July 2009 Archives

A commentary on edweek.org this week argues that investing more money into technology and professional development is not the way to improve K-12 education. Schools have already made massive investments into Internet access and technology, says the essay, without research to show how effective those investments have been.

The authors of the commentary, Gary W. Ritter and Robert Maranto, both of whom teach in the department of education reform at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, point to a study by the Princeton, N.J.-based Mathematica Policy Research Inc. as proof that technology is not as effective as we'd like to believe. The study found that certain reading and math software products did not help improve student learning.

They say:

"Putting more resources into technology and for-profit consultants provides jobs and lets politicians feel they are helping schools, but it doesn’t improve student learning."

Instead, schools would be better served by increasing merit-pay for teachers and providing "bold action" to underperforming schools, the authors write.

While there are some folks out there who are overconfident in technology's ability to improve student achievement and address all the complicated problems that can face schools and students, I'm a bit skeptical of denouncing all tech-related education endeavors because of one study about computer software.

There is always room for more research, especially large-scale studies that look closely at technology's effect on student achievement (look at Project Red, for instance), but there are lots of examples of small-scale studies that point to increased student engagement and information retention in technology-rich classrooms. This study out of the University of Southern Maine's Center for Education Policy, Applied Research, and Evaluation is one example. And there's been a lot said about the imperative to provide students access to the tools and skills that they will need as employees in the 21st-century.

What do you think? Do we rely too heavily on technology to help improve student learning? Or are the investments we make in education technology worthwhile endeavors?

Posted by Katie Ash at 1:32 PM | Permalink | 3 Comments | TrackBacks (0)

I'm not sure that "sexting" has been on the radar screen of the U.S. Department of Education for very long. But I'm guessing the education and legal experts who've been urging school administrators to get more proactive in tackling the growing trend among middle and high school students, which I reported here, are encouraged that the topic is set to be covered at the department's national conference on Safe and Drug-Free Schools.

The agenda for the conference, being held Aug. 3-5 in Prince George's County, Md., is packed with the typical fare you would expect for the federal Safe and Drug-Free Schools program: child health and wellness; youth-program development; emergency response in schools; community engagement; and drug-abuse prevention and testing. But it also has some sessions on very timely technology-related issues.

The meeting, titled "The Power of Change: Healthy Students, Safe Schools, and Engaged Communities," has workshops on sexting—the practice among adolescents of sending provocative photos of themselves over mobile devices like cellphones—as well as cyberbullying, social networking, and Internet connectivity.

This event is free, but space is limited, so if you're interested, register here.

I've been trying to gauge just how much (or how little) school administrators are addressing the issue of sexting through new policies, professional development, and student-training sessions. Let me know of any efforts you've heard about.

Posted by Kathleen Kennedy Manzo at 12:08 PM | Permalink | 1 Comment | TrackBacks (0)

Blackboard Inc. has been in the news lately for its growing dominance in providing learning-management systems, particularly with its acquisition of ANGEL Learning earlier this year. But the Washington-based company received a blow this week when a federal appeals court invalidated more than three dozen of its patents on online learning-management systems. You can find news and blog coverage here.

The company has been in litigation over its patents since 2006, when it sued Canadian rival Desire2Learn for patent infringement. It is unclear how this decision might affect an earlier $3 million judgment for Blackboard in that case.

Here's some background from the Washington Business Journal.

A statement from Desire2Learn said the company is "pleased" with the decision.

"This decision has affirmed what we believed to be the case all along. It is a true victory for Desire2Learn and all of education," President and CEO John Baker said in the statement. "Despite the challenges along the way, we have the educational community to thank for supporting us through this lengthy process. We have always been, and will continue to be, about meeting the needs of our clients in their pursuit of advancing teaching and learning."

Blackboard's chief business officer, Matt Small, said Blackboard is disappointed with the decision and will seek further judicial review.

"The Federal Circuit’s decision does not affect Blackboard’s other patents or other efforts currently open in our effort to resolve the intellectual property disagreement we have with Desire2Learn," his statement says. "While we continue to pursue a resolution through the available channels, we remain focused on helping to engage learners and advance student achievement. In that regard, we continue to stand by our Patent Pledge, the legally-binding, worldwide commitment we made not to assert the patents listed in the Pledge against the use, development, or support of open source or home-grown course management systems that are not bundled with proprietary software."

