THE Journal — eLearning/Web
LectureShare Takes Open Source Approach to Education
LectureShare has debuted its free online course management system (CMS) at lectureshare.com, which lets instructors upload class announcements, documents, and audio and video files.
(8/28/2007)
Angel Launches CMS Webinars
CMS/LMS developer Angel Learning is launching three new webinars covering course management systems specifically for K-12 educators. The idea of the webinar series is to show how CMSes can be of benefit to K-12 education, including curriculum alignment to state standards; remediation; professional development; and the incorporation of wikis and blogs into education.
(8/28/2007)
Pearson Debuts ELL Professional Development Program
Pearson last week introduced a new professional development program for teachers of English language learners (or "English learners") called "Enhancing Instruction for ELs with The SIOP Model." The program is designed to help instructors teach academic subjects to ELL students while focusing on English language development.
(8/28/2007)
MVU Revamps Professional Development Portal
The Michigan Department of Education and Michigan Virtual University have revamped LearnPort, a professional development portal for K-12 educators in that state. Aside from a comprehensive redesign, the portal also gets a new "Collaboration Center" for educators to share their best practices with one another.
(8/27/2007)
Lincoln PSD Decentralizes Web Content Management
Continually posting all Web content for your users is like continually giving them a fish instead of teaching them how to grab a pole and catch one for themselves, according to Kirk Langer. He's director of technology at Lincoln Public School District in Lincoln, NE, a highly rated school district with some 33,000 students. As an early technology adopter, the district began looking for content management solutions for its Internet sites more than 10 years ago. It has just recently found the right mix of tools to allow users themselves to make most changes to both internal and external sites within the district.
(8/23/2007)
Ignite! Sparks Science Education Series on YouTube Channel
Ignite! Learning, a developer of educational curricula, has put together "Tourist in Space," an education video about the history and recent developments of space travel for the company's YouTube channel. The new video is the latest release of its Current Event's Media series designed to "introduce school-age children to timely issues and scientific advancements often mentioned in the news," according to Ignite!
(8/22/2007)
Arizona Virtual Academy Kicks Off New School Year
The Arizona Virtual Academy, an online, public charter school, started classes for grades K-11 last week. The tuition-free virtual school uses certified public teachers instructing students, under supervision from a parent or a responsible adult, from remote locations using both traditional school materials and online curricula from K12 Inc.
(8/22/2007)
OnCourse Expands Support for State Standards
Online education tool provider OnCourse Systems now supports education standards for all 50 states and has integrated those standards into its Lesson Planner, Grade Book, and Student Stats offerings, according to the company.
(8/21/2007)
Ed Tech Companies Launch Beginning Reading Program
The Weekly Reader Publishing group and school technology provider HareBrain have partnered to launch the Learn to Read: Beginning Reading Program, which provides students in preschool through first grade with reading kits, including HareBrain's WhisperPhone line of devices designed to help students read.
(8/21/2007)
NBC and HotChalk Debut Education Resource
NBC News has partnered with HotChalk to provide access to NBC's educational content designed for classroom instruction. HotChalk is a provider of learning management technologies. Through the deal, NBC will make available 60 years of historical news footage via the HotChalk LMS.
(8/20/2007)
Blackboard Debuts Anti-Plagiarism Technology for LMS
Blackboard this week debuted a new tool called SafeAssign, which is designed to eliminate plagiarism in student assignments. The service detects plagiarized works in student papers and delivers reports on such incidents through the Blackboard Learning System.
(8/15/2007)
Texas District Implements Plato Online Curriculum
El Paso Independent School District will implement an online intervention curriculum from Plato Learning, a developer of K-12 and adult education e-learning solutions. The new content will provide online credit recovery and state test remediation courses to 15 secondary schools in the district, with plans for additional implementation in the future.
