The United States Department of Education (ED) Tuesday announced finalists in the second phase of the Race to the Top competition.
China renewed Google's licenses as an Internet content provider for that country, according to Google's chief legal officer.
The United States Department of Education and Department of Justice have just issued a reminder calling for colleges and universities--as well as K-12 school districts--to make sure devices such as e-readers that are required in the classroom comply with accessibility laws. The federal action came on the heels of a settlement agreement made by Justice with five institutions that were running Amazon Kindle e-book readers as pilot programs. According to the agencies, Kindle devices aren't accessible to students who are blind or have low vision.
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 06/29/10
Teachers who use technology frequently in their classrooms perceive greater benefits to student learning--particularly learning 21st century skills--than teachers who are less frequent users. That's one of the major findings from a K-12 technology study released Monday by researchers out of the Richard W. Riley College of Education and Leadership at Minnesota's Walden University.
The Software & Information Industry Association has extended the deadline for its Vision K-20 Survey, part of the SIIA's "Vision K-20" effort toward developing a technology-based educational framework for K-12 schools, colleges, and universities. The survey runs until June 12.
The school district enmeshed in a lawsuit for using school laptops to capture images of students without their knowledge has just signed a $25,000 contract with SunGard Services to help with IT auditing and policy development. The school board for Lower Merion School District in Pennsylvania approved the emergency expenditure in May 2010 after reviewing a report from a national legal firm that investigated the district's use of a "theft tracking" Webcam feature.
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 06/07/10
A new set of national standards for K-12 math and English could either hold the key to helping schools "share innovations across state borders" or "undermine the role of teachers and administrators," depending on who's assessing them. The federal government, for its part, is supporting the new Common Core State Standards, released this week, and promising to tie state funding to their adoption, with potential spillover into Title I.
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 06/03/10
As the 20th century drew to a close, Roanoke City Schools ranked last in Alabama in per-pupil expenditures and its high school dropouts were increasing. The small, rural school system knew a change of course was in order.
EETT--the sole source of federal funding for education technology--is key to transforming schools and ensuring students have the tools they need for developing 21st century skills. That's the message from state ed tech leaders who took their cause to Washington, DC recently in an effort to renew support for the program, which was targeted for elimination in the Obama administration's 2011 budget proposal.
About half of all public schools in the United States are providing handheld devices to administrators, teachers, or students, and, according to a new report released by the United States Department of Education, every single public school in the country is using computing technology in some way as part of instruction.