Educational Technology

December 17, 2011

Hate goes high-tech – Part 1

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by WTHI-TV Terre Haute, IN

“It makes me feel that I should change something about myself and I’m doing something wrong,” says one victim. These are the affects of bullying. It happens in almost every school across the country; but now it’s starting to become present on almost every computer. “When I was in school, it was usually the schoolyard bully,” says Ray Azar, Director of Student Services for the Vigo County School System. “It was someone who was tough, rough, and bigger than the other kids. But you don’t have to be that today with the technology.”

http://www.wthitv.com/dpp/news/local/hate-goes-high-tech-part-1

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Edmodo, Facebook for classrooms, lands $15 million, top advisors

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by Jessica Guynn, LA Times

Surveys show that most students still use technology more outside the classroom than in it. And while 73% of teachers say digital content is essential, only 11% of districts are using it, according to a survey of IT professionals. In their last meeting before he died, Steve Jobs spoke with Bill Gates about the future of digital technology in the classroom given how little headway it had made. They agreed that “computers had, so far, made surprisingly little impact on schools — far less than on other realms of society such as media and medicine and law,” according to Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs. Rob Hutter, chairman of Edmodo and a managing partner with Learn Capital, contends that 2011 marks the tipping point with high-speed Internet in 95% of schools and the proliferation of mobile devices, which are more affordable and have longer battery life and the ability to create feature-rich, sophisticated educational initiatives in the cloud.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2011/12/edmodo-facebook-for-classrooms-lands-15-million-top-advisers.html

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Shrewsbury schools launch iPad training program

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By Marc C. Sanguinetti, Worcester Telegram

The school district this week launched a pilot program giving 53 students at Sherwood Middle School new iPad tablets for learning in the classroom and at home. School officials said if the pilot program is successful, they hope to equip every student in the district from Grades 5 through 12 with tablet computers within five years. Assistant Superintendent Mary Beth Banios last night presented the School Committee with an overview of the program. She emphasized that it is not about the iPad device itself, but the opportunities and access to learning that technology offers. She said that through the pilot program, she hopes to inform everybody about the long-term benefits of offering such technology in the classroom. Under the pilot program, the students’ iPad tablets connect to the Internet and other educational tools via Wi-Fi access.

http://www.telegram.com/article/20111208/NEWS/112089576/1003/NEWS03

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December 16, 2011

Learning with online technology

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by Philip Allmen, Hometown Life

Milford freshman Nick Fields is in the middle of his business management technologies class at Milford High School. A few seats down, junior Dana Morse is taking world history. Another dozen or so students sit in front of computer screens in the class, headphones in their ears, taking notes for art, health and more. The teens are among the 200 or so Milford High students taking online courses at the school this semester. When Fields started in the online course, he was taking a health class. But he’s already finished that course, so he began taking a business class after. Both Fields and Morse were placed into the online classrooms instead of requesting it.

http://www.hometownlife.com/article/20111208/NEWS11/112080442/Learning-online-technology

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Boulder Valley sells refurbished computers to students for $25

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By Amy Bounds, Daily Camera

Casey Middle School student Janice Contreras didn’t have a computer at home, so she stayed after school most days to complete assignments. But on Wednesday, her family bought its first computer for $25 through the Boulder Valley School District, taking advantage of a district program that sells older computers to students for cheap. “I really need it to do homework,” Janice said. The Boulder Valley School District’s Information Technology Department set up computer stores Wednesday at Boulder’s Arapahoe Ridge campus and Lafayette’s Centaurus High School. The district had about 400 refurbished desktop computers available on a first come, first served basis. Andrew Moore, Boulder Valley’s chief information officer, came up with the computer store concept last school year as a way to help students and save money. He said the district was recycling roughly 2,500 pieces of computer equipment each year — and paying a hefty recycling fee. The district is on a five-year computer replacement cycle.

http://www.dailycamera.com/boulder-county-news/ci_19492615

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1-to-1 Computing: Turning Around School Technology

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By Stephen Noonoo, THE Journal

