T H E Journal (Technological Horizons In Education) articles from November 2005

T H E Journal (Technological Horizons In Education) archives from November 2005

Welcome to your new T.H.E.--keep the best, improve the rest! Each month, here's what you'll be finding inside your number one K-12 technology resource.(seen::HEARD)
November 1, 2005... IF THE MAGAZINE LOOKS a little bit different this month, it's because the folks at T.H.E. Journal have been working hard to bring you a fresh look and newly expanded coverage--something that's been in the works for a number of months now, and...

Event::calendar.
November 1, 2005... November 2005 NOV 29 Software & Information industry Association SHA Ed Tech Business Forum 2005 New York, NY www.siia.net/etbf/2005 NOV 30-DEC 2 Tennessee Education Technology Conference Nashville, TN www.state.tn.us/tetc ...

Uncovering E-Rate mismanagement: new subcommittee report details the waste, fraud, and abuse of the E-Rate program over a 2 1/2-year investigation.
November 1, 2005... A SUBCOMMITTEE of the Committee on Energy and Commerce last month released the report, Waste, Fraud, and Abuse Concerns with the E-Rate Program (full report at www.thejournal.com/Erate_Report_Oct05.p df), on the heels of more than 2 1/2 years...

Alleviating energy waste.
November 1, 2005... iScienceProject is now accepting submissions for its second annual HOBO Energy Challenge, through April 30, 2006. The contest provides participating US K-12 classrooms with a free, two-month HOBO Loaner Package, which includes a HOBO data...

Solving community issues.
November 1, 2005... The Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation is accepting entries for its 10th annual Christopher Columbus Awards program until Feb. 13, 2006. The contest challenges teams of up to four students in grades 6-8, and one mentor, to identify a...

Ed Tech Community supports Katrina victims.(Kinetic Books Co., Educational partners Learning Today Inc., Let's Go Learn Inc., Blackboard Inc. etc in help of disaster affected students)(Hurricane Katrina )(Hurricane Rita)
November 1, 2005... Kinetic Books Co. (www.kineticbooks.com) will donate its comprehensive digital textbooks and virtual labs to facilitate free online physics classes for up to 1,000 high school students displaced by Hurricane Katrina, as well as those who were...

Maryland partners with Harcourt to provide state assessment services.(Harcourt Assessment )(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... Harcourt Assessment (www.harcourtassessment.com) has reached an agreement with the state of Maryland to provide test development, administration, scoring, and reporting services for the Maryland State Assessment for a five-year period,...

South Carolina District installs 300 Smart Boards in its K-6 classrooms.(SMART Technologies Inc.'s contract)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... SMART Technologies Inc. (www.smarttech.com) has equipped 300 Lexington County School District One (SC) classrooms with its SMART Board interactive whiteboards as part of the district's ultimate goal of having 600 whiteboards installed in its...

SBC signs five-year networking deal with Oklahoma district.(SBC Communications Inc.)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... SBC Communications Inc. (www. sbc.com) has announced it has signed a five-year contract to provide its net working services to Enid Public Schools (OK). Under the terms of the agreement, SBC will deliver its SBC PremierSERV Asynchronous...

Computer Associates grant empowers two underprivileged NY schools.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... Computer Associates (www.ca.com) has awarded a $30,000 grant to MPowering Kids (www.mpoweringkids.org), a nonprofit organization that provides tutoring, mentoring, and cultural enrichment for underprivileged children. The grant will be used to...

UC-Irvine develops online courses to prepare K-12 teachers for the CSET.(California Subject Examinations for Teachers)( University of California)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... The Boeing Co. (www.boeing) and The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation (www.hewlett.org) have given a grant worth $350,000 to the University of California-Irvine to develop online courses that will address the urgent need to help prepare...