Posted by Kathleen Kennedy Manzo at 4:15 PM | Permalink | No Comments | TrackBacks (0)

There's a long article in The Chronicle of Higher Education about stripping technology out of classrooms to better engage students. Jose A. Bowen, the dean of the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, has begun to promote "teaching naked"—or teaching without technology in the classroom.

Although there is a definite focus on higher education in this article, it has major implications for the K-12 classroom as well. Bowen's main beef with technology seems to be specifically with PowerPoint, which he claims many teachers use as a crutch, rather than an effective teaching tool. Class time should be reserved for group discussion, says Bowen, not for displaying information that could be downloaded later, such as a PowerPoint presentation or lecture.

Those who are made most uncomfortable by Bowen's teaching style are the students. They've become used to the passive lecture method of teaching and aren't used to actively participating during a 50-minute class, says the article, although Bowen claims that once students see the effects of group discussions vs. lectures, they become less bored and more engaged.

While I can see how PowerPoint might facilitate a passive style of learning, there are many other technologies that require active participation from students, and I wonder what Bowen thinks of those. Having students record their own podcasts and upload them to a class blog is a much different experience than walking students through a series of PowerPoint slides. Ultimately, I think it comes back to the idea that it's not about the technology, but how that technology is used and implemented in the classroom.

What do you think? Does relying too heavily on technology in the classroom make students passive learners? Or do you find that incorporating technology into lessons better engages students?

Posted by Katie Ash at 1:03 PM | Permalink | 7 Comments | TrackBacks (0)

It may have been overshadowed by the announcement today by Education Secretary Arne Duncan and President Barack Obama about the Race to the Top grants, but the administration also released new guidance for the funds targeted in the economic-stimulus package for the federal Enhancing Education Through Technology program.

In the past several months, ed-tech organizations have been keeping a close eye out for this non-regulatory guidance to find out when the $650 million in stimulus funding will be available, how it can be spent, and what kinds of reporting requirements are tied to it.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed earlier this year called for the boost to the Enhancing Education Through Technology, or EETT, funds that are scheduled for release to states on July 27. The program has had regular annual funding of about $267 million, but stands to suffer significant cuts Obama's budget proposal for fiscal 2010. Once states get the stimulus money, they are responsible for distributing it to schools or eligible consortia, although up to 5 percent of the money can be held for state-level ed-tech purposes. States must award at least half of the remaining money—or all of it, if they choose—to schools through competitive grants. They can also distribute 50 percent or less of the funds through a formula.

The emphasis here is obviously on competitive grants. In fact, the guidance says, "the Department strongly encourages states to award all of the funds competitively. Larger, competitive grants potentially will have a greater impact than smaller formula grants awarded across more districts."

Another area I know many organizations have been watching closely are the reporting and transparency requirements associated with the funds. All the funds distributed through EETT will need to be tracked and reported to the public quarterly. States are required to report how each entity that received these funds have performed on the following four measures: the percentage of districts receiving ed-tech funds that have effectively and fully integrated technology, the percentage of classrooms with Internet access in high- and low-poverty schools, the percentage of teachers who meet their state technology standards, and the percentage of students who meet state technology standards by the end of the eighth grade.

The four guiding principles for distributing the funds, says the document, are to "spend funds quickly to save and create jobs; improve student achievement through school improvement and reform; ensure transparency, reporting, and accountability; and invest one-time funds from the economic stimulus program thoughtfully to minimize the "funding cliff.' "

Overall, the guidance emphasizes systemic integration of technology into the classroom with a focus on ongoing, embedded professional-development for teachers and adequate tech support.

You can read more about how much money each state will be receiving through this program here. To read more about the transparency requirements that accompany the funds, click here.

Posted by Katie Ash at 2:26 PM | Permalink | No Comments | TrackBacks (0)

My colleagues at teachermagazine.org hit on a hot topic with their webinar on "Cellphones as Instructional Tools," held yesterday with a bevy of prominent guests and thousands of participants.

The webinar proved so popular and the discussion so vibrant (more than 700 questions were submitted before it even started) that the Teacher folks have decided to continue it in an online forum. The guests of the webinar—Elliot Soloway, Cathleen Norris, Liz Kolb, and Ron Meyers—have also agreed to weigh in on the discussion as it gets going.

