Learning and Leading

Author and futurist Marc Prensky, who coined the phrase digital native, has released a new book, From Digital Natives to Digital Wisdom: Hopeful Essays for 21st-Century Learning. This book of essays, published by Corwin, challenges educators to “reboot” and make the changes necessary to prepare students for 21st century careers. His vision is based on interviews with young people and includes their ideas about what they need from teachers, schools, and education. This book features easy-to-do, high-impact classroom strategies that help students acquire digital wisdom.

MORE INFO: www.corwin.com/books/Book237857?siteId=corwin-press& subject=C00&qsupld=false&q=prensky&fs= 1

Distance Education for Teacher Training: Modes, Models, and Methods by Mary Burns is a free guide on distance learning that gathers research and lessons learned from programs in more than 100 nations and territories to help policymakers, planners, and designers develop distance education systems for teachers. The collection, published by the International Development Division of the Education Development Center, focuses on modes of distance education, models of distance education for teacher training programs, and methods for best practices.

MORE INFO: http://idd.edc.org/resources/publications/modes-models-and-methods

Smarthinking has launched
a live online tutoring
program for students
who struggle with
reading. The program
uses expert educators
to help with volcabulary,
reading comprehension, and pronunciation and is available
to schools and individuals. Smarthinking also offers tutor-
ing programs in writing, math, science, nursing and allied
health, business, computers and technology, and English for
English language learners.

MORE INFO: www.smarthinking.com
Marshall Cavendish has
introduced Math Buddies,
an online learning platform
designed to support the
teaching of Singapore Math
for grades 1–5. Math Buddies
combines multimedia technologies and animated characters
with instructional strategies to offer an interactive learning
and teaching experience. Included are ready-made multi-
media lessons to explain each math concept, step-by-step
practice problems for independent and group learning,
differentiated practices to support various ability groups,
question-analysis capability to identify common mistakes,
and comprehensive assessments to track student progress.

MORE INFO: www.mymathbuddies.com

Desktops to BYOD: A Three-Year Process Three Wisconsin educators discuss how one high school moved from using school desktops to student-owned technology. The first year was all about learning, the second was planning, and the third was about educating. In September, all freshmen will either bring their own devices or leasing them.

The Principles of Web 2.0 Success Many educators know that web 2.0 tools can transform learning and teaching. But how do you make a school web 2.0 friendly? And how can we encourage teachers to learn these tools? Daniel Light, a researcher at the Center for Children and Technology, answers these questions and more.

QR Codes: A New Dimension in Teaching QR codes are easy to create and use, and they allow educators to effortlessly provide supplementary digital content. Helen Crompton, a PhD student at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill, offers a step-by-step process for using QR codes to promote learning inside and outside the classroom.