Will Richardson's Public Library

"The next generation of Ford's SYNC-enabled vehicles will not only be rolling communications and entertainment systems. They'll also be rolling WiFi hotspots. Passengers will be able to connect to the Internet anywhere, anytime. Our crystal ball is showing a lot more Ford-enabled conference roadtrips.

The way it works is a lot like many devices available from wireless networks. For example, Sprint's MiFi, which we tested earlier this year, allows for multiple devices to connect to the Internet from a small, card-shaped device without a physical connection to any hardware. Other devices we've tested allow for single- and multi-device connections via USB."

www.readwriteweb.com/...fi_hotspots_on_four_wheels.php - Preview

shfits mobile pres_ideas

"What I wonder is, where has he been looking? Everywhere I look (save, perhaps, inside traditional schools, though there are numerous exceptions) the impact of modern technology has been more than a revolution. Nothing, it seems, is the same. From iPods to mobile phones, Facebook to MySpace, Smart boards to wireless mesh networks, binary arithmetic to logic and integrated circuits, the intellectual life of a child today is nothing like one of even a few years ago. We have gone from a three-channel universe to a million channels in less than a generation. How can anyone say there has been no revolution? How can anyone pretend learning is the same?"

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quotable shifts pres_ideas parent_book

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reading pres_ideas shifts media

THE world, like the World Wide Web before it, is about to be hyperlinked. Soon, you may be able to find information about almost any physical object with the click of a smartphone.

This vision, once the stuff of science fiction, took a significant step forward this month when Google unveiled a smartphone application called Goggles. It allows users to search the Web, not by typing or by speaking keywords, but by snapping an image with a cellphone and feeding it into Google’s search engine.

How tall is that mountain on the horizon? Snap and get the answer. Who is the artist behind this painting? Snap and find out. What about that stadium in front of you? Snap and see a schedule of future games there.

Goggles, in essence, offers the promise to bridge the gap between the physical world and the Web.

www.nytimes.com/...20ping.html - Preview

tools google shifts pres_ideas nytimes parent_book

"Blogs are easy to create. But just because something’s easy doesn’t mean it will stick. As someone who supports teachers in understanding and using digital learning tools, this is a pattern I’ve seen all too often.

So how does a teacher or her students find blogging success? Here are a few things I’ve discovered in both my own blog as well as with my work with students and teachers."

ideasandthoughts.org/...teacher-blogging-that-succeeds - Preview

blogging connective_writing 4thedition

"Ontario's government is conducting a sweeping review of curriculum from Grades 1 to 8 to fix what educators charge is an overcrowded jumble of disconnected facts that fail to prepare the province's 1.4 million students for the future.

Based on tough input gathered this fall from teachers and school boards, Queen's Park says it will start clearing the clutter by the fall of 2011 with leaner guidelines, fewer checklists of facts and more time for deeper learning.

It is the first overhaul designed to weed out some of the staggering 3,400 "expectations" built into the new curriculum designed 10 years ago when Grade 13 was abolished.

A special advisory group is expected to propose a new blueprint by February, based on such input as a tough-talking missive from the Toronto District School Board that called the curriculum "a series of overly robust subject-based documents which are disconnected, overwhelming and full of content reflective of 20th century knowledge. "The curriculum does not engage students within their own realities, nor does it integrate the skills society hopes to see in a 21st-century learner," said the recent submission by a group of principals, teachers, superintendents and trustees. "

www.parentcentral.ca/...hools-plan-curriculum-overhaul - Preview

shifts schools parent_book reform

"At that point, it's up to you to sort the accurate bits from the misinfo, disinfo, spam, scams, urban legends, and hoaxes. "Crap detection," as Hemingway called it half a century ago, is more important than ever before, now that the automation of crapcasting has generated its own word: "spamming."


Unless a great many people learn the basics of online crap detection and begin applying their critical faculties en masse and very soon, I fear for the future of the Internet as a useful source of credible news, medical advice, financial information, educational resources, scholarly and scientific research. Some critics argue that a tsunami of hogwash has already rendered the Web useless. I disagree. We are indeed inundated by online noise pollution, but the problem is soluble. The good stuff is out there if you know how to find and verify it. Basic information literacy, widely distributed, is the best protection for the knowledge commons: A sufficient portion of critical consumers among the online population can become a strong defense against the noise-death of the Internet.


The first thing we all need to know about information online is how to detect crap, a technical term I use for information tainted by ignorance, inept communication, or deliberate deception. "

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information_literacy literacy network_literacy parent_book

"A new federal study shows that nearly a third of the states lowered their academic proficiency standards in recent years, a step that helps schools stay ahead of sanctions under the No Child Left Behind law. But lowering standards also confuses parents about how children’s achievement compares with those in other states and countries."

www.nytimes.com/...30educ.html - Preview

parent_book nclb

"Pioneer presenters are using social media to engage their audience and extend the reach of their ideas. Twitter (Twitter), Facebook (Facebook), and numerous custom online tools allow presenters to create a backchannel for their audience’s ideas and feedback. This two-way engagement can enrich the audience’s understanding as well as the presenter’s effectiveness.