There are already some interesting comments and insights from educators, and a lot of requests for relevant resources. Why don't you join in?

Posted by Kathleen Kennedy Manzo at 12:26 PM | Permalink | No Comments | TrackBacks (0)

The headline on the Dangerously Irrelevant blog caught my attention. "Do most educational games suck?," the post by blogger and Iowa State University Researcher Scott McLeod, talks about some of the differences between educational games and commercial ones intended mainly for entertainment (ie: Grand Theft Auto or Super Mario Galaxy).

He asks whether or not educational games are engaging for students, considering what they're used to playing with for entertainment. McLeod, who directs the university's Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education (CASTLE), pulls screenshots from educational games and compares them to the slicker commercial offerings, and indeed it is easy to tell which are which based completely on the quality of the graphics.

Making a game that is sophisticated enough to engage students while also incorporating educational material is one of the most difficult aspects of games in education. As some of the commenters noted on McLeod's post, many game designers have no background in education, and vice versa. This was a point repeated by many of the experts I spoke with for the last story I wrote about games in education. The solution, they said, is to have designers and educators working collaboratively to create the game from the very beginning.

Despite its to-the-point title, the commenters on McLeod's post seemed to be more optimistic about educational games. Many said that the quality of the graphics does not have a large impact on the way students think about games. They are used to playing Flash games with simple graphics, they say. Others points to promising educational games, such as Dimension M, and the now infamous Oregon Trail, a simulation game where students cross the Oregon Trail in a pixelated covered wagon, which I'm convinced almost any twenty-something remembers playing as an elementary school student.

Some commenters noted that regardless of the sophistication of the graphics, the real trick to making a good educational game is to avoid a "drill-and-kill" approach to relaying the educational material and thinly-veiled quizzing methods that allow students to move to the next level.

The debate on McLeod's post is lengthy and worth checking out. What do you think? Do students enjoy educational games, or do they see them as simplified versions of the commercial games they play? Are educational games getting better? And how important are graphics to the average student player?

Posted by Katie Ash at 6:37 PM | Permalink | No Comments | TrackBacks (0)

Fans of cellphones as instructional tools see them as a natural way to engage students in lessons using some of the nifty applications for polling and Web searching that many of today's devices allow. I'm pretty sure that's what some of the guests of an edweek.org Webinar later today will be arguing.

But the naysayers also have some good points about how mobile devices can distract students in the classroom from the lessons at hand. This blog post on change.org has a discussion between college professors about their dismay over cellphone use in their classes, and some interesting comments from those with a different view. As a New York adjunct professor in philosophy writes:

My students read texts, discuss them, and consider philosophical problems; I do everything I can to make our activities stimulating, and I make use of technological aids when appropriate, but can't see how introducing more bells and whistles will bring anything more [to] this process. I can't consider their phones anything but a distraction.

Siobhan Curious, a Canadian academic and the blogger at Classroom as Microcosm who answers questions addressed to "Dear Siobhan," agrees, to a point:

Some argue that in contemporary society, our students need to learn how to multitask effectively. I would argue just the opposite: that today's young people - and adults, for that matter, myself included - need to learn to STOP multitasking, and to focus on one task, with concentration, for an extended period of time.

Some commenters, however, are taking issue with that viewpoint. One asks why the profs want to trample on students' rights, describing how his cellphone is his lifeline to information and primary method of taking notes in class.

It's making for a great discussion on the blog, one that could just as easily apply to the high school, or even middle school, classroom as to higher ed. I recommend you take a look.

Posted by Kathleen Kennedy Manzo at 12:43 PM | Permalink | 3 Comments | TrackBacks (0)

There's been quite a bit of tech talk here at edweek.org that readers of this blog may find useful. Yesterday, over at the Curriculum Matters blog, reporter Sean Cavanagh talked about fears that the United States is falling behind other countries in its ability to protect citizens from cyber attacks, which is part of the reason why Tom Luce, a former top education official in the Bush administration, says it's important to bolster math and science education. The essay, which appeared in the Huffington Post, is here and be sure to check back in on Curriculum Matters to share your thoughts about it.

