March 2009 Archives

My colleague Sean Cavanagh's story about nanotechnology is a fascinating read and a great example of the way that teaching cutting-edge technology can capture students' interest.

Nanotechnology—or the study of materials or particles at the molecular or atomic level—is a field of research that's rapidly expanding. It is being used to figure out how to make materials stronger, more stain-resistant, and also how to make computer chips more intricate and sophisticated. It's normally taught at the university level, but students in "Tech Valley," near Albany, N.Y., are getting lessons in the newly emerging field, as well.

Part of the reason the Ballston Spa High School has been able to move forward with the curriculum is because of the support it has received from its superintendent, which is a key factor I hear lots of tech folks talk about when they're trying to get something new off the ground. The superintendent's support is essential.

The nanotechnology class described in the article is also a good example of how technology ties into many other subjects. For example, students learning about nanotechnology spend a good chunk of their time talking about the ethical implications of it. They also discuss dubious claims about nanotechnology made by marketers of products, which teaches media literacy and criticism.

Check out the story for lots of other interesting tidbits.

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I don't know if we needed a study to confirm this, but the Council on Research Excellence released survey results this week showing that the youngest of the baby boomers are the biggest consumers of the video media among people age 45 or older. Those boomers ages 45 to 54 appear to be the biggest media consumers among all adults in the survey, spending more than 9 1/2 hours daily with blackberries, computers, televisions, and other video-capable devices.

The $3.5 million Video Mapping Study, conducted by the Ball State University Center for Media Design, found that despite the proliferation of media-enabled devices, television still consumes the most time out of the day of all adults. Television viewing consumes an average of 72 minutes a day among adults. Computer use came in second in the popularity of devices, bumping radio to the third-place spot.

"What differentiates this study from all other attempts to measure video exposure at the consumer level is its scale, the range of media covered and the fact that it is focused on consumers first and the media second," Mike Bloxham, director of insight and research for the Ball State center, said in a statement. "It’s not a study about TV or the Web or any other medium—it’s about how, where, how often and for how long consumers are exposed to all media."

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I've been getting up to speed on Twitter little by little, learning the lingo and mastering the 140-character format. That's been the hardest part for a journalist who likes to go in depth and who often surpasses my allotted space for print stories, just ask my editor.

Twitter, texting, and other communication tools may be a bit uncomfortable for us veterans, as far as written venues go. But I tend to think of today's students as being able to pick up on them more instinctively. So I thought this article was interesting. I found it thanks to the Ed Tech Twitter Group.

The Guardian newspaper got the scoop on the British government's plans to revise the national curriculum. While some topics in history—like World War II or the Victorian age—would no longer be specified in the requirements, new tech skills would be.

"The proposals would require...children to leave primary school familiar with blogging, podcasts, Wikipedia and Twitter as sources of information and forms of communication."

Even before the new documents are released they are fueling debate over content in UK schools. I can just imagine the response it will bring from subject-area specialists: Without the content, will students have anything meaningful to blog about?

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Over at Curriculum Matters, my colleague Sean Cavanagh writes about an online site featuring virtual manipulatives for math and science classes.

David Wetzel offers a variety of interactive math resources at his Teachscienceandmath blog, here, including math games and Google Earth math applications. As Sean writes, manipulatives are boxes, shapes, figures and games that students can handle in class to make connections to math concepts.

I've heard a lot of experts caution about putting traditional curriculum materials on the Web without adapting them appropriately to the digital format. This is an interesting example of how a standard classroom tool can evolve with technology.

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Ed Week's annual report on educational technology, Technology Counts 2009, was published today. The full report and individual state reports are available for download.

This year's report focuses on issues and trends in online learning and grades the states on educational technology use and capacity.

As the world of online education continues to evolve, brick-and-mortar schools are incorporating digital curricula and virtual teachers into their classrooms in ways that have surprised even the advocates of the online education movement, according to the 12th annual report.

