January 18, 2006

  • 01/18/06
January 18, 2006
WEEKLY SECTIONS

  • Ohio Digital Classroom Selects PowerMediaPlus.com as Its Media-on-Demand Provider

    CLEARVUE & SVE (http://www.clearvue.com), along with eight Ohio public TV stations and four Ohio educational technology agencies, have partnered to bring the vast media resources of PowerMediaPlus.com (http://www.PowerMediaPlus.com) to classrooms throughout the state. The PowerMediaPlus.com media delivery solution for Ohio provides users with access to the extensive media found in the system—videos, clips, audio files, images, and print resources, all correlated to the Ohio Academic Content Standards—along with the Ohio Digital Classroom's existing video resources. The configuration utilizes a combination of Internet-delivered media and locally hosted content to best accommodate users' varied technology and bandwidth availability.

    The Ohio Digital Classroom is the statewide source for standards-based rich media content and supporting instructional, assessment, and professional development resources for K-12 schools provided through a consortium of Ohio's Public Television stations and educational technology agencies For more than 50 years, the stations and ed tech agencies have provided instructional media, original Ohio media content, instructional technology services, and professional development for educators throughout the state.

  • SMART Becomes Largest Interactive Whiteboard Provider for Mexican Project

    SMART Technologies Inc. has announced that it will provide 41,116 SMART Board interactive whiteboards for the second tender in Mexico's Enciclomedia project, making SMART the single largest provider of interactive whiteboards to the project. Of 120,761 interactive whiteboards purchased by the Mexican government over two tenders, 43,028 are SMART's. VideoNet, SMART's distributor in Mexico, will provide the necessary support and training required for this widespread installation.

    Enciclomedia is a project administered by the Mexican government's Secretariat of Public Education. Its aim is to enrich students' classroom experience through the use of technology products and digital content, as well as to boost student engagement, participation, and learning outcomes. Enciclomedia will equip more than 145,000 fifth- and sixth-grade Mexican classrooms with technology products worth $1.8 billion.

    For the full story, visit http://www2.smarttech.com/st/en-US/About+Us/Press+Room/Press+Releases/2006+Press+Releases.htm?guid={0BDDE3F5-FB30-4673-9EE1-4DE42FC7DC9E

  • SETDA Celebrates ‘Technology Impact in Education Month'

    Throughout January, the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA; http://www.setda.org) is hosting “Technology Impact in Education Month,” which is a time of sharing, discovery, and celebration of the potential, both realized and envisioned, that educational technologies bring to the teaching and learning environment helping students achieve. During this time, teachers in hundreds of schools will facilitate discussions about the impact that modern technology has on every student's daily life, and students will examine how technology permeates the way we work, learn, and play. They will even have an opportunity to assign homework to their parents that addresses the transformative nature of technology on the workforce. Those that submit their outcomes before Jan. 31, 2006, will be eligible for thousands of dollars of prizes. SETDA is also offering free lessons and activities on the event Web site, http://www.edtechimpact.com

    “Through this event, we hope to create awareness around the impact technology has on closing the achievement gap, enhancing accountability, and increasing teacher quality—not to mention providing a 21st century environment for students to learn, share, and grow,” said Melinda George, Executive Director of SETDA.

  • CDW-G, Discovery Education Announce Annual ‘Win a Wireless Lab' Sweepstakes

    CDW Government Inc. (CDW-G) and Discovery Education, have announced their fourth annual “Win a Wireless Lab” sweepstakes. Dedicated to improving the use of technology within the education community, the two companies established the sweepstakes in 2002 to provide K-12 schools within the United States with the opportunity to win technology for its classrooms. The labs will enable teachers to revolutionize the classroom environment, while students will be able to work more collaboratively and, hopefully, become captivated by the learning process. This year's sweepstakes will award two grand prize winners and more than 30 runner-up prizes of printers and software from CDW-G and multimedia resources from Discovery Education. The sweepstakes runs through May 1, 2006. Public and private school teachers, administrators, and school and district technology specialists are eligible to enter by filling out an online form at http://www.discoveryschool.com/cdwg. Winners will be selected by a random drawing from all eligible entries.

    For the full story, visit http://newsroom.cdwg.com/news-releases/news-release-01-10-06.html


IScienceProject (http://www.iscienceproject.com) has released HOBOware a new, easy-to-learn graphing software package for use with its HOBO data loggers, which are portable electronic recording device that monitor temperature, humidity, light, and other types of data. Compatible with both PC and Mac computers, HOBOware makes it fun and easy for K-12 students to convert data collected with HOBOs into colorful graphs through the software's point-and-click user interface. Each graph presents data in time-stamped format, enabling students to correlate the visual spikes and drops with specific events. Students also can export data to Microsoft Excel, and print out graphs to present findings to teachers and parents. Pricing varies for HOBOware, while iScienceProject offers free loans of HOBO data loggers to US K-12 teachers.