Also, if you haven't already signed up, edweek.org is hosting a Webinar about using cellphones as instructional tools today at 4pm Eastern. With thousands of pre-registered guests already, it is shaping up to be the most popular Webinar we've ever hosted here at edweek.org. Guests include Elliot Soloway, a professor at the School of Information, School of Education, and Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan; Liz Kolb, an education technology instructor at the University of Michigan and Madonna University, as well as the author of the book Toys to Tools: Connecting Student Cell Phones to Education; and Ron Myers, the principal of Trinity Meadows Intermediate School in Keller, Texas.

This is an very hot topic in education right now, and I'm sure there will quite a bit of information about whether cellphones have a place in education and what educators need to know to make them effective learning tools. Sign up now to check it out. It's free!

Posted by Katie Ash at 11:45 AM | Permalink | No Comments | TrackBacks (0)

If you've been skeptical or indifferent about the potential perils of sexting and whether schools need to be concerned about students sending inappropriate photos of themselves electronically to classmates, you've got to read this piece in GQ magazine. It chronicles in frightening detail a case of a Wisconsin high school student who allegedly duped teenage boys into sending nude photos of themselves and, later, blackmailed them into performing sexual acts.

Police say that late last year, Eisenhower High School student Anthony Stancl, as an 18-year-old senior, posed as a girl on social-networking sites, then persuaded boys at the school in New Berlin, Wis., to send provocative photos of themselves. Stancl then allegedly threatened to make the photos public if the boys didn't agree to meet with him in person. At meetings with at least seven of the boys, Stancl allegedly sexually assaulted the victims and took additional photos during the acts.

The GQ article goes on to describe how officials at the school had sought to make Eisenhower "a national model of innovation" and had hoped to be chosen as a pilot school for a mobile learning project that would equip all its students with iPhones or iPods. The piece doesn't go into detail about whether the school has a policy addressing the sexting issue. But it does say that a parent training session on cybersafety held before Stancl's arrest drew in just two participants. The following week a similar meeting was packed with concerned parents.

Several national education and law enforcement organizations are trying to raise awareness of the problem, as I wrote about last month, and are urging districts to address it directly with new policies, training programs for parents, teachers, and students, and partnerships with police and social service agencies.

The Wisconsin case is extreme, but it gives the issue a level of urgency and will hopefully force adults who deal with teenagers to take note and take action.

Posted by Kathleen Kennedy Manzo at 12:41 PM | Permalink | 2 Comments | TrackBacks (0)

Thanks to some of the folks I follow on Twitter, I've been able to follow the events at the Reimagine Education conference being held through Wednesday in Charlottesville, Va. The conference, hosted by Albemarle Public Schools in Virginia, the University of Virginia Curry School of Education, and Schoolnet Inc., highlights innovations in education and best practices for building students' 21st-century skills.

The sessions cover curriculum, assessment, effective ways to use student data, and equipping students for the global workplace. There are also presentations describing innovative school programs in Chicago, Denver, Wichita, and other places.

While it's not a conference exclusively about educational technology, much of the innovation in teaching and learning requires sophisticated digital tools, and the push for 21st-century skills generally encompasses the need for students to understand and be able to use technology for learning and for complex tasks.

Many of the sessions, and keynote addresses by authors like Tony Wagner and Jay McTighe, are being streamed live at Edustat University's Web site, and Melissa Techman and Becky Fisher(@mtechman and @beckyfisher73 on Twitter), both educators in Charlottesville, are sending out regular tweets from the conference.

Posted by Kathleen Kennedy Manzo at 4:49 PM | Permalink | 1 Comment | TrackBacks (0)

I wanted to draw your attention to a relatively new initiative from the Consortium for School Networking, Web 2.0 in Schools: Policy & Leadership. An advisory committee was formed last year in July, but it seems like most of the work they've done has been pretty recen. This report, for example, released in May 2009, talks about what the administrator's role is in navigating the education opportunities of Web 2.0 tools with keeping students safe online.

Based on a survey of about 1,200 district administrators, the report found that nearly three-quarters thought that Web 2.0 tools—such as blogs, wikis, and social-networking Web sites—had a positive impact on students' communication skills and quality of schoolwork. The survey also found that not all Web 2.0 tools are created equal in the eyes of a school district. A large majority—70 percent—ban social networking at school and 72 percent ban chat rooms, but most schools allow the use of wikis, polls and surveys, blogs, file-sharing, and games.

