The Michael and Susan Dell Foundation recently released a report about performance management--defined as a leadership culture that uses technology tools to gather, share, and act upon timely and relevant information in order to improve student achievement. I recently spoke with Lori Fey, the portfolio director of global policy initiatives for the foundation, to talk more about what that term means and how it works in schools.

"What we hope to capture with an overall term like performance management," she told me, "is that it is systematic, it is driven through all levels of the organization--both the academic and the operational part of the organization--and it's [focused on] continuous improvement."

Gathering data on school operations, such as transportation and teacher attendance, can lead to surprising realizations for school districts, said Fey. That data can be used to pinpoint areas for improvement. For example, using performance management, one school district found that the reason why students were not succeeding in Algebra I had to do in large part with a drop in the teacher attendance, she said.

The hope is that data can identify problems before they start, Fey explained.

"One of the things we are seeing is the power of data to identify trends that help you intervene early and effectively to change the course of the student's trajectory," she said.

Another important aspect of performance management is that it's not just about collecting data, but collecting data that educators can actually use. Being able to break data into usable chunks that a teacher or principal can look at and analyze quickly is an important aspect of performance management.

If you'd like to see how specific schools are using this method to help improve student achievement, the report is here, or you can check out a video that will walk you through it here.

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One of the largest school districts in the country, the 174,000-student Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia, recently upgraded to a Cisco network that is entirely wireless. I had a chance to catch up with Neal Shelton, the district's network engineering supervisor, to ask a few questions via e-mail about why going wireless was important to the district and what kinds of challenges had to be overcome. My questions are in bold, and his answers follow.

The wireless implementation in Fairfax County Public Schools--or FCPS--obviously took quite a bit of time and effort. Why was this undertaking such a priority for the district?

Several years ago, many in FCPS understood the importance of wireless technology in a school environment. Over a two year period (2002-2004), FCPS implemented wireless technology in all its schools and centers. The number of access points grew from approximately 600 to nearly 8,000. Today, there are nearly 8,700 access points located in 240 sites.

The effort to bring wireless to the schools brought new freedom to educational computing. Access to network resources without the constraints of physical wiring provides widespread availability to students and faculty in a range of locations previously thought impractical to wired networking methods.

What sort of learning opportunities does this create for students?

The concept of "network access anywhere, anytime" has great appeal in an instructional environment. A wireless network deployment plan was developed that details necessary groundwork and infrastructure requirements needed for delivery of this new service.

Wireless networks allow students, teachers, and administrators access to the Internet, the FCPS intranet, and other network resources wherever the need arises. Wireless mobile computer labs enable a more efficient use of space that was previously reserved for permanently placed computer labs. These mobile labs allow classrooms to share resources on an as-needed basis and aid in the efficient integration of technology into the curriculum. There are more than 500 wireless mobile labs in place in FCPS. In addition, all elementary school classroom teachers now have a wireless laptop to access wireless infrastructure throughout the county.

What were some of the challenges you faced as the network was put in place? How did you deal with those challenges?

Size does matter. A network as large as the one at FCPS poses challenges. One of the challenges is to keep all access points and wireless controllers functioning in an efficient manner. To overcome this challenge, we created a structured environment that is based upon industry approved standards. The FCPS wireless team ensures wireless efficiency by standardizing configurations and installations. Any wireless difficulties within this framework are quickly resolved with the effective use of monitoring and troubleshooting tools.

To read more about the benefits and challenges of moving to a wireless network, check out this story I wrote for the most recent issue of Digital Directions.

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Here at Education Week and Digital Directions, we primarily cover education in the U.S., but sometimes it's helpful to look at what other countries are doing to see if there's anything we can learn. In that spirit, I'd like to turn your attention to a recent report put out by the International Association for K-12 Online Learning about the state of online learning in Canada.

According to the report, all 13 provinces and territories in the country have some form of online learning in place. In fact, Canada has had quite a history of tapping online education to help bring more options to students in a largely rural country, says the report.

The report breaks down whether the programs are government-run or independent, what kind of legislation is in place regarding K-12 online learning, how the programs are funded, and what kind of quality assurance and accountability is in place for each province and territory. Like e-learning in the U.S., it appears that all of those factors vary from place to place.

The report is packed full of information, making it a must-read for those of you interested in online learning or education in Canada. Check out the report here

What do you think? Is there anything we in the U.S. can learn from what the Canadians are doing?

