Pasco + Smart = New Way of Teaching Science

A new alliance between Smart Technologies and Pasco could mean a new way of looking at interactive lesson boards and projectors for science classrooms. The two companies will team up to bring Pasco’s DataStudio software to Smart’s SynchronEyes classroom management program, providing science teachers with a way to demonstrate data collection and analysis techniques to a class.

Bad Chips?

Nvidia, the notebook world’s second largest graphics chip-maker fessed up to the fact that their graphics are overheating and burning out, something we’ve heard on the street and in the schoolyard. The Wall Street Journal reports that the company is blaming some of its suppliers for selling them inferior materials, but we hope that Nvidia will stand by their products and set up a way to refund buyers of notebooks with bum chips. It will take time, so check back to see what they come up with.

NECC Survival Guide

While we can’t help with sore feet and headaches, TechTools can lend a hand with some of the basics for next week’s 29th annual National Educational Computing Conference. Held at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas, there’s no shortage of things to do, people to see and stuff to play with.

• The Schedule of Events

• Floor plan of exhibitors

• Alphabetical exhibitor listing

• Workshop schedule

• Things to do in San Antonio

It won’t help much but as big and tiring as this year’s show is, next year’s is sure to be bigger.

The State of the Internet

The backbone of any 21-st century school is its Internet connection, and the latest survey of America’s ability to deliver high-speed data is sadly lacking. The State of the Internet report by Akamai paints a sad picture for the broadband data that’s available for U.S. schools. South Korea leads the world with the fastest data connections with 64 percent of the country’s Internet connections delivering 5Mbps or faster. By contrast, only 20 percent were that fast in the U.S. In fact, we not only behind lagged Korea, but Japan, Hong Kong, Sweden and even Romania and Belgium.

Where’re the best and worst places to set up a digital school in the U.S.? Surprisingly, Delaware led the states with 96 percent of connections over 2Mbps. Washington state has the dubious honor of having the slowest connections in the U.S. with 21 percent at less than 256Kbps. Akamai plans on compiling this data every quarter, so we’ll be back in three months with an update.

OLPC Goes Windows

The love-hate relationship between MIT’s One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) and Microsoft has shifted back towards romance with OLPC announcing that its XO school notebook will soon have a Windows XP option. Microsoft has spent a year adapting and squeezing the Windows code base so it would fit on the limited resources of the low-cost notebook. On the downside, it is said that the cost of the Windows version will raise the price tag to $200, double what the group’s original goal. Nicholas Negroponte, OLPC’s founder, said that there will also be dual-boot versions that can run either Linux or Windows.

….And More IRA Highlights

A couple of other quick peeks at some IRA new product announcements:

• Carson-Dellosa split the grade levels for their popular Four-Blocks series. Now literacy teachers can choose a series for their specific grade rather than buy grades 1-4. The model follows the four reading approaches: guided reading, self-selected reading, writing, and working with words.
• The new Junior Grade Books from the Great Books Foundation are high-interest, attractive, multicultural books that include improved teachers’ editions with more helpful classroom tools to inspire kids to read.
• Voices Reading is a unique literacy program from Zaner-Bloser that integrates core character development skills into books and activities.
• Super Kids is a super cute early reading program targeting K-2. Designed back in the 70s by Pleasant Rowland (known best for creating the mega-hit American Girl products), she got the rights back recently and re-launched the program with all new graphics and intuitive literacy development books.
• Word Warm-ups was just one of the reading programs being displayed by Read Naturally. This audio-supported phonics and decoding exercises program helps kids who need extra support when learning phonics.

IRA Today

The IRA conference in Atlanta is quite the hot spot to be. Here’s a snapshot of some new things I’ve seen:

For graphic novel lovers: ASDO announces their Spotlight series that focuses on good-quality graphic novels.

Nonfiction Reading Assessment: Recorded Books launched a companion to their Plugged into Reading courseware: the new Plugged into Fiction with high-interest titles for grades 5-12.