Once mostly catering to advanced students who educators believed had the motivation to pursue education online, virtual courses are growing in popularity for struggling students, too, according to Technology Counts 2009: Breaking Away From Tradition: E-Education Expands Opportunities for Raising Achievement. And school districts that once felt threatened by the surge in online education are embracing the technology, often in a hybrid model that blends face-to-face learning with digital teaching and curricula, in an effort to raise student achievement.

Even so, the report notes that serious concerns remain about e-learning, especially regarding the quality of the teaching and the curricula.

This is a must read for educators and district officials who are trying to find ways to use technology more effectively to improve teaching and learning. Check it out.

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As a follow-up to my co-blogger Kathleen's post about the story I recently wrote for Education Week about the cost of virtual education, I thought I might take a few minutes to talk about some of the challenges of writing this article as well as some of the information I found that didn't quite make it in.

The first thing I found when I started reporting on this story was that there is no easy answer to the question of how cost-effective virtual education is. It's hard to say, "Yes, online education is cheaper," or "No, it is not." Instead, there are a myriad of factors that go into the equation which make it impossible to give a straightforward answer. Everything from what state you're in to how many students you have to what grade levels those students are in to what classes you'd like to look for—all of those factors and many more play a key role in determining what the cost of online education would be.

One factor that I wanted to mention specifically is the extreme variation in the types of online programs available. The term "online education" refers to such a broad range of services—everything from basically a syllabus posted online with some online modules that requires a parent's supervision and very little contact with a teacher to full-time online programs where teachers and students work very closely together on all subjects—that unless you specify exactly what you're talking about, it's tricky to estimate price.

As some of the folks I spoke with mentioned, some of the savings that come from online ed. are a result of outsourcing what the school would normally have to pay to other places. For example, in an online program that uses a parent-mentor instead of a teacher, there are obvious cost savings. And online classes that make use of computers in students' homes as well as libraries and community centers essentially divert the cost of technology to other places rather than requiring the school to provide it. Of course, some online education programs provide everything—including full-time teachers, all the hardware and software, as well as the infrastructure to support the school—and those programs are obviously going to be more expensive.

Another point I wanted to address is the lack of data available on the cost of online programs. I did speak with Cathy Cavanaugh, who has a report coming out in April that addresses the cost of virtual education, but the data she gave me (which is what I quoted in the story) is based on a fairly small sample size and only takes into consideration part-time online programs, rather than full-time programs. She found that the per-pupil cost of online learning was about $4,300 compared to $9,100 for the per-pupil cost of a traditional classroom. However, it's hard to really stack those numbers against each other since the $9,100 refers to a full-time traditional classroom setting while the $4,300 essentially refers to the part-time online student, multiplied out to reflect a full number of classes. It doesn't, however, include the services that a full-time online program would have to provide, which makes that number lower than what a full-time online program might be per pupil.

Here's a study from 2006 that examines some of those costs, but there really isn't much current data on how much different kinds of online programs cost. That's frustrating to me, as a reporter trying to write about this subject, but I can't imagine how difficult it must be for school administrators trying to get their heads around this complex subject.

At any rate, online education is a subject that we're going to continue to follow closely here at Education Week and Digital Directions, and hopefully we'll be able to sort out some of these difficult issues.

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In the midst of tremendous growth in online learning opportunities there's an ongoing debate about how cost-effective it is for districts and states to provide virtual courses versus traditional classroom offerings.

Katie Ash focuses on this issue in her Ed Week piece this week. There are competing views and data about the cost benefits of online programming.

Many education leaders are interested in starting or expanding virtual schools so they give students' alternatives, as well as more opportunities to take courses that might not be widely available where they are.

A couple of days ago I met with a San Diego school official to get a demonstration of the district's new virtual school, iHigh. So far, 200 students are taking courses, and 30 are doing so full-time, through iHigh. The district gives each student a Netbook with a built-in Internet card that allows them to access the online campus and courses at their own pace. They are in touch with teachers electronically after an in-person orientation. The teachers make assignments, review the students' work, and monitor their progress through the portal.

The courses are offered by Apex Learning, a digital curriculum company, which costs the district money but may actually save additional time and expense associated with creating their own courseware. Bernie Rhinerson, the district's chief information officer, said Superintendent Terry B. Grier is convinced the virtual school will expand and equalize opportunities for students across the district, provide alternative routes to graduation for those who are struggling in traditional classes, and save the district money.

