Educational Technology

By Jennifer Moody, Albany Democrat-Herald

School districts across the nation are studying the feasibility of providing laptops, iPads, Kindles or other mobile technology to their students as part of their approach to 21st-century education. In February, Apple reported having sold more than 4.5 million iPads to education facilities throughout the United States, and by June, had sold some 10 million to education institutions worldwide. In spite of problems with hacking by students, the nation’s second-largest school district, Los Angeles Unified, is still committed to providing iPads to all students at its 47 schools. Locally, the Corvallis School District provided mini or standard iPads this fall to every student at Mountain View Elementary School, along with devices for all the students in the English-only classes at the Lincoln and Garfield dual immersion schools. Students in the college-preparatory classes known as AVID at Corvallis and Crescent Valley high schools also have iPads.

http://www.gazettetimes.com/news/local/the-mobilization-of-education/article_f9fb2f61-2e63-5334-a1fc-6ae78d5cc31c.html

BY JOHN LEGG, The Tampa Tribune

Per the 2012 Cyberstate report, Florida is ranked 1st in computer training; 2nd in space and defense high-tech industries; 3rd in engineering services; 4th in Internet and telecommunication services; and 5th in tech employment. It is imperative that our education system equips Florida’s students with fluent digital and technological skills so they will be the leaders of this changing economy. Many of Florida’s business and education leaders have seen firsthand the need for policies and investment in technology in our schools. We are working with our universities for short-term and long-term investments in technology. We must continue to march swiftly to excellence by equipping our students with the skills they need in order to lead in an ever-increasing digital economy.

http://tbo.com/list/news-opinion-commentary/education-needs-a-tech-surge-20131027/

by John Kopp, Delaware County Daily Times

There is no chalk for the class clown to slip inside any erasers in Sarah Coletta’s Haverford High School classroom. That tired prank is as long-gone as the chalkboards themselves. Instead, the 17 students each intently stared at the iPad Mini in their hands, using an app to complete a problem Coletta had forwarded to the entire class from her own device. Using the iPad’s touchscreen, the students needed nothing more than their index finger to write out their answers. On her own mobile device, the teacher can monitor each student as he or she attempts the problem. With a simple tap, Coletta also can project any of her students’ work onto a Smart Board for the entire class to view. The iPad Minis, utilized two or three times a week, create a learning environment that is more “streamlined and seamless,” Coletta said. She also has noticed students who are too shy to complete a problem on the whiteboard are more willing to share their work when using an iPad.

http://www.delcotimes.com/20131028/education-going-high-tech

by Justin Scoggin, Hybrid Pedagogy

My favorite pedagogical tool is the essential question. Briefly, these attempt to focus student attention on the broader implications and deeper meanings behind content. I had been using them in my own quaint way before reading Understanding by Design by Wiggins and McTighe, and that reading both confirmed my intuition and pushed my use of this strategy to a higher level.

http://www.hybridpedagogy.com/Journal/files/Essential_Questions.html#unique-entry-id-176

By Juliann Francis, Business Week

President Barack Obama warned that other nations are pulling ahead of the U.S. in global economic competition as he campaigned for his budget goals at a high school and a Democratic fundraising event in New York. The president urged Congress to pass a budget that sets the “right priorities” by putting money into education and other programs that will help advance economic growth. The U.S. needs “some political courage in Washington,” Obama told students, faculty and elected officials at Pathways in Technology Early College High School in Brooklyn. “We need to work together to grow the economy, not shrink it”

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-10-25/obama-says-congress-must-keep-priority-on-education-in-budget

By Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology

As college courses migrate toward a variety of tech-enabled models–blended, flipped, online, and MOOC–students who lack basic computer skills pose significant challenges for instructors and institutions alike. How do you teach a class of students whose tech skills–and access to the technology itself–differ so widely? How do you keep students enrolled who are struggling to master the platform, let alone the course materials?

http://campustechnology.com/articles/2013/10/23/when-students-cant-compute.aspx