iPad & iPod Devices - How have you deployed them in your school?

Looking for easy way to deploy iPod and iPad devices in schools especially with management of apps. How are you setting up the iTunes account on the devices? Our issue is having to provide credit card information even for free apps. Are you locking the devices down so teachers and students cannot access the internet or iTunes?
Also need ideas on how best to use them with students. If you have suggestions or links to some good education apps then please share! Any thoughts, ideas or resources will be greatly appreciated!

Are we really reforming public education?

In this economical crisis world we live in today, are we really reforming public education or is our current economy reforming it for us? Are we, as a culture, passing on our cultural beliefs and not losing some of our "cultural identity" in the process? Well, take a moment to read and listen to Sir Ken Robinson talk about the "changing paradigms" on reforming public education and how there are 2 reasons for it. The first reason given is about figuring out how we educate our children to be involved in the 21st Century considering how we don't know what next week or the week after will look like economic wise. The second reason provided is to determine how we pass on our cultural genes of our communities while still being a part of globalization. We cannot continue to "meet the future" by continuing to do the same things over and over but expecting different results. Does this sound like a broken record to you? Probably so. However, we need to show our kids today the "purpose" of learning and attending school.

Yet, how can we do this with all the budget cuts states and localities are facing today across our nation? Take a look at what has happened in Providence, Rhode Island this year. Teachers there were given "pink slips" and still do not know their fate for the upcoming school year. Why? Articles all across America state that in doing this, it would give the school board "maximum flexibility" to deal with budget cuts. So, rather than focusing on how we (America) got to this point, we need to focus on how we can move beyond it all no matter how we all are struggling.

You may be asking yourself "How can this be done?" Well, the ongoing project "Imagination Age" addresses how we can move out of the "anesthetic experience" where our students and teachers have shut their senses off and deadened themselves from what is happening around them, and move toward the "aesthetic experience" where our students and teachers senses are fully immersed and alive through "changing education paradigms." To learn all about this project, visit the site "Imagination: Creating the Future of Education and Work" and let me know what you think about it all. It truly "makes you think!" ☺

Starting back blogging after a year or so break...

At the advice of a dear and close friend, I started back blogging. It was a little over a year ago when I found myself so caught up in the social networking world of Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, LinkedIn, Tweetdeck, Wikis, Hootsuite and the like that I just wasn't sure what to use and how to use it effectively. So, I used this blog for over a year as a Twitter feed blog and devoted my time to tweeting. However, I found myself missing blogging. After all, I love to share! And, what better way to share than to blog about it, right? So, after some gentle coaxing from my good friend Michael Gorman, I started back blogging. I hope you will find something you can use here and share with others. And please share your ideas or resources with me too! Thanks so much and have a great day! Anita

ISTE 2010 Leadership Bootcamp in Denver - June 26

Time is approaching fast for ISTE 2010. Take a look at the Leadership Bootcamp info below. By the way, take a look at the picture on the website link below. It shows a few of the ISTE/JHU Admin & Supervision Cohort members busy at work at NECC 2009. One of them just happens to be me! Go ISTE! Can't wait till I get to Denver!

ISTE 2010 Attendees | program | leadership bootcamp

Welcome to my new blog!

It had come a time for me to move on in the blog world. My old blog served me well but with the fast and changing technology times we are in today, I felt I needed a blog that would offer me more flexibility and less managing. So, welcome to my new blog 21st Century Learning and Leading!

I may still refer to my old blog because I have used it as my way of keeping up with all that I am learning in this great and vast world of instructional technology. Thank you for visiting and please post comments and join me in the quest for 21st CENTURY LEARNING AND LEADING!

Oh, and don't forget to subscribe to this blog and follow me on Twitter! ;-)