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If anybody out there is not yet convinced that texting while driving is a serious problem among teenagers, here's more data to show just how prevalent the behavior is. The Pew Research Center released the results of a new survey today that shows that more than a third of young people ages 16-17 who use text-messaging devices have done so while behind the wheel, while nearly half of those between 12 and 17 say they've been in a car while the driver was texting.

The findings, culled from a survey of 800 teenagers and pre-teens, and focus groups, include:

* 75% of all American adolescents ages 12-17 own a cellphone, and 66% use their phones to send or receive text messages. * Older youths are more likely than younger ones to have cellphones and use text messaging; 82% of those ages 16-17 have a cell phone and 76% of that cohort are cellphone texters. * One in three (34%) texting teenagers ages 16-17 say they have done so while driving. That translates into 26% of all Americans ages 16-17. * Half (52%) of cell-owning teens ages 16-17 say they have talked on a cell phone while driving. That translates into 43% of all American youths ages 16-17. * 48% of all adolescents ages 12-17 say they have been in a car when the driver was texting. * 40% say they have been in a car when the driver used a cellphone in a way that put themselves or others in danger.

Many teenagers who were interviewed for the study were "blase" about texting while driving, the report says, and admitted that they don't consider it a hazard. Some even take measures to avoid getting caught doing it, such as wearing sunglasses so passing police officers cannot see the driver looking down. Others suggested that reading a text while driving is not as dangerous as sending one.

The report, written by Pew senior researchers Mary Madden and Amanda Lenhart, is part of the Washington-based center's Internet & American Life Project.

Katie Ash wrote about this issue last month when a study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Center released even more troubling data on teenage driving habits. That study found that about half of teens polled admitted to sending text messages while driving.

The issue has been taken up recently at the federal level, and not just focused on youthful offenders. The center at Virginia Tech reported that nearly 6,000 people died in 2008, and more than half a million were injured, as a result of distracted driving. The highest incidence rate was among young drivers. It is perceived as such a problem that the Obama administration convened a national summit of experts this past September to
discuss the issue and recommend solutions. It resulted in an executive order that forbids federal officials from texting while driving official vehicles, or even their own cars while on business. A number of states have taken steps to ban all texting by drivers.

With cellphones and texting becoming ubiquitous among teenagers and adults alike, it's an issue that will likely get more attention.

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Kareem Dale, the special assistant to President Barack Obama on disability policy, told the educators and advocates at the National Center for Technology Innovation's Tech Innovators conference, that ''technology, for me, is very personal.''

Dale, who is blind, credits assistive technologies for helping him excel in high school, college, and law school. As the point person at the White House on these issues, he said the administration has set a foundation for technology and education to improve the lives of people with disabilities. He pointed to the $12.2 billion in federal stimulus funds targeted for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

''People with disabilities in the education arena are not going to be forgotten even when times are tough,'' he promised the audience.

The conference, titled "Educational Futures—Powered by Technology," is being held here in Washington today and tomorrow. You can read the center's blog on the event here, or follow the action on Twitter using #NCTI2009.

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Over at teachermagazine.org yesterday there was a vibrant discussion about the value for educators in participating in professional online social networks, like the one set up by chat guest Jim Burke, the English Companion Ning, and savvy tech-ed phenom blogger Karl Fisch. Hundreds of educators signed on during the chat, but in case you missed it the full transcript is here.

There were a few takeaways from the discussion, according to Elizabeth Rich, editor of teachermagazine.org and moderator of the chat.

"There's a lot of interest in how social networking can advance teacher professional development," she said, "but also a lot of questions that educators are grappling with as they try to sort out what resources can work for them personally and professionally."

Some commenters noted that privacy issues and local rules for participating in online activities sometimes get in the way. Burke noted how one teacher on his ning was confronted by supervisors after she suggested that some of the teachers in her district were not receptive to new ideas.

"Some people are getting in trouble for it, others are concerned about privacy issues," Rich said. "Others, though, are jumping knee deep into it and reaping all the benefits."

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Fordham University researchers Michael Miles and Bruce Cooper have an interesting commentary on edweek.org this week about the emerging market for electronic readers like the Kindle and similar devices from Sony and Barnes & Noble, and their potential to transform the textbook-driven classroom.

The writers include some arguments for using e-readers as a staple of instruction, while also outlining issues teachers and administrators should consider before making the leap.

They write:

The stage is set for a radical change in education: going electronic to replace the dozens of textbooks students use in school. The availability of these portable readers, as well as the use by some schools of easily assembled and updated digitally based hard-copy readings for students, gives us a glimpse of the classroom of the future.

