T H E Journal (Technological Horizons In Education) articles from September 2006

T H E Journal (Technological Horizons In Education) archives from September 2006

The answer is in the stars: in the search for a way to remedy our problems in math and science education, we should look to NASA for help.(National Aeronautics and Space Administration)
September 1, 2006... SPACE HAS ENTHRALLED ME since I was old enough to stare into it. When I was a kid, my parents took my four siblings and me camping every summer. it was a week without electricity, TV, or private restrooms. We hiked all day and sat by the...

Correction.(Correction notice)
September 1, 2006... In our August Commentary, the Cable in the Classroom website should have been identified as www.ciconline.org. We regret the error.

K-12, meet higher Ed: the two arms of our education system have much to gain in recognizing their common ground.
September 1, 2006... SECURITY, PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT, mobility, technology funding, eLearning, the smart classroom--these were some of the clusters of topics at the recent Campus Technology 2006 conference in Boston. Hosted by Campus Technology, the sister...

Event calendar.
September 1, 2006... September 2006 SEP 20-22 South Dakota Library Association 2006 Annual Conference Librarians in Action Rapid City, SD www.sdlibraryassociation.org SEP 27-29 Minnesota Library Association MLA Annual Conference 2006 Creativity and...

CEP: 90% of Title I districts to see flat or decreased funding: a new report says DoE statistics don't fully reveal impact of reductions in 2006-2007 NCLB appropriations.
September 1, 2006... THE CENTER ON EDUCATION POLICY (www.cep-dc.org), a public-education advocacy group, has released a study outlining the effect of dwindling No Child Left Behind appropriations on school districts receiving Title I funding, which is meant to help...

Gow picks CDW-G for laptop rollout.(Gow School)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... UNTIL NOW, the 142 students attending The Gow School, an 80-year-old South Wales, NY, school for boys with dyslexia and other language-based learning disabilities, have used their own laptops in their studies, loading them with their choice of...

Tech sweepstakes winners name.(Bill King and Kitty O'Neil wins Win a Wireless Lab award)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... Bill King, a technology teacher at Central Middle School in Murfreesboro, TN, and Kitty O'Neil, a speech and language teacher at Fisher Mitchell School, an elementary school in Bath, ME, are the grand-prize winners in the "Win a Wireless Lab"...

One laptop per child reaches Thailand.(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has announced that this fall, One Laptop per Child (www.loptop.org) will begin delivering computers to Thailand's elementary school children. The prime minister agreed to adopt the program after...

Follett acquires Sagebrush.(Follett Software Co.)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... Folleu Software Company (www.fsc.follett.com), a K-12 library automation solutions provider, has acquired Sagebrush's (www.sagebrushcorp.com) library automation business, including the Accent, InfoCentre. Athena, and Spectrum applications. ...

Microsoft settlements mean big funding gains for Florida and California.(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... Schools in Florida and California will be on the receiving end of a windfall of technology money, courtesy of the settlement of class-action lawsuits brought against Microsoft (www.microsoft.com) in 2003, which accused the software giant of...

Xandros makes offer to windows users.(releases of Desktop Home Edition and Home Edition Premium softawre)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... Citing Microsoft's (www.microsoft.com) announcement that Windows 98, 98SE, and Me will no longer receive customer support, Xandros (www.xandros.com), a provider of Linux alternatives to Windows, is offering unsupported Windows users upgrades to...

Geoff Fletcher named to SETDA board.(State Educational Technology Directors Association)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... T.H.E. Journal Editorial Director Geoff Fletcher has been named to the board of directors of the State Educational Technology Directors Association (www.setda.org). Fletcher will serve as the emeritus board member. Also named to the board was...

Apple Gets a Clue.(Apple Computer Inc. contracts with FableVision)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... Apple (www.apple.com) has selected FableVision's (www.fablevision.com) Get a Clue, an online vocabulary program, for inclusion in the Secondary Tools package offered with the Apple Digital Learning Series. Get a Clue is a subscription-based web...

First online K-8 Chicago School due to open.(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... Once the Illinois State Board of Education certifies the Chicago Virtual Charter School, the city's first K-8 online public school expects to open on Sept. 5. Approved by Chicago Public Schools in January, CVCS will be limited to a student body...