Differentiated Literacy Tools: Dynamic Literacy introduced online differentiated content for its WordBuild Elements series that helps kids in grade 4 and up break down words to increase vocabulary.

Free Stuff:Thinkfinity.com has been around a while but if you don’t know about it, check it out. TONS of free lessons, videos, and more.

Guided lessons and activities: the new ZoomIn from Curriculum Associates (launching Fall 08) gives teachers guided instruction and lessons broken down into helpful bite-sized pieces.

ETA/Cuisenaire adds standards-based Classroom Jeapordy! games for math, reading and science.

Free Books Penpal program: The ePals product, in2books.com, will offer Free books and online penpal correspondence to Title 1 programs.

Free PD: PBS Teacherline offers free instructional resources on developing effective questioning techniques.

Judge Upholds NCLB Law

A challenge to the No Child Left Behind law was dismissed yesterday by Judge Mark R. Kravitz of the Federal District Court in New Haven, CT. The law suit by the state of Connecticut was over whether the Federal government could force states to spend their own money to comply with the law. Connecticut Attorney General has said he would appeal the decision. More info at the N.Y. Times.

New Research-Based Evaluation of School Leaders

No school initiative starts without the support of their school administrator, but how can schools evaluate school leadership? Vanderbilt University announces a program that evaluates school leadership using six core components related to student learning, including high standards, rigorous curriculum and performance accountability. Six additional evaluation areas measure leadership skills like planning, advocating, and communicating.  The program, The Vanderbilt Assessment of Leadership in Education (VAL-ED), will be distributed by Discovery Education. VAL-ED was field tested in 100 elementary schools, 100 middle schools, and 100 high schools in 53 districts in 27 states to show how a principal's performance compares with their peers nationwide.
Details: The VAL-ED leadership assessment takes just 20-25 minutes, in either online or pencil and paper formats. The assessment instrument has 72 questions that evaluate 72 behaviors.
Bottom line: A quick and easy tool to measure abstract leadership skills.

NCLB, Next

If you're uptight about the next No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation making its way through Congress, you're not a alone. On top of quicker communication with parents of failing children, NCLB is expected add a standard way to measure and report graduation rates so that meaningful national statistics can be compiled. At the school level, these changes are likely to result in greater recordkeeping and reporting requirements for staff and administrators.
Bottom line: Expect more paperwork from the next NCLB law.

Everything Tech

If you don’t know the difference between a forced flash and an automatic flash, then Bob Hoffman’s Encyclopedia of Educational Technology is right up your alley. With everything from eLearning to Video learning, it’s organized into large categories that each have dozens of individual topics. A must read on the Web for any techno-saavy teacher, there are thousands of definitions, easy explanations and tons of tips and tricks.
Bottom line: With entries on everything from digital cameras to Web-based training, the dictionary is a great resource for teachers and administrators.

CoSN Launches “Empowering 21st Century Superintendents”

Wouldn’t it be nice to have one easy kit that includes everything you need to do your job as superintendent? The new initiative from COSN isn’t quite a magic box, but it’s a decent start. Empowering the 21st Century Superintendent provides superintendents with the tools and resources they can use to better understand the transformative role of education technology. It even includes a blueprint for technology leadership and action.
Bottom Line: CoSN listened to an advisory committee of superintendents to provide direction for the initiative. They also conducted focus groups and personal interviews to help develop this set of resources for superintendents.
See the detailed toolkit’s Five Themes & Action Steps for Technology Leadership at http://superintendentempower.org/.
Hear the personal thoughts of real superintendents in a four-minute video, where they discuss their roles as catalysts for 21st century learning: www.pearsonfoundation.org. 

