T.H.E. News Update :: June 25, 2008

News & Issues

Digital Divide? What Digital Divide?

Students in low-income families may have more access to technology than previously thought. What's more, according to preliminary research coming out of the University of Minnesota, these students are using technology consistently to boost their 21st century skills--even if many of them aren't aware that they're of the educational value of their activities online.

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Tech Association Calls for Greater Broadband Access for Schools

While most schools in the United States (in fact, 98 percent) have basic Internet access, for many that access is cripplingly slow--too slow to accommodate technology-driven educational initiatives--according to a new report from the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA). The group is recommending certain baseline figures for adequate bandwidth for schools and proposing policy changes to effect upgrades over the next five to seven years.

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D2L: Blackboard's Comments 'Contempt(ible)'

On the heels of Blackboard's latest court action, Desire2Learn this week posted a response describing some of the commercial LMS leader's comments last week as "contempt(ible)" themselves and nothing more than a cynical attempt to create "fear, uncertainty, [and] doubt" in the marketplace. Blackboard filed a motion last Tuesday for contempt on the grounds that Desire2Learn had not fulfilled its obligations under a court order resulting from a patent infringement suit.

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Mediasite 5.0 Debuts; New Classroom Recorders Coming in July

Sonic Foundry debuted a new version of its lecture capture platform Thursday at the InfoComm and EduComm conferences in Las Vegas. Mediasite 5.0 adds about 100 new or enhanced features for recording, playing back, and managing classroom recordings. The company also announced new hardware recorders for automated lecture capture, which are scheduled to ship next month.

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Pearson Gives SASI Customers PowerSchool Premier Free

Education publisher Pearson said that it will offer a free PowerSchool Premier license to existing customers of its SASI student information system. The license includes PowerSchool Premier and state reporting, PowerTeacher, the PowerSchool SIF Agent, and SIFWorks Enterprise Zone Integration Server 2.0 license.

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IBM Launches 'Carbon Strategy' Service in Project Big Green

How green are your feet? That's the question IBM wants to answer as it launches a new consulting service to determine the carbon footprint of IT organizations and help those organizations plan for greener operations throughout and beyond the enterprise.

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NuVo Technologies Shows Off Classroom Amplification System

NuVo Technologies showed its WA30 Volume Control and Amplifier Wednesday at InfoComm 2008 in Las Vegas.

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Scopia Adds HD Desktop Video, Conference Recording, Lotus Support

Radvision announced Thursday major enhancements to its Scopia conferencing solution. Available as a software upgrade, version 5.6 provides added features across the entire Scopia platform, including Scopia MCU, Scopia Desktop, and the iView Management Suite.

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Nominate Now: 2008 Innovator Awards

You're doing great things with technology at school, and we want to know about them. We seek exemplary K-12 schools and districts, their visionary technology project leaders, and their innovative vendor partners who have deployed extraordinary technology solutions to school challenges. Could you be one of this year's recognized technology leaders? THE Journal's 2008 Innovators will be featured in the December issue.

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Coming Up

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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Featured

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    Discovery Education Announces Spring Lineup of Free Virtual Field Trips

    This Spring, Discovery Education is collaborating with partners such as Warner Bros., DC Comics, National Science Foundation, NBA, and more to present a series of free virtual field trips for K-12 students.

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    New Turnitin Product Offers AI-Powered Writing Tools with Instructor Guardrails

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