2018 K–12 IT Salary & Job Satisfaction Survey

With only three exceptions, salaries are up across the board for technology professionals in K–12 education in the last two years. The biggest gripe continues to be (not terribly surprisingly) budgets.

3 Challenges for Data Interoperability in Education Technology

A new report found that while many states have figured out how to share multiple sources of education data to reduce manual data entry or improve data consistency, they still struggle to use data "to present a full picture of student learning."

Uncertain Future for Federal Ed Tech Funding Program Doesn't Deter Applicants

E-rate discounts requested have dropped from $3 billion in 2017 to $2.8 billion in 2018. That's just half of what it was in 2012, when funding reached $5.2 billion.

26,000 Malicious Apps Use Facebook APIs

The mop-up work for Facebook in the wake of its privacy reform could take much longer than we might expect.

Research: Effective Communication Can Reduce Absenteeism 10 Percent

Telling parents that absences matter and offering suggestions for eliminating them reduces absenteeism by as much as 10 percent, according to a new study from researchers at Harvard and Berkeley.

Skills Deficit Will Imperil U.S. Economy by 2030

For all the talk of technologies such as artificial intelligence and robotics doing away with the human element in corporate life, well trained human beings are still an essential ingredient. In fact, if the current skills gap remains unplugged, by 2030 the world will see "tens of millions of unfilled jobs and trillions of dollars in unrealized revenue," according to a new study.

Detachables on the Upswing Despite Tablet Market Downturn

Tablet sales fell to 31.7 million in the first quarter of 2018, an 11.7 percent drop compared to the same period in 2017, according to a new report from International Data Corp. Detachable tablets were a bright spot in the category, showing a year-over-year improvement of 2.9 percent and a 15.3 percent market share. Sales of traditional tablets, on the other hand, were down more than the market overall, having fallen 13.9 percent below sales for 2017's first quarter.

Smartphone Shipments Down but More Consumers Trading up to Premium Devices

Smartphone shipments fell to 334.3 million in the first quarter of the year, down 2.9 percent compared to the same period last year, according to a new report from International Data Corp. Sales in China, where shipments dipped below 100 million for the first time since 2013, are largely behind the drop.

K–12 Tech Orgs Praise Senate Net Neutrality Vote, but Does It Matter?

If passed into law, the bill would reverse the Federal Communications Commission's December decision to end net neutrality rules put in place by the Obama administration. Those rules, set to expire June 11, bar companies from charging more for some content and from slowing down or outright blocking some content.

Adobe Changes Licensing for K–12 Schools, Now $4.99 per Seat for Creative Cloud

Adobe is drastically reducing the price of Creative Cloud licenses for K–12 schools and districts. Starting May 15, annual licenses will cost $4.99 per user for U.S. schools, providing full access to the Creative Cloud suite, which includes professional graphics, motion graphics, video editing, web development and other applications geared toward creative production.

Blackboard Introduces Web Accessibility Checker

Blackboard today introduced Blackboard Ally for Web, a solution for assessing and improving the accessibility of institutions' websites. The tool expands on Blackboard's Ally product (launched last year), which focuses on the accessibility of course materials in learning management systems.

Emerald Release of D2L Updates Interface, Activity Feed, Parent Edition

D2L has updated its learning management system. The "Emerald Release" of Brightspace offers new analytics features, improvements to the user experience, functions to expedite use of the LMS by educators and updates to a parental version of the software.

Gale Adds LTI Compliance for Learning Resources

Gale has updated its resources to be compliant with Learning Tools Interoperability 1.0 standards and Deep Linking from the IMS Global Learning Consortium. The move enables single sign-on and allows instructors to embed content from their library's Gale collections to into any learning management system that supports the standards, including Blackboard, Canvas, Moodle, Schoology and more.

New Nonprofit Will Focus on Flipped and Active Learning

A new nonprofit has formed to focus on "identifying and supporting global standards for flipped learning and related active learning instruction." Known as the Academy of Active Learning Arts and Sciences, the organization was created out of the Flipped Learning Global Initiative's Global Standards Project, an effort to establish an international framework for flipped learning.

D2L Pursues Usage for LMS as K–12 PD Platform

Learning management company D2L has tweaked its learning management system to accommodate professional development management for K–12 teachers as well. In April the company announced a similar offering for the higher education edition of its cloud-based Brightspace platform. Among the features: a dashboard to manage teacher PD and new kinds of assessment support.

New Bento Browser Organizes Complex Mobile Searches

A new mobile browser developed at Carnegie Mellon University offers a better search experience for people doing complex searches across multiple websites. The app offers the promise of replacing the overwhelming tab management required by iPhone's default Safari browser. The Bento browser, as it's called, compartmentalizes search sessions into a project workspace structure.

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