Now Software (http://www.nowsoftware.com) has introduced Now Up-to-Date and Contact 5.1 for Macintosh, which provides a wide selection of enhancements and improvements, including upgraded Web publishing and networking, shared keywords across categories, and improved reliability. The new version includes support for multiple network interfaces in the Now Server Manager, updated Web publishing, enhanced calendar display and keyboard shortcuts throughout the product, as well as many performance updates and fixes. Pricing: $129.95 for the boxed version or $119.95 for the online download version; upgrades are available to licensed users of version 4.x for $49.95; and volume licensing is also available for education, business, organizations with multiple users, and government customers.

 



http://www.microsoft.com/learningessentials
Microsoft's Education Products Group has just launched a new Web site to support its Learning Essentials for Microsoft Office, a free educational resource for teachers and students. Learning Essentials was created to help students and teachers easily complete high-quality work with a task-based interface and education-specific tools for Office applications. It provides academic guidance for students and best practices for teachers from leading educational publishers. The site includes everything from Word, Excel, and PowerPoint templates; tutorials; and a new content development kit, which lets publishers and educators create their own content for Learning Essentials in order to further personalize the tools students receive.


http://www.quiz-tree.com/Sight-Words_main.html
Sierra Vista Software has added a series of free Sight Words exercises to its Quiz-Tree.com Web site. The new animated online exercises have been designed to help children master sight words, which are some of the most frequently used words in the English language (comprising about 50-70 percent of general, non-technical reading material). The exercises have been divided into several groups according to target grades: Pre-Primer, Primer, First Grade, Second Grade, and Third Grade. When an exercise starts, the student will hear one of the sight words. The student's task is then to assemble, by using a mouse, the word from the letters provided. After the student provides the correct answer, the game will move to the next word.


For a complete listing of up-to-date conference information, visit T.H.E. Conference Calendar, T.H.E. Journal 's comprehensive conference database, at: http://www.theconferencecalendar.com

Call for Papers!!!

THE Journal is currently looking for the following types of articles as we prepare for our 2006 issues:

  • School Perspectives —discuss a specific topic, trend, or concern about education technology.

  • Wishlist/Shortlist —a simple list of the technology (e.g., wireless, laptops, etc.) you're looking at to solve a challenge in your school/district, and an accompanying “shortlist” of vendors you're looking at to solve those challenges.

If you have a good story that is related to any of the above topics, please e-mail an abstract to [email protected]

T.H.E. Offers Educators Individual netTrekker Subscriptions
T.H.E. Journal has announced an exclusive partnership with Thinkronize, developers of netTrekker, the trusted search engine for schools, which allows educators worldwide to purchase individual (single-user) subscriptions to netTrekker, which previously was available only on a site license basis to schools and districts. With this initiative, T.H.E. and Thinkronize have combined to better serve their customer's needs by personalizing the way educators use the Internet. Educators can purchase individual subscriptions for netTrekker through the T.H.E. Journal's Web site at http://www.thejournal.com/netTrekker. The suggested list price for a one-year subscription is $49.95.

THE Institute and AOL @ SCHOOL Offer New Online Course for Educators  
“Internet Literacy – Making the Most of the Web,” is a new online course for educators interested in using the World Wide Web in teaching and learning. Designed for elementary and secondary school teachers, the course provides tools for educators to integrate technology into their curricula to improve student achievement and meet NCLB requirements. The cost is $79 per person; course moderation and graduate credit are additional options. “Internet Literacy – Making the Most of the Web,' is designed to be useful both for educators new to using technology in teaching and learning and for tech-savvy veterans.
For complete course details and to register, go to http://www.thejournal.com/institute/course510.cfm.

Four Integrating Technology Courses from T.H.E. Institute
 T.H.E. Institute is offering four online professional development courses to help educators comply with NCLB requirements and use technology more successfully in the classroom. The cost is $149 per course, which includes a $10 per person per course administration fee for documentation of clock hours and a certificate of completion. Course moderation and graduate credit are additional options; volume discounts are available. Anyone who enrolls in a course will receive individual access to the netTrekker site, as well as free individual access to United Learning's unitedstreaming site. In addition, special pricing is available for educators in districts that have purchased Glencoe/McGraw-Hill's TechCONNECT.

Integrating Technology in the Classroom Courses: Social Studies — Available Now; Science — Available Now; English/Language Arts— Available Now; Mathematics — Available Now

For more information, log on to http://www.thejournal.com/institute/IntegratingTech.cfm.

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THE Newsletter is a bulletin comprised of recent announcements that affect the education community. Our goal is to keep our readers well informed with the most up to date news. In addition, we hope our audience will share with us their opinions regarding educational technology issues so we may be certain we are covering the topics that are of most interest to them. Please direct any questions or comments about THE Newsletter to [email protected]

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Copyright 2006 101communications LLC., 9121 Oakdale Ave., Suite 101, Chatsworth, CA 91311. THE Newsletter may only be redistributed in its unedited form. Written permission from the editor must be obtained to reprint the information contained within this newsletter. Contact Wendy LaDuke at [email protected]

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