No generation in history has ever been so thoroughly prepared for the industrial age.

1. No generation in history has ever been so thoroughly prepared for the industrial age. • David Warlick, The Landmark Project

2. The Long-Tail in Business What's really amazing about the Long Tail is the sheer size of it. Combine enough non-hits on the Long Tail and you've got a market bigger than the hits. Take books: The average Barnes & Noble carries 130,000 titles. Yet more than half of Amazon's book sales come from outside its top 130,000 titles. Consider the implication: If the Amazon statistics are any guide, the market for books that are not even sold in the average bookstore is larger than the market for those that are (see "Anatomy of the Long Tail"). In other words, the potential book market may be twice as big as it appears to be, if only we can get over the economics of scarcity. Venture capitalist and former music industry consultant Kevin Laws puts it this way: "The biggest money is in the smallest sales.“ Chris Anderson - Editor WIRED Magazine On the Long-Tail of Business

3. The Long-Tail Learner One size fits all approach to delivery of instruction The individual learning needs and synercative

4. The Long Tail Learner • Prefers… • receiving information quickly from multiple multimedia sources • parallel processing and multi-tasking • to process pictures, video, sounds and color before text • random access to hyperlinked multimedia information • to network simultaneously with many others • to learn just-in-time • instant gratification and rewards

5. Hot Technologies for Long Tail Learners • Technologies that galvanize the instructional process and promote authentic learning activities: active highly portable large storage devices and datacasting. • Technologies that improve assessment and evaluation at all levels of the organization: electronic response systems, intelligent essay graders, intelligent pattern analysis and performance projections, and data warehouses. • Technologies that address diverse learning styles and student needs. This section includes a review of the principles of Universal Design as well as sound-field amplification, and multisensory, customized learning tools. • Technologies that build community in the school environment: programmable phone systems, student information systems, learning management systems, and blogs. • Technologies that improve the efficiency of school administration: Radio Frequency Identification Data (RFID).

6. Technological fluency involves the transparent use of digital tools to perform a wide range of tasks. It’s like using a pen. You don’t think about the pen, you just use it. With a pen, it’s about being directly engaged between the tool and the task – between your brain and the paper. With digital technology, it’s not about learning Excel – it’s about using Excel to solve a problem. It’s not about using Word – it’s about using Word to write. It’s not about PowerPointlessness – it’s about using PowerPoint to communicate effectively ~ Ian Jukes

7. Resources to Support STEM Technology Integration • www.iste.org – ISTE Classroom Observation Tool, ICOT • www.cosn.org – Consortium of School Networks Emerging Technologies, 21st Century Leadership • http://landmark-project.com/ - Here you will find information and tools designed to help redefine literacy for the 21st Century.