Ah, a day to read & listen

A day to play catch up to a reasonable point. I have been reading my built up blogs, ISTE resources and tweets.

One of the many reasons I believe so intensely in technology integration is because of the way it can change a classroom and bring back life into teaching. It goes beyond blogs and wikis for students, but extends into tools that make it easier for the teacher to extend and self manage.
I was pretty sure Washington and so many politicians were in the same boat with education reform but apparently not, as seen here: http://bit.ly/jZT9GR 
How can education be reformed and geared towards global, 21st century initiatives when the investment of an essential component is taken away?
This funding always seems to be slashed and hashed. For me, this is almost a call to arms to the edtech community to show washington that,as a community of educators, we will push forward change by using our "dorkdom". Administrators will give their technology talented professional days to reach out to other schools, and in turn build a stronger network of communication between schools and educators who share and collaborate. By using free social media tools and experience we will continue to push for professional development in schools and produce more research that shows this kind of cut in funding is just completely wrong. 
Realistically, however, it always reaches a point where more funding is needed because, just like books, technology needs to be replaced and rebuilt and analyzed. Perhaps if it was put in the language globally compared test scores the message would be heard and responded to with a bit more less hesitance.

On a lighter (and less bitter) note...
There is a another great webinar from edtechteacher this week. This time from Princeton University. Here's the link: http://edtechteacher.org/webinars.html
Edtechteacher hosted an insightful webinar from Ken Davis last night. This is a link to their archives list.
If you haven't searched edtechteacher's website I highly suggest taking a look around at their resources and philosophies.