Educational Technology

By SUZANNE KORF, Montreal Gazette

Things change with lightning speed. It used to be that a day at work or at school was different from one generation to the next. But now, our day at the office is drastically different from one decade to the next. And sometimes one year to the next. It is hard to imagine, but fax machines and word processing programs only became popular in the 1980s. The Internet only became widely available in the ’90s. And Facebook was launched less than 10 years ago. With all these changes, there is sometimes a large gap between what we could be doing with the technology available today, and what we are doing.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/technology/Schools+need+change+with+times+little+faster/4612087/story.html

by Molly McHugh, Digital Trends

A slew of colleges are looking into programs specializing in mobile app development. Cell phone use in class will now be encouraged. Rasmussen College is taking advantage of the times and offering programs in app development. The school, which offers online classes and has 21 campuses across the country, has added application development to its school of technology and design courses. You can even get an Associate’s Degree in the subject.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/go-to-college-to-become-an-app-developer/

By Tanya Roscorla, Converge

A new reading curriculum based on augmented reality technology grabs student attention and shows them difficult concepts in a visual form. “Letters alive” uses 26 animals to help pre-kindergartners and kindergartners learn to read. And according to research by its creator, Logical Choice Technologies, it’s the first augmented reality reading curriculum.

http://www.convergemag.com/classtech/3-D-Animal-Characters-Help-Kindergartners-Read.html?elq=5d1090d49a5a40b49495d30dabc05ea5

By Tanya Roscorla, Converge

We play games in every part of life, whether it’s racing to unload the dishwasher at home, beating your last time on the track or avoiding cracks in the sidewalk. But we don’t play games in school. “We try to remove those things naturally from education because we don’t think that fun and learning are one and the same,” says Chris Haskell, a special lecturer with the Department of Educational Technology at Boise State. But they are one and the same, Haskell says. And at Boise State, the Department of Educational Technology teaches the next generation of educators to embrace emerging technologies like quest-based learning, augmented reality and mobile learning.

http://www.convergemag.com/college-career/Boise-State-Ed-Tech.html?elq=5d1090d49a5a40b49495d30dabc05ea5

By Bridget McCrea, THE Journal

When Betsy Sawyer was looking for a way to give students in her after-school “Bookmakers and Dreamers” club an inside glimpse at how children in Afghanistan study and live, she looked into several different technology applications that could facilitate both online audio and video calls between the two groups. Sawyer, a language arts and social studies teacher at Groton Middle School in Groton, MA, said she’s been using Skype for the “virtual pen pal” program, which currently comprises about 125 students ranging in age from 10 to 17. Using the software application, a desktop or laptop, Webcam, speakers, microphones, and (in some cases) a large screen that allows students to participate as a group, pupils ask their pen pals questions about life in Afghanistan and also share their own experiences.

http://thejournal.com/articles/2011/04/20/creating-global-connections.aspx

By Sirkka Huish, Royal Gazette

Bermuda now has a generation of children who are lacking in listening skills because they spend too much time e-mailing and texting. This is the view of overseas expert Jenny Mosley who spent a week on the Island to spread the word about the importance of “old-fashioned listening skills”. She believes it’s “a sign of the times” that the over-usage of technology has left children not fully developed in basic listening skills. Ms Mosley said parents weren’t helping the situation as many were “too busy or stressed” to properly communicate with their children. For example, she said parents say ‘give me a minute’ when their child asks a question instead of giving their full attention.

http://www.royalgazette.com/article/20110420/NEWS/704209975/0/FRONTPAGE

By Jeanette Stewart, The StarPhoenix

As a high school teacher, Jay Salikin turned down several “friend” requests from his students. “It just doesn’t feel right,” he said. Now Salikin works as an educational technology consultant for the Saskatoon public school division and says teachers can employ social media sites without involving their personal lives. “You don’t want to be afraid of it. You want to embrace the tools, but you want them to be used for education,” he said. “We don’t want teachers socially interacting with students, but for curricular purposes we think it’s fine.”

http://www.thestarphoenix.com/technology/Social+media+tools+offer+opportunities+teachers/4645573/story.html

By Jim Warren, Lexington Herald-Leader

Eileen Haggard’s second-graders at Stonewall Elementary were studying polygons one morning last week, a lesson that required them to draw examples of the geometric shapes and then render them in bright colors. No paper, pencils or crayons were anywhere in sight. Instead, the students did all their work on iPad tablet computers. By using their fingers like pencils, the kids could draw polygons on the iPad screens. A tap on the screen could then turn the polygons the colors of the students’ choosing.

http://www.kentucky.com/2011/04/19/1712001/ipads-enhance-learning-in-some.html

By Ethan Forman, The Salem News

A group of parents, business leaders, residents and educators is launching a major fundraising campaign to pay for new technology at Danvers High. The all-volunteer Danvers Educational Enrichment Partnership seeks to raise $500,000 for computer labs, computers and interactive whiteboards in the newly renovated high school, scheduled to open in the fall of 2013. While the state plans to subsidize about two-thirds of the technology, the funding will fall about $500,000 short of the goal of bringing 21st-century technology to students, Superintendent Lisa Dana said.

http://www.salemnews.com/local/x1019709468/Digging-DEEP-to-help-out-students