If this is a topic that interests you, I encourage you to poke around COSN's Web site to see what else is there. And you also might want to check out this upcoming webinar, hosted by Progressive Business Publications, called "Facebook, YouTube & Student Free Speech: What Educators Need to Know," on Thursday, August 13, 2009 from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. Eastern. It's led by John Borkowski, a lawyer who practices trial and appellate litigation, with an emphasis on education law issues. It costs $199.

Posted by Katie Ash at 10:44 AM | Permalink | No Comments | TrackBacks (0)

The board for the Miami-Dade County school district approved a plan today to educate students about the legal and safety issues related to “sexting,” the recent craze among adolescents of sharing nude or sexually provocative photos over cellphones.The vote makes Miami-Dade among the first of the nation's largest urban districts to formally address the emerging problem.

Under the plan, the 345,000-student district would revise its current cellphone policy—which allows students to bring the devices to school, but requires them to be turned off while on campus—or create new rules related to the use of mobile technologies. District officials will introduce additional lessons related to tech safety beginning this coming school year and train teachers to use them.

School personnel would also reach out to parents to raise awareness of the problem and give them tools to head off the behavior. They would also work with local and state law enforcement officials, as well as government agencies, to review current laws and come up with guidelines for protecting students against unfair or inappropriate prosecution under laws that may have been crafted for adults.

As we wrote about in Edweek last month, some minors have been charged with adult sex crimes after sending inappropriate photos of themselves or their peers to others via cellphones. Such images can fall into the category of child pornography in the eyes of the law.

Here's a nugget from the Miami Herald's piece on the plan:

Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said he would like to work with government and law enforcement agencies to develop a cutting-edge School Board policy -- and preach the dangers of sending racy pictures.

''This is to protect kids, to make them aware of the legal implications of some of their virtual transactions,'' Carvalho said.

As sexting has grabbed public attention, and teenagers and educators have gotten caught up in the legal and other consequences of the practice, school officials have been urged to respond with more precise rules around cellphone use. They’ve also been encouraged to provide information to students, teachers, and parents about the dangers of sexting, including the permanent digital record it creates.

The American Association of School Administrators, based in Arlington, Va., for example, has offered webinars and tip sheets on the subject and is developing a toolkit for administrators. And the National Center for Prosecution of Child Abuse, an arm of the Alexandria, Va.-based National Association of District Attorneys, has been calling for a more careful consideration of laws used to charge offending teenagers.

What are the districts near you doing? Is this another fad that is destined to phase out, or a major problem on the horizon for schools?

Posted by Kathleen Kennedy Manzo at 3:49 PM | Permalink | No Comments | TrackBacks (0)

An increasing number of districts are starting to jump into the online learning business, or are at least contemplating doing so. But figuring out the most efficient and effective ways of setting up e-learning options for students and teachers can be overwhelming.

The International Association for K-12 Online Learning, based in Vienna, Va., has put together a series of how-to Webinars outlining the steps to building a successful online education program. Topics for the low-cost virtual workshops include selecting curriculum and content, teacher recruitment, and student support.

“Starting an online school or online program is a many-faceted challenge, even for seasoned educators." Susan Patrick, iNACOL's president and CEO, said in a statement. "This Webinar series will be simple enough to help educators with all levels of experience, yet advanced enough to answer the complex management, operational, and policy issues people are dealing with."

Posted by Kathleen Kennedy Manzo at 12:48 PM | Permalink | No Comments | TrackBacks (0)

The Denver Post is reporting that Congress has ordered a Federal Communications Commission review of BusRadio—a radio programming service used by 9,000 buses in 24 states. Critics of the program claim that the music played by the service is sometimes age inappropriate and that the students on the bus are being held hostage to the commercials played on the station, according to the article.

The issue of advertising on buses is not a new one. I wrote a quick story about that very subject coming up in South Carolina a few years back. Officials in that state were considering adding advertising to buses to increase revenue for education. And indeed, the buses that play BusRadio do receive some money for allowing the service, says the article.

There are different stations of BusRadio, one geared to elementary school students, one toward middle school students, and a third for high schoolers. And although some parents may have qualms with the content on the station, the service claims to provide a safe, age-appropriate alternative to traditional AM/FM radio. A spokesman from Denver Public Schools also said in the article that the service has helped keep the bus rides more calm and safe, which is the reason why the school district installed the service originally.

