THE Journal

Convergence Idea Gets Serious with Live Mesh, Analysts Say

Analyst reaction last week to Redmond's "Live Mesh" initiative can be deciphered in one of two ways. On the one hand, it's an old idea, namely "convergence," with new buzzwords. On the other, it means that industry leader Microsoft has become serious about playing hard ball with its more nimble competitors, working to simplify the end user experience in a Web 2.0 era.
(5/1/2008)

21st Century Teaching and Learning: Assessing New Knowledge

As technology continues to change and affect how students think and process information, instructors must realize that there is an opportunity now to capture and assess in ways not formerly possible. Research continues to enforce the importance of learning as a process, student engagement, and learning outcomes in the process of learning. Technology does not change this reality, but it can provide new ways to evaluate learning.
(5/1/2008)

Children's Way Beefs Up Security in K-6 Virtual World

Non-profit developer Children's Way Foundation has teamed with eGuardian to bolster security on its Woogi World, an online virtual world for K-6 students. The agreement allows Woogi World to incorporate eGuardian's online verification service as a means of safeguarding kids from online strangers who might be posing as other children.
(5/1/2008)

Online Writing Remediation Program Targets High School Seniors

Ed tech developer Vantage Learning has launched a new edition of its writing remediation program, targeting high school seniors and incoming college freshmen. My Access! College Edition extends the standard "School Edition," designed for K-12, with greater emphasis on analysis and interpretation, as well as additional features.
(5/1/2008)

Pennsylvania Rolls Out Interactive Technologies to 231 Districts

Technology provider CDW Government reported this week that it's completed implementation of technology programs for some 231 school districts across Pennsylvania as part of the state's Classrooms for the Future program. As part of the initiative, nearly 82,000 laptops and more than 4,000 interactive whiteboards have been deployed in 257 schools over the last two years.
(5/1/2008)

Chicago Public Schools Taking Grades Online

Beginning this summer, Chicago Public Schools will implement a Web-based gradebook system, piloting GradeSpeed.NET from Campusware at select campuses.
(4/30/2008)

Web 2.0 Event Draws the Bleeding-Edge Cloud Crowd

Tim O'Reilly woke up his end-of-the-day audience when he took the stage at last week's Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco. The publisher of the popular "In a Nutshell" computer books series declared that the Internet is fast becoming "a global platform for everything," and an "amazing tool for harnessing collective intelligence."
(4/30/2008)

rSmart Releases Commercial Sakai CLE Update

Education support services provider rSmart has rolled out an update to its commercial implementation of the Sakai Collaboration and Learning Environment, bringing it in line with the latest major release from the Sakai Foundation. rSmart's version is built on the regular Sakai software but also includes additional functionality and contracted support.
(4/29/2008)

Study: Teens See Disconnect Between Personal and School Writing

Students see a distinction between the writing they do for school and the writing they do in their personal lives. While the vast majority of 12- to 17-year-olds (85 percent) engage in some form of electronic writing--IM, e-mail, blog posts, text messages, etc.--most (60 percent) don't consider this actual writing. That's one of the findings from a study released last week by the Pew Internet & American Life Project and the National Commission on Writing for America’s Families, Schools and Colleges.
(4/28/2008)

Colorado Adopts Tuition Reimbursement for Professional Development

To provide more professional development opportunities for teachers and paraprofessionals, and to assist them in achieving highly qualified status, the Colorado Department of Education, Office of Standards and Support, has teamed up with PBS TeacherLine to offer online courses to educators in the state.
(4/24/2008)

21st Century Teaching and Learning, Part 1

Cognitive psychologists have told us for some time that people process information differently and that meditative and transmittive technologies have affected thinking and perception, which in turn has affected learning. Therefore, instructors have had to become instructional designers conscious of how technology works and what it can offer to the teaching and learning process. Current mobile technology challenges that design even further as it demands a totally different approach to instructional design and also teaching methodology. It requires a fluidity never before seen and new skills from both teacher and student. In fact, I would argue that while we focus on the skills needed for students in the 21st century, we must discuss more and learn more about the skills required of teachers in the 21st century.
(4/24/2008)

