Innovation Radar

ISTE’s Emerging Technologies Task Force is increasing the educational community’s knowledge and understanding of effective infusion of new and emerging technologies to support teaching and learning. We are building an online database of best practices from the ed tech community that have shown positive effects on learning through the use of emerging technologies. To make this useful for everyone, the collection level of data is deep, correlating successful uses of emerging technologies with demographics that include grade level, size of district, and infrastructure, to allow users to search for an emerging technology that might work in their circumstances, too.

Browse ISTE's annotated links to some great Web sites focused on Innovative Learning Technologies.

Innovative Learning Technologies articles from ISTE's L&L, JRTE, and JCTE

A plethora of information on this aquaponics (read: hydroponics that utilizes fish) setup in Africa. I wonder how much can be adapted to handle cold weather climates?

A front page New York Times online report brings the news that “Teenager’ Internet Socializing Not a Bad Thing”. The Times story calls it good news for worried parents:

“It may look as though kids are wasting a lot of time hanging out with new media, whether it’s on MySpace or sending instant messages,” said Mizuko Ito, lead researcher on the study, “Living and Learning With New Media.” “But their participation is giving them the technological skills and literacy they need to succeed in the contemporary world. They’re learning how to get along with others, how to manage a public identity, how to create a home page.”

The announcement from MacArthur begins:

Results from the most extensive U.S. study on teens and their use of digital media show that America’s youth are developing important social and technical skills online – often in ways adults do not understand or value.

“It might surprise parents to learn that it is not a waste of time for their teens to hang out online,” said Mizuko Ito, University of California, Irvine researcher and the report’s lead author. “There are myths about kids spending time online – that it is dangerous or making them lazy. But we found that spending time online is essential for young people to pick up the social and technical skills they need to be competent citizens in the digital age.”