally impassioned (obsessed?) by their work and how much support they get through social networking.

Keep at it folks.

For now, here is a roundup of some of my favorite tweets of the week:

@Clausvz "Books not waste of space & won’t be until digital book can tolerate sand, survive coffee spill, & have unlimited power"

@wfryer New blog post: Using Blogs and CoverItLive to Discuss President Obama's Speech

@dawnshrum Just updated the ISTE Eduverse blog w/archive from last week's episode feat Erin Reilly from Proj New Media Literacies

@gtoppo "Calculators are not magic," she said.

And, if you read my RT Tuesday post last week you saw the tweet from @TeachPaperless linking to the letter he wrote to his children's teachers. Well, he has a follow up post this week that's also of interest.

@TeachPaperless Thinking about teachers & parents: Response (not from 1 of their teachers) to my Letter to Teachers

Feel free to send me your candidates.

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This Associated Press story is a good example of the way that educators, administrators, and legislators in Idaho were able to band together to bring broadband Internet access to high schools across the state. Through an initial investment of $3 million, secured from federal stimulus funds, the network has now been extended to 12 high schools in the state, and will ultimately expand to provide access to all public high schools in Idaho. The Idaho Education Network was established by House Bill 536 and the initiative may ultimately expand to include elementary and middle schools, as well as libraries.

Expanding broadband Internet access to schools was a major push in the federal stimulus package, with $7.2 billion set aside specifically for that purpose. Check out this story I wrote for Digital Directions to find more on the importance of high-speed Internet for educators and what schools can do to secure the funds needed to upgrade their Internet access.

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Thanks to ASCD's Twitter feed I got a tip this morning about the new Web site for the U.S. Department of Education.

There are some dramatic changes, but these kinds of redesigns often occur with a change in administration. One noticable new feature is the blog down the left side of the page, which looks like it might just be a rolling summary of press releases. There's also a rotating feature at the top and links to resources at the bottom and down the right column.

It might take a while to figure out how this redesign compares to the previous iteration of the site, and how easy it is to navigate, but it looks enticing enough. Send your review once you've had a chance to surf around the site.

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These days it's rarely a surprise to read about a new effort to translate print curriculum to a digital medium. But a headline on an e-newsletter I just received from the Academy for Educational Development captured my attention. It links to a news article on allAfrica.com about Rwanda's efforts to "digitalize and disseminate" the national curriculum as part of the country's push toward "Education for All" goals set by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization.

The article quotes Samuel Mulindwa, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education:

We have the challenge of achieving "education for all" as well as the transformation of our country's status to a predominantly knowledge-based economy by 2020.

As part of the project, funded in part by the USAID, a group of "technicians" will be trained in creating multimedia content. The purpose of the project, which is part of a larger effort throughout Africa, is to create "an interactive, easy-to-use Web portal, so that individuals and groups can work together and share knowledge and education material," according to the Global Development Commons division of the USAID, which promotes innovations in international development.

The Republic of Rwanda, a densely populated and poor country in central Africa, has received considerable international support for its education reforms—from development organizations like the World Bank, and private companies including Intel and Microsoft—as part of a pilot program to ensure universal primary education through the developing world.

The country of 10 million has made considerable progress since the genocide there in 1994. Nearly half of the National Assembly members are women, the court system was transformed, and the economy has steadily advanced. After the genocide, the school system was in shambles, but enrollment in primary education has been growing substantially. In 1999 there were fewer than 1.3 million students in primary education, but by 2007 the number had grown to 2.1 million, according to UNESCO statistics.

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You may have seen some of the e-mail promotions about Smart Ed-Tech Strategies for Tough Times, two one-day conferences about key ed-tech issues hosted by Education Week and Digital Directions. If you haven't seen the promotions, I would highly encourage you to check out the agenda and think about signing up as soon as possible because spots are filling up fast.

Many of the nation's top ed-tech leaders and thinkers are going to be speaking or serving on panels at our one-day events in Chicago and Jersey City. They include University of Michigan ed-tech researcher Elliot Soloway, Harvard professor Chris Dede, Keith Krueger of the Consortium for School Networking; Susan Patrick from the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, and Disrupting Class Co-Author Michael Horn.

There is also a great roster of district level ed-tech leaders who will be serving on panels and available to address questions based on the challenges you are facing in your districts. Those leaders include Boston Public Schools CIO Kim Rice, Detroit schools CIO Christopher Nelson, Calcasieu Parish Schools (La.) CIO Sheryl Abshire, Denver schools CIO Edward Freeman, and others.

Check out the complete speakers list here.

This is a great opportunity to meet some of the top ed-tech leaders and thinkers in the nation and pick their brains for how to tackle the challenges of today.

If you register based on this blog post, you can get a special $50 discount. Just use the discount code: blog50

Oh, and by the way, I will be there too. So I hope to see you there. I would love to hear about the biggest challenges you are facing in your school districts. We can all work together toward identifying solutions.