What do you think? Is BusRadio appropriate for students, or is it wrong to advertise to students in a school setting? Will getting rid of this service shield students from advertisements, or will the ads simply sneak through some other way?

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Ting-Yi Oei, who was initially charged for possession of child pornography in a sexting case at Freedom High School in Loudoun County, Va., where he is an administrator, called to update us on his situation. The charges against him were eventually dropped and the county school board voted last month to repay legal expenses—some $167,000—that Oei racked up throughout the ordeal. The charges came after he collected inappropriate cellphone images from a student. He described his ordeal in this audio interview with my colleague Michelle Davis.

I'm sure that Oei has some insights to offer his colleagues in Virginia and across the country as they confront more and more incidents involving students sending inappropriate content electronically. Several education and legal groups have taken up the issue recently, as I outlined in this Ed Week piece, and are urging states and districts to take a close look at their policies on cellphone use in schools.

Posted by Kathleen Kennedy Manzo at 12:30 PM | Permalink | No Comments | TrackBacks (0)

My Ed Week colleagues have a piece this week about some new high-level nominations at the Education Department, specifically for offices covering special education and vocational education.

But folks in the ed-tech world are still waiting to hear who will take over as director of the office of educational technology. Tim Magner headed that office from 2006 until early this year. Experts in the field are hoping the pick is someone with a passion for the potential of educational technologies, of course, but who can also leverage some influence in making ed tech a policy priority with some real money behind it.

Advocates are still trying to make sense of the Obama administration's seeming enthusiasm for using technology as a driver for school improvement, on the one hand, and its proposed cuts to the federal EETT program on the other.

The EETT program won some $650 million in the economic stimulus package, money that is set to be released to states and districts beginning this month. But its funding in the regular budget could plummet by as much as 60 percent—from $269 million in fiscal 2009 to the $100 million in President Obama's fiscal 2010 budget plan. Such a dramatic cut, advocates say, would force states and districts to use the stimulus money to supplant, rather than supplement, existing program budgets.

Key organizations on this issue, including CoSN and ISTE, have been urging their members to contact their lawmakers as the budget heads in to the markup stage. The Senate Appropriations Committee is scheduled to take up the budget July 23.

Posted by Kathleen Kennedy Manzo at 5:40 PM | Permalink | 1 Comment | TrackBacks (0)

You may remember a year or so back in Chicago, there was talk of opening a brick-and-mortar school that would specifically be designed for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or questioning students. Those plans never came to fruition, but it looks like the concept has moved instead to the online arena. The GLBTQ Online High School is currently accepting applications for the 2010 school year.

The private, nonprofit online school, based near St. Paul, Minn., will serve students across the nation, as well as worldwide, on both a part-time and full-time basis. The school is committed to creating a safe, affirming place for GLBTQ students, and, as part of that mission, it will provide discussion forums for parents and family to share their experiences, challenges, and ideas about raising a GLBTQ child. The school will also build GLBTQ studies into its curriculum.

To me, this is a really interesting use of distance education. Instead of aiming to bring hard-to-staff classes to students who'd like to take them or accommodate irregular schedules, it seems that the main goal of this school is to bring together a very specific group of students and create a supportive community around them. I do think the online school begs some of the same questions that the brick-and-mortar school did (Doesn't this school segregate kids? Shouldn't tolerance be promoted in all educational environments?) but by moving into the private, online realm, school officials have now placed those decisions in the hands of parents and students, rather than those of the public school system.

I'll definitely be keeping my eye on this as we get closer to the school's 2010 launch.

Posted by Katie Ash at 3:21 PM | Permalink | No Comments | TrackBacks (0)

A special thanks to Paul Hyland, the chief technology officer for edweek.org, for this guest blog post about open-source tech issues.

Open-source technology displayed a growing presence at the National Educational Computing Conference last week. Presentations and handouts touted numerous open-source alternatives to traditional software, the best collected in a handout listing the Top 10 Free and Open Source Software in Education. Oft-mentioned open-source software packages that can save school districts money include office suite OpenOffice.org, photo/image editor The GIMP, and audio editor Audacity.

