Educational Technology

By Janet Steffenhagen, Vancouver Sun

A computer program designed for children who struggle with language and literacy has had such a profound effect in Surrey schools that the people involved say they’ve been moved to tears. “Lives have been changed,” Sandy Collins, a speech-language pathologist, said when asked about a U.S. program being adopted by B.C. schools that’s based on years of research into neuroplasticity — the discovery that the human brain can be “rewired” to overcome learning deficiencies and disabilities. In fact, when Collins and colleague Joyce Seeley discuss their efforts to help students who have difficulties processing acoustic information, they divide their experience into two camps — that which occurred before the Fast ForWord program was created in the mid-1990s and that which happened afterwards.

http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Computer+helps+kids+read+more/3554358/story.html

By Dennis Comella, Rutgers Daily Targum

Some users think the recent upgrade to Windows 7 at the campus labs is not as efficient because it takes too long to log on to Windows computers. The University is working to optimize log-on times.  The reason for the slow log-on time is due to the system dynamically setting up user profiles, which are written on the fly, Luper said. It would not be feasible to do it ahead of time for every student at the University. The University computing services is working on optimizing log-on times, which has already been reduced from four minutes to as little as 30 seconds, Luper said. But it could still take up to two minutes to fully boot.

http://www.dailytargum.com/mobile/news/slow-computers-frustrate-students-1.2334569

By Craig Nevill-Manning, NZ Herald

Craig Nevill-Manning, founding Engineering Director of Google’s New York office, looks at the future of the internet. It’s cloud computing that allows us to perform a search based on your query and have millions of results back for you in a quarter of a second – because the process is performed by thousands of connected computers sharing resources in the cloud. The next big idea I think we should watch with interest is the rise and rise of mobile technology. Mobile phones aren’t 1980s status symbols any more; today my mobile has a faster processor than my computer had 10 years ago – and it’s fully connected to the internet.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10674774

By Amy Rowe, Rutgers Daily Targum

The C-SPAN digital bus stopped by the Eagleton Institute of Politics on Douglass campus Friday, engaging students and staff in its various technological and political resources. The brand-new interactive bus of the public access political channel featured four TouchSmart computer kiosks where students could access a video library, featured political websites, C-SPAN classroom and a trivia corner. “It’s like a party bus for politics,” said Zaid Abuhouran, a School of Environmental and Biological Sciences junior.

http://www.dailytargum.com/university/digital-bus-bridges-politics-technology-1.2334550

By BEN BOYCHUK and BRUNO BEHREND, the Philadelphia Bulletin

The U.S. Department of Education last month announced $650 million in “innovation” grants, followed shortly by $3.4 billion in Race to the Top grants to help states tinker around the edges of school reform. Meanwhile, a 33-year-old former hedge-fund manager who spent a couple thousand dollars on a computer and video equipment is revolutionizing learning from a converted walk-in closet in his house. U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan this week hailed the “breathtaking courage” of states such as New York, which won $700 million in Race to the Top money. New York recently announced a sharp drop in student math and reading scores after revamping the state’s standardized tests. Officials admitted they had been dumbing-down the tests for years, as this year’s dismal results proved.

http://thebulletin.us/articles/2010/09/18/commentary/op-eds/doc4c956ecf09ef9256030703.txt

By Jill Russell, The Daily News

Rural schools are not always described as innovative, progressive or technologically savvy, but officials at Naselle High School are hoping to change the stereotypes.  This month, the school — which has an enrollment of 150 students — provided its 29 incoming freshmen with an iPad, Apple’s latest portable computer. The iPads allow the students to work digitally on multiple subjects and use applications designed to aid learning. They also make the tiny district a leader in the push for more technology in schools.

http://tdn.com/news/local/article_ecb836ee-c3ae-11df-83af-001cc4c03286.html

by Avani Chhaya, Daily Illini

As courses shift from texts to online media, professors and students alike are meeting halfway through various online systems. Such systems include Moodle, Illinois Compass and other websites that are available for professors to upload information for their classes. Lisa Rosenthal, associate professor in art history, said she uses Compass, the University’s official enterprise system, as her online medium of choice. “It’s available,” Rosenthal said. “It’s what we’ve been instructed — that it’s the system the University supports. It has improved. It’s gotten easier for me to use.” With art history courses, images of the paintings are vital to the class’s instruction. Therefore, Rosenthal posts images onto Compass, as well as uploads weekly handouts for large classes.

http://www.dailyillini.com/news/campus/2010/09/23/course-websites-vary-with-professors

by the International Herald Tribune

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has announced that it is considering charging for access to online lectures and class notes, which are currently available free on the Web. Speaking at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Institutional Management in Higher Education conference in Paris this month, Lori Breslow, director of M.I.T.’s Teaching and Learning Laboratory, said that free access “may not be the best economic model, so we are now looking seriously at new e-learning opportunities.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/27/education/27iht-educBriefs27.html?_r=1

by Karen Matthews, Associated Press

The City University of New York and IBM will open a unique school that merges high school with two years of college, allowing students to earn an associate’s degree, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Monday in announcing a series of ambitious educational initiatives. Those students will be “first in line for a job at IBM,” Bloomberg said in his announcement.

http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2010/09/27/cuny_ibm_to_open_unique_school_in_nyc/

By Tanya Roscorla, Converge

Over the past two years, more than half of the 23 campuses in the California State University system have migrated their students to Google Apps for Education. And in the coming months, other campuses will join them. California state universities are facing a budget crunch and no longer want to invest in student e-mail, said Amir Dabirian, vice president for information technology and chief technology officer at California State University, Fullerton (CSUF). And many students don’t use campus e-mail — they use Gmail on their own.

http://www.convergemag.com/policy/California-State-Universities-Move-to-Google-Apps.html