• Senate Subcommittee Approves Critical Ed Tech Funding

  Educational technology expressed a collective sigh of relief following last Wednesday’s vote by the Senate Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee to level-fund the Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) initiative for FY2007 at $272 million. The block-grant program was reduced from $696 million in 2004 to $496 million last year, while the House appropriations bill and President Bush have proposed eliminating the program. The Senate subcommittee’s spending bill allocates $55.8 billion for total discretionary education spending in 2007—almost $2 billion less than in 2006. Other education programs highlighted in the bill include:

  • Title I: $12.713 billion
  • School Improvement Grants: $100 million
  • Reading Programs: $1.1 billion for programs that are designed to ensure all children are reading by the end of third grade, and a $35 million program to help teenagers struggling to read
  • Teacher Quality State Grants: $2.747 billion to support state and local efforts to ensure that "highly qualified" teachers are available to help all children succeed academically

  For full details on the subcommittee’s bill, visit
  http://appropriations.senate.gov/hearmarkups/LaborHPRSub07.mht

• AOL Announces Closed Captions for Online Video

  AOL is now testing closed captions for streaming news content from CNN that will enhance the online media experience for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. Captioned CNN video content will be available throughout the AOL network, including the AOL service, the free AOL.com Web portal, and the AOL Video portal. AOL, which is the first consumer Internet service to provide captioned online videos, has offered closed captioning since 2003 for select content on its KOL service for kids aged 6-12. Now, content from CNN, including videos for the day’s headlines, current events, new stories, entertainment, and more, will be manually captioned to ensure all of the audio in a video stream is completely accessible. AOL plans to provide closed captioning for additional video content over the coming months. Similar to closed captioning for television, AOL captions are displayed directly beneath the video window and correspond to the audio content. For more information on AOL’s closed captioning initiative and for direct links to closed captioned videos, please visit http://www.aol.com/video/cc.

  For the full story, visit http://press.aol.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=1016&section_id=14

• Kansas District Purchases 2,300 Palm TX Handhelds

  Olathe Unified School District in Olathe, KS, added 2,300 Palm TX handhelds and an equal number of keyboards to its high schools. The purchase nearly doubles the district’s investment in Palm handhelds. Considered one of the most technologically progressive school districts in the state, Olathe is providing 1,400 Palm TX handhelds to Olathe Northwest High School, the first school in the district to get Palm handhelds three years ago. Nine hundred more will go to Olathe East High School. The district’s goal is to bridge the digital divide and make sure all students have equal access to technology. “We have a very strong community of parents and patrons who want students to have the access to the technology they need and the skills they will need after graduation, in college, or in the workplace,” said Rita Lyon, the district’s executive director of technology. “Our board of education and administrators are dedicated to providing the best technology we can afford.”

  For the full story, visit http://www.palm.com/us/company/pr/news_feed_story.epl?reqid=882601

• Eduventures Announces K-12 Summits for Fall 2006

  Eduventures, a research and consulting firm serving the education market, has announced the schedule for its fall 2006 K-12 summit series. Due to the success of the 2005 events, there will be three summits this year:

  • Florida Technology Summit — Sept. 21-22 in Fort Lauderdale, FL
  • California Professional Development Summit — Nov. 6-7 in San Diego, CA
  • Texas Technology Summit — Nov. 28-29 in Houston, TX

  Eduventures’ summits offer senior-level administrators the opportunity to learn from a variety of experts in the industry, including peers, other academics, and innovative companies serving the K-12 market. At the same time, suppliers supporting the K-12 market gain a better understanding of the issues districts face and learn how they can help them improve. Analysts will also present recent findings from Eduventures’ research during the technology summits.

  For more information on any of the three K-12 Summits, visit http://www.eduventures.com/conferences.cfm?pubnav=conferences or contact Laura Altagen at (617) 532-6072.

• Inspiration Software, Fourier Systems Combine Visual Learning and 1-to-1 Computing

  Inspiration Software and Fourier Systems Inc. have announced a partnership that will combine the power of visual learning with 1-to-1 computing. As a result of this collaboration, Inspiration Software will develop a Windows CE version of its flagship product, Inspiration, that will ship preloaded on all Fourier Systems’ Nova5000 portable wireless computing devices beginning in the 2006-07 school year.

  For the full story, visit
  http://www.inspiration.com/companyinfo/pressreleases/index.cfm?fuseaction=view&ID=159

• Santa Monica-Malibu USD Appoints New Superintendent

  The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District in California has selected Dianne Talarico as its new superintendent. Talarico currently serves as the superintendent of the Canton City School District in Ohio, where she was the first woman superintendent and has led the district for five years. Previously, Talarico held various positions in the San Francisco Unified School District for nearly 20 years and was the associate superintendent for three years. During her time in San Francisco, she was also an adjunct professor at San Francisco State University. Talarico is credited with increasing academic achievement at every level and boosting the high school graduation rate for Canton City Schools. Additionally, her administration secured $42 million in competitive grants, oversaw a $178 million reconstruction project, and secured voter approval of a $7 million annual tax levy, while also curbing expenditures and streamlining district operations.

Pearson Digital Learning has introduced NovaNET Version 13.0, the latest edition of its online courseware system for middle school, high school, and adult learners. This latest release features a new two-semester algebra I course composed of 126 multimedia lessons that are part of a redesigned scope and sequence based on and aligned to the Prentice Hall algebra I textbook. In each module, the lessons teach mathematical concepts within the context of real-world applications to help students connect mathematical ideas and concepts to familiar situations. NovaNET v.13.0 also includes a new world history lesson, “Modern Conflicts,” to complement its full-semester world history course. This new lesson explains the causes and effects of different types of conflicts in today’s world. Both new lessons are aligned with state and national standards. The new version of NovaNET will be shipped at no additional charge to all current NovaNET subscribers. For more information, visit the company’s Web site or call (888) 977-7900.

inRESONANCE has just released a major upgrade to Keystone 4.0, its easy-to-use, full-featured student information system (SIS). The new version features built-in HTML e-mail broadcast capabilities, a teacher access module, and the ability to customize grade reporting and transcripts. Keystone manages all the data associated with SIS solutions and allows administrators to output the data into a variety of formats, including graphical schedules, class lists, grade reports, student transcripts, multiyear reports, e-mail, and more. The optional Teacher Access Module provides a built-in interface for teachers to access student and advisee information, input term end grades and comments, and take attendance from any computer on the network. Keystone 4.0 also supports mixed computing environments and is an open solution. Pricing varies.

Sign up now to receive a free subscription to T.H.E. Journal - a resource for administrative, technical, and tech-savvy educators in K-12 education: http://subscribe.101com.com/THE/magazine/NewsLrt

Copyright 2006, 1105 Media Inc. See our Privacy Policy.
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 [email protected]