Here are 9 tips for improving your presentations with social media."

mashable.com/...presentations-social-media - Preview

pres_ideas presentations

"The Pew Internet & American Life Project released a new report on teens and “sexting,” a reference to teens who use their mobile phones to send nude or partially nude photos to their boyfriends and girlfriends. NPR did a story on the report which you can see here. Teens and Sexting was written by Amanda Lenhart of Pew in conjunction with Richard Ling who teaches at the IT University of Copenhagen and Scott Campbell of the University of Michigan. I know Scott and recently had a chance to share a panel with him on social networks. Their report is timely for several reasons. Here are a few of the findings from the study:

• 4% of cell-owning teens ages 12-17 say they have sent sexually suggestive nude or nearly nude images of themselves to someone else via text messaging.

• 15% of cell-owning teens ages 12-17 say they have received sexually suggestive nude or nearly nude images of someone they know via text messaging on their cell phone.

• Older teens are much more likely to send and receive these images; 8% of 17-year-olds with cell phones have sent a sexually provocative image by text and 30% have received a nude or nearly nude image on their phone."

www.theyoungandthedigital.com - Preview

research teens texting sexting parent_book

"The concept aims to capture the essence of magazine reading, which
people have been enjoying for decades: an engaging and unique reading
experience in which high-quality writing and stunning imagery build up
immersive stories.

The concept uses the power of digital media to create a rich and
meaningful experience, while maintaining the relaxed and curated
features of printed magazines. It has been designed for a world in
which interactivity, abundant information and unlimited options could
be perceived as intrusive and overwhelming."

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magazines shifts reading connective_reading

www.ltscotland.org.uk/...index.asp - Preview

games learning

Many educationalists have come to the view that in order for learners to engage with their education in the 21st Century, they need to have greater access to the technology that is now embedded into their every day lives. The young learners currently starting school are among the first learners who were born in the 21st century. They are learners born into a world where mobile devices, games consoles, the internet, interactive TV and constant 24-7 multimedia are common place. How will our current educational system respond to this change in our way of life?

Put quite simply, if learners are to use the power of the internet and all of the content and authoring tools that are now available, they need access to a device at a time of their choosing and driven by their learning needs. This is far from the case, given the “traditional” desktop PC route that has been the favourite of ICT experts up to now.

Enter mobile devices. With the current sophistication of devices with Wireless internet connectivity, built in digital cameras (Video and Still) and high resolution screen and good battery life…. Current handheld computers are offering a potential solution.

www.learning2go.org - Preview

mobile shifts handhelds parent_book network_literacy

"Cherrypal on Tuesday announced a no-frills laptop called Cherrypal Africa, which includes hardware usually found in smartphones. It can run the Linux or Windows CE operating systems, which are also found on cell phones.

Priced at $99, the laptop is targeted at those looking for an inexpensive PC to surf the Internet, said Max Seybold, founder of Cherrypal. It is a "no-thrills" laptop that could find an audience in developing countries and low-income groups in the Western world, he said"

www.pcworld.com/...fers_laptop_for_under_100.html - Preview

1-1 parent_book compellingcase

"A producer from Uruguay who uploaded a short film to YouTube in November 2009 has been offered a $30m (£18.6m) contract to make a Hollywood film."

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pres_ideas youtube parent_book

"There’s one other important factor to swirl into this discussion: the next generation of book buyers won’t understand why they can’t access any information they want in a digital format. They have grown up in a world where everything, from movies to magazines, is basically just a collection of digital bytes."

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parent_book shifts reading ebooks

"2009 will go down as the year in which the shroud of uncertainty was lifted off of social media and mainstream adoption began at the speed of light. Barack Obama's campaign proved that social media can mobilize millions into action, and Iran's election protests demonstrated its importance to the freedom of speech. "

www.readwriteweb.com/..._media_will_change_in_2010.php - Preview

shifts 4thedition tristateplp socialmedia

"In my view both writers and readers of content will need to work harder to get quality content. I know I'd rather read an article by The Economist on any given topic, than one generated by Demand Media. But we, as readers, need more help from Google and the other search engines. "

www.readwriteweb.com/...content_farms_impact.php - Preview

reading information_literacy research search Google network_literacy pres_ideas

"Because so many people in their teens and early 20s are in this constant whir of socializing—accessible to each other every minute of the day via cellphone, instant messaging and social-networking Web sites—there are a host of new questions that need to be addressed in schools, in the workplace and at home. Chief among them: How much work can "hyper-socializing" students or employees really accomplish if they are holding multiple conversations with friends via text-messaging, or are obsessively checking Facebook? "

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shifts parent_book texting education network_literacy

Justin Bieber...the YouTube channel.

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