Early in the last decade, Piedmont City School District, a small three-school district in Eastern Alabama between Birmingham and Atlanta, laid claim to the worst computer-to-student ratio in the state. Since then, the Piedmont district, where 65 percent of students qualify for reduced or free lunch, has successfully shaken off that title after embarking on a number of ambitious technology-driven projects, including a 1-to-1 take-home laptop initiative–called Mpower–a remote-learning partnership with Stanford University, and a wide-scale E-rate-funded project that will eventually bring high-speed Internet access to every student’s home. “About four years ago the last big employer in our city left, so our school system is the biggest thing going on in our community,” explained Piedmont Superintendent Matt Akin. “Looking at the future, we felt like we needed to do something to give our community hope again.”

http://thejournal.com/articles/2011/12/07/1-to-1-computing-turning-around-school-technology.aspx

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December 15, 2011

Springhurst Music Teacher Uses Technology to Unlock Creativity

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By Lizzie Hedrick, Rivertowns Patch

Springhurst music teacher Vi Taylor took Dr. Scott Watson’s course “Garage Band Does it All” in 2009 at Central Connecticut State University. The final project was to design a lesson she would use in her classroom, utilizing that particular software, and present it to her classmates. Little did she know at the time that her professor would enjoy her lesson plan so much that he would include it in his upcoming book, Using Technology To Unlock Musical Creativity, which hit the bookstores in August. Watson acknowledges Ms. Taylor and Springhurst in the book’s forward and he makes a compelling case for creativity-based music learning as exemplified in her lesson “Identify And Move To Instruments A la Freeze Dance.”

http://rivertowns.patch.com/articles/springhurst-music-teacher-uses-technology-to-unlock-creativity

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Poking Fun at Technology: PencilChat

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By HOLLY EPSTEIN OJALVO, NY Times

We all know the pencil as a writing implement made with graphite. But tech-savvy teachers participating in #pencilchat on Twitter have turned the lowly pencil into a potent metaphor for the integration of technology tools into the classroom. Examples:

“I refuse to use pencils in my classroom until manufacturers figure out a way to limit what students can write with them. #pencilchat” @erinneo

“The problem with pencils is that kids are going to use them to copy stuff out of books. #pencilchat” @ericnentrup

“Do you have any research showing that adding pencils to the classroom improves student outcomes? #pencilchat” @KarenMahonMimio

“I don’t have time 2 learn about pencils. Besides, students use them at home all the time, so they are probably experts already. #pencilchat” @JPPrezz

http://www.nytimes.com/schoolbook/2011/12/08/poking-fun-at-technology-pencilchat/

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States vs. the Digital-Learning Revolution

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by the National Review

New York does not require that students complete a course online in order to earn a high-school diploma, nor does its funding system ensure access to digital learning for all K–12 students. (Online courses are valuable because they customize curricula to students’ individual learning needs, allow students to access teachers at virtually any time of the day or night, and produce immediate and transparent progress reports on students’ performance.) In contrast, the International Association for K–12 Online Learning says that Singapore’s long-term digital-learning plan “is to train every teacher to teach online, to provide online learning in 100% of secondary schools, which means that all instructional materials are provided digitally and online, and every teacher and secondary school uses a learning management system to deliver course materials and track student progress.”

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/285096/states-vs-digital-learning-revolution-lance-t-izumi

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December 14, 2011

The National Intercollegiate Programming Championships

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by David Thielen, Huffington Post

This upcoming January will see the first intercollegiate programming code war, with multiple teams competing from most of the top computer science colleges in the country. We have invited the 17 schools that appear on the various top 10 lists and so far Cornell, Illinois, MIT, Harvey Mudd, Purdue and Wisconsin have accepted while Washington is a strong probable. The invitations have just gone out so we’re still waiting on the others. Universities have long had national athletic championships. Now with the code war, we get an academic competition, with play-offs at each school and then the top two teams from each school in a final series competing for the national championships. This contest will demonstrate the programming skill of some of the most brilliant young programmers in the world.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-thielen/computer-programming-championship_b_1133112.html

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Giving the tech industry a makeover will draw more women

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by LEAH EICHLER, Globe and Mail