NASA Gets Serious about Educational Gaming

NASA this week moved a step closer to branching into educational gaming. The agency presented its vision of a science education-focused massively multiplayer online game to more than 200 potential software development partners in a workshop Monday sponsored by NASA Learning Technologies, an educational technology incubator project.
(4/22/2008)

Lit Program Brings Differentiated Instruction to 6-12 Reading

Glencoe/McGraw-Hill has debuted a new literature series that incorporates online learning modules, DVD-based professional development, and targeted differentiated instruction for grades 6 to 12.
(4/21/2008)

Alternative High School Program Expands in Georgia

A technology-assisted program for helping student attain high school diplomas is expanding in Georgia. Educational Services of America said that nine new districts are signing up for its Ombudsman Educational Services, bringing the total in Georgia to 17 districts.
(4/21/2008)

PBS Debuts Earth Day Lesson Plan, SAT Test Prep, Preschool Content

In recognition of Earth Day (April 22), PBS has debuted a new global warming-themed lesson plan for grades 9 through 12. PBS has also launched resources for SAT preparation through its NOW Classroom program.
(4/18/2008)

LeapFrog Intros Handheld Early Literacy Device

LeapFrog School this week introduced a handheld device aimed at developing preK-3 reading skills, the Tag School Reader, part of the newly launched Tag School Reading System. It's expected to ship in June, with a software upgrade slated for an early 2009 release that will add Web-based student progress tracking and reporting.
(4/18/2008)

MN Schools Adopt WriteToLearn for State Assessments

Students at two Minnesota high schools are using Pearson's WriteToLearn to develop writing and reading comprehension skills.
(4/17/2008)

Robots Rock at California High School

When Carnegie-Mellon took the $2 million DARPA prize in November for the Defense Department's Urban Challenge, in which vehicles maneuvered along 60 miles of road without a human driver behind the wheel, the school 's Tartan Racing team was showing off the value of robotics. That's the same lesson being taught in a Monte Vista, CA ROP high school class.
(4/17/2008)

OHP Adopts Angel LMS

The Ohio Hi-Point (OHP) Career Center has adopted the Angel Learning Management Suite (LMS) to add online capabilities to its career-technical and academic high school programs, and to offer adult and continuing education programs online.
(4/16/2008)

Whitley County Deploys $95,000 Math Program

The Whitley County School System in southeast Kentucky is adopting Carnegie Learning's Bridge to Algebra and Geometry programs to help improve math scores and graduation rates for its students. The $95,000 investment in software, textbooks, and professional development services was made with federal Title I funds.
(4/16/2008)

Crossroads in Education: Issues for Web 2.0, Social Software, and Digital Tools

We are at a crossroads in educating our youth. Advancements in technology, principally Web 2.0, social software, and digital tools, have challenged what it means to be educated and how we proceed to educate our youth in a culture where innovation and creativity, lifelong learning, personalization, and knowledge from and with the collective vie for a rightful place.
(4/16/2008)

Spotlight: Free Social Media Tools for Educators

While most districts are still tackling Web-based collaboration tools from pedagogical and security perspectives, a large number of teachers are already out there using these tools to supplement instruction, engage learners, and encourage their students to become producers of information, as well as consumers of it. In other words, they're experimenting. And here are some of the free tools they're using to do it.
(4/16/2008)

Elementary Students Reach Out to Neighborhood with Web Project

Fourth-graders at Pleasant Glade Elementary School in Washington will be developing a Web site for their neighborhood using a $10,000 grant from the Qwest Foundation, which was awarded to teachers Tamara Campbell, Ann Chenhall, and Nora Strauch this week.
(4/15/2008)

Qwest Awards Technology Grants to 4 Schools

The Qwest Foundation this week has awarded grants to teachers in three schools through its Teachers and Technology program. The program is designed to fund technologies geared specifically toward improving student achievement, including interactive classroom technologies, online tools, and gear to support scientific work, in preK-12 schools.
(4/14/2008)

WebSphere Portal 6.1 To Couple Web 2.0, Enterprise Technologies

IBM revealed Wednesday that it will ship WebSphere Portal 6.1 this quarter (i.e. by the end of June) with new collaboration, administrative, deployment, and Web 2.0 features based on input gathered from some 4,000 beta testers. The company also announced that it's shipping three of its accelerators for WebSphere Portal this quarter.
(4/11/2008)

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