Sun launches portal to increase Java understanding.(Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Java Teaching Innovations Portal )(www.sun.com/aboutsun/ comm_invest/jgp/index.html)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... Sun Microsystems has launched its Java Teaching Innovation s Portal (www.sun.com/aboutsun/ comm_invest/jgp/index.html) to provide educators with project-oriented resources, which can be incorporated into existing technology education programs,...

C-SPAN classroom rolls out new Web site, contest.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... C-SPAN Classroom has launched a new Web site (www.c-spanclassroom.org) for middle and high school civics and government teachers that features free standards-based video content, lesson plans, and primary source materials designed to bring the...

A digital doorway to the world: a determined elementary teacher orchestrates a collaborative project that links students worldwide with an iBook and the GarageBand music-authoring application.
November 1, 2005... WELCOME TO our new monthly Mac Educator department, coming to you each issue via a collaboration with The Software MacKiev Co. (www.mackiev.com), committed to demonstrating its vision of students and teachers using Macintosh technology to...

Accelerating out of technologic adolescence: as education technology toils through its turbulent second stage of growth, it's important to keep in mind its shimmering future.
November 1, 2005... FRENCH POLITICAL THINKER Baron de Montesquieu once said, "The success of most things depends upon knowing how long it will take to succeed." Which is a good lesson for policymakers as education technology continues to emerge and evolve. ...

The power of digital integration: a small-town district prepares its high school students for the future by implementing a 1-to-1 laptop program with digital communications tools.(Kutztown Area School District )
November 1, 2005... IN JUNE 2004, Brenda Winkler, the tech-savvy superintendent of the Kutztown Area School District (PA), had a plan. She wanted to institute a 1-to-1 laptop initiative with Apple Computer (www.apple.com) to put laptops in the hands of every high...

Is the pen mightier than the mouse? Recent technology developments confirm that pentop computing is set to make its mark in K-12 education.
November 1, 2005... IN 1991, PenTop magazine (long since defunct) quoted Greg Slyngstad, then general manager of Microsoft's Pen Computing Group, as saying: "The impact of pens on computing will be far greater than the mouse. The two key benefits--extreme...

The enrichments of rich media: a high school student testifies to the benefits of bringing technology into the classroom.( East Windsor High School )
November 1, 2005... I CAN'T REMEMBER a time when I didn't use technology in my daily life. As a senior at East Windsor High School in Connecticut, I've seen the availability and integration of technology applications in our district grow to include the recent...

Warming up to wireless: as wireless technology takes hold in school districts, the biggest challenge is getting teachers to embrace it, to take student learning to a new level.(Cover Story)
November 1, 2005... Just south of the Canadian border, way up north on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, the winters are windy and the ice is thick. Moose outnumber humans by a staggering ratio. Hunting is the regional pastime. So it's no wonder that students at...

Is your network safe? Why educators should care about cybersecurity--and what they should do about it.
November 1, 2005... Assume that you are the superintendent of the Above-Average School District. Today in the news you spy a devastating story about a neighboring school district whose education network was attacked by hackers. Confidential information was...

NASA Live creating a global classroom: a NASA videoconferencing program knocks down traditional educational boundaries, drawing together teachers, students, and field experts in a single virtual setting for the benefit of all.(National Aeronautics and Space Administration)
November 1, 2005... THEY MAY NOT HAVE known it, but in January 2004, when students from Oxon Hill Middle School in Oxon Hill, MD, met face-to-face with students at Princess Anne Middle School, in Virginia Beach, VA, without either group ever stepping outside of...

The rise and fall of educational technology: did we miss the point? We need educational technologists who are developers of learning tools, not just software-installing computer practitioners.
November 1, 2005... RECENT RUMBLINGS about the "death" of educational technology are sufficient reasons to examine the growth and direction of this young discipline. While the implementation of computer technology in schools or any other organization is a...

Display technology 'tradeoffs': educators face an array of options when shopping for the latest displays. To choose wisely, first carefully assess the needs of your schools.
November 1, 2005... EDUCATORS SEEKING to take full advantage of the latest display technologies to enhance the learning experience are faced with a dizzying array of choices. But since display technologies are changing so rapidly, there's often more than meets the...

