T H E Journal (Technological Horizons In Education) articles from May 2008

T H E Journal (Technological Horizons In Education) archives from May 2008

Taxing the system.(what's ONLINE: www.thejournal.com)(Poway Unified School District )(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Eager to comply with the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), which addresses concerns over access to offensive internet content on school and library computers, Poway Unified School District (CA) made a move this year to ensure that its...

Hoax subpoena e-mails shine light on 'spearphishing'.(HOT TOPICS)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Top managers at high-profile corporations nationwide have received e-mail messages that look like official subpoenas from the United States District Court in San Diego. This hoax brings attention to the growth of a certain modus operandi among...

NASA gets serious about educational gaming.(HOT TOPICS)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... NASA has moved a step closer to branching into educational gaming by presenting its vision of a science-focused, multiplayer online game to more than 200 potential software development partners in a workshop sponsored by NASA Learning...

Electronic transcripts at the tipping point.(HOT TOPICS)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Many postsecondary institutions are still requesting that transcripts be physically mailed between the high school and college, but a number of states are working to change that. www.thejournal.com/articles/22322

Technology immersion turns around Texas Middle School.(CASE STUDY)(Marvin Baker Middle School)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Take a Title I urban school with fewer than 50 computers for some 850 students, and a staff that wasn't strong on technology. Add an ambitious plan to roll out a new technology program that gave a laptop to every teacher and student. Sound like...

Microsoft investigating localsystem access bug.(NEWS)
May 1, 2008... Security personnel in Redmond, WA, are investigating a zero-day bug vulnerability in Microsoft operating and server systems. The bug, disclosed by Bill Sisk. Microsoft's security response communications manager, allows escalation of privilege...

Spotlight: free social media tools for educators.(RESOURCES)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... While most districts are still tackling web-based collaboration tools from pedagogical and security perspectives, many teachers are already using these tools to supplement instruction and engage learners. In other words, they're...

Accountability, yes. Teaching to the test, no.(OPINION)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Rick Stiggins, founder of the Educational Testing Service's Assessment Training Institute, poses a question that has been discussed since standardized testing was chosen as a measure of school effectiveness: "Are we helping students and...

Putting faith in technology: the unconventional use of a familiar digital service stirs up thoughts about its reliability--and its possibilities.(our SPACE)(Column)
May 1, 2008... I WAS ZONING OUT, STUCK IN TRAFFIC during my drive to the office, when a familiar term--VoIP--brought my attention back to the radio. After listening for a few moments, I realized the reporter wasn't discussing voice over IP, but a relatively...

Beaming with promise: soon-arriving mini-projectors can display cell phone video on the nearest flat surface. That's reason for celebration, not dread.(commentary)
May 1, 2008... A FAVORITE COLUMN OF MINE IS "Novelties" by Anne Eisenberg, which appears in the Sunday edition of The New York Times. Recently, she wrote about projectors that are shining down the road. These are very small units that "when plugged into cell...

Copyright kudos.(your LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2008... Your article on copyright law ["Do the (Copy)right Thing," March; www. thejournal.com/articles/22173] describes my school district perfectly. I cringe at districtwide meetings when PowerPoints are shown with music that no one has gotten...

Math is x-cellent.(your LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2008... I THOROUGHLY ENJOYED Jeff Weinstock's April editorial ["The X Man Cometh"; www.thejournal.com/articles/22386]. I, too, recently rediscovered math. My middle school-aged daughter has reached the level of complex problem solving that has forced...

Editorial doesn't pass.(your LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
May 1, 2008... IN "MAKE IT A TEST Worth Teaching To" [Our Space, February; www.thejournal. com/articles/22009], Jeff Weinstock is comparing apples and oranges. Teachers object to one test given at the end of the year that determines whether the government...

Discovery, 3M will crown top student scientist.(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... ONE OF THE country's leading national science competitions for students in grades 5 through 8 is now accepting entries for its 10th year of competition. A joint venture of Discovery Education (www.discoveryeducation.com) and 3M...

'Speak Up' reveals digital disconnect: results of the annual survey indicate a large gap between students and their parents and teachers on the role of technology in learning.(Survey)
May 1, 2008... STUDENTS THROUGHOUT THE NATION have voiced their opinions about the role technology has in their education, and according to the results of Speak Up 2007, they're singing a different tune from that of their parents and teachers. The Speak...

Atomic learning partners with creative learning systems.(Industry News)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Atomic Learning (www.atomiclearning.com), a provider of web-based software training and support, and Creative Learning Systems (www.creativelearningsystems.com), a provider of 21st-century learning labs for schools, have announced a...

