THE Journal — Funding
Qwest Opens Grants for Wyoming Teachers
The Qwest Foundation this week launched its 2009 Qwest Teachers and Technology grant program. It will provide grants up to $12,000 for three individual K-12 teachers who use technology in their classrooms.
(9/30/2008)
DTE Energy Kicks Off Science Mini Grants for K-12 Educators
DTE Energy recently kicked off its 2009 Energy & Our World Mini Grants for Educators program. The program offers small grants, typically up to $250, to help individual K-12 educators fund science programs that they otherwise couldn't afford.
(9/29/2008)
Education Technology Spending To Top $56 Billion by 2012
In the United States, IT spending in education will reach $47.7 billion by the end of this year and is expected to top $56 billion by 2012, according to a new report from Compass Intelligence, an IT consultancy and market research firm. This growth in education--both K-12 and higher ed--is being fueled in particular by expenditures in telecommunications, collaborative technologies, and outsourced IT services.
(9/18/2008)
CafeMom Launches $10 Million Schools Initiative
CafeMom, an online community site for moms, is enlisting parents in an initiative to donate up to $10 million dollars to support schools nationwide and, presumably, increase its own Web traffic.
(9/17/2008)
Pulitzer Center and YouTube Kick Off Video Competition
In partnership with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, YouTube has launched Project: Report. The program, funded by Sony and Intel, encourages aspiring journalists to produce short, high-quality video pieces focused on stories that are not usually covered by the traditional media.
(9/17/2008)
NSF Grants Aim To Increase K-12 Science and Math Teachers
The National Science Foundation this week awarded nine grants aimed at expanding the number of undergraduates pursuing teaching careers in science and math. This week's grants, administered through the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program, range from $500,000 to $750,000. Thirty such grants have been awarded this year so far. Sixteen were awarded in 2007.
(9/16/2008)
Alerts.com Announces Free Messaging and Emergency Notification System for Schools
During the company's presentation at DEMOfall 08, Alerts.com announced the launch of its free school alert notification and messaging system, MySchoolAlerts.
(9/15/2008)
Teachers Challenged To Show Off Classroom Technology
eInstruction kicked off its second-annual Classroom Makeover Contest Sept. 15. The K-12 competition calls on educators to create short music videos demonstrating how they use (or would use) classroom technologies to enhance instruction. Winners will each receive $25,000 in hardware, software, and support.
(9/15/2008)
2009 ExploraVision Science Competition Kicks Off
Toshiba and the National Science Teachers Association have launched the 2009 ExploraVision Awards Program. The annual student science competition, now in its 17th year, is open to K-12 students in the United States and Canada, offering prizes of up to $10,000 in savings bonds for the winners.
(9/12/2008)
2008 Vernier/NSTA Technology Award Deadline Extended
The deadline for the 2008 Vernier Software & Technology/NSTA Technology Award has been extended to Nov. 30. Sponsored by Vernier Software & Technology and the National Science Teachers Association, the program awards cash, technology, and travel funds for science teachers who demonstrate innovation in inquiry-based learning activities involving data collection.
(9/11/2008)
Schools Receive $4 Million in 'Innovation Generation' Grants
The Motorola Foundation this week awarded $4 million to 92 K-12 schools and education organizations in its 2008 Innovation Generation grant program. The funding is aimed at supporting STEM-oriented education programs for K-12 students, including after-school programs, science and math clubs, and other initiatives.
(9/11/2008)
DOE Funds Video Game Research for Middle School Science
The United States Department of Education has awarded $9.2 million to the Education Development Center, a non-profit education research organization, to study how video games can be used in middle school science instruction in the classroom. For the program, EDC will serve as a "National R&D Center on Instructional Technology," developing software and curricula focused on educational video games.
(9/10/2008)
WildFireWeb Offers Free Web Sites to Every K-12 School
WildFireWeb is offering WebSchoolPro Web sites to all public and private K-12 schools in the United States for free. The offering comes after successfully piloting the platform in 15 California districts from 2006 to 2008.
