Educational Technology

April 30, 2011

iPad 2 in kindergarten classrooms: A good idea?

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:40 am

by Samantha Murphy, TechNewsDaily

In what they are calling “a revolution in education,” the Auburn, Maine, school district will be bringing the $499 Apple tablet devices into kindergarten classrooms starting in the fall with the aim of increasing literacy rates from 62 percent to 90 percent. This isn’t the first time Maine has become an early tech adopter in its educational systems. In 2002, it became the first state to give out laptop computers to its middle school students and later expanded the program to high schoolers as a part of a move to boost literacy.

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Students and staff at Travis High School have a new Apple app, iTigers

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:35 am

by KTRK News

THS students Nathan Constance, William O’Rosky, and Cordero Silva created the free app specifically for Travis to allow users access to homework assignments, campus news, sports information, fine arts, faculty, and clubs and organizations from either an Apple iPhone or iTouch. iTigers was created by the three ninth-grade students, who saw the need for such a tool and took the initiative to make it happen. Constance, O’Rosky and Silva are all self-taught, registered Apple app developers, having studied and purchased the needed Xcode software to design their school’s app. The whole creative process took some time, but they believe it was well worth their effort.

http://www.12newsnow.com/story/14481759/students-create-app-for-their-high-school

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School of Education launches new free mobile app to assist parents, advocates

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:30 am

by Sapna Kollali, Syracuse University

Syracuse University School of Education professor Alan Foley has designed and launched a new iPhone app to help parents better advocate for their children with disabilities. iAdvocate is a free application available through iTunes that provides information on advocacy strategies for parents to help ensure school-aged children with disabilities are provided appropriate services and resources in their education. The idea behind iAdvocate is to empower and engage parents, make them aware of their rights and introduce them to a variety of resources, says Foley, associate professor in the Department of Instructional Design, Development and Evaluation (IDDE). He hopes the app better prepares parents to work more collaboratively with school professionals to achieve positive outcomes for their children’s education.

http://www.syr.edu/news/articles/2011/education-app-04-11.html

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April 29, 2011

Better than a backpack

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:40 am

By: Jeanne Millsap, Morris Daily Herald

An anonymous donor recently gave the Coal City school district an iPad for use in its special education classes. That donation, on top of a recent Coal City District 1 Foundation donation of money marked for the purchase of more iPads, puts the district in a good position to begin introducing educational applications and a new way of instruction and learning to district students, according to its Director of Business Services and Technology Jason Smith. “The iPad has been called the backpack of the future,” Smith said. “It allows them access to textbooks, a calendar, documents they’re working on, teachers’ sites. . . It can give them access to all the things they need to be successful.”

http://www.morrisdailyherald.com/articles/2011/04/15/52116285/index.xml

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They’re learning their way around the online world

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by Stanley A. Miller II, Milwaukee Sentinel Star

Dozens of Girl Scouts – all of them with some basic robot-building experience thanks to FIRST Lego League and Time Warner’s patronage – scurried from station to station learning concepts like the “handshake” between systems when a user tries to log into a network. Other activities included explaining ideas like the differences between a secure and unsecure wireless systems and the different speeds and functionality of 2G, 3G and 4G wireless networks. “The curriculum is based on three concepts: ‘create,’ ‘transmit’ and ‘connect’ and how they are all related in a wireless world,” said Stacy Zaja, a company spokeswoman. “And we’re doing this by talking about all the different kinds of ways we interact on the Internet.”

http://www.jsonline.com/features/technology/119880989.html

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Technologies teach students how to think

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:28 am

By Laura Millsaps, Ames Tribune

ThinkSpace is an experimental new technology designed and developed at ISU. Modeled on Diagnostic Pathfinder, it’s designed to have wider applications to different disciplines of study, and ISU is trying to garner national interest in the technology. “Systems that we’ve built here allow faculty and students to interact in a problem-solving format,” said Jim Twetten, director of IT services in academic technologies at ISU. “This system provides a way to present a set of problems, and it tracks the students through the process in such a way that faculty can guide them through the process.” Twetten said a group of faculty on campus is excited in the teaching and learning possibilities of ThinkSpace.

http://www.amestrib.com/articles/2011/04/15/ames_tribune/news/doc4da90f0ea68c6504376130.txt

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April 28, 2011

Education cheats ‘sabotage schools system’

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:40 am

by the Yorkshire Post

The sharp increase in plagiarism is being put down to the internet which allows students to cut and paste chunks of text into an essay or even order ghost-written pieces of work from websites which offer to sell academic expertise. Universities in Yorkshire say that this technology also means that they are better equipped than ever before to identify plagiarism. All written work handed in by university students in the region is passed through text checking software which will flag up if a passage has been written before on the internet. However this approach does not detect work which people can pay for on-line which will have been written on request for the student with costs rising depending on whether the assignment is needed for undergraduate or postgraduate study.

http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/at-a-glance/education/exclusive_education_cheats_sabotage_schools_system_1_3294955

