New learning playlist platform, designed for educators, includes collaborative and social learning tools as well as metrics to gauge resource effectiveness and user progress.
The Software & Information Industry Association is calling on educators to participate in its 2012 Vision K-20 Survey, part of the SIIA's Vision K-20 initiative that focuses on developing a technology-based educational framework for K-12 schools, colleges, and universities.
A company with its own learning management system (LMS) for academic and corporate use has taken the social networking aspects of its LMS and turned them into an add-on product that will work with competing LMSes.
InFocus has launched a new videoconferencing and collaboration system called "Mondopad"--a 55-inch touchscreen display with built-in whiteboarding, presentation, and communications tools.
A new version of the free and open source learning management system OLAT has been released.
Iowa schools will shortly be able to access digital materials for use in classes from a statewide digital repository.
The National Association of Secondary School Principals is looking to change the conversation about mobile computing and social media in schools.
Moodle 2.0.3 has been released, incorporating more than 200 new features, improvements, bug fixes, and security tweaks (some of them classified as major).
PBS and WGBH will launch PBS LearningMedia, a free digital media platform for prekindergarten through college classrooms, this summer.
Over the next five years, six technologies will have a profound impact on teaching and learning--and some are already beginning to have an impact.
Blackboard has released updates to Elluminate Live and Wimba Classroom, two software tools that make up its Collaborate suite.
ASCD has added four new courses to PD Online, the company's series of professional development courses for educators.
University of Phoenix and NBC News will provide free NBC Learn licenses to all middle schools and high schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Element K has released InstructorHub, a global online community and resource center for instructors.
WGBH Boston's Teachers' Domain has launched a collection of environmental public health resources targeted at students in grades 6 through 12.
The Software & Information Industry Association has opened its 2011 Vision K-20 Survey, part of the SIIA's Vision K-20 initiative that focuses on developing a technology-based educational framework for K-12 schools, colleges, and universities.
Teleplace has launched a new open source project, OpenQwaq, an enterprise-class virtual collaboration platform based on the Teleplace platform.
Quark is making its recently released QuarkXPress 9 available to faculty members free for a limited time.
The Electric Company and Verizon have partnered to provide free educational games, printable activities, and videos for students and educators through Thinkfinity.org.
EdWeb.net has launched a free professional online learning community for new teachers called New Teacher Help.
Blackboard's collaboration division will be promoting a form of crowdsourcing to develop the next generation of its technology.
FunnelBrain has redesigned its free academic question and answer search engine.
PBS TeacherLine has expanded its course schedule to six terms for its most popular and newest online courses.
ShareStream has released version 5.0 of ShareStream Rich Media Platform.
Ed tech developer Desire2Learn, best known for a learning management system by the same name, has purchased Captual Technologies, which develops a lecture capture suite called ePresence.
Microsoft has opened up its Office 365 public beta to a bigger crowd worldwide. The company also warned that its latest beta accounts for the online productivity suite will not be transferable to Office 365 for education when the beta program ends.
Pearson has released an update to Equella, a digital repository for higher education and K-12. The latest release, version 5.0, gains new interface enhancements, as well as support for customizing dashboards and building portlets.
The Algiers Charter Schools Association in New Orleans has added the DimensionU Learning System to the mathematics and literacy curriculum of its nine schools.
NetTrekker has released igotta, a virtual workspace for students to organize, analyze, and use information for assignments.
Instructure, the relative unknown that swooped in last December and won learning management system business away from entrenched competitors at the Utah Education Network, has just finished a new round of financing that will help the company scale up its staffing.
ConnectYard is bringing its social channel communication functionality into BlackBoard Learn through a Blackboard Building Block.
Alexander Street Press is releasing an online library of more than 8,000 academic video titles and plans to expand their offerings to more than 10,000 this year and 20,000 by 2013.
The use of Web 2.0 is increasing in K-12 schools. But, according to a new report, more widespread adoption is being hampered at least in part by teachers' lack of knowledge of how to use the technologies.
Ed tech developer Archipelago Learning has added support for Texas' STAAR tests to its flagship online instruction, assessment, and reporting tool--Study Island.
Public K-12 school districts have begun shifting their unified communications solutions over to the cloud. In fact, according to new research released this week, a quarter of them either have done so already or are in the process of doing so.
A national project to connect American students with their counterparts in other parts of the world has drawn dozens of consortium partners into the fold.
Skype has launched a global community for educators called Skype in the classroom. The free service is focused on connecting teachers from around the world to collaborate on learning activities and share expertise and resources.
Ed tech developer Cengage Learning has launched a new online learning platform. Called MindTap, the platform is designed to work across devices--traditional computers, smart phones, and tablets--to deliver coursework, learning management, and a range of educational materials.
Echo360 has debuted a major update to its flagship lecture capture platform, EchoSystem. The latest version, 4.0, will include new mobile capabilities, HD and dual display support, and social features designed to boost student engagement.
The creator of Khan Academy aims to change the way we think about the delivery of educational content to students.
Software developer Serebra has released an update to its flagship learning management system, Serebra Campus. The latest release gets performance enhancements and new administrative capabilities.