Women in technology love to talk about the lack of women in technology, especially those who reside at the top. So on Jan. 1, 2012, when Virginia Rometty takes the helm of IBM Corp. as its first female chief executive officer, joining Meg Whitman as the CEO of Hewlett-Packard Co. as one of the few women in charge of a high-profile tech company, we should interpret this as success, right? Probably not. As many in the tech industry argue, the dearth of women in the industry overall contributes to that lack of representation at the C-suite level. And the lack of women in the industry can be traced back to the small numbers who pursue relevant degrees in science and tech. “It’s always encouraging to see women take on leadership positions of such global and influential firms, but I would not interpret that as success,” said Mic Berman, chief operating officer of Toronto-based FreshBooks, an online billing service.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/career-advice/leah-eichler/giving-the-tech-industry-a-makeover-will-draw-more-women/article2266335/

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We Are Machines, But Not Like Robots

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by Daniel Memetic, Tech-FAQ

It appears that our fascination with the technologies of the day subconsciously influence prevalent ideas about social order as well. We are now in the late stages of the information age, and the internet is by far the top technological paradigm. It is the modus operandi of our world. The new paradigm is decentralized networking rather than rigid mechanical machines. Just as the internet works so beautifully as a largely decentralized phenomenon a lot of people are beginning to realize that our societies could work in a similar way. The shift is slow, but it is happening. This led to the idea that rebelliously states: we are not machines, we are human beings! We are more complex than our robots and computers, more subtle and intricate. We cannot and should not be treated like machines who can be programmed towards being productive and happy. We can do so much better.

http://www.tech-faq.com/we-are-machines-but-not-like-our-robots.html

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December 13, 2011

Where Are the Tech Women Executives in Silicon Valley?

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By CLAIRE CAIN MILLER, NY Times

Though it won’t be news to anyone who has worked in Silicon Valley, a new study confirms that tech companies are woefully behind in including women among their board members and highest-paid executives — not to mention the engineering ranks. Of California’s 400 biggest public companies, technology companies have some of the lowest percentages of women directors and executives, according to the annual Study of California Women Business Leaders by the University of California, Davis, and Watermark, a Bay Area organization that tries to increase the number of women business leaders. “This is a place where technology companies are way behind,” said Marilyn Nagel, chief executive of Watermark. The software and semiconductor sectors have the lowest percentages of women among the five highest-paid executives in a company, with 4.4 percent and 2.7 percent, according to the study. On average, fewer than one in 28 of the highest-paid tech executives is a woman.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/09/where-are-the-women-executives-in-silicon-valley/

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Middle-school girls attend inaugural STEM career exposition at RIC

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By Nicole Wilson, Rhode Island College

Cathy Valentino was keynote speaker at the STEM in the Middle event.Educators agree that students now need to be engaged with STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) starting in middle school – a time when students, particularly girls, often shy away from the field due to gender stereotypes, and lack of awareness and perceived opportunities. Providence’s Sophia and TIMES² academies, two schools known for their programs in STEM, sent 90 female middle-school students to participate in the STEM in the Middle Girl’s Career Expo at RIC on Dec. 2. The event sought to increase STEM awareness and interest at the middle-school level through a full day of hands-on workshops focusing on topics such as biotechnology and DNA, forensics, mathematics, computer repair, science, electronics and multimedia.

http://www.ric.edu/whatsnews/details.php?News_ID=1615

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Kids thrive on netbook computers

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by Peter de Graaf, The Northern NZ Advocate

The kids of a Far North school who traded books and set lesson times for laptops and self-management have notched up their school’s best progress in reading. The trial has been such a success it is being expanded next year, with some parents digging into their own pockets to equip their kids with iPad-style tablet computers – even though the school is in one of Northland’s poorest areas. The Year 5 and 6 kids of Kaikohe West School’s “Connected Class” have spent the year working on a class set of 27 netbook computers, a smaller version of a laptop, and managing their own learning in teams of three.

http://www.northernadvocate.co.nz/news/kids-thrive-on-netbook-computers/1204581/

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December 12, 2011

5 Things to Know About the Future of Computer Science

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By Peggy Heminitz, Emmaus Patch

Carlen Blackstone, a computer science teacher at Emmaus High School, organized a Computer Science Showcase at the high school last night as part of National Computer Science Education Week. Blackstone wanted to shine some light on the accomplishments of East Penn students in the field of computer science and to point out how much more still needs to be done. These are some of the key messages that Blackstone wants people to consider.

