Technology + Online + Industry + Partnerships
FETC 2009 Goes Green
The annual ed tech conference will be led off by Philippe Cousteau,
a leading conservationist worthy of his notable pedigree.
FROM JAN. 21-24, THE ORANGE County
Convention Center in Orlando, FL, will welcome
school IT staff, teachers, administrators, ed tech
leaders, and more for the 2009 Florida Educational
Technology Conference (FETC; www.fetc.org).
The annual event, one of the largest of its kind,
exposes educators to the latest products and
techniques for integrating technology across
curricula, from kindergarten to college.
Officially kicking off FETC this year will be
an opening session sponsored
by Discovery Education and featuring keynote speaker
Philippe Cousteau, the grandson
of legendary explorer, oceanographer,
filmmaker, ecologist,
photographer, author, and researcher
Jacques Cousteau.
Philippe Cousteau was recently
named chief ocean correspondent
for cable television channel Animal
Planet,
where he is creating a series of ocean
documentary programs. He is also
president of EarthEcho International, a nonprofit
environmental education and conservation
organization that aims to
empower people with stories, experiences,
and resources that will lead
them to take action to protect the
oceans and improve the world. At
FETC, Cousteau will join local,
state, and national dignitaries who
will share with participants their
knowledge, experience, and vision
for technology in education.
The premiere session will be followed by the
opening of the exhibit hall, where more than 500
vendors will display the latest in education technology
resources. On the floor of the hall,
conference attendees can experience 21st-century
classroom tools firsthand, and learn about technologies
that are just starting to hit the market.
BROWSING FOR ED TECH
The FETC exhibit hall offers the
newest products.
FETC 2009 will feature more than 200 concurrent
sessions that will focus on topics such
as emerging technologies, security, social
networking, collaboration, and green computing.
Conference attendees may also choose from
more than 70 ticketed professional development
workshops to gain deeper knowledge of specific
ed tech issues. New to this year's conference is
the Florida Diagnostic and Learning Resources
System's Hands-On
Technology Lab, where attendees can stop in
during conference hours to explore the latest in
assistive and instructional technology.
Registration is available via the FETC
website, fax, or mail. For questions about
registration, call 877-303-0718 or e-mail.
NEW PD PROGRAM TARGETS 21ST-CENTURY SKILLS
THE PARTNERSHIP FOR 21st Century
Skills has launched the P21
Professional Development Affiliate
program in an effort to establish a
network of affiliates to help build
and implement K-12 professional
development programs that foster
21st-century skills.
Any national, state, and regional
organizations that provide professional
development to educators
may participate in the program
and become part of the national
community of affiliates. The
inaugural participants included
nearly 30 people from 11 organizations
and companies such as
the National Education Association, Pearson, and Metiri
Group.
Upon completion of the program,
affiliates will be armed
with resources to align professional
development programs
with the Partnership's Framework
for 21st-Century Learning, which
identifies the skills students
must master to be successful
in work and life. Part of the
framework includes information,
media, and technology skills.
Affiliates must commit to infusing
these skills into K-12 instructional
practices and sharing that work
with colleagues.
P21 plans to offer the program
three more times during the
upcoming calendar year, with a
goal of training 100 new affiliates.
Visit the Partnership for 21st
Century Skills website for more
information.
SETDA Urging Action
to Improve Education
As part of a project it is calling Class of 2020: Action
Plan for Education, a culmination of white papers and
policy recommendations, the State Educational
Technology Directors Association (SETDA) has laid out 10 steps the incoming
Obama administration should take to improve US
education and support K-12 students.
Some of the steps directly address technology
integration, such as "ensure that technology tools and
resources are used continuously and seamlessly for
instruction, collaboration, and assessment," and "increase
available funding for E-Rate so that school districts and
schools can acquire telecommunication services, internet
access, internal connections, and maintenance of those
connections." Others are not technology-related, but are
crucial to the success of K-12 schools, such as "make
ongoing, sustainable professional development available
to all teachers," and "incorporate innovative, consistent,
and timely assessments into daily instruction."
The Class of 2020 action plan includes a five-point
Student Bill of Rights, an attempt to keep efforts
trained on what students need from a 21st-century
education system. For example, Point 4: "Each student
deserves an individualized learning experience addressing
his/her abilities, strengths, and weaknesses."
Prior white papers released by SETDA during the
last six months have focused on broadband access;
science, technology, engineering, and math instruction;
assessments; virtual learning; and professional
development. Each of these papers contains specific
recommendations, as well as research-based examples
of best practices. To view the white papers, the Class
of 2020 project, and more, visit the SETDA website.
:: Awards and Contests
CONTEST CALLS ON STUDENTS TO
REACH OBAMA. School e-mail and
networking provider ePals has launched the Your Presidential
Minute contest on Election Central,
the company's web resource focused
on the recent presidential election.
Interested K-12 students must submit
a one-minute audio recording, a
200-word written submission, or a 10-
slide Microsoft PowerPoint presentation expressing
to President-elect Barack Obama their
views on issues important to them. Students
are encouraged to think globally
and be creative. Judges at ePals will
compile the best submissions online
and share them with the new president,
his transition team, and members of the
ePals Global Community.
Entries must be submitted by Jan. 10
and winners will be posted on Jan. 20.
For more information, visit here.
CERTIPORT TO NAME MICROSOFT
OFFICE WORLD CHAMPIONS. For the
seventh year, skills certification company
Certiport is holding
its Worldwide Competition on Microsoft
Office to honor students with superior
Word and Excel skills. To enter the
contest, students age 13 and older from
around the world must take an eligible
Microsoft Office certification exam at
their local Certiport testing center.
Country and region finalists will be
chosen based on their test scores to
compete for the right to be called Word
or Excel world champion, as well as
prizes worth $6,500 at Certiport's
Pathways Conference in Toronto next
summer. For more details, visit
here.
:: Industry News
ATOMIC LEARNING OFFERS TECH
SKILLS ASSESSMENT. Now teachers
can gauge students' technology skills
through the Atomic Learning Tech Skills Assessment,
available through a subscription to
the company's Technology Skills
Collection of online learning resources.
Correlated to the International Society
for Technology in Education's 2007 National Educational
Technology Standards for Students,
the online tool helps educators quickly
identify specific technology competency
gaps. In addition, it provides curriculum
projects to target those gaps and a robust
tracking tool with a wide range of
reporting features.
FLOCABULARY LAUNCHES THE WEEK
IN RAP. Flocabulary, a new provider of music-based
educational resources, recently debuted
another tool meant to engage students
in learning and foster academic success.
The Week in Rap is a website that contains twominute
teen-friendly music videos
summarizing the major news stories of
the week. Two new videos are posted to
the site every Friday, and anyone can
view them for free. Posts also include
lyrics to the songs with key words highlighted,
a space for viewer comments,
and links to relevant news stories.
GLOGSTER RELEASES EDUCATION
PROGRAM. Glogster, a Web 2.0 platform popular with
both teachers and students that allows
users to express themselves through
graphics, text, photos, music, and
video, has launched an education program.
The company hopes to build an
evolving, dynamic partnership with
educators as it collaborates with them
on the development of the ideal
resource for schools, which includes
the building of private and secure
student accounts.