Can Social Media Cure Low Student Engagement?

eCampusNews reports: Keeping college students and their professors connected through social media outlets could be key in boosting graduation rates, education technology experts said during a panel discussion at Social Media Week in New York.

VA Third Graders Use Kindle In The Classroom

Third-graders in one Virginia district may be among the first students ages 8 and 9 to use Amazon Kindle e-readers in the classroom. The technology allows readers of all levels to participate in reading groups and read independently, with functions such as text-to-speech audio helping struggling readers decipher difficult words. "It sort of levels the playing field," one teacher said.

Digital Nation: PBS Special in February

FRONTLINE: Digital Nation (PBS)
National Airdate/time: February 2, 9pm-10:30pm ET
Program description:
Over a single generation, the Web and digital media have remade nearly every aspect of modern culture, transforming the way we work, learn and connect in ways that we're only beginning to understand. FRONTLINE producer Rachel Dretzin (“Growing Up Online”) teams up with one of the leading thinkers of the digital age, Douglas Rushkoff (“The Persuaders,” “Merchants of Cool”), to continue her exploration of life on the virtual frontier. The film is the product of a unique collaboration with visitors to the "Digital Nation" Web site, who for the past year have been able to react to the work in progress and post their own stories online. Dretzin and her team report from the front lines of digital culture — from love affairs blossoming in virtual worlds, to the thoroughly wired classrooms of the future, to military bases where the Air Force is fighting a new form of digital warfare. Along the way, they begin to map the critical ways that technology is transforming us, and what we may be learning about ourselves in the process. Program homepage