Vernier offers Summer Workshop.(Industry News)(Vernier Software L.L.C.)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Educators nationwide have an opportunity to earn continuing education credits during the 2008 Vernier Summer Workshops. Running from June 11 through Aug. 11, the workshops will focus on using handheld data collection technology for science at...

Promethean hires new CMO.(People)(appointment of Iwan Streichenberger as chief marketing officer)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Promethean (www.prometheanworld.com) has named Iwan Streichenberger, former president of Edusoft (www.edusoft.com), as its new chief marketing officer. Streichenberger will be responsible for expanding Promethean's interactive classroom...

SETDA honors congresswoman.(People)(State Educational Technology Directors Association)(Lucille Roybal-Allard)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Each year, the State Educational Technology Directors Association (www.setda.org) recognizes a federal leader who takes action to support education technology. This year, the organization honored Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA) with its...

The fight against cyberbullying: as tales of online cruelty mount, districts are trying a mix of prevention and punishment, incorporating internet safety into curriculum and tightening student conduct codes.(security)
May 1, 2008... WHAT HAPPENED at Providence High School in Charlotte, NC, this past January showed just how far the menace of cyberbullying has expanded its reach. It seemed like a standard, if appalling, case of online malice: A student was found to have...

Content, anyone? Free and always available, web-based open source materials are providing educators with a fertile, ever-adaptable supply of instructional resources.(open source)
May 1, 2008... KEEPING SPENDING IN CHECK while ensuring educators have up-to-date teaching materials has long been a balancing act for school districts. Textbooks are prohibitively expensive to replace yearly or even biannually, sometimes forcing teachers to...

Show and tell: students are using cutting-edge visual technologies to bring the age-old art of storytelling from the spoken and written tradition into the digital age.(21st century classroom)
May 1, 2008... BRIAN CROSBY'S 27 students at Agnes Risley Elementary School in Sparks, NV, announce themselves with this banner at the top of their blog: "We are a fifth-grade class that is piloting a 1-to-1 laptop program using iBook computers. We blog,...

Fill'er up! What to do with all those cell phones, PDAs, and iPods tucked away in students' backpacks? Forward-thinking administrators have found a 'smart' solution: Load them with educational content and welcome them into instruction.(converged devices)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "How many students are told at the beginning of each school year, 'Leave your cell phone in your locker; turn off the phone'?" asks June St. Clair Atkinson in a recent blog entry. "While we give students paper...

Together at last: left out of the digital revolution for too long, special education is finally being integrated into student information systems.(admin systems)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] NO ONE CAN SAY with real certainty why it happened, but when K-12 school districts began implementing the first student information systems (SISs) during the 1990s, special education was largely left out of the...

What are we protecting them from: by mandating schools restrict internet access, CIPA and other federal and state legislation intend to guard student's safety online--but all they may be doing is keeping vital educational technology out of the classroom.(web filtering)(Cover story)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] On June 23, 2003, in writing the Supreme Court's majority opinion that upheld the constitutionality of the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA), the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist shot down concerns that...

Leapfrog School.(product FOCUS: The latest releases, services, and new product versions)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] LEAPFROG SCHOOL has launched a new online version of Link to Lessons, an educator resource for classroom tools and activities aimed at individualized instruction. Designed to support classroom use of LeapFrog School...

Educational insights.(product FOCUS: The latest releases, services, and new product versions)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... EDUCATIONAL INSIGHTS presents Smart Talk Espanol, an interactive tutor for Spanish language learners. This tabletop electronic device helps students learn up to 450 Spanish vocabulary words on photo cards through three modes of interaction: The...

Inspiration software.(product FOCUS: The latest releases, services, and new product versions)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] INSPIRATION SOFTWARE has launched Kidspiration 3 to give students in kindergarten through grade 5 even more ways to use visual learning to explore and understand words, numbers, and concepts. With this...

Though stationary units are most common, the prominent use of mobile computing devices in schools indicates the rise in 1-to-1 implementations.(extracurricular: For technologists who do their homework)(Statistical table)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... HIGHLIGHTS * 4 IN 5 DISTRICTS REPORT PROVIDING AT LEAST 75% OF THEIR TEACHERS WITH A COMPUTING DEVICE * 12% OF STUDENT COMPUTERS ARE PORTABLE UNITS FOR USE AT HOME AND/OR SCHOOL * DELL IS DISTRICTS' MOST POPULAR MOBILE COMPUTING...