(8/15/2007)
Research: Students Actually Use the Internet for Education
New research released by the National School Boards Association reveals data showing we all might need to reevaluate our assumptions: It turns out kids are actually using the Internet for educational purposes. In fact, according to the study, "Creating & Connecting: Research and Guidelines on Online Social--and Educational--Networking," the percentage of children specifically discussing schoolwork online outpaces the percentage that spend time downloading music.
(8/14/2007)
Microsoft Taps Tutor.com To Deliver On Demand Service
Microsoft and Tutor.com have entered an alliance to provide on demand tutoring services to Microsoft Student with Encarta Premium 2008 users, Microsoft's new homework suite.
(8/13/2007)
Hamilton County Expands Carnegie Learning Math Curriculum
Hamilton County Schools in Tennessee has recently expanded its implementation of Carnegie Learning's math curriculum, which had originally been piloted in three schools back in 2001 until it grew to district-wide adoption by 2005. All eighth- and ninth-grade Algebra I classes in the district are currently using Carnegie's Cognitive Tutor Algebra I.
(8/13/2007)
The Teen Grid: Bringing Your School into Second Life
Second Life, which offers an virtual world complete with avatars to represent human visitors, has intrigued some educators. The popular graphical online world, with land, commerce, buildings, and social networking, seems to offer educational potential, but how to get started?
(8/9/2007)
Autodesk Animation Academy Comes to Mac
Software developer Autodesk this week rolled out the 2008 versions of Animation Academy for both 3ds Max and Maya. For the first time, the 3D visualization and animation curriculum for Maya is available for Mac users. The 3ds Max curriculum remains Windows-only as the application itself is Windows-only (despite my years of "subtle" suggestions that Autodesk come out with a Mac version). Both versions of Animation Academy are designed for high school use, focusing on meeting standards in various STEM fields.
(8/9/2007)
Achieve3000 Nabs $9MM Investment
Internet-based instruction provider Achieve3000 has received a $9 million investment from venture capital firm Insight Venture Partners in New York. This is the largest investment to date in Achieve3000, which serves more than 500,000 students in more than 35 states, according to information released by the company.
(8/7/2007)
Tucson USD Gives SmartMusic Subscriptions to Students
Tucson Unified School District in Arizona has signed on with MakeMusic to deliver the company's SmartMusic solution to 3,000 of its students. The move is part of the Opening Minds Through the Arts project, initiated in Tucson USD in 2001.
(8/7/2007)
Pasadena ISD To Deploy SIS in 56 Schools
Pasadena Independent School District in Texas has signed on with information management provider Mizuni to deploy a student information system, including a data warehouse and Web-based information portal, across all of its 56 schools, encompassing some 50,000 students.
(8/6/2007)
Voyager Adds Quantile Framework to Vmath
Voyager Expanded Learning has added the Quantile Framework for Mathematics from MetaMetrics to its Vmath Texas Edition math intervention program.
(8/6/2007)
Paradise Valley Expands eLearning with Wireless System
Paradise Valley Unified School District in Arizona is deploying a high-capacity wireless system to enable IPTV and VoIP applications and expand the district's electronic learning capabilities. The system is being supplied by Ceragon Networks and implemented by Network Infrastructure Corp.
(8/6/2007)
L3RN: Seattle Public Schools Brings Social Networking In House
The video-sharing site YouTube clearly engages young users, but content and participation can't be controlled, making it difficult for K-12 to use the site for educational opportunities.
(8/2/2007)
PLTW To Debut Biomedical Courses for High School
Curriculum developer Project Lead the Way will launch new biomedical sciences curricula with the help of National Instruments, a software developer focused on science and engineering. The curricula, targeted toward high school students, will incorporate NI's LabView design software.
(8/1/2007)
e-Learning Market to hit $52.6B by 2010
With an already strong foothold in the enterprise sector, e-learning is advancing in K-12 and higher education teaching environments, according to San Jose, CA-based market researchers Global Industry Analysts, which project the global e-learning market to surpass $52.6 billion by 2010.
(7/30/2007)