The potential benefits of using the Kindle or similar devices in teaching and learning are substantial. But these should be weighed alongside the risks and limitations of the technology before we envision a universal "e-book" for every class, program, and activity of the nation's 56 million schoolchildren.

There are likely challenges ahead, though. Getting enough of the devices in schools is a costly endeavor, and issues over licensing of content could complicate the availability of curricula on the devices. (I'm sure this conversation could apply to a range of other tech tools as well). And this article from the Associated Press highlights the concerns of some educators who've rejected the Kindle because of flaws in its voice-reading feature, which makes them essentially inaccessible to blind students.

The authors of the commentary make some good points, and, in the end conclude that "portable electronic readers deserve serious consideration by boards of education and school leaders."

Check it out and let me know what you think.

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Microsoft Corp.recently launched a new social-networking Web site for educators called the Partners in Learning network. It appears that the new community is the latest reincarnation of Microsoft's Innovative Teachers Network. So far, 1.6 million educators from 59 different countries are participating in the online community, according to the company.

This new resource allows educators to connect to others with similar professional interests, subject-matter expertise, or location, and provides access to resources and learning tools for the classroom. It also allows teachers to find and share lesson plans with each other.

This development dovetails nicely with the survey we wrote about last week which found that when educators were asked which social networks they would be most likely to join in the next year, they strongly preferred communities that were education-related. However, only a small percentage of those educators were actually familiar with education-focused social-networking sites and an even smaller percentage participated in them.

That finding is a bit surprising considering the high numbers of participants in Microsoft's community, as well as others like the Discovery Educator Network and Elluminate's LearnCentral, which claim hundreds of thousands of participants.

What do you think? Are education-focused social-networking communities a good resource for educators? Have you joined one, and if so, is it worthwhile?

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If you've been exposed to any kind of news media over the last couple of days you couldn't miss all the coverage of Sesame Street as the groundbreaking program hit its 40th birthday. And if you or your children grew up with Elmo, Big Bird, and Oscar you know what all the hoopla is all about.

Not only did Sesame Street set the standard for quality educational programs, it has stayed current with subsequent generations of children through new-media features and expansion to 140 countries. The Sesame Street Web site includes a range of interactive features, as I described in this story earlier this year on the growing evidence of the impact of such programs.

The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, named for one of the founders of the program, has expanded that work by commissioning research and disseminating best practices about digital learning for children.

But for most children and older fans of the program, it is both simple and sophisticated in engaging children in lessons aimed at building literacy, math, and character. A recent rerun of a 2007 episode, however, ruffled some viewers' political sensibilities. The program included a segment with Oscar the Grouch which referred to the Grouch News Network and called Pox News a "trashy" network.

Comments sent to the Public Broadcasting Service, which broadcasts Sesame Street, suggested that the segment was a cheap shot at Fox News, the conservative news network. PBS Ombudsman Michael Getler addressed the controversy here, and provided an update with additional letters of criticism and support from viewers.

Producers of the show responded, saying the episode was an "equal-opportunity parody" and not intended as a political statement.

The show, producers wrote, "was written in the fall of 2006 -- long before the Fox-Obama controversy, even before Obama was President. The whole segment was a parody of CNN (called GNN) or the 'Grouch News Network.' Children who watch Sesame Street (and adults who remember what it felt like to be a kid watching Sesame Street) know that Oscar the Grouch is a contrarian. He lives in a trash can and loves everything 'yucky,' and 'disgustin.' For a Grouch, 'Trashy' is high praise! Not only would child-viewers be unlikely to connect 'Pox News' to Fox News, in the context of this scene, they would understand the characters to be saying that 'Pox News' is better than 'GNN.'"

What do you think? Is Big Bird becoming more political in middle age? Would the preschool set notice any such subtle or unintended messages?

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Ten ed-tech organizations have been chosen as Innovative Incubators by the Software & Information Industry Association, giving them the chance to match up with commercial vendors and potential investors, the Washington-based group announced this week.

The incubators offer online learning platforms, real-time tech-based assessment tools, social-networking applications, multimedia content, and data-management programs. They include for-profit and nonprofit companies, research groups, and academic institutions. The finalists will participate in the Ed Tech Business Forum in New York City at the end of the month. The annual meeting brings industry executives and entrepreneurs together to discuss business development and new products for the K-12 and higher ed markets.

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