That's how many proponents of online learning see it as well, as Katie outlines in her piece. But questions still remain, and the data is still emerging.

Meanwhile, San Diego officials expect the program to expand, perhaps to entice as many as half of all high school students there to take virtual courses. We'll have to check back with them once the program moves beyond the early stages.

Of course, to have a good program you have to have good teachers. But most teachers will need some solid professional development to take their show on the superhighway. The cost of online professional development is a whole other topic for sure, but you can start here, with Michelle Davis' piece at Digital Directions.

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In Tuesday's post about using Google Earth to teach about Ancient Rome, I asked readers how they fit such tech lessons into their instruction.

Over at the Teach Paperless blog, Shelly Blake-Plock takes me to task over the notion that teachers need to "fit in" technology. He makes a great point: if you are struggling to fit it in, you are likely not using technology meaningfully. It should be a natural tool for your classroom.

"If you feel like you have to 'fit tech in' to your classroom practice, then you're quickly going to find yourself frustrated," he writes. "You might as well be forced to 'fit in' a discussion about orange juice. Or sea lions. Or the Knights Templar. Or be forced to wear mittens while you erase from the chalkboard."

He also offers some good advice:

"Use what you need. Chances are there is something for you online. One way or the other, may you not fall for the lunacy of 'fitting tech in' any more than you fall for the folly that technology is 'not for you'."

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When we envision 21st century learning environments, a lot of us probably picture classrooms loaded with the latest technology and maybe some new skill sets being taught. But at the upcoming Architecture 4 Education symposium taking place this weekend in Pasadena, California, school architects and researchers will converge to talk about what the physical structures of a 21st century learning environment might look like, including how emerging technologies will influence how schools are built.

A copy of the symposium's agenda, as well as a list of the speakers that will be presenting, are available from the organization's Web site. And for those of us who won't be able to make it to Pasadena, the group will be streaming the events online, which I think is how I'm going to check up on the ideas that come out of this event.

This topic—how to build schools that facilitate effective learning environments—is one that I think sometimes can be overlooked, but is equally important, in my opinion, to the overall meaningful integration of technology into education.

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According to this AP story, Maine is in the process of expanding its laptop program, which aims to provide a computer for every 7th-12th grader in the state. School officials are now in negotiations with Apple to provide 100,000 Apple MacBooks, says the article.

This is somewhat surprising news considering the divided opinions about the efficacy of 1-to-1 laptop programs, as well as obvious financial challenges because of the economy. But Governor John Baldacci has reassured tax payers that it is being done with existing resources and will not require additional taxpayer money.

Looking back through Education Week's coverage of 1-to-1 laptop programs, it seems like Andrew Trotter's story about Netbooks from last year has become even more relevant and may be worth checking out. From what I've observed in my reporting, as well as at various ed-tech conferences, it seems like mobile technologies—including Netbooks, PDAs, and smartphones—are garnering more attention than traditional 1-to-1 laptop programs these days, in part because of their low cost.

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There are a lot of teachers out there who are successfully using technology to bring the curriculum to life for their students. Yesterday, Google recognized eight teachers for their creativity in using the 3D Google Earth application to create lessons about ancient Rome.

Google Earth takes users on a geographic and historic tour of the globe with maps and satellite images of land and sea. The winning teachers have taken their standards-based lessons and adapted them to interactive models of ancient and modern-day Rome. Here's a sample on YouTube:

At Acalanes Union High School District, for example, 6th and 7th graders create a multimedia "Roman Holiday" that takes them to sites throughout the ancient city. Cheryl Davis, who teaches World History at the school in Lafayette, Calif., uses the collaborative project to build students' knowledge, as well as their research and writing skills. As part of the lesson the students create blog entries, podcasts, and videos that describe the locale and its history.

Any time you can help students visualize a place and understand the physical context of an era, it is bound to have a greater impression on them than just the text.

