K-12 Tech Trends :: October 25, 2006
Opinion
Showing Support for Teacher Websites
By Patricia Deubel
I get concerned when I visit a classroom teacher website that has bumblebees flying across the screen, leaves falling, scrolling ribbons of text waving about, and annoying music clips that play endlessly. I generally leave the site immediately. I also wonder about the lack of connection of pages to a specific school or district. Where’s the support for teachers in running classroom websites? Is it worth the effort to develop a site?
It’s necessary in this era of accountability for teachers to have a classroom site, and to post their pages among those of the school or district site. The name of the school or district and its logo should appear on all pages to provide evidence of an official connection and a unifying element among all teachers’ sites at the school. Unfortunately, I don’t always see this.
Sadly, when district sites, for whatever reason, do not include classroom teacher web pages, teachers often resort to other service providers—sometimes having to use their own funds to pay. I’m not endorsing a particular service, but I applaud sites such as Inspiring Teachers for offering free web pages for teachers. A membership includes 20MB of space, a free e-mail account, site-builder assistance, file management, and tools to promote the site. Teachers can also post their pages and get support services at Teacher Web, although there is a small annual fee.
Teachers must remember to create their pages with a purpose and audience in mind. They also need support for content, design, and maintenance. One easy solution is to employ the help of tech-savvy students, who can be of great assistance when it comes to site maintenance...
Read Complete Article | Back to top
News Briefs
Global Research Project to Measure the Value of Technologies in Schools
A joint international research project involving the US, the UK, and Australia was launched last week to coincide with the IT Global Summit 2006...
Read more | Back to top
DynTek Acquires TekConnect
DynTek Inc., a provider of professional technology services, has completed the acquisition of the operating assets of TekConnect Corp., a technology integration and consulting firm with a focus on the K-12 education market...
Read more | Back to top
Dimension Announces Availability of 3D Printing Curriculum for Educators
The Dimension 3D Printing Group has announced the availability of a specially designed 3D printing curriculum aimed at giving educators...
Read more | Back to top
School District, City in Massachusetts Develop Model Security Program
As governors and school superintendents nationwide commemorate America’s Safe Schools Week...
Read more | Back to top
By the Numbers
US eLearning Market Tops $10 Billion
The current market for self-paced eLearning products and services in the US across all the buying segments topped $10 billion in 2006, according to a new research report. The report was written by veteran eLearning analyst Sam Adkins, chief research officer at Ambient Insight. The report, called “The US Market for Self-paced eLearning Products and Services: 2006-2011 Forecast and Analysis” is unique in that it covers all buyers, not just corporations. The report includes five-year spending forecasts for eight customer buying segments: consumer, corporations and businesses, federal government, state and local government, preK-12 academic, higher education, non-profits and associations, and healthcare...
Read more | Back to top
Show Me the Money
ABC-CLIO, AASL Announce 2007 Leadership Grant
ABC-CLIO and the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) are seeking submissions for the 2007 ABC-CLIO Leadership Grant. The yearly grant of up to $1,750 is given to AASL-affiliated school library media associations for planning and implementing leadership programs at the state, regional, or local level. Established in 1986 through a shared aspiration between ABC-CLIO and AASL to foster the development of leadership, the leadership grant encourages the development of leadership programs that focus on new ideas and innovative approaches. The deadline for submissions is Feb. 1, 2007...
Read more | Back to top
Products & Services
Polycom Launches Flexible HD Video Communications Solution
Polycom has released its HDX 9000 series, a breakthrough platform with the broadest flexibility and highest levels of performance to support any video collaboration application, including high definition...
Read more
Averatec Introduces New Line of Ultra-thin, Ultra-light Widescreen Notebooks
Averatec’s new 12-inch widescreen 2300 Series is the company’s first line of ultra-thin, ultra-light notebooks to incorporate dual-core processing and the Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition...
Read more
Coming Up
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]
Subscribe to T.H.E. Journal
Are you enjoying the on-line newsletters, but missing the magazine? Sign up for a free subscription to T.H.E. Journal and receive news, opinions, and feature articles about technology in education. For complete details and to subscribe on-line, click here.
Awesome Clipart for Educators
Awesome Clipart for Educators offers educators FREE clipart, backgrounds, fonts, icons, worksheets, wallpaper and more. Click here to see how easy searching for clipart can be!