A top choice for operating system software is Ubuntu Linux, with distributions (or versions) available for workstations or servers, and specialized distributions customized for netbooks and for the education market. Sponsoring organization Revolution Linux set up a clustered server running 60 thin-client workstations, and Benoit St-Andre, Revolution’s Educational Services Director, told me of much larger thin client deployments they have carried out for school districts--covering up to 10,000 workstations and 40,000 students (which can cut both hardware and power costs in half). For more detail on its history and options read the Ubuntu Linux Wikipedia entry.

Open Education Resources--free and freely-sharable curriculum materials--were a big hit at the conference as well, particularly in the wake of California’s announced move in favor of free, online textbooks. Curriki was an exhibitor, and their blogger and evangelist Anna Batchelder gave a talk covering Curriki as well as other offerings such as MIT OpenCourseWare, FreeReading, Connexions, and OER Commons; the latter can be searched directly from our Teacher Magazine home page.

Curriki Executive Director Barbara “Bobbi” Kurshan touted the value and cost savings Curriki makes possible at a meeting that also featured Chicago Public Schools technology administrators outlining how open-source infrastructure from Sun Microsystems helped them leverage E-Rate funds to enjoy $1 million per year in network operations cost savings. (Sun initially launched Curriki, and then spun it off as an independent nonprofit organization.)

It is clear from the growing presence of open-source technologies at conferences such as NECC and in the education press that these alternatives have reached a level of maturity at which they can be credibly considered--especially given the budgetary constraints so prevalent today.

Posted by Kevin Bushweller at 1:04 PM | Permalink | No Comments | TrackBacks (0)

Erin Gruwell's inspiring keynote, which marked the end of this year's NECC, illustrated the importance of making learning relevant to students and using tools, like education technology, to help students achieve.

Gruwell, a teacher from Los Angeles who started the Freedom Writer's Foundation, which encourages underachieving students to write, discussed the ways that she motivated her students to believe in themselves and ultimately share their stories in a book that went on to become a New York Times bestseller. Gruwell was able to help her students connect to writing by relating the story of Anne Frank to their own lives. Through donations, she received a computer for each of her students to type out their own stories to be shared in the book.

It's not hard to see how Gruwell was able to turn a project involving 150 students in Long Beach, Calif., into a best-selling story and feature-length movie when you hear her speak. Her excitement and passion about teaching was obvious and infectious. Listening to her story was a welcome reminder of the importance of education and the power that teachers have to change the lives of their students.

Posted by Katie Ash at 4:08 PM | Permalink | 1 Comment | TrackBacks (0)

The debate about 1-to-1 programs, which aim to equip every student with a laptop or mobile device, that took place at one of the last sessions at NECC, hosted by the Anytime Anywhere Foundation, was not so much about whether the initiatives are necessary or not, but rather what kinds of mobile devices should be used for 1-to-1 programs. On one side, Gary Stager, a visiting professor at Pepperdine University and ed-tech expert, argued that laptops are the appropriate device for such programs, while Sharon Peters, who works with Teachers Without Borders, discussed how cellphones and netbooks could be important devices to explore.

Stager explained educators' fascination with mobile devices as being "terribly excited over very little." He went on to say that trying to find educational uses for cellphones made teachers look silly. "You can create things on a cellphone," he said, "but I'm not sure you can create good things or deep things." Although mobile devices are less expensive than laptops, they cannot be used as a traditional computer, and "we add cost and increase frustration" by trying to make mobile devices behave like computers, said Stager.

Peters, however, talked about how mobile devices like cellphones and netbooks have many advantages, such as being portable, having a low cost, having a wide-range of functionality, and being relatively ubiquitous, especially in developing nations. She conceded that mobile devices do have constraints, such as small screens, small keyboards, and a limited ability to program or code. But with a focus on how the tools are used rather than the tools themselves, there is a lot of potential for educational opportunities, she said.

Posted by Katie Ash at 2:27 PM | Permalink | 2 Comments | TrackBacks (0)

At her session about whether schools should build their own online professional development products or buy a ready-made set of online professional development courses, Nancy Howell, the president of the Atlanta-based N.W. Howell & Associates—a consulting firm that helps school districts develop online-learning and professional-development programs—discussed what kinds of factors administrators should consider when putting plans in place for online professional development.

Whether you decide to create your own courses or buy pre-made courses, having the right amount of staff and support in place is essential to the success of the program, said Howell. In addition, there needs to be open communication between teachers, administrators, and stakeholders about what the needs and expectations are for the professional development, she said.

