To reshape pedagogy, Tapscott says that we must consider eight norms for the Net Generation: freedom, customization, scrutiny, integrity, collaboration, entertainment, speed, and innovation.

What I’m finding more and more as I visit schools that are getting more serious about “change” is that they have someone at the top who is willing to focus on the learning and not on the other crap. And you can pick these people out in a heartbeat; they are leaders AND learners, and they’re not ashamed to share the driving questions they have about their schools with those around them. They have a passion not for making AYP or top schools lists as much as they do supporting their teachers to be learners, allowing them to look at their own teaching as a deep learning experience and share that learning with others.

If you're reading this blog, you're likely someone who already takes charge of your learning and you choose what to read and absorb. You likely rarely say, "just tell me what to do" on the big issues of your job. Compliance isn't always a bad thing and there are many occasions, when we just are as invested as others and just want to get the job done without a lot of discussion or analysis. But the shift to personalized learning, if indeed you see or believe that shift, demands students and teachers to take charge. That might be the biggest challenge of all.

So when is it okay to be told what to do and when do we suggest, and even demand learners (teachers and students) to own their learning?

the kids are feeling "gob-smacked" about the whole project. They are used to having their research papers outlined for them .... gather info about the topic, produce five pages, make sure to use "x" number of sources, be sure to include ... blah, blah, blah..... We've given them minimal direction for this. Many don't know what to do. They are simply not used to being asked what is important to them. It will be interesting to watch what they do - once they stop whining and begging for direction

Why wouldn't they feel 'gob-smacked?' We've socialized them to be fact regurgitators...

I don’t want my own kids to go quietly through their lives. And I don’t want that for our RCS students either. I hope we’re graduating students who can research and analyze and take the initiative. I hope we’re graduating students who can help to solve the many problems that our world faces - making it a better place than it is today. I want our graduates to know that they have the power to do so. And so I’m always wondering, what are we doing to prepare them to be good thinkers? To let them practice these things?

Time will tell if my own kids can do more than be good students in school. I’m hopeful and optimistic, but I’m not sure that the ability to score well on the Global exam or Earth Science Regents or the 8th grade Math exam shows much more than an ability to memorize, study and take a test well.  Does this success indicate an ability to critically think, to problem solve, to collaborate, lead, initiate, communicate, analyze? To really understand the world around them and their places in it?

the promising use of technology in education is not about creating gimmicky video games or virtual worlds, but about using software and hardware to rethink the business of teaching. In that regard, technology is most effective when it can do one of three things: 1) Replace costly and inefficient activities, such as spending long amounts of time grading multiple choice questions, 2) Make it easier to manage and oversee a class, such as course management software that makes it possible for professors to see which questions students frequently got wrong; or 3) Make students more active and responsible for their learning, such as programs that tailor exercises to areas where students need help and then generate repeated problems so students can keep working on an idea until they really understand it.

Winston Churchill Middle School, Carmichael, Calif. Students participating in this GenerationYes! program assist teachers with support needs ranging from software installation to the creation and implementation of content-specific lessons. Currently, 90 percent of the students in the program go into classrooms and teach their classmates about a specific subject using technology.

Tupelo Middle School, Tupelo, Miss. Tupelo Middle School (TMS) is part of C.R.E.A.T.E for Mississippi, and 56 of its students are leaders in the Excel Tech program. Students maintain and service computers for teachers, install software, ghost machines, set up new equipment for teachers, develop PowerPoint presentations, and work on special projects for the school. TMS will become a one-to-one student to computer school in 2010–2011. The Excel Tech classes will have a major role in setting up and maintaining these 1,140 student laptops.

Lower Eastside PS 515, New York, N.Y. The MOUSE Squad has 25 participants who routinely tutor their peers in the basics of computing and work in teams to provide custom professional development courses to faculty on evenings and weekends. Students provide technical support for their school and its assortment of handheld computers, mobile labs and standard equipment. Students use their technology skills to help design the school's yearbook cover and for detailed page design.

East Garner Magnet Middle School, Garner, N.C. Students serving on the Students Working to Advance Technology (SWAT) team teach fellow classmates about technology in computer labs, take part in community service projects including teaching library patrons to use Microsoft Office, designing Web sites for teachers, assisting teachers with Internet research, and videotaping news broadcasts. Through the program, students are gaining technology training and leadership skills, and valuable community service experience.

Parkway West High School, Philadelphia, Pa. With the support of the Urban Technology Project, approximately 80 10th grade students serve as "Guides by the Side." Student experts are trained to provide project-based digital media support in kindergarten through eighth grade classrooms, including developing lesson plans, providing in-class support, working one-on-one with students in the areas of literacy, math and reading, and creating "legacy projects" to address community and school technology needs, such as tech manuals for teachers and school Web sites.

Forest Park High School, Woodbridge, Va. The VA Star program offers students a fully integrated service-learning model including a rich IT curriculum, hands-on training to refurbish and recycle used computers, and a full spectrum of community service opportunities to meet the IT needs of the school's community.

Microsoft and the Corporation for National and Community Service are working together "in meaningful ways to revitalize learning, schools, and communities through the use of technology." Above is the list of six schools and their projects. The initiatives look good and appear to be worthwhile learning experiences for students, but they're also all focused internally on tech needs and community service WITHIN the school system. It would have been nice if at least a couple of these were focused on community needs OUTSIDE of the school system instead...

This is not a big critique. What they're doing looks like good stuff. Just a suggestion for the next round!

Relatively small improvements in the skills of a nation’s workforce can have a big effect on its future economic well-being, concludes a new international study that seeks to quantify those benefits.

For the United States, the research suggests, modest gains in student achievement as measured by one international assessment could cumulatively boost the country’s gross domestic product by tens of trillions of dollars over the coming decades.

“There’s almost a one-to-one match between what people know and how well economies have grown over time,” Andreas Schleicher, the head of indicators and analysis for the education directorate at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, said at a briefing held here last week to discuss the findings. “It’s not the quantity of schooling that drives success in countries, it is the quality of [learning] outcomes that we see that is explaining the relationship.”

At a CALI conference a few years ago there was a presentation by a law student (U. Cincinnati, I think) who went beyond the idea of distributing outlines of his classes on-line: he took his class notes, the readings, etc., and created his own podcasts - audio files that he distributed on-line - that consisted of his own lectures/discussions of the material covered in his classes. He was essentially creating his own on-line courses based on what he was learning in class (and he said he had 50,000+ people downloading and, presumedly, listening to these podcasts). BUT, before his first year of law school started, he met with each of his professors and told them of his plans - he wasn’t asking PERMISSION because he already had a good idea of what the law in this area was - and only one of his professors had any qualms about it, and, ultimately, there were no efforts to stop him from what he was doing and by now, I think, he probably has an entire law school education’s worth of podcasts on-line.
Having these outlines on-line just changes the scale of what our students already had available to them: the internet long ago made the exchange of all manner of information and data much easier. And, yes, this is probably why more students these days may seem to anticipate your lines of discussion and questions in class but, again, its really just a change of scale from fifteen years ago when students had to physically exchange floppy discs containing course outlines that they had written or that they had obtained from upperclassmen.

Brian Huddleston

I minimize memorization. My classroom walls are filled with posters that give key relationships and formulas. Why memorize material that is literally at their fingertips with their smart phones, textbooks, and computers?

Jerry Brodkey, via Larry Cuban