Kevin Bushweller
Executive Editor
Digital Directions

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When it comes to Internet safety, many districts have turned up their filtering settings to ensure that nothing inappropriate can make its way to school computers. But some districts have found that easing up restrictions on Internet use, and instead giving students the tools to use online resources productively and safely, is a better approach.

In this EdWeek piece I highlight how some districts are expanding access to online resources, including social-networking sites, for students and teachers.

Of course, as soon as I turned this story in I came across other relevant resources on this topic. It seems to be on the radar screen as districts continue to struggle with the best ways to meet their responsibilities to maintain a safe learning environment, while also providing the essential tools students need to be successful.

For further reading, I recommend this piece at Edutopia, which offers some useful tips for finding videos you can access in the classroom. I also found this op/ed piece that appeared in The Washington Post this summer, by Justin Reich, a former high school teacher and a co-director of EdTechTeacher.org.

Photo by Pouya Dianat for Education Week.

Posted by Kathleen Kennedy Manzo at 4:13 PM | Permalink | 2 Comments | TrackBacks (0)

The American Civil Liberties Union has taken up the case of a middle school student who was expelled from his Mississippi school after using his cellphone in a class. In a lawsuit against the DeSoto County School District and several school officials, the ACLU claims Richard Wade's constitutional rights were violated during the 2008 incident at Southaven Middle School, when he was 12.

Richard violated school policy when he took out his phone during gym class to read a text message from his father. After school officials took the phone they searched its photo files, according to the lawsuit. School leaders concluded that some photos Richard had of himself stored on the phone showed "gang-related activity." The student said they were simply photos he took of himself dancing in his bathroom.

The 7th grade honors student was expelled for a year. The lawsuit charges that Richard's constitutional protection against unnecessary search and seizure and his free speech rights were violated. The district, in a statement, said: “Students know that if they break the rules, their cellphone will be confiscated and that school officials reserve the right to look through the cellphone to see if they were cheating on a test or conducting illegal activities related to gangs or drugs.”

Here's some coverage of the incident from the Commercial Appeal, which drew nearly 100 comments from readers.

The ACLU, which is asking that the incident be cleared from Richard's academic and disciplinary records, issued a statement this week:

"This is a case where an honor student was expelled from school because a police officer and school officials decided without any basis that innocent pictures of a kid dancing conveyed 'gang-related' messages," said Reginald T. Shuford, senior staff attorney with the ACLU Racial Justice Program. "School officials and the police officer involved never pointed to anything that would suggest that pictures of Richard dancing were linked to a gang in any way."

Posted by Kathleen Kennedy Manzo at 3:45 PM | Permalink | 1 Comment | TrackBacks (0)

The research on the efficacy of online learning is growing as the medium becomes increasingly popular among students seeking academic enrichment or credit recovery. The International Association for K-12 Online Learning, or iNACOl, has compiled much of the findings to date in a new report: "A Summary of Research on the Effectiveness of K-12 Online Learning."

"A range of studies comparing traditional delivery to online learning finds that students who are enrolled in virtual schools and online courses are performing better on exams and enhancing their education," iNACOL CEO Susan Patrick, who wrote the report, said in a statement. "Online learning is serving diverse student needs for improving performance. Old school models may not work best for today’s students."

Of course, that is just Patrick's perspective. You might want to check out the research and form your own opinions. After all, there are drawbacks to this approach.

We've covered this topic extensively as it has evolved, and you can also find our coverage of online learning in our Technology Counts 2009 special report.

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In the few months I've been using Twitter, the microblog has become a very reliable resource for me. Many of the folks I follow have provided an array of insightful, practical, and important resources and ideas related to my ed-tech beat. There are so many great ideas out there—recommended by some real pros in the education world—that I've decided to share some each week. I hereby dub this the inaugural Retweet Tuesday for this blog. I hope you find these tweets as valuable as I have:

@TeachPaperless - New Post: A Letter to the Teachers of My Children

@web20classroom - Nine Themes of Digital Citizenship...

@mcleod - THE PUSH: Today we're looking for excellent secondary classroom blogs

@tomwhitby - If we change the disc[ussion] from wanting Tech in Ed to needing it, we may make progress. "I learned without it and I did fine" is not acceptable

@Eduflack - Using i3 to fill the ed innovation gaps

@AngelaMaiers - Check out -- a huge database of professional development -- a great resource for teachers!

I often re-Tweet Twitter posts that I find intriguing or useful, as do my colleagues here at EdWeek and Digital Directions. You can follow us on Twitter @kmanzo, @digidirections, and @educationweek.

Feel free to send me your favorite ed-tech tweets for next week.

Posted by Kathleen Kennedy Manzo at 10:55 AM | Permalink | 1 Comment | TrackBacks (0)