(9/3/2008)
New Mexico District Deploys High-Speed Network
Gallup-McKinley County Schools in New Mexico has signed a five-year, $7.4 million contract with Qwest Communications to roll out high-speed services throughout several locations within the rural district.
(9/3/2008)
ColdFusion 8 Now Free for Students, Teachers
Adobe has made its ColdFusion 8 Web development platform free for educators and students. The offer is available for all public and private accredited K-12 schools and colleges and universities.
(9/3/2008)
Oracle Kicks Off 'ThinkQuest Website Competition 2009'
The Oracle Education Foundation has launched the "ThinkQuest Website Competition 2009," a program that calls on teams of students and teachers to develop educational Web sites while demonstrating 21st century skills.
(8/28/2008)
FCC Seeks Comments on E-rate Changes
For schools that rely on E-rate funding for telecommunications and Internet access, changes are afoot that could impact planning as soon as funding year 2009. The Federal Communications Commission is seeking comments on potential changes to the E-rate Eligible Services List that in some cases would narrow the list of eligible technologies and in some cases expand it. The notice was filed in the Federal Register Aug. 18, so comments are due in less than a month.
(8/22/2008)
Michigan Nabs $60k Thinkfinity Grant
The Verizon Foundation has awarded a $60,000 grant to the Michigan Department of Education aimed at training teachers throughout the state to use Thinkfinity.org, a Web-based program that provides access to about 55,000 educational resources, including lesson plans and interactive tools and materials for K-12 students.
(8/21/2008)
PBwiki Offers $25 Million in Web 2.0 Tools for Educators
Collaborative technology developer PBwiki has launched two new grant programs for education offering free upgrades to the company's hosted wiki service and other awards.
(8/20/2008)
AlertNow Discounts Communications Service for Nebraska Schools
AlertNow has announced that it will be offering its service to all Nebraska Educational Service Unit (ESU) members at a 10 percent discount. The deal, said to be in recognition of an alliance formed July 30 between the company and Nebraska ESU Cooperative Purchasing, will apply to all purchases made prior to July 31, 2009.
(8/18/2008)
2009 Teach Award K-12 Grants Open
Nominations for the 2009 Best Buy Teach Awards are now open. The program will award $2 million in K-12 grants this year for the use of technology in ways that engage students in the classroom and help keep those students in school.
(8/14/2008)
Groups Refurbish Hundreds of Computers for Underprivileged Schools
This month at the 2008 LinuxWorld Conference & Expo, two groups--Untangle and the Alameda County Computer Resource Center--pulled together volunteers to refurbish computers that will be given to underprivileged schools. The effort--the second such green/open source event, dubbed "Installfest for Schools"--resulted in hundreds of refurbished units loaded up with free and open source software.
(8/14/2008)
2008 TAF K-6 Math and Science Grant Deadline Approaching
The deadline for this year's Toshiba America Foundation's Science and Math Improvement Grant for K-6 is looming. Educators have until Oct. 1 to apply for the grants, which award up to $1,000 to fund science or math projects. The Toshiba America Foundation (TAF) is urging educators to apply, saying the program "is very easy to access for science and math teachers."
(8/7/2008)
CourseCast 2.0 Adds Podcasting, Streaming Media Features to Free Lecture Capture System
Panopto has released CourseCast 2.0, an update to the company's classroom capture system that's available free to academic users. CourseCast 2.0 had previously been available as part of Panopto's beta program for educators since June.
(8/6/2008)
Pennsylvania Expands 'Classrooms for the Future' to 543 High Schools
Pennsylvania is expanding its Classrooms for the Future program to 182 more high schools in 152 school districts for the 2008-2009 school year, bringing the total number of high schools in the program to 543 and the total number of participating districts to 453.
(8/5/2008)