At the Enterprise Connect 2011 trade show last week, Cisco debuted Jabber, a unified communications application that brings together presence, instant messaging, voice, video, voice messaging, desktop sharing, and conferencing into a single, consistent interface on PCs, Macs, tablets, and smart phones, including iPhone and Android.
Cisco is extending its umi line of video communication and collaboration tools so that home users will be able to connect with businesses using TelePresence.
Walter's Publishing recently launched Pictavo, a Web-based application that integrates yearbook design functions with collaboration and project management features.
Desire2Learn is releasing a new version of Learning Suite, an educational software package that includes a learning management system, electronic portfolio, learning repository, and analytics. The new release, version 9.2, expands support for mobile Web users and also brings several enhancements in the areas of assessments and grading.
A new $9,500 appliance from Vidyo provides for a kind of personal telepresence by letting users Webcast and record their video conferences.
A virtual high school in Utah shuns textbooks and relies on open content for 100 percent of its coursework.
Portland Public Schools in Oregon, the largest district in the state, will adopt Microsoft's Live@edu for its 8,500 staff members and teachers and at least some of its 47,000 students starting in fall 2011.
Cisco has debuted an array of new and enhanced video collaboration and communication tools to help organizations capture and share lectures, training sessions, meetings, and other events online.
A new education-based social networking site, Diipo.com, has launched in beta form. The site provides a free service for collaborative blogging and networking among teachers and students.
A start-up company in California has launched a new, free, combined learning management system and student information system that intends to take on major competitors in the K-12 space.
In a Web 2.0 world the drill and practice that makes up much of the standard fodder for many online language courses seems quaint. But a start-up promises to immerse high school students online in the same way that certain successful programs do face to face through video, audio, and avatars plunked down into foreign settings.
Online developer Everloop and educational publisher i-Safe are teaming up to launch an online social platform targeted toward K-8 students and their teachers.
Follett Software has released Cognite 3.5, an update to the company's learning management system, expanding support for state and national standards and adding integration with Turnitin.
Software developer LogMeIn has launched a mobile version of its free meeting and screen sharing system, join.me, for Apple iOS-powered devices, including iPhone and iPad.
BitTorrent and the Khan Academy have partnered to make more than 2,000 educational videos available for free through a video catalog app.
Newcomer Enter The Group has launched a hosted service designed to bring groups of teachers and students together to manage classroom projects.
Ann Koufman-Frederick isn't one to pass up an opportunity to put her district at the forefront of emerging educational technologies. As the superintendent of Watertown Public Schools, in Watertown, MA, she encourages her teachers to participate in tech-based pilot and research programs run by higher ed institutions. And why shouldn't she, when her district enjoys such notable neighbors as Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Boston College?
Software developer Media-X has begun to demonstrate its new collaborative learning platform for mobile devices, eStudent, ahead of the product's formal June release date.
Blackboard has launched a free hosted course management service. The system, CourseSites is an online platform that enables faculty members to set up Web-based class sites where they can post course materials, communicate with students, encourage collaboration, monitor performance, and manage grades.
Lampasas Independent School District has moved to a WAN-based video on demand system to deliver multimedia educational materials to its classrooms.
Camtasia Relay is gaining integration with the open source content management system Drupal. TechSmith this week released a plugin for Drupal that connects it with Camtasia Relay, the company's commercial lecture and screen capture system.
Global Grid for Learning, a unit of Cambridge University Press, is teaming up with Moodlerooms to provide access to a digital media repository through the joule learning management system.
Qwizdom has opened a free online community designed for K-8 educators, students, and parents.
Ed tech developer Super Star Learning Co. this week formally launched Room 21, an online social learning community targeted specifically toward K-12 schools. Applications are currently available for grants to cover the cost of the membership subscription.
In an effort to reduce truancies and tardiness among alternative education students, Kingsville ISD in Texas has started using videoconferencing to reconnect those students to their original classrooms. The results from the initial pilot have included improved attendance and, for the district, $200,000 in annual savings.
Former middle school teacher Luke Allen offers his recommendations for the best free software for teachers, from social Web browsers to image and video editing and manipulation tools.
As Ohio's speech-language telepractice pilot enters its fourth year, the collaborative multimedia program continues expansion, and administrators are testing new ways of delivering therapy. The students love it, and plenty of sessions end with children asking, "Can't we do just one more?"
Shmoop is at it again. The irreverent study aid and test prep Web site announced at the FETC 2011 conference that it has taken its ACT preparation course online.
Educational publisher Pearson introduced its Brief Review of Global History and Geography app for mobile devices such as Apple iPad and iPhone with demonstrations at this week's FETC 2011 conference in Orlando, FL.
Educational developer Capstone Digital has launched myON Reader, an online reading platform aimed at students in grades K through 8, as well as remedial readers, that offers direct access to more than 1,000 online children's books from Capstone Publishing and its imprints.
PBS will develop achievement-oriented content especially for the New York City Department of Education's School of One (So1) with the help of a $500,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. School of One is an experiment in personalizing education using multiple modalities of instruction, allowing students to learn at their own pace and according to their own respective strengths and weaknesses.