If your district is leaning toward ready-made programs, there are certain features to check for, such as communication tools (like blogs, chat capabilities, and wikis), media tools (like streaming video), the age of the content and whether it's aligned to standards, ease of use, and the amount of support that comes with the program.

Howell's PowerPoint presentation contains much more information and is currently available online. In addition, check out Michelle Davis' Digital Directions story about this topic.

Posted by Katie Ash at 11:49 AM | Permalink | No Comments | TrackBacks (0)

With the National Educational Computing Conference taking place in the nation's capital, there was a rare chance for hundreds of enthusiastic educators to make their presence, and their demands for ed-tech-friendly policies, known to members of Congress and their staffs.

A caravan of buses dropped the large group of ed-tech advocates off on Capitol Hill well-prepared to school lawmakers on the challenges they face in trying to integrate technology and make learning more relevant and engaging for today's digital natives.

The educators were lobbying for a restoration of the federal education technology funding in the next budget, as well as ongoing support for the e-rate program and the Preparing Teachers to be Digital Learners program.

"With this event being in Washington, it's a great opportunity when we have our legislators all in one place to get our message to them," said Terri Besnahan, director of technology for the Addison School District #4 in Illinois. "If we're all delivering the same message, we have power in numbers and unity."

Bresnahan and the corps of about 20 Illinois educators, all dressed in royal blue conference t-shirts, held meetings with their Senators and Representatives, or their staffers, to brief them about the potential for using technology to transform classrooms. Without funding, they said, all students will not have access to the tools they need to build knowledge and skills essential to success in the global workforce.

"Schools may be connected to the Internet, but because we don't have the right equipment and the right training, we can't use the technology tools that we need to improve teaching and learning," Henry Thiele, the technology director in the 7,000-student Maine Township School District 207 in Park Ridge, Ill., told staff members of in Sen. Roland Burris', D-Ill.

Ford Porter, a legislative correspondent, told the group that education is one of Sen. Burris' top priorities, but that the topic is being overshadowed by the high interest among lawmakers over the nation's health care crisis.

The teachers and administrators relayed tales of outdated computers and a lack of professional development opportunities geared toward the effective use of technology in the classroom.

"These are very, very real problems, and for the most part they are fixable," Porter told the group. "We just gotta go out and find the funding."

Posted by Kathleen Kennedy Manzo at 8:50 AM | Permalink | 3 Comments | TrackBacks (0)

Hands down the most entertaining session I attended during NECC '09 was the "Shattering Expectations and Inspiring Adventure in the Classroom," sponsored by the Verizon Foundation, which ended with two teachers and Eric Close, who plays an FBI agent on CBS's Without a Trace, being tied together, blindfolded, and made to crawl across a ladder simulating a mountain crevasse, their only guidance being a member of the audience who could direct them with vocal commands.

Beyond the entertainment value of watching that spectacle, the session aimed to simulate the strategies and tools that mountain climber Erik Weihenmeyer, who was the first blind person to reach the summit of Mt. Everest, employs to accomplish seemingly impossible goals and explore how the techniques he uses can be applied to the classroom.

"The mind works by being motivated by a sense of discovery," said Weinhenmeyer, also a former 5th grade teacher, when explaining what drove him to scale cliff faces and frozen waterfalls and learn how to paraglide, despite warnings that it could not be done by a blind person. But in order to accomplish those goals, Weinhenmeyer had to cultivate a number of tools to help him compensate for his lack of sight, just as teachers have to learn about and rely on tools to help enhance their lessons.

In addition, Weinhenmeyer attributes part of his success to the strong team of people he surrounds himself with. In mountain climbing, said Weinhenmeyer, all members of the climbing team are physically linked together, so that if one person slips, the rest of the team is responsible for stopping him or her from getting hurt. Similarly, in education, teachers are linked to students, other teachers, and parents, said Weinhenmeyer. "We're able to link together behind one vision," he said.

Posted by Katie Ash at 8:45 AM | Permalink | 3 Comments | TrackBacks (0)

Our intern and guest blogger, Tim Ebner, has this report:

The historic Library of Congress proved an apropos site for a field trip for the educators attending the National Educational Computing Conference here in Washington. The Library of Congress is the largest public repository of its kind in the world, home to 140 million