I've seen demonstrations of this tool and it seems to be a practical and fairly easy way to bring interactive technology into the classroom. The presentations I've seen are also pretty engaging, making geography and history interesting.

What are the challenges of fitting these kinds of lessons in? How difficult are they to create or adopt? Are teachers in your district using this kind of tech application effectively?

Posted by Kathleen Kennedy Manzo at 9:08 AM | Permalink | 1 Comment | TrackBacks (0)

One thing I often here from educators about using the Web to find useful resources and tools is that weeding through all that's on the Internet is overwhelming and time-consuming.

Digital Directions, Ed Week's magazine and Web site devoted to covering educational technology, has been working to find the kinds of Web sites that could help teachers and principals work more effectively. My colleague, Tim Ebner, a freelance writer, is doing the searching and providing an overview of those sites that offer content or services for educators.

Find his summaries at the Go-to-Sites feature.

He'll be updating his list regularly, so return often to see what he's found.

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Here's an article, written by my colleague Debra Viadero, about whether or not reading and math software programs lead to learning gains. The study didn't find many differences between the control groups, who did not use the software programs, and the ones that did, but critics of the study say that the experimental research methods used for the study were flawed.

It does seem to be one of those studies that anyone can look at and see what they want.

"If you already have the hardware in the classroom and you want one of these products, this would not dissuade you,” said Mark Dynarski, the lead researcher on the project for Mathematica Policy Research Inc., the Princeton, N.J.-based company that conducted the study.

“If you’re quite skeptical of the software and very budget-pinched, I think you would feel this is evidence in favor of your position,” he added. “And if you’re really right in the middle, I think it comes down to how much you want to move test scores, because you’re really not going to see that happen with these products.”

This is the second year of the study, which also stirred up controversy in its first year for similar reasons.

For me, this points to a couple of issues. The first is that just adding technology into a classroom is not necessarily going to make a difference in what kids learn and how fast they learn it. As I hear over and over from people in all areas of ed-tech: it's not the technology, but what you do with the technology that counts.

The second point this brings to mind is how difficult it is to be a school administrator—trying to navigate through research like this, attempting to figure out what's right for students, and then measuring those factors against the resources you have available (not just financial resources necessarily, but also the level of technical training that teachers have had and their comfort level with technology, among others.)

Read the full version of the study here.

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It's only Friday, so there's still time to read an electronic text to commemorate "Read an e-Book Week," which runs through tomorrow.

Some experts predict there will be huge growth in this area; not exactly a prophetic statement given the proliferation of mobile devices that can accommodate e-books and the growing popularity of e-reader gadgets.

There are a lot of proponents, and commercial providers, who would like to see e-textbooks gain ground in districts across the country. Some, like Sony, have donated millions of e-books to schools in the hopes that the trend will catch on. And now the Internet giants Amazon and Google have jumped headlong into the market.

Some observers, however, like this blogger and e-book proprietor, wonder if the big textbook publishers will use their influence to discourage school districts from transitioning to e-texts. Those publishers often include online versions of their texts, or other tech features meant to enhance the content, so I'm not sure that they would necessarily try to hinder growth in this area.

The economic crisis, and the speed of progress in developing these kinds of tools may just push e-book adoption beyond any real or perceived barriers. Citing recent survey data, the E-Book Week Web site reports that for schools "e-book sales from January to May surpassed the 2007 figures by 400 percent. Respondents to the survey said there were three key factors that led to purchasing electronic books. They were cost, convenience and interactivity."

Not to mention that e-books are considered environmentally friendly because of the reduction in the use of paper and the production process.

It's not clear what portion of that growth is in higher education, where there has been more of a willingness to use e-texts. Is this a practical tool for schools? Are there enough e-book materials available to substitute for traditional paper products? What are the pros and cons of
adopting e-books in schools?

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At Edweek.org, my colleague Michele McNeil has a piece with the details on the $250 million in stimulus cash for education data systems.

The topic was featured in President Obama's March 10 education address, Michele reports.