Takin' it to the creeks: handheld technology is making for a whole new kind of science lesson.(mobile computing)
September 1, 2006... KELLIE DOUBEK DOESN'T mince words: Full-size computers don't belong in the field. "You can get a handhold to do the same thing for a fraction of the cost," says Doubek, an educational consultant who advises Midwestern schools on implementing...

Power up, don't power down: barring students from using cell phones, MySpace, and other communication technologies once they enter the classroom is the wrong approach. A better move would be integrating those tools into instruction.(policy & advocacy)
September 1, 2006... I HATE IT WHEN I discover conflicts within my belief system, especially when they can be used to call me a hypocrite. One such awakening came about when I found myself spouting off about the ridiculous, albeit well-meaning, Deleting Online...

All the right muves: the use of computer simulations that appeal to students' love of video games has shown compelling educational benefits.(educational gaming)
September 1, 2006... IF YOU ONLY PUT A FRACTION OF THAT TIME AND ENERGY INTO YOUR STUDIES, YOU'D BE A STRAIGHT-A STUDENT! It's the universal cry of parents the world over, driven mad by the persistent sight of their children investing hours and hours in...

Building a better student: by testing academic performance at regular intervals, formative assessment strategies regard every child as a work in progress.(formative assessment)(Cover story)
September 1, 2006... To start, a question: What's the difference between formative assessment and summative assessment? It's not enough to say merely that formative assessment is a measure of student achievement administered several times during the school...

Teaming up to go 1-to-1: districts are discovering that the secret to implementing a good laptop program is finding a good partner.
September 1, 2006... ANY TECHNOLOGIST WILL TELL YOU there's more than one way to create a 1-to-1 computing environment. But how do you create one that works? Some districts are finding that the key to launching a successful program quickly and easily is partnering...

Earlier this summer.(Maine Department of Education contracts with Apple Computer Inc.)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... EARLIER THIS SUMMER, the Maine Department of Education signed off on a $41 million contract with Apple (www.apple.com) that will provide new laptop computers to more than 30,000 seventh- and eighth-graders and their teachers, extending the...

From revolutionary to evolutionary: 10 years of 1-to-1 computing: laptop initiatives are now a decade old. Once a point of controversy, they have become the cornerstone of every district's technology hopes.
September 1, 2006... ONE-TO-ONE COMPUTING is aging quite nicely, thank you. It's getting on 10 years since school districts began experimenting with laptop initiatives, and their efforts--controversial at first, with school leaders and parents questioning the...

Data storage gets personal as digital options abound, students are now using technology to create sophisticated multimedia projects they want to keep.
September 1, 2006... BEFORE THE DIGITAL AGE dawned, a data storage device was a fancy name for a Pee Chee folder. Since virtually all school work was done on paper, students had no real need to search out anything else. New technologies are now at work on both...

The Docupen RC800.
September 1, 2006... THE DOCUPEN RC800 is Planon's latest pen-sized scanner. It measures nearly nine inches long, weighs two ounces, and is powered by a rechargeable lithium ion battery. The scanner does not need to be plugged into a computer to function, and can...

Desire2learn.(released its latest eLearning Suite)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... DESIRE2LEARN recently released its latest eLearning Suite, composed of Learning Environment 8.1, Learning Repository 3.5, and LiveRoom 4.0. Learning Environment 8.1 features tools for competency management, creating rubrics, implementing new...

Sound Advance.
September 1, 2006... SOUND ADVANCE has introduced its new FastMount speakers to the market. The FastMount line includes three indoor/outdoor, fiat-panel models. These surface-mount speakers each feature polypropylene woofers, a polyurethane dome tweeter, crossover...

With Learningsoft.
September 1, 2006... WITH LEARNINGSOFT'S Indigo Learning System, teachers can create standards-based assessments, using a wizard, then wirelessly deliver the tests to student handhelds. Teachers can view the results as students key in their answers. The Indigo...

Panasonic.(product FOCUS: The latest releases, services, and new product versions)
September 1, 2006... PANASONIC'S new 50-inch TH-50PH9UK high-definition professional plasma display is 15 percent lighter than previous models and includes 16-bit digital signal processing with up to 3,072 steps of gradation. It features contrast management, a...

Extracurricular: for technologists who do their homework.(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... What are the hottest education technologies? The new report "America's Digital Schools 2006: A Five-Year Forecast" (www.ads2006.org) predicts which tools will make the largest gains over the next five years, based on responses from tech...