SmartMoves DVD Gets Kids Moving

One way to deal with the universally growing student body (literally) is to keep students active -- not easy in an education environment that focuses more on test-taking than recess. FableVision and Thinking Moves released a SmartMoves DVD that combines movement and music in short segments of physical activities, and they believe this will help increase students’ ability to learn. Based on the rapidly growing field of “embodied cognition theory,” which suggests that body movement increases the brain’s ability to learn. SmartMoves features a series of 40 body movements, choreographed to music, that are designed to increase students’ academic performance, information retention, and focus.
Bottom Line: The moves take between 3-5 minutes, so it’s easy to get students hopping around then back to work.

Keeping Schools Secure with Video

Tired of having to clean up graffiti and put garbage back into cans every morning? Using well-placed video surveillance cameras can scare vandals away, preventing a lot of extra work. They can also catch bullies and criminals who ignore the cameras in the act. D-Link has prepared a white paper on using inexpensive IP-based video cameras to monitor schools 24-7. It’s available at ftp://ftp10.dlink.com/pdfs/products/ip_surveillance_education_solution_brief.pdf

eInstruction Announces “Content Meets Technology” Sweepstakes

To celebrate the recent combination of eInstruction and Interwrite Learning, the company announced their first “Content Meets Technology” sweepstakes. Teachers and students submit, using just 250 characters or less, their vision of the role of technology in education. Those thoughts will then post to an interactive Google Map mashup on the eInstruction site. 

Here’s How: The student/teacher submissions should highlight classroom achievements made possible by the use of technology or focus on the benefits of a technology-empowered classroom. The work, along with the name of the school, the grade, and the teacher’s name, will appear on a Google Map of the world on the sweepstakes’ Web site.

Prize: Winners will be awarded an interactive makeover prize package that consists of the Interwrite Board, Interwrite Pad, 32-Pad CPS RF Clicker System, Epson PowerLite 400W Projector, and more.

Deadline:  The sweepstakes begins on Tuesday, April 8, 2008 and ends on Thursday, May 13, 2008. Winners will be chosen randomly from each grade category and announced on Monday, May 19, 2008.

Discovery Education & General Motors Offer $1000 "LIVE GREEN Grants"

Discovery Education and General Motors will award 40 educators in public middle and junior high schools across America $1,000 each to implement inventive classroom lessons on the environment or renewable energy initiatives. Winners will also be invited to participate in a virtual online professional development program promoting school-specific green initiatives. As part of the webinar series, each grant recipient will receive a free digital camera that they will use to document their experience teaching environmental or renewable energy lessons.
Here’s how: Middle and junior high school teachers must submit a 750 word essay explaining how they will advance their students' learning about sustaining resources through the use of new and emerging technologies.  Essays should demonstrate vision, creativity and a novel way of presenting environmental and energy-related concepts. Winners will begin to be notified in June 2008 – the same month Discovery Home channel becomes Planet Green, the first 24-hour eco-lifestyle channel. planetgreen.discovery.com
Grade: Middle and Junior High School Teachers
Deadline: Applications for the LIVE GREEN Teacher Grants are being accepted now through May 15, 2008.

EDUCATION BUSINESS NEWS SITE LAUNCHED BY QED AND THE HELLER REPORTS

Administrators can now have industry news at their fingertips with the new “B2E News Alert,” a new online news hub for the education industry provided by The Heller Reports and Quality Education Data (QED), both Scholastic subsidiaries.
Bottom Line: “B2E News Alert” becomes the Web home for QED/The Heller Reports News Alert, which provides weekly e-newsletters covering te latest education business news. The new site contains free news about product launches, business trends, legislative issues, and education executive moves. It also includes a searchable news archive “B2E’ news site.

Rethinking Schools’ Approach to 21st Century Skills

Is technology really helping to improve your test scores? The answers are inconsistent at best. At the recent CoSN conference in DC, a representative from Henricho County School District, one of the pioneers of one-to-one, stated they have not seen significant improvement since implementing the program. When they dug in deeper to find out why, they realized they needed to take their program to the next level. For this, they turned to the Partnership for 21st Century Skills.