“Far too few states have data systems like the one in Florida that keep track of a student’s education from childhood through college. And far too few districts are emulating the example of Houston and Long Beach, and using data to track how much progress a student is making and where that student is struggling,” Mr. Obama said in his speech to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

The article summarizes the requirements in the package, including that states develop longitudinal data systems. It will be interesting to see the plans states submit to win their share of the new money, and how they propose they will meet the list of "assurances" that they will use the money wisely.

btw: You can stay up-to-date on all of Ed Week's coverage of the Stimulus with this widget:

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I wasn't able to make it to the CoSN conference in Austin this week, but Andrew Trotter, a blogger and former Ed Week reporter was there. He's been posting his observations on his new blog.

He has this report from yesterday:

There's been "near-constant discussion at CoSN about Twitter, Facebook, blogging, podcasting, Wikipedia, open content, curriculum wikis, online video games, and smartphones–and how those Web 2.0 tools fit together with the traditional school staples of assessment, curriculum, student privacy, and safety, budgets, and so on," Andrew writes. "The international symposium on March 10, here in Austin, made clear that the U.S. is not alone in wrestling with these issues. The same discussions are going on in Britain, Singapore, Australia, the Scandanavian nations, and undoubtedly many other countries."

Andrew will be filling us in a bit more over the next couple of days, so visit his blog for updates.

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Hat tip to Remote Access for turning me on to a new publication put out by MIT press called the International Journal of Learning and Media. The journal aims to "[provide] a forum for scholars, researchers, and practitioners to examine the changing relationships between learning and media across a wide range of forms and settings," says its description, and its inaugural issue includes articles such as Why Virtual Worlds Can Matter and Games and Learning: What's the Connection? Here's the table of contents, to get you started.

Like most journals, the articles are written by researchers, so the language can be somewhat technical, but from what I've gotten to see so far, there's a lot of good information and new ideas in here. There are also lots of big names on the journal's editorial board, and wouldn't you know, there's Katie Salen again—one of the editors of the publication.

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As we ask ourselves questions about social networking, mobile technologies, online learning, and other emerging technological concerns, it's important to remember that not all school districts in this country are all that far along technologically. In fact, many schools, as well as businesses and homes, are still struggling to secure stable, high-speed broadband connections, as this report, released by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, reminds us.

The report calls for a renewed focus on getting all Americans hooked up to high-speed broadband Internet. The number of Americans connected to broadband has increased dramatically since the beginning of the decade, but the U.S. still lags behind countries like Japan and South Korea in terms of use of the Internet as well as the speed of Internet connections. Worth noting is the fact that $7.2 billion was set aside to bolster broadband services in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which the report calls "relatively limited funds."

To tap into the potential that the Internet provides—such as video-streaming and conferencing, faster file-transfers from one computer to the next, and simultaneous usage of many bandwidth-heavy applications and devices—policymakers and leaders will first need to look into expanding the U.S. broadband network, says the report.

To read the whole report, click here.

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Sean Cavanagh, my colleague over the Curriculum Matters blog, has this report from the National Assessment Governing Board meeting:

There's a lot of debate these days about how to define "technology literacy," but in a couple years, the National Assessment of Educational Progress will take the unusual step of testing students in those skills.

This week, the panel that oversees the National Assessment of Educational Progress heard an early report on how it is attempting to forge a working definition, in preparation for judging students' tech literacy in 2012.

The National Assessment Governing Board, which sets policy for the NAEP, must first develop a framework, or basic blueprint for that test. The board has put together steering and planning committees to work on the project. Those panels include lots of familiar names in education and school technology fields, including Don Knezak of the International Society for Technology in Education, Mary Ann Wolf of the State Educational Technology Directors Association,Senta Raizen of WestEd, who's co-chairing the committee, and many others.

On March 6, governing board member Alan Friedman, a science and museum consultant from New York who is working on the tech literacy test for NAGB, talked about how the board is going about that task. A prime challenge is developing a definition that will stand the test of time, Friedman said, so that the test is not outdated within a few years after it's been unveiled.

