THE Journal — Policy/Research
Can Game Development Impact Academic Achievement?
Electronic gaming has recently been hailed as the great new potential for transforming education. A growing body of research and practice suggests videogames can motivate as well as teach and help users learn. Fewer scientific studies, but just as much potential, exist within the area of student game development. In part 1 of this two-part article series, we look at the foundational reasons for why game development matters in the K-12 curriculum, both inside and outside of school.
(10/25/2007)
Study: Students Want To Learn Online
Online learning appears to be playing a more and more vital role in the lives of students. In a study released last week by Project Tomorrow and Blackboard, a large percentage of middle and high school students expressed an interest in taking courses online that aren't offered at their schools.
(10/25/2007)
Senate NCLB Discussion Draft Revealed
The United States Senate has released a discussion draft for the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act. As with the House version introduced last month, the Senate's draft includes language from the ATTAIN Act, emphasizing funding for education technology, professional development, and various systemic reform initiatives.
(10/18/2007)
Speak Up 2007: Call for Participation Extends to Administrators
Project Tomorrow's annual Speak Up survey opened Oct. 15 with an expanded call for participation, inviting school and district administrators to share their views on technology and science education and how they can be leveraged to "provide students with the skills and knowledge they need to thrive in the digital economy." The 2007 survey is also open, as usual, to K-12 students, parents, and teachers.
(10/16/2007)
Calif. Law Brings Remediation to Exit Exams (Updated)
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law Oct. 12 Assembly Bill 347, amending existing portions of the state's Education Code covering high school exit examinations. The new law addresses, among other things, the issue of remediation for students who are unable to pass the English and/or math portions of the exams. There are presently some 65,000 students in California from the classes of 2006 and 2007 who have met all other requirements for graduation but have not yet passed the exit exam, according to law firm Morrison & Foerster, which challenged the exit exam requirement in court last year.
(10/15/2007)
Test Prep and Math Realities
As another school year is getting well under way, educators are faced with starting the process all over again for preparing students for standardized testing. It's not something that can be put off until the last moment. Failure to pass "the test" sometimes prevents high school students from receiving their graduation diplomas. Elementary students might be retained in a grade. There is the usual dilemma of teaching to the test versus incorporating activities that help students develop 21st century skills valued in the real world.
(10/1/2007)
TRLD Conference Tackles 21st Century Skills
A new forum has been added to the upcoming Technology Reading & Learning Diversity (TRLD) Conference. Focusing on 21st century skills, the special Administrator Forum will also cover the use of technology to support instruction.
(8/29/2007)
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)
Senate Considers ATTAIN Bill
The United States Senate late last week introduced S. 1996, its version of ATTAIN (Achievement Through Technology and Innovation), a bill to reauthorize the Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) Act of 2001. ATTAIN was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives back in May.
(8/10/2007)
Coalition Updates 21st Century Learning Framework
A coalition of business and education groups called the Partnership for 21st Century Skills has updated its Framework for 21st Century Learning, a roadmap for education centered around technology and skills-focused learning.
(8/6/2007)
Survey: Public Narrowly Supports NCLB Reauthorization
According to a new survey released this week, a not-so-overwhelming majority of Americans favor reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act with little or no modification. The study, "What Americans Think about Their Schools: The 2007 Education Next-PEPG Survey," conducted by the Hoover Institution’s Education Next organization and Harvard's Program on Education Policy and Governance, found that 57 percent favored the reauthorization.
(7/31/2007)
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)
SRI Tackles Special Ed for WWC
Research firm SRI International said it's working on a project to "synthesize research and provide practice guidelines to inform and improve special education reform efforts for the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC)...." WWC is a project overseen by the United States Department of Education. RI is a subcontractor on the project, working with Mathematica Policy Research, which is presently operating under a $50.3 million contract with DOE to expand WWC.
(7/23/2007)
Can IT Turn Around Teacher Turnover?
Teacher turnover (also known to some as "teachers quitting their jobs") is becoming a critical concern for school and district administrators. Not only can it have a negative impact on student learning, especially in troubled districts, but it's emerging as a fairly major financial drain on districts in all regions, according to findings released last month by the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future (NCTAF). So is there anything school and district technology leaders can do about it? According to the NCTAF report, there is.
