Welcome to K12EduBuzz.com. I am Jean Tower and I appreciate your visit to my blog. I encourage comments and look forward to online conversations with my readers.

Advocacy and Inquiry

We’ve all sat in meetings where one person keeps advocating for their position ceaselessly. They appear not even to listen to others, but instead are busy preparing their next comments while others speak. Allowing others (or yourself) to get stuck in advocacy mode does not help reach consensus, and even hinders collegial debate. It also [...]

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EdTechActionNetwork

Please support the modernize K-12 schools legislation and contact your elected representatives telling them so. From the EdTechActionNetwork web site: “ACT NOW to Modernize America’s Schools Fix America’s Schools Today (FAST) Act would provide $25 billion to modernize K-12 schools. The Fix America’s Schools Today (FAST) Act has been introduced in the U.S. House of [...]

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For-Profit Schools

How do you feel about for-profit schools? Is your school feeling the pinch of reduced budgets? Are any of your students exiting to “attend” for-profit schools? Diane Ravitch’s 11/29 blog post (Education Week blogs) “Should Schools Be Run for Profit?” is a thought-provoking addition to the debate. One issue I have with the piece is [...]

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Easy, Simple Interoperability

District Administration magazine has a new section of their magazine devoted to issues in technology leadership, and they’re calling it District CIO. It makes sense to me that more publications are recognizing the distinct role that the technology leader has in the school district. I look forward to seeing what they address in this section. [...]

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Promoting Effective Digital Citizenship

I hear a lot about digital citizenship for our students, and I think we have to deal with effective digital citizenship for teachers, as well. Digital citizenship encompasses appropriate and responsible use of technology, and commonly includes topics such as communication, literacy, etiquette, rights and responsibilities, health and wellness, and security. I want to advocate [...]

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Wall Quote 5

The fifth in my series of posting the quotes that I have used to decorate the walls of my office.

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Webinar Series: Making 1:1 Work for 21st Century Learning

Participate in exciting professional development on cutting edge topics without leaving your office (or your living room) – save your gas! METAA (Massachusetts Educational Technology Administrators Association) is partnering with EdTech Teacher on aseries of four webinars. Each webinar has a specific topic (see below) but the organizing theme is: Making 1:1 Work for 21st [...]

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Recommended iPad Apps

Using an iPad? Here are some apps you should check out! Apple maintains a page called Education Apps at http://www.apple.com/education/apps/. This is where I first saw History: Maps of the World, a really beautiful FREE app where you can see maps from different periods of history. Learn more about History of the World Maps at  [...]

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iPresent

Earlier this year I had the opportunity to explore ipresentonline.com with company founder, Carmen Ferrara. I was impressed with the capabilities, and the look and feel of this LMS. The interface is very current and up-to-date looking, unlike some of the school LMS products I’ve seen which either look cartoony or text-y and old. The [...]

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Navigating the Vendor Exhibit Hall

  Masscue2010album View more presentations from Jean Tower. This week on Wednesday and Thursday we have a big education and technology conference here in Massachusetts. It is co-hosted by M.A.S.S. and MassCUE, the superintendents’ organization and the MA ISTE affiliate, respectively. Previously, each organization has had its own fall technology conference, and since joining forces [...]

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