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills has updated their skills framework with Route 21, a one-stop-shop for 21st century skills-related information, resources and community tools. A key component of the Partnership’s framework for 21st century teaching and learning focuses the skills students should master. This section of the site provides an overview of the student outcomes, a white paper and links to additional resources.

Bottom line: There is a lot of information on this site, and it’s worth taking the time to read it over. The 21st Century framework details what they believe are the outcomes and support systems needed to truly prepare students for 21st century life. One computer is just a part of this complete solution that includes training and new approached to classroom teaching.

Dinosaur Dig for Grades 3-12

In the GeoSafari Classroom Dinosaur Dig from Educational Insights, students get to participate in a faux expedition, looking for T. Rex skeleton parts and fossils embedded in a rock base. Includes lesson plans, worksheets, and tools.

Bottom Line: “Students really ‘dig’ creating a prehistoric friend!” says our tester. “After excavating the dino bones from their assigned quadrant, our young paleontologists build the T. Rex out of the collected bones. The bones were strong and sturdy, able to handle the many hands that were eager to help. A great small group, cooperative learning activity.”

Grades 3-12

$149.99

New Leadership Institute [NSBA NEWS, Orlando]

Reliance Communications, makers of SchoolMessenger, announced a new Leadership Institute, the RCLI Professional Development Series. The suite includes instructor-led courses, performance improvement tools, collaborative professional forums, research and information resources, and a research-based process for enhancing school district, parent & community involvement.

Free Training Series on Google Docs through May 1

Google Docs is a free Web-based word processing program that allows users to keep documents up to date and allows selected individuals to update files from their personal computers. Atomic Learning is offering a free trainning series on the program, titled Google Docs – A Focus on Docs.
Details: Good for any teacher or administrator looking for a quick tutorial on Google Docs.
Bottom line: The training series includes more that sixty short, show-and-tell movies that guide users through the creation, implementation, and use of Google Docs. Topics include working with documents, organizing files, document options, sharing and publishing, working with collaboration, and utilizing the edit, insert and revision tab options.
FREE

Calling All Scientists

Do your students have what it takes to be America’s Top Young Scientists? Then check out the 2008 Discovery Education/3M Young Scientist Challenge. They are looking for a few great students and teachers to inspire others with their enthusiasm for science. Just create a short (1-2 min.) video about one of this year’s scientific topics, and your little Einsteins can win a trip to Washington, DC to compete in the YSC finals.
Deadline: June 15
To Enter: U.S. students in grades 5 through 8 may submit a video entry online at www.discoveryeducation.com/youngscientist.

Bryan Independent School District Receives CoSN TEAM Award for Exemplary Leadership in Education Technology

Ten years ago, Bryan ISD formed a technology team, which at the time comprised just three members: a part-time secretary and two trainers. Over the years, the team grew and now boasts 41 members. Bryan also maintains an iSupport team -- a group of teachers who work with other educators to help them integrate technology in the classroom. Bryan has a similar program for principals called i3Lead. Technology is not only used in classrooms at Bryan ISD, but for school business operations and Web-based communications with the broader school community. This innovation received the recognition of CoSN during their 13th Annual K-12 School Networking Conference in Washington, DC, with the TEAM Award for Exemplary Leadership in Education Technology. This award celebrates the achievements and contributions of the team of educators at Bryan ISD who have successfully leveraged education technology to impact teaching and learning.

Tell the President You Don’t Want the Tech Funding Cut

You have probably heard the news: the President's proposed FY09Budget would zero out the Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) program. This cuts education technology funding by $267.4 million. If you want to voice your opinion on the subject before the House and Senate put forth their budget proposals, click here to enter your zip code and send a letter to your representative. Time is running short; the House and the Senate are working on a budget resolution over the next few weeks.

