Links to official and unofficial information for the Lubbock conference are now available in a browser near you: http://computersandwriting2006.wordpress.com

From ASCD SmartBrief:

Wily cheaters exploit popular gadgets
As cheaper cell phones, cameras and other gadgets become more widespread with students, some fear that "technocheating" could grow. Districts are taking steps to thwart clever students, who ingeniously replace the ingredient labels of candy wrappers with tiny scanned crib sheets or load low-cost USB flash drives with hundreds of megabytes of notes. The Kansas City Star (Mo.) (free registration)

Quick—how would you say children first learn about and experience technologies? My typical answer used to point to television and movie depictions, commercials and advertisements, video games, access to computers in the home. As I've spent more and more time reading and exploring children's and young adult literature for my work with ReadWriteThink, I've found that computers and other technologies are more and more frequently integrated in the books that students read. Students without computer access may first experience the format of instant messages and e-mail in a novel, and students' experiences with the many netiquette and social issues surrounding technology issues may stem just as often from picture books and novels as it does from what they see on television or at the movies.

EDWeek's Eighth Annual Report on School Technology:

Technology Counts 2005: Electronic Transfer: Moving Technology Dollars in New Directions

"The report includes in-depth articles on issues surrounding technology spending, state profiles, and the first-ever ranking of state technology leaders."

Saw this collection of info for the ALA conference on Weblogs in Higher Ed: Event wiki, and I wondered if it was something we might do for Stanford and in the future for other conferences (CCCC?). Or maybe it belongs on the Computers and Writing Web site rather than here.

x-posted to tengrrl.com

"Teachers look to computers to critique student essays," from STLToday.com, presents another example of folks ignoring what we know about writing and authentic assessment. For the other side of this argument, see "Automated Scoring Technologies and the Rising Influence of Error" by Julie Cheville, from the March 2004 English Journal.