While collaborative learning in courses like science and social studies has grown exponentially in recent years, literature still remains predominantly a solo pursuit. However, online educational community BookheadEd Learning is about to take the next leap.
A Utah-based company has fired a warning shot across the bow of learning management system (LMS) companies, including market leader Blackboard, with the announcement that it's turning its new LMS into open source. Instructure has publicly released the source code to its Canvas learning management system, which was launched in 2010.
Logical Choice Technologies this week unveiled an educational augmented reality tool designed to help children in preschool and kindergarten learn to read and write.
Gaming software publisher Knowledge Adventure has relaunched its Blaster line of educational games with an online version of the multiplayer title Math Blaster, previously only available as site software.
By 2015, preK-12 academic institutions in the United States will spend nearly $5 billion on electronic learning products and services like learning management systems, according to research released this week. That represents a compound annual growth rate of 16.8 percent from current spending levels, outpacing every other segment, including higher education. The proliferation of online learning is helping to drive that growth, but just how much of it will we see over the next five years?
Blackboard has released a major update to its cross-platform mobile learning management system, Mobile Learn 2.0. The new version expands the types of content users can create via their mobile devices and also offers an enhanced UI and support for some Angel and WebCT customers.
Follett Corp. is launching a $100,000 competition for school libraries that are helping to drive student achievement and boosting information literacy through technology.
An emerging virtual world platform is the destination of droves of emigrant avatars, as a price hike and the shutdown of the teen-only grid have prompted an educator exodus away from Second Life.
The Learning Co., a division of educational publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH), has released four new mobile games to help preschoolers play and learn on the Apple iPhone and iPad mobile devices.
For Metiri Group CEO Cheryl Lemke, "Web 2.0" isn't just a nebulous label for the latest and greatest online technologies; it's emblematic of the collaborative, participatory skills and instructional practices that she sees as crucial to the 21st century teaching and learning.
Developers have released Moodle 2.0.1, a minor update to the popular open source learning management system.
A company that provides online tutoring services has received a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to create an on-demand professional development system specifically to train middle school and high school math teachers.
Middle school and high school students have an opportunity to receive mentoring and funding for their digital filmmaking projects. The Adobe Foundation and PBS have teamed up to launch Project VoiceScape, which will select 15 documentary works to support with cash, publicity, and one-to-one guidance from professional filmmakers.
The state-run virtual schooling programs in South Carolina and Utah have adopted learning management systems based on the open source Moodle platform.
Florida Virtual School founder Julie Young began focusing on technology initiatives as a classroom teacher and elementary school administrator, but she found her direction in 1995 when she joined a team to explore the concept of online learning.
Adobe revealed that it will end development on Project Rome, the company's experimental multimedia authoring and electronic portfolio tool, redirecting its development resources instead to tablet applications.
Pearson has added four new courses to NovaNet, its digital learning platform for students in grades 6 through 12, as well as adult learners.
Ed tech developer Age of Learning has launched a new online education portal designed for the youngest students. The site, ABCmouse.com Early Learning Academy, brings a full online curriculum to preschoolers and kindergarten students for use in schools and at home.
Vigo County School Corp., a K-12 district in Terre Haute, IN, has adopted Follett Software's digital learning environment Cognite in an effort to consolidate digital resources and provide an easy-to-use collaborative learning system for its students and teachers.
School administrators are a cautious group. But the pressure to adopt social networking in school settings is on, and it's forcing them to consider how to implement these potentially valuable educational tools with the privacy and "safety" needs of their underage constituents in mind. Christopher Wells, director of IT policies and communications for Gwinnett County Public Schools, looks at ways administrators can protect their students while continuing to move forward with technology. He also supplies six concrete tips for crafting an Internet policy.
PBS Newshour is expanding a mentoring program it began last year to connect students with news professionals in public broadcasting, a program that's tied in with the students' schools through a curriculum focusing on media literacy and digital media production.
The first-annual Global Education Conference kicked off this week. Through Friday, Nov. 19, events will be streamed live for free and without formal registration via the Elluminate interactive platform.
Software developer LogMeIn has launched a free meeting and screen sharing system called join.me, along with a subscription-based "pro" version that provides additional functionality.
Detroit Public Schools (DPS) in Michigan has begun the transition to a digital science curriculum in its middle and high schools.
The National Society of High School Scholars (NSHSS) has partnered with online school program provider K12 Inc. to give members of the organization special access at discounted rates to a wide variety of courses, including honors, AP, and electives, through the online K12 International Academy.
Second Life operator Linden Lab has let fly another bombshell for education customers: Not only is the company shutting down its Teen Grid, as previously reported, but it's also ending discounts for educational and non-profit organizations. The new policy will essentially double the normal region rates for these communities and will go into effect as soon as Jan. 1, 2011.
School Improvement Network has launched PD 360 4.0, an update to the company's teacher professional development tool and learning community.
Tabula Digita, maker of the DimensionU Learning System and its DimensionM math-based action video game, has issued a challenge to the best gamers (and math students) in grades 3 through 8 in the land.