T.H.E. SmartClassroom :: September 18, 2008

STEM EDUCATION

Solar Power Fuels Science at Ruben Salazar Bilingual Education Center

Gerard Kovach had a simple goal: to teach his bilingual students the concepts of solar energy. The major obstacle: a lack of funds at his school for teaching materials.

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Ed Tech News

Becta Gains Ground in Interoperability for Education

The British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (Becta) appears to be heading toward a reconciliation with Microsoft. The agency, with its outspoken stance on interoperability in education, said it's been making "substantial progress" in its discussions with the company that it once chastised, progress that includes concessions on education licensing programs.

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NURFC Tackles Slavery Education Through K-12 Digital Media Program

The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, an organization focused on historical and contemporary slavery issues, is expanding its reach through a new agreement to distribute educational videos electronically to K-12 schools. Through the Safari Montage video on demand platform, NURFC will make its standards-aligned educational content--digital media and supporting materials--available to students and teachers across the country.

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Echo360 Unveils Web-based Editor for Digital Lectures

Echo360 has announced enhancements to its lecture capture platform, EchoSystem. Foremost is a Web-based editor that gives instructors the option to tailor their recorded lectures.

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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.

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Mead Moves Into Interactive Whiteboards

School supply company Mead is taking the plunge into education technology with the launch of a new interactive whiteboard. Dubbed, appropriately enough, the Mead Interactive Whiteboard, the new model incorporates a 77-inch interactive projection screen, multimedia pen, mounting hardware, and software suite targeted toward education.

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VMware Fusion 2 Expands Hardware Support, Improves Networking

VMware has released VMware Fusion 2.0, a major update to the desktop virtualization solution for Mac OS X that has been in public beta since back in July. The new version, a free upgrade for users of VMware Fusion 1.x, focuses on expanded support for Mac hardware configurations, including additional graphics capabilities, as well as networking, security, storage, and application sharing improvements.

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Mobile County Public Schools Looks To Boost AYP with Notification System

The Mobile County Public School System is getting ready to implement a district-wide parent notification system that will help reach the families of more than 63,000 students at 98 schools throughout the county. The district plans to use the system, SchoolMessenger, to increase annual yearly progress (AYP) funding, streamline emergency contact, and enhance general home-school communication.

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Events Calendar

Find more events and calls for papers and presentations at THE Journal's online Conference Calendar.

THE Journal Opportunities

Share Your Best Practices

T.H.E. Journal is currently looking for the following types of articles for future issues and for our eNewsletter, T.H.E. SmartClassroom:

  • School Perspectives -- discuss a specific topic, trend, or concern about education technology.
  • Case Studies -- have you implemented technology and learned a lot from the experience? If so, share your efforts about what worked -- and what didn't.

If you have a potential article, or questions about the above topics, please e-mail [email protected]

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EduHound.com

  • EduHound Directory is a highly specialized K-12 educational directory with categorized resource links.
  • EduHound Lesson Plans feature thousands of free lessons that meet state and national standards.
  • EduHound Site Sets are collections of topic-based online education resources.
  • Classroom Tools & Tips: Eduhound's highly popular newsletter that provides valuable ed tech resources to incorporate into K-12 curriculum. Educational topics, preformatted templates, technology tutorials, and practical tips are featured. Published on the 1st & 3rd Thursdays of each month. Sign up for free by clicking here.

Awesome Clipart for Educators
Awesome Clipart for Educators offers educators FREE clipart, backgrounds, fonts, icons, worksheets, wallpaper and more. See how easy searching for clipart can be!

EducatorTemplates.com
Your FREE directory of customizable & printable education related templates.

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