Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 01/18/2012

• Skype exec confirms that Windows Phone product is 'coming soon' - Engadget

  Skype Windows Phone product coming soon (no surprise since Microsoft owns Skype) - what will be interesting is the effect on wifi and cellular networks and the friendliness of cellular carriers to this new direction. 

  tags: education news

• The Archive | The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change

  Wow. to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday, the King Center has shared 200,000 papers belonging to him. Such research is a powerful tool for scholars and teachers. Do you realize that your students are able to do authentic research and discover things not seen if they are able to navigate such resources?

  tags: education news martinlutherking history

• ICT - Games based learning - Resources - TES

  Games based learning resources. Here is some information on games and articles on how they are being used.

  tags: education news

• Amazon to Launch Cloud Search Service, Possibly Tomorrow | PandoDaily

  Amazon cloud search may hit tomorrow in a week where every company seems set to one up the other.
  
  "Amazon’s cloud search is different. It allows startups to pass their data through it and get any results they want. And since many startups are already hosting their databases on Amazon, that link is even more direct. Companies can run any query and get immediate, easy results. It’s possible that the guts of this product are from the old A9 search product, according to sources. Amazon spent time getting the design right, and the people we’ve spoken to think it’ll be a game changer."

  tags: education amazon news

• Facebook Open Graph Actions Are Coming This Wednesday - Liz Gannes - Social - AllThingsD

  We're going to be able to syncronously watch and stream with our friends. This would be fascinating. We could, for example, with Flat Classroom, feasibly link up through FAcebook and live stream the winning videos for our projects. 
  
  "Facebook will on Wednesday launch the Open Graph applications it first debuted last September, sources told AllThingsD. These are the apps, made by outside developers, that “frictionlessly” and continuously share users’ actions back to Facebook after a user has given permission once.
  The new apps behave similarly to the “read,” “listen” and “watch” Open Graph applications that have already rolled out in the past few months, which include the Washington Post, Spotify and Hulu. So every time your friends read an article or listen to a song, you might now learn about it on Facebook, and possibly even join them in reading or listening at the same time."

  tags: education facebook news

• Apple to announce tools, platform to "digitally destroy" textbook publishing

  The announcement from Apple this week concerning textbooks is coming where they say they will announce a "Garage Band" for textbooks app on their platform. If you want to know more, this arstechnica article is the one that seems to be getting the most attention.

  tags: education news apple textbooks technology edu_news

• Google will protest SOPA using popular home page | Media Maverick - CNET News

  Wikipedia, Reddit and Google are protesting SOPA in a big way. Look for home pages and websites to go dark or have a dramatic attention-getting method in the next few days.

  tags: education sopa news

• Cool Cat Teacher Blog: Join the Flat Classroom Global Book Club! #flatclass

  It is finally here. Here are the details on our Flat Classroom global book club. (click the link for more)
  
  Every week for 10 weeks we will meet at an alternating time - 12 hours apart. (For the East Coast USA it is Sundays at 6 pm Eastern or Monday mornings at 6 am eastern) 
  
  
  Visit our Book club calendar to convert these times to your Time Zone. Subscribe to this calendar via Google calendar to keep up with events.This is Sunday evenings at 22:00GMT alternating with Monday mornings at 10:00GMT in our Blackboard Collaborate room https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?sid=2007066&password=M.065891D192F8072208BF5756999CE0 .  
  
  
  The book club is free and everyone is welcome.
  
  
  #flatclass Book Club Meeting Times
  Week and Date Time Topic of Conversation
  Week 1: Sunday March 11 22:00 GMT (6 pm EDT) Chapter 1 - Flattening Classrooms through Global Collaboration (p 1-17)
  
  Chapter 2 - Impact on Learning: Research in the Global Collaborative Classroom (p18-30)
  Week 2: Monday, March 19 10:00 GMT (6 am EDT) Chapter 3 - Step 1: Connection (p 31-61)
  Week 3: Sunday, March 25 22:00 GMT (6 pm EDT) Chapter 4 - Step 2: Communication (p 62-96)
  Week 4: Monday, April 2 10:00 GMT (6 am EDT) Chapter 5 - Step 3: Citizenship (p 97-125)
  Take a break.
  Week 5: Sunday, April 15 22:00 GMT (6 pm EDT) Chapter 6 - Step 4: Contribution and Collaboration (p 126-157)
  Week 6: Monday, April 23 10:00 GMT (6 am EDT) Chapter 7 - Step 5: Choice (p 158-196)
  Week 7: Sunday, April 29 22:00 GMT (6 pm EDT) Chapter 8 - Step 6: Creation (p197-214)
  Week 8: Monday, May 7 10:00 GMT (6 am EDT) Chapter 9 - Step 7: Celebration (p 215-234)
  Week 9: Sunday, May 13 22:00 GMT (6 pm EDT) Chapter 10 - Designing and Managing a Global Collaborative Project (p 235-267)
  Week 10: Monday, May 21 10:00 GMT (6 am EDT) Chapter 11 - Challenge-Based Professional Development (p 268-293)
  
  Chapter 12: Rock the World (p 293 - 304)
  
   We’re also inviting the educators featured in each chapter to be with us for the conversations about “their” chapter. You’ll meet people from all over the world just like you who are doing wonderful, amazing things. This is a global story that transcends just one project, although we’re mighty proud of ours.
  
  
  While you are welcome to just “drop in” you can register with the Book club mailing list and we’ll remind you each week about the session, let you know who is coming, and we’ll mention any special events that we’ll be having as part of the launch. If you run your own book club, you’re welcome to come by the club anytime for ideas and discussion points.
  
  
  The hashtag for our conversations is #flatclass and the book club is, of course, free. Anyone can join us. There’s no homework - just conversation and learning. We’ll all be there to discuss the future of education with each other. We hope global collaborators from around the world will join us and share their stories too. Conversations will hinge around our new book, Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds. The book will be available in ebook format, although we’re not sure yet which ebook formats.

  tags: education flatclass globaled flatclassroom edu_news digitalcitizenship bestpractices

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