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Forget dusty book stacks – tomorrow’s librarians are all about tech

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:35 am

By Sam Allis, Boston Globe

Library science used to be the realm of career changers. Bookish types, having put in some years in the work world, would enroll in a graduate program with dreams of one day making a living surrounded by the noble hush of book stacks, card catalogs, and shelf upon shelf of reference tomes. Not so today. “More people today are coming straight out of college,’’ says Michèle Cloonan, dean of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Simmons College. “The students are younger. Ten years ago, the vast majority of them had worked before coming here.’’ Tomorrow’s librarians face a two-year graduate school curriculum freighted with technology courses that didn’t exist 10 years ago, courses that will likely be replaced by others within a year or two. The future of libraries is a constantly evolving digital landscape, and technical literacy, as it is in so many other fields, is absolutely essential to find a job in a brutal job market.

http://articles.boston.com/2011-04-16/lifestyle/29425755_1_librarians-job-market-card-catalogs

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Is tablet next must-have tool for school?

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:30 am

by the Edmonton Journal

Tablet computers are trickling into kindergarten classes to augment the standard teaching arsenal and if they are ever deemed powerful and necessary tools, there must be prescient policy governing their deployment. Anything less than universal access within a given school district could tip the scales of opportunity through the unequal distribution of what seems an engaging technology. At $500 apiece for the cheapest unit, that’s a pricey conundrum for educators. Elementary schools also represent a massive and virtually untapped market for the manufacturers of tablet computers such as iPads, as well as the providers of age-specific applications that transform the devices into educational aids. If a kid grows up with an iPad in the classroom, it’s probably the brand he or she will be asking for at home.

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/opinion/tablet+next+must+have+tool+school/4626681/story.html

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April 27, 2011

iPads could be textbooks of the near future

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:40 am

by Michael Souza, The Westerly Sun

Superintendent Barry Ricci made it clear that the school system is aware of the ever-changing world of technology. He can even envision a day when textbooks could become obsolete. “We are investigating if we want to buy textbooks anymore, or do we want to buy iPads or something similar that the textbooks can be loaded into,” Ricci said. “The publishing field is changing dramatically. We met with representatives from Pierson, a big textbook publisher, and even they will admit that the industry is changing so fast that, in time, the idea of publishing textbooks on paper will probably go away. “Kids will be carrying [computers like the iPad] around,” he said. “It is so easy to read and you can take notes on it, and you can cut and paste on it. It really is a remarkable tool.

http://www.thewesterlysun.com/news/article_b5a840ca-67d9-11e0-bf84-001cc4c03286.html

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Tech camp targets girls

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:35 am

by David Young, Coloradan

Clad in a bright pink T-shirt and shiny black rubber gloves, Peltz eventually severed the metallic shell and peaked at the guts of the computer. Peltz was one of a handful of sixth-graders, who could be the next generation of female technology geniuses, selected for an inside look at one of the industry leaders Friday. Hewlett-Packard Co. in Fort Collins opened its doors to girls for its fifth annual Girls Tech Camp.

http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20110416/BUSINESS/104160359/1046/business/Tech-camp-targets-girls

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Funding Technology in the 21st Century

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:30 am

By Greg Limperis, School CIO

Okay, so let’s face it. The current formula for funding technology in education just does not work. Daily, we talk about the need to get technology in the hands of every child. With new and up-and-coming advancements in technology, there will be more of a need to improve infrastructure, bandwidth, servers, wiring, wireless technology and much more if we are to remain current and on the cutting edge. This will all cost money—and lots of it. Currently, districts find it hard just to put a few computers in a classroom, let alone one in every child’s hand. Yes, it can be done—and some districts are making it happen—but in this day of ever-shrinking budgets and more of a focus of passing standardized tests—money, rightfully so or not—is often funneled toward that cause.

http://schoolcio.com/showarticle/38190

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April 26, 2011

Online courses for all Idaho students would mean big jump

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:40 am

by Kristin Rodine, Idaho Statesman

Plans to require online classes for all Idaho high school graduates have grown more vague during the struggle over revamping the state’s cash-strapped school system, but it remains likely some sort of online mandate will face the class of 2016. And judging from a Statesman survey of six Treasure Valley school districts, student participation will have to go way up. During the past full school year, just a small fraction of students at surveyed high schools took at least one online course through their district. Those ranged from around 4 percent in Caldwell and Vallivue to nearly 20 percent at Boise’s Timberline.

http://www.idahostatesman.com/2011/04/03/1590787/online-courses-for-all-students.html?story_link=email_msg

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Florida Schools May Be Required to Digitize Half Their Textbook Budgets Within 2 Years

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:35 am

by Lilly Rockwell, Flagler

Ready or not, Florida school districts may be required to spend half of their textbook budgets on digital materials in just two years. But school districts are reluctant to embrace a mandate they say is too costly and doesn’t take into account students without Internet access. Tucked into education funding bills in the state House and Senate are proposals that push school districts to convert from traditional, bulky hardback textbooks to electronic books, available on a computer or handheld device such as Amazon’s Kindle or Apple’s iPad. These proposals came after state education officials unveiled an ambitious plan in February to require all students in grades K-12 to use only electronic materials in the classroom by 2015.