(7/5/2007)
SETDA Elects Board, Launches 2007 Toolkit
The State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) has announced the results of its board elections. The Arlington, VA-based organization has also released its 2007 Toolkit focusing on media literacy.
(7/3/2007)
House Subcommittee Flat Funds EETT
Things are looking up for education technology funding in the United Sates House of Representatives. The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (LHHS) has approved an appropriations bill that would provide $272.25 million for Enhancing Education Through Technology (E2T2 or EETT), which had previously been recommended for zero-funding in the Bush administration's proposed 2008 budget.
(6/8/2007)
New Mexico Partners with MS for K-12 Education
The state of New Mexico is entering into a partnership with Microsoft Corp. through the company's "U.S. Partners in Learning" program. The idea is to bolster STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education programs by providing funding for classroom technologies and integrating curricula with opportunities to enhance the economic situation in the rural communities that will participate in the programs.
(6/7/2007)
ATTAIN: The Means for a Mandate
Have you ever wondered what the "THE" in THE Journal means? Occasionally? Even fleetingly? No? Well, I'll tell you anyway. It stands for "Technological Horizons in Education." Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, does it? Hence the acronym. But that aside, what it indicates is that we take as our premise that technology is inherently beneficial to education--that it can make the lives of educators easier, that it can facilitate learning, and that it can, when approached the right way, stimulate new ideas about learning and the teaching process. (And, as a side benefit, it happens to keep all of you IT folk off the streets.)
(6/5/2007)
Ed Tech Groups Support ATTAIN Bill
The introduction this week of the Achievement Through Technology and Innovation (ATTAIN) bill in the United States House of Representatives was met with enthusiasm by groups that support education technology. The bill seeks to revamp Part D of title II of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to enhance professional development for teachers, improve technical proficiency in students, and otherwise support technology in various ways to advance student achievement.
(5/24/2007)
Does Technology Matter in Schools? ED Wants Your Opinion
As part of an ongoing effort to assess the role of technology in education, the United States Department of Education (ED) has started seeking comments from those who work closely with it. Last week ED sent out a request for opinions from the public, looking to "hear your ideas on the integration of technology in education." We at THE Journal see this as a fantastic opportunity for educators and administrators to bolster federal support for ed tech and encourage all of our readers to participate.
(5/14/2007)
School IT Departments Evaluate Vista
At colleges, universities, and K-12 institutions, IT decision makers are increasingly showing concern over performance, patching, and hardware requirements of Microsoft Windows Vista. At the same time, the number of organizations using or evaluating Vista has increased to 29 percent, up 8 percent since October 2006. This according to a new survey conducted by Walker Information and released this week by CDW Corp.
(5/9/2007)
Long Odds, Short Fuses
Following last month's unprecedented massacre at Virginia Tech, security has, once again, temporarily moved to the top of the policy agenda in schools. As educators, parents, school staff, and concerned human beings in general, we all want to provide the absolute safest environment possible for the children in our care. Incidents of violence on college and school campuses remind us of our vulnerabilities. Couple this feeling of vulnerability with major media coverage, and we wind up with pressures both internal and external pushing administrators into immediate action.
(5/8/2007)
Data Security in K-12 School Districts
Key words in data security are confidentiality, integrity, and availability. While K-12 school districts can address data security by putting systems and policies into place, I suspect that one additional issue is often overlooked. That is, data security is a people issue. Network administrators can't do it all. It takes knowledgeable and vigilant staff and students to support the process. One might categorize security at macro and micro levels.
(4/2/2007)
Moderating and Ethics for the Classroom Instructional Blog
If I still taught in K-12, would I use a blog? It's one of those new technology tools that some of us digital immigrants might struggle to appreciate. Knowing what I do now, I probably would at least try one because blogs can support the collaborative element so important for peer to peer learning. While some blogs serve personal agendas, in education they can be used for student journals and portfolios, communication with parents and community members, faculty coaching, classroom management (e.g., posting assignments), and other knowledge management tools (Long, 2002) and enhancing classroom discussion.
(2/26/2007)
NCLB Commission Releases Recommendations
The Commission on No Child Left Behind held a press conference Feb. 13 in Washington, DC to release its final report on the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). There were 75 recommendations in total in the report, titled Beyond NCLB: Fulfilling the Promise to Our Nation's Children.
(2/13/2007)
