Some old, something new; something borrowed, something blue. Here's what's on/open/brewing on my desk.
Lenses
Bruno Latour
Reassembling the Social: An introduction to Actor-Network-Theory
Oxford University Press
2005
A how-to trace associations through accounts of activity: defining social, sociality, how-to interlude, examine the facts, the situation, and redistribute "knowing"
Reif, F.
Applying cognitive science to education
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
2008
Applied cognitive science (issues concerning knowledge, thinking, and learning); how-to design practical instruction that leads toward improving instruction that "significantly" facilitates student learning
Nardi, B (Ed.)
Context and consciousness: Activity theory and human-computer interaction
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
1996
How-to study problems in human-computer interaction scientifically.
http://bit.ly/nardiactivity
Online Learning Communities
S. Barab, R. Kling, & J. Gray (Eds.)
Designing for virtual communities in the service of learning
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
2004
Authors in the chapters of this volume explore theoretical, design, learning, methodological questions w/ respect to designing for and researching Web based communities to support learning.
Dede, C. (Ed.)
Online professional development for teachers: Emerging models and methods
Cambridge, Ma: Harvard Education Press
2006
Authors look at exemplary online programs explore theoretical, design, learning, methodological questions w/ respect to designing for and researching Web based communities to support learning.
Falk, J. K. and Drayton, B.
Creating and sustaining online professional learning communities
New York: Teachers College Press
2009
Authors look at exemplary online programs explore theoretical, design, learning, methodological questions w/ respect to designing for and researching Web based communities to support learning.
Preece, J.
Online communities: Designing usability, supporting socialbility
Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
2000
Theory and evidence to support the design of effective, sustainable online learning communities.
Mintzberg, H.
Structure in fives: Designing effective organizations
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall
1983
A presentation and synthesis of the research on what it takes to design an effective organization.
Social Media and School Change
Christensen, C. M., Horn, M. B., & Johnson, C. W.
Disrupting class: How disruptive innovation will change the way the world learns
New York: McGraw Hill.
2008
Christensen, Horn and Johnson argue that the next round of innovation in school reform will involve learning software. While schools have resisted integrating technology for instruction, today’s students are embracing technology in their everyday lives.
http://disruptingclass.mhprofessional.com/apps/ab/
Wagner, T.
The global achievement gap: Why even our best schools don't teach the new survival skills our children need--and what we can do about it.
New York: Basic Books
2008
How teachers, parents, and employers can motivate the “net” generation to excellence. 
Collins, A. & Halverson, R.
Rethinking education in the age of technology: The digital revolution and schooling in America
New York: Teachers College Press
2009
The authors argue that the knowledge revolution has transformed our jobs, our homes, our lives, and therefore must also transform our schools. Much like after the school-reform movement of the industrial revolution, our society is again poised at the edge of radical change. To keep pace with a globalized technological culture, we must rethink how we educate the next generation or America will be left behind.
Schofield, J. W. & Davidson, A. L.
Bringing the Internet to school: Lessons from an urban district
San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass
2002
This book reports on a 5-year long project designed to: (1) bring Internet access to numerous schools and classrooms in an urban school district; (2) offer technical and collegial support to teachers' efforts to use the Internet in curricular activities the teachers had devised; (3) institutionalize the use of the Internet in district classrooms; and (4) investigate the results of these efforts. Findings indicated a large contrast between the mission of those who have shaped the Internet and educators who wished to use the Internet as a catalyst for change, as well as several positive and negative aspects to each side of this debate. Also included in the book are tips for how schools can get the most out of the Internet, such as: teach students effective search strategies; illustrate how to distinguish between information that is beneficial and that which is not; and teach students how to use the Internet responsibly.
Other: Neuroscience, Music
Levitin, D. J.
This is your brain on music: The science of a human obsession
New York: Plume
2006
Exploration of the relationship between music and the mind, and the role of melodies in shaping our lives
http://www.researchchannel.org/prog/displayevent.aspx?fID=569&rID=
Bedside
Eggers, D.
Zeitoun
San Francisco, CA: McSweeney's
When Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a prosperous Syrian-American and father of four, chose to stay through the storm to protect his house and contracting business. In the days after, he traveled the flooded streets in a secondhand canoe, passing on supplies and helping those he could. But, Zeitoun abruptly disappeared.
http://store.mcsweeneys.net/index.cfm/fuseaction/catalog.detail/obj
Keywords: activity theory, actor network theory, ANT, books, community, digital divide, educational technology, instruction, learning, learning communities, online learning, online learning communities, online teacher professional development, readings, research, teacher professional development, teaching, text, theory, virtual community
