Student and parent use of cell phones, text messaging and social networking through Facebook and Twitter can quickly become the enemies of a superintendent and principal. Rumors and misinformation about threats and other student safety issues that used to take hours and days to spread now goes viral in seconds. This rapid dissemination of…

The digital revolution has hit education, with more and more classrooms plugged into the whole wired world. But are schools making the most of new technologies? Are they tapping into the learning potential of today's Firefox/Facebook/cell phone generation? Have schools fallen through the crack of the digital divide? In "Rethinking Education in the…

In a private room at the back of a busy restaurant just outside of Tampa, Florida, drinks and appetizers went unnoticed as 12 diners sat around one large table and engaged in multiple rapid-fire conversations about professional learning. On one side of each conversation were representatives of Memphis (Tennessee) City Schools. The district was in…

Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields, including cell biology, are characterized by the "leaky pipeline" syndrome in which, over time, women leave the discipline. The pipeline itself and the pond into which it empties may not be neutral. Explicating invisible norms, attitudes, and practices by integrating social…

Cell phones, laptops, the Internet and social networking sites make teachers anxious and magnify the gap between teacher and student. The influx of devices creates a clamor, but little clarity for schools. When the author began investigating the issue, he discovered a heated debate and a spectrum of views. Then a colleague sent him Clayton…

Purpose: This article aims to discusses the nature and benefits of lateral approaches to educational change, especially in the form of distributed leadership, that treat schools, localities, states, or nations, as "living systems" interconnected by mutual influence. Design/methodology/approach: The paper presents a conceptual discussion…

Although both formative and summative evidence is the currency of knowledge and decision-making for scientists in the laboratory, evidence of any systematic sort has played a comparatively minimal role for scientists in their teaching practice. In science classrooms, evidence is often employed only "summatively," in the assignment of…