CELT National Education Summit '05: the Center for Education Leadership and Technology's October Cape Cod forum focuses on bridging the gap between education reform and technology.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... INNOVATIVE LEADER. Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's keynote speech addressed the threat that globalization brings to the US economy. Romney stated that a strong education system with a focus on math and science could catapult the United States...

Fourier Systems.(new product Nova5000 )(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... WITH ITS Nova5000, a low-cost computing solution that combines Windows CE 5.0 tablet computing with scientific probeware functionality, Fourier Systems is attempting to bridge the gap between handhelds and laptops in the classroom, while making...

FileMaker Pro8.(product::FOCUS: The latest releases, services and new product versions)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... FILEMAKER PRO 8 from FileMaker is loaded with an array of new features that make it easy to manage and share information. The program's new PDF Maker allows users to save, share, and password-protect their documents as PDFs for easy viewing by...

Digital Connect Communications (DCC).(product::FOCUS: The latest releases, services and new product versions)
November 1, 2005... THE NEW Hallpass component of the Mastermind Student Information System from Digital Connect Communications (DCC) uses an embedded "smart" computer chip that holds a cash value so schools can allow their students to purchase lunch in a...

Gateway.(new product Gateway M280 from Gateway Computer Systems Inc.)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... FEATURING AN ALLOY hinge anchored in magnesium that securely swivels the display, and dual magnetically activated display latches to keep it safely locked in place, Gateway's M280 convertible notebook gives customers all the benefits of a...

Kurzweil Educational Systems.(product::FOCUS: The latest releases, services and new product versions)(Kurzweil 1000)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... THE NEWEST RELEASE of Kurzweil 1000 from Kurzweil Educational Systems offers blind and visually impaired readers a broader choice of reading materials by giving them the ability to create audio files of documents that can be accessed in...

Autoskill International.(new product Literacy Intervention Suite)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... AUTOSKILL INTERNATIONAL'S Literacy Intervention Suite offers K-12 students a consistent, personalized approach to building foundational reading and math literacy skills by combining the latest versions of Academy of Reading and Academy of Math...

Software Technology Inc.(product::FOCUS: The latest releases, services and new product versions)(InformationNOW)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY INC. (STI) has released InformationNOW, a personalized, browser-based platform that can search data sets from any of STI's suites of data management solutions, and transform the information into easy-to-understand reports...

UltraKey Version 5.(Bytes of Learning Inc.)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... ULTRAKEY VERSION 5 from Bytes of Learning Inc. systematically teaches children touch-typing and safe keyboarding through voice accompaniment, 3-D animation, video, and virtual reality. It also gives teachers the ability to customize themes and...

Onset Computer Corp.(new product HOBO Pendant)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... AVAILABLE WITH an 8KB or 64KB memory capacity, Onset Computer Corp.'s wearable HOBO Pendant is a value-priced temperature and light-intensity data logger that can be used for a variety of hands-on science projects both in and outside of the...

Lenovo.(new product ThinkVision L171p from Lenovo Group Ltd.)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... TO HELP INCREASE user productivity, Lenovo's new 17-inch ThinkVision L171p LCD flat-panel monitor offers the option of viewing work in either the traditional landscape or vertically oriented portrait mode. The ultra-slim classroom- and computer...

Chancery Software.(new product Chancery Student Management Solution 6.0)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... CHANCERY SOFTWARE has added two new components to the latest release of its Web-based Chancery SMS 6.0 student information system solution. The first, Program Management, enables schools and districts to advise on students' academic and social...

Tech choices across the board: a Connecticut school district official draws up his most-wanted list of new technologies and the vendors chosen or under consideration.
November 1, 2005... Timothy Howes is the assistant superintendent/technology director of the East Windsor School District in Connecticut. The district, situated on the east side of the Connecticut River, has a student population approaching 1,600, which is spread...