June 13, 2012
Digital Directions, Vol. 05, Issue 03
Curriculum
Providing Credit for Teacher Online PD Efforts
New forms of online professional development are challenging traditional methods used to acknowledge teacher efforts.
Education
Virtual Trends: Higher Education
A survey of college presidents shows an expectation that online coursetaking will continue to expand.
Standards
New Tool to Provide Tech Inventory for Common Core
Readiness tool to pinpoint tech deficits as schools prepare for common core online assessments.
IT Infrastructure & Management
Opinion
Making the Case for Mobile Tech. Expansion
Schools around the world often ban the use of mobile devices on campus, but the writers argue for taking the complete opposite approach by integrating them into classroom learning.
Classroom Technology
Q&A: All Students Can Be Successful Online
The 2012 online teacher of the year says her virtual connection with students is stronger than it was in the traditional classroom.
School Choice & Charters
New Companies Seek Competitive Edge in LMS Market
The number of learning-management-system companies is growing fast, making it more difficult for district leaders to identify the best ones.
Assessment
Colleges Use 'Digital Badges' to Replace Traditional Grading
K-12 educators designing digital badge programs can look to a handful of examples in higher education for guidance on this new achievement-tracking technique.
Assessment
'Digital Badges' Would Represent Students' Skill Acquisition
Initiatives seek to give students permanent online records for skills they have developed that they could then use when applying to college or for jobs.
Student Well-Being
App Creation Inspires Student Entrepreneurs
Programs geared toward mobile-app development engage students through technology, business, and marketing.
Student Well-Being
Students Tackle Video-Game Design
As more schools integrate digital games into learning, programs are evolving to turn students into video-game designers.
Law & Courts
Teens' Privacy Settings on Social-Media Sites
This chart shows the distribution of teen's levels of privacy on social-media sites.
Student Well-Being
Students' Use of Technology
This chart shows how students use technology while at school and how that compares to their interactions with technology outside of school.
Student Well-Being
Online Games Tapped by West Virginia to Improve Education
Students love to play computer games, and the West Virginia Department of Education is tapping into that love through a website called Learn21.
Curriculum
Educational Ratings for Digital Content Launched
An educational ratings system for digital content announced about a year ago has debuted with listings for more than 150 mobile products.
School & District Management
L.A. District Hires First Social-Media Director
In what may be a national first for a school district, the Los Angeles school system has hired a full-time social-media director.
School Climate & Safety
School Counselor Facebook Guide Released
The American School Counselor Association has combined with iKeepSafe to publish a guide to help school counselors make sense of Facebook and its on-campus impact.
School & District Management
Study: Cyberbullying Different From Physical Bullying
A new study suggests the typical elements of playground bullying Mom and Dad endured aren't always present in the cyberbullying that may affect their children.
Classroom Technology
iPads Easing a Texas District's Digital Divide
A Texas school district is trying to close its digital divide by distributing thousands of Apple tablet computers in a move that could make it the largest iPad program for students in the United States.
Education
Breaking Outside the Comfort Zone
Educational technology leaders must balance uncertainty and opportunity as they face changes in the ed-tech market and new demands related to the common core standards and assessments, writes Digital Directions Executive Editor Kevin Bushweller.