Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 10/11/2011

• What Works Clearinghouse

  A US department of education website that is designed to help schools pick research-proven software. This website reviews the research and works to meta-analyze the results. As always, be careful to see who PAID for a student (will they really release the results unless it is favorable) and know that nothing replaces an excellent teacher. The students I've seen show parents are the highest correlation with good test scores with teachers as a second. Learning environment is also a big factor. Learning is an ecosystem.

  tags: education learning research innovation software

• A Classroom Software Boom, but Mixed Results Despite the Hype - NYTimes.com

  Software companies claim "proven" results but continue to ignore independent studies. If you think you can get a quick fix with software you might want to look again. This New York Times article shows just how volatile this debate has become.

  tags: education research math test scores school improvement

• The Qwikster and the Dead: Netflix kills plan to split off DVD rentals to ‘Qwikster’ site - The Washington Post

  Netflix canning plans to spin off a separate site. I guess this is good, but it does worry me when a company makes a big reversal. I guess netflix is happy - their stock prices went up. But if Steve Jobs taught us anything it is that we, the consumer, often don't know what we want. I personally made fun of the ipad name and the first ipod - I didn't "get" until I "got" one.

  tags: education innovation change

• The Behavioral Reporter: Teacher Behavior Report Card Generator

  Great daily behavior report card. I highly recommend this when you're trying to get at the behavior of a child during the day.

  tags: education intervention

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.