http://flaglerlive.com/20280/electronic-textbooks-florida

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PC Downloads as Easy as an App

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:30 am

by Katherine Boehret, the Wall Street Journal

Installing software on a personal computer can be a time-consuming and tedious process that’s nowhere near as fast and effortless as downloading an app for a smartphone. Now there’s a better way: Get an app for your PC. Apps have been popular on mobile devices for years, but now Apple and Google are making a range of their most popular apps available for download on computers. WSJ’s Katherine Boehret has the lowdown. After successfully proving the popularity of app stores on mobile devices, Apple and Google have brought them to the personal computer. In January, Apple unveiled a version of its app marketplace to computers: the Mac App Store. In December, Google gave PC and Mac users a way to download apps on their computers using the Chrome Web Store, accessible via Google’s Chrome Web browser. Each of these marketplaces includes a different set of apps than those available for mobile; Apple’s offers about 3,400 apps and Google’s, about 3,700.

http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052748704559904576230731327146762-lMyQjAxMTAxMDMwMDEzNDAyWj.html

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April 25, 2011

Stakeholders decry EETT elimination

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:40 am

by eSchool News

While programs such as Race to the Top and Investing In Innovation received funding, a host of ed-tech leaders and stakeholders say they are upset with the elimination of a dedicated educational technology funding program. Without EETT funding, the nation’s schools could fall even further behind competing nations, said West Virginia Gov. Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education. The program provides much-needed funds for teachers to access high-quality professional development opportunities.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2011/04/15/stakeholders-decry-eett-elimination/

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Skype in the classroom debuts

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:35 am

by School CIO

School teachers and students everywhere now have a way to find each other for collaborative projects and shared learning through a new online platform provided by Skype. Skype in the classroom is a free global community created in response to, and in consultation with, the growing number of teachers using Skype to help their students learn. Teachers can use the tool to collaborate with other teachers, and find partner classes and guest speakers. Skype in the classroom is designed to help like-minded teachers find each other and relevant projects according to search criteria such as the age groups they teach, location and subjects of interest; and teaching resources can be easily shared and found.

http://schoolcio.com/showarticle/37806

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e-Cornucopia.2011 Conference: Open Learning ~ May 26 ~ Oakland University

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:30 am

by Oakland University

The third annual conference at Oakland University will examine specific examples about how openness is implemented in higher education and the importance of increasing the transparency and accessibility of knowledge. We will offer three tracks, Open Education (open educational resources), Open Access (library journals) and Open Source (open computer code and ramifications) , to further explore this topic as it relates to faculty, librarians and instructional technologists respectively. Our keynote speaker is Ray Schroeder, Professor Emeritus of Communication, and founding director of the Center for Online Learning, Research, and Service at the University of Illinois at Springfield. He will speak about The Open Future of Higher Education.

http://www2.oakland.edu/elis/conference.cfm?countrytabs=0

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April 24, 2011

Top 8 Tech Resources for School Leaders from CoSN 2011

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:40 am

by Nancy Caramanico, School CIO

Recently, COSN (Consortium of School Networking) held their 2011 conference in New Orleans. Mastering the Moment was the theme of the COSN conference this year. In choosing this theme, COSN’s focus was on assisting school and technology leadership on implementing the best and newest of technologies into schools. To do so successfully, leaders need to also recognize the unique challenges brought by the economy and the rapidly changing educational and technological landscape. A rich blend of educational presenters, keynotes, technical presenters and sponsors came together to share, discuss, plan and look to the future. Here are eight of the top tools shared for school leaders.

http://schoolcio.com/showarticle/37824

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The Pros & Cons of Open-Source Products

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by School CIO

By now School CIO readers know a lot about the benefits as well as the limitations of using open-source products. It turns out that people can find just as many reasons to fight open source as they can to implement it. So we decided to go right to the source (pun intended) and ask some of our School CIO advisors about their experiences and put an end to the debate.

http://schoolcio.com/ShowArticle/38200

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Standing in the Back, Watching the Screens

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:30 am

by Jonathan Martin, School CIO

Now, at our school we are lecturing a lot less than we used to, and especially so since 1:1 adoption. But that we are doing so less doesn’t mean we aren’t doing so at all, and it is not my practice as principal to insist otherwise (encourage otherwise, yes; insist otherwise, no). As the teacher lectured, and she is a very good, very experienced, teacher, her discussion points varied—some of them with seemingly no connection at all to the present day and the world these students live in today, but other points fascinatingly relevant to today’s economic and political realities. The laptop screens which I watched, from the back, corresponded in near-perfect correlation. When the topics appeared relevant to students, the note-taking pages appeared; when the topics veered to the arcane and irrelevant, the screens veered to Facebook, gaming sites, and other distractions.

http://schoolcio.com/showarticle/38296

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