Despite the name of the test, Friedman made it clear that goal of the NAEP tech literacy exam is not simply to test students' familiarity with computer products or features, or digital games. The goal is to evaluate their understanding of "interconnections among technologies," with technologies including processes from the designed world, he said. This could include not only computers but technology's relationship to processes such as metallurgy (in the manufacture of buildings, or individual products) or woven textile technology (used to make clothes and fabrics). Of course, computer technology is essential to many manufacturing processes today, noted Friedman, who was joined by Raizen in his presentation. But the point is that students need to have a broader grasp of technology that takes them beyond their computer keyboard, if they're to understand complex scientific issue today.

"We need to understand what all technologies have in common, and how they inter-relate," Friedman told the board. It's likely to be a major task, he suggested. "This project is working with probably more of a blank slate than any other framework we've developed."

The governing board awarded a $1.86 million contact to WestEd last year to develop the framework and test specifications. The committees are expected to deliver a framework to the full governing board by November of this year.

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Florida instituted new rules to prevent cyberbullying this school year, with clear procedures for reporting it, even anonymously, and detailed consequences for perpetrators, according to this article in the St. Petersburg Times.

The article highlights the extra steps being taken in the Pinellas and Hillsborough districts to head off online bullies and stalkers.

More and more districts are taking cyberbullying, and prevention of this type of harassment, seriously. A federal law passed in the fall, in fact, requires schools that receive E-rate funding to have an education campaign about such online behaviors. But most schools and districts are still trying to get a handle on the potential for bullies using the Internet and social networking tools against classmates and teachers.

Has your school or district recognized this as a problem? What is being done about it?

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I'm currently digging up lots of research for a story I'm writing for Education Week about the role of games—like video games, computer games, and simulations—in the classroom. Last week, I came across two white papers, published by Education Arcade, a research initiative on gaming and school primarily by researchers from MIT.

The first one, Moving Learning Games Forward, is one of the most comprehensive reports I've read about the challenges that schools face when introducing games into the classroom and the differences between games and formal education that make it challenging to integrate the two in a meaningful way. But as the title suggests, it's not all bad news. The paper also gives suggestions for future games that aim to harness the potential that the activities have to engage students while keeping in mind school constraints related to access to technology and students' and teachers' time. It's a must-read for anyone who is considering using games in the classroom or for those who are in the process of creating games for teachers to use.

The second paper is about what students can learn using digital games, simulations, and social networking, and how teachers can leverage those skills in the classroom. The report discusses six factors that create barriers to implementation of those technologies: research and policy factors, district and school factors, factors associated with the teacher, factors associated with the project, factors associated with the student, and factors inherent to technology. It also gives suggestions of how to overcome those barriers.

It shouldn't surprise you to find out that the group of people behind those reports are watching closely Quest to Learn, the middle/high school opening in NYC this fall created around game-based learning principles. In fact, Katie Salen, the executive director of the Institute of Play, which is the organization launching the school, is an author of the first report.

Attempting to use games to teach content in the classroom is not a new idea, and neither are the challenges that teachers face in finding and implementing effective game-based learning tools. But it seems to me that as much as students are using games, simulations, social networking, and other technologies in their day-to-day lives, it's important for educators to at least stay abreast of the potential capabilities they could have.

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I've joined LinkedIn and Facebook. I blog and Twitter. I've hosted Web chats, downloaded and posted video, and I've even fiddled a bit with wikis and podcasts. But I'm still wondering if all this has been an effective way to reach Ed Week and Digital Directions readers.

According to McKinsey & Co., many companies are wondering the same thing. In the February edition of the McKinsey Quarterly, the business journal of the global management-consulting company, there are some tips for making Web 2.0 work for you. The second generation of Web usage is all about communication and collaboration, as well as sharing information safely and effectively.

In "Six ways to make Web 2.0 work," McKinsey's experts make use of the company's survey of 50 early adopters of such technology to highlight successful strategies and practices. You may be relieved to know that as many of the survey respondents are happy with their efforts at Web 2.0 applications as are dissatisfied. Many of them are like me, confused about the value of social networking and viral marketing, especially when results aren't always recognizable. If I send out a tweet about this blog posting, will it get the traffic I want? If I update what I'm doing on my Facebook page, will I reach more of my target audience for Ed Week and DD content?