CoSN Announces Resources for Small Districts

The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) annoucnces a Small District Technology Leadership wiki designed specifically for the unique adminstrator challenges faced by small districts. The wiki provides a space for collaborative work around topics like effective planning for and use and implementation of technology. CoSN, in conjunction with a grant from SRI International and support from the National Technology Activities contract with the U.S. Department of Education, has created the Small District Technology Leadership wiki to develop a set of resources that fits the needs of small school districts (those with student populations of 2,500 or less).

AVerMedia Launches New Teacher Forum

Schools and ed tech vendors have discovered that teacher forums are one of the best professional development tools going. Peers learning from peers is a good way to hear technology trials and tribulations straight from the user’s mouth. AVerMedia is the latest to join the club with the announcement of a new forum, available on their Web site. The goal here is like most forums: a central area where teachers can access resources, share ideas, find out about new technologies, and more. The AVerMedia Forum covers a variety of topics, from Helpful Discussions, Classroom Experiences, to AVerMedia Contests.

New Fluency Titles

Dr. Timothy Rasinski, a leading authority on reading fluency, has created a new library of books designed to help students become accurate and fluent decoders of words. Published by Scholastic Classroom Books, Tim Rasinski Presents…Fabulously Famous Books for Building Fluency is a library of high-interest books like Charlotte’s Web and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs connected to a research-based strategy for building students’ reading fluency -- complete with information for teachers on how to use reading aloud, paired reading, recorded materials, radio reading  -- even “mumble reading.” For K-8.

Innovative Learning Conference 2008 Call for Speakers

Gain exposure for your good work by becoming a speaker at Innovative Learning Conference 2008, October 14 - 16, in San Jose, CA. You can share successful classroom practices, creative teaching and learning solutions, research, policies and products that show current or future promise for K-12 education. Presented by CUE and FETC.

And the Codie Finalists Are…

The votes are in! The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) has released the list of finalists for the 23rd Annual Codie Awards. More than 250 judges from the trade press, consulting, educators, and IT specialists reviewed more than 1,000 nominations from more than 600 companies. Products from these finalists will go before SIIA members for a vote to determine the winners in each category. The 2008 Codie Awards will be presented on May 20th at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, Calif.

GlobalScholar.com Acquires Excelsior Software

With this latest acquisition in the education market,  GlobalScholar.com say they will combine their curriculum and instructional management tools with Pinnacle Education Solutions suite of products that include Excelsior Software’s gradebook, reporting, and analytics technology. They hope that the resulting application will be a one-stop shop for teachers and administrators looking for tools that drive student achievement.

Job Site for Educators

Excuse a bit of self-promotion here, but Scholastic’s new jobs site for educators is a pretty cool resource. It’s Scholastic’s first help wanted service that lists openings for teachers, administrators, librarians, and coaches, and reaches the 1.5 million unique visitors each month who use Scholastic.com already. School Jobs Now offers access to a national database of (obviously) school job openings. Job seekers can search for school- and district-level jobs by location, category, type, or salary, receive personalized alerts for jobs, and get expert advice on everything from how to have a great interview, to how to secure the best offer. Employers can gain access to a database of qualified job candidates, post jobs, manage responses, and access "Free Resume Match" for help finding candidates.

Blackboard and Wimba Partner to Distribute Suite of Collaborative Online Learning Tools

Blackboard, the academic darling of online communication and content, will now distribute Wimba Collaboration Suite Express. This suite gives Blackboard K-12 community online access to voice, video, and instant messaging tools, and includes limited versions of Wimba Classroom, Wimba Voice, and Wimba Pronto.

…And More Buying; Houghton Mifflin Company Completes Acquisition of Harcourt Education, Harcourt Trade and Greenwood-Heinemann Divisions

The world of K-12 just got a little bit smaller… again. Houghton Mifflin Company completed the acquisition of the Harcourt Education, Harcourt Trade and Greenwood-Heinemann divisions from Reed Elsevier, making it one of the biggest educational publishers in the US. The acquisition combines Houghton Mifflin’s and Harcourt’s elementary, secondary and supplemental businesses, renamed Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Will this Goliath offer more goods? We’ll have to wait and see.