http://emmaus.patch.com/articles/five-things-to-know-about-the-future-of-computer-science

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Sutton Coldfield primary school pupils design smartphone apps

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by Kat Keogh, Birmingham Mail

A group of Sutton Coldfield primary school kids have been getting to grips with technology by creating their own smartphone apps at an after-school computer club. The team of 18 pupils from New Oscott Primary School have been busy designing and testing out a number of apps to be used on smartphones and hand-held tablet computers. They include sound effect apps and a colourful programme complete with paint pots where pupils can create their own pictures. The computer club pupils, who are aged eight to ten years old, have spent every Monday after school for the past ten weeks taking part in a club run by Midlands IT education firm ComputerXplorers. Stephen Hall, director of ComputerXplorers, said: “The course has been a tremendous challenge for all of us and I am very impressed by the way the pupils grasped the concepts and went on to develop some very clever apps of their own.

http://www.birminghammail.net/news/top-stories/2011/12/10/sutton-coldfield-primary-school-pupils-design-smartphone-apps-97319-29927945/

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Education Dept. Report Calls for Greater Accessibility to Learning Materials for Visually Impaired Students

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By Alexandra Rice, Chronicle of Higher Ed

A report released Tuesday updates Congress on the state of accessibility to learning materials for college students with visual impairments such as blindness, and it recommends ways to improve their learning conditions. The Advisory Commission on Accessible Instructional Materials in Postsecondary Education for Students with Disabilities published the report following a 14-month study on the issue. The commission found that although efforts have been made to provide visually impaired students with adequate digital materials, many students’ needs are still not being met.

http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/education-dept-report-calls-for-greater-accessibility-to-learning-materials-for-visually-impaired-students/34561

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December 11, 2011

Death Knell for the Lecture: Technology as a Passport to Personalized Education

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By DAPHNE KOLLER, New York Times

In the 19th century, 60 percent of the American work force was in agriculture, and there were frequent food shortages. Today, agriculture accounts for less than 2 percent of the work force, and there are food surpluses. The key to this transition was the use of technology—from crop rotation strategies to GPS-guided farm machinery — which greatly increased productivity. By contrast, our approach to education has remained largely unchanged since the Renaissance: From middle school through college, most teaching is done by an instructor lecturing to a room full of students, only some of them paying attention. How can we improve performance in education, while cutting costs at the same time? In 1984, Benjamin Bloom showed that individual tutoring had a huge advantage over standard lecture environments: The average tutored student performed better than 98 percent of the students in the standard class. Until now, it has been hard to see how to make individualized education affordable. But I argue that technology may provide a path to this goal.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/06/science/daphne-koller-technology-as-a-passport-to-personalized-education.html

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Teacher Challenges Students to Go Without Any Technology

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by Ozarks First

We’re all pretty dependent on technology, and that goes double for teenagers who tweet and text. A group of high school students in Tennessee recently tried to give up their techie lifestyles, at least for a little while. “No cell phones, no computer, no iPods, no radios in your car.” English teacher Stephen Womack may be a popular teacher at Franklin, Tennessee High School. Just maybe not last week. “I got about half-way through the challenge and I thought, it isn’t worth it.” “They made it three days, I didn’t make it a day,” Womack admits. 36 or 72 hours. Even a week without things they have at their disposal every second. “I sleep with my iPod, and I stay up late with technology and stuff, so I got a lot of sleep.”

http://ozarksfirst.com/fulltext?nxd_id=566517

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Overhauling Computer Science Education

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By D.A. Barber, THE Journal

The ability to use a computer, its software, or computational thinking to solve problems are not core K-12 subjects taught under most state guidelines by certified teachers. In fact, schools often blur the lines between computer technology literacy with the ability to use computational thinking skills across disciplines. Today, computer science (CS) curriculum focuses on teaching how to use software but gives no insight into how it’s made or an aptitude for the technology to an entire generation whose everyday lives have become inextricably linked with computing technology. While adopting best methods and practices in teaching computer science principles (CSP) is not standard procedure in most K-12 schools, some university projects are working toward that goal.

http://thejournal.com/articles/2011/12/05/overhauling-computer-science-education.aspx

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