I would bet that most educators are equally perplexed about how to use the tools that have become an obsession with many of their students to improve learning and engagement with content. I know many teachers are using blogs and wikis to share ideas and collaborate with other teachers, and perhaps even to communicate with students.

Here's a YouTube video with one educator's take on all this:

While the McKinsey article is targeted mostly to corporate types, I wonder if these guidelines can apply to schools, administrators, and teachers as well. What do you think?

Of course you can continue the conversation on Twitter, @McKQuarterly.

Posted by Kathleen Kennedy Manzo at 3:38 PM | Permalink | 10 Comments | TrackBacks (0)

In this Ed Week article I look at educational television and the latest efforts to study its impact on children's literacy development.

Yesterday I came across this study, by the Children's Hospital of Boston and Harvard Medical School, that concludes "TV viewing before the age of 2 does not improve a child's language and visual motor skills."

The longitudinal study of children from birth to age 3, published in the March issue of Pediatrics, didn't measure any detrimental affects of television viewing. But the researchers say there are other indications that children younger than 2 should not watch television, which is the stance of the American Academy of Pediatrics as well.

"Contrary to marketing claims and some parents' perception that television viewing is beneficial to children's brain development, no evidence of such benefit was found," Marie Evans Schmidt, Ph.D., lead author of the study, said in a statement.

As I write in my Ed Week piece, though, the preschool and kindergarten sets do learn from educational television. Programs like "Sesame Street," "Between the Lions," and "WordWorld," have been shown to boost some of the precursor skills necessary for learning to read. There are even some efforts under way to help parents, child caregivers, and teachers of young children to use educational programming more formally.

What do you see as the pros and cons of promoting educational television as a learning tool?

(Photo: Theo reads a book to his family on PBS KIDS® series Between the Lions.
Credit: © 2009 WGBH)

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The Consortium for School Networking, the Washington-based association for school district technology leaders, has revamped its Web site to include more interactive tools and social networking features.

Two new forums, for example, will launch this week to allow educators to discuss the impact of technology on K-12 classrooms, as well as new and innovative applications for educational technology. The organization also hosts blogs, social networks, and a resource library of ed tech materials, reports, and surveys.

CoSN's is hosting its annual conference next week in Austin, and we will be blogging from there about the latest tech trends, concerns, and solutions for educators. Stay tuned.

Posted by Kathleen Kennedy Manzo at 2:33 PM | Permalink | No Comments | TrackBacks (0)

A couple weeks back, Education Sector released a new report about the role of technology in assessment. The report, "Beyond the Bubble: Technology and the Future of Student Assessment," talked about how technology could be used to automate assessments to provide quicker feedback. But it also looked at how it could help transform assessment to provide meaningful data on students' test answers and, perhaps more importantly, how they got them.

From today through Thursday, Education Sector is hosting a discussion about the report with its author, Bill Tucker, as well as education experts Charles Barone, Margaret Honey, and Scott Marion. Readers are encouraged to submit questions and join into the discussion.

Posted by Katie Ash at 12:13 PM | Permalink | No Comments | TrackBacks (0)

This video of the last day at the Rocky Mountain News, the latest newspaper to close up shop in the midst of a spiraling downturn in the news industry, was posted on Vimeo a few days ago by Matthew Roberts. Over at The Joy of Children's Literature blog Denise Johnson wonders if today's generation will remember how the news "used to be published."

Final Edition from Matthew Roberts on Vimeo.

Of course this is a topic near and dear to me and my colleagues. It's not just the demise of the broadsheet that worries journalists, but the seeming growing indifference to the kind of content that newspapers and their expert staffs crank out day in and day out. Just this morning we see that the government is undertaking an investigation of the effectiveness of children's car seats, not because of crash test results, but because the Chicago Tribune discovered that those results were not made public.

How can we get the digital generation to appreciate that not all "news" on the Internet is equal, and that the Fourth Estate is an essential component of a democracy? Do today's students know how to distinguish between online journalism and other info they find on their favorite sites?

Posted by Kathleen Kennedy Manzo at 9:16 AM | Permalink | 1 Comment | TrackBacks (0)