Shifting Focus from Technology to Student Learning
By Mary Ann Wolf
I was recently reminded of a very simple lesson: sometimes, you just have to ask. Ask for help, ask someone to listen, or ask someone to work with you. In the world of education technology, we are often guilty of preaching to the choir—the believers who know in their hearts (and now more often with data) that technology can improve teaching and learning.
The State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) recently took a big risk and asked many individuals beyond our typical community to engage in a discussion around education’s role in America’s competitiveness.
With the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), the Partnership for 21 st Century Skills, and the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) as supporting partners, 300 teachers, state and district superintendents, principals, students, corporate representatives, district and state technology directors, parents, US Department of Education officials, and state legislators gathered for the Education Forum: What It Takes to Compete. Each stakeholder group was highlighted in some leadership role throughout the day, and all of the people were called upon to share their perspectives...
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Ed Tech News
Discovery Education Tapped to Create Lesson Plans Featuring Google Earth
Discovery Education is working with Google to offer a series of lesson plans for teachers that connect the power of Google Earth and Discovery Education’s flagship service, unitedstreaming...
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Rhode Island Science and Technology Council Launches Research Alliance
The Rhode Island Science and Technology Council (STAC) has announced the creation of the Rhode Island Research Alliance, a statewide platform for supporting research across the state’s academic and commercial research institutions...
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Florida District Selects Scantron’s Achievement Series for Benchmark Assessment Program
Volusia County Schools (VCS), a 65,000 student preK-12 school district located in central Florida, has selected Scantron’s Achievement Series as the platform for an innovative testing program to identify student strengths and needs, as well as improve teaching and learning districtwide...
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Products & Services
New Adobe Digital School Collection Brings Learning to Life for K-12 Students, Educators
Adobe Systems Inc. recently announced the new Adobe Digital School Collection, aimed at providing digital communication solutions to K-12 schools...
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Westinghouse Releases Affordable 46-inch LCD HDTV
Westinghouse Digital Electronics has debuted its biggest and best 720p LCD HDTV to date: the 46-inch widescreen LTV-46w1 HD with integrated HDTV tuner...
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Case Study
Podcasting and Tomorrow's Science Excellence
By Randy Yerrick
Concern for American students’ science achievement has reached the cover of Time magazine, and the call for improving the preparation and support of math and science teachers goes beyond reformers’ usual call for action. The issue has even crossed the lips of our current president’s “call to arms” for education in his 2006 State of the Union address. There is a reason for all this concern.
Fourth- and eighth-grade US science students showed little if any measurable differences in achievement from 1995 to 2003, according to studies from the National Center for Education Statistics. American schools also continue to struggle with equity in science teaching and technology for children of color and children from low SES backgrounds. Aspiring visions for American scientific literacy are nothing new, but teaching science is an increasingly demanding task as teachers balance many pressures to teach more inclusively, incorporate new technologies and pedagogies, and improve science test scores.
A continual stream of research demonstrates how expert teachers improve learning when they pay closer attention to multimodality instruction and how inquiry teaching improves student learning. Studies continue to reveal that when expert teachers apply more inquiry teaching strategies and offer students opportunities to perform more authentic tasks, student engagement in classrooms is enhanced as well...
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Web Notes
CoSN Launches Free Web Tools to Aid in Ed Tech Decision-Making
The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) has launched its newest leadership initiative, Value of Investment (VOI), which was created to help district-level technology decision-makers assess the costs and evaluate the benefits of proposed technology investments before making acquisition decisions...
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CNN Student News Delivers Video Podcasts of Daily Broadcasts
CNN Student News has expanded the availability of its daily 10-minute broadcast on Headline News through a video podcast...
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Events Calendar
THE Journal Opportunities
Share Your Best Practices
T.H.E. Journal is currently looking for the following types of articles for future issues and for our eNewsletter, T.H.E. SmartClassroom:
- School Perspectives - discuss a specific topic, trend, or concern about education technology.
- Case Studies – have you implemented technology and learned a lot from the experience? If so, share your efforts about what worked -- and what didn't.
If you have a potential article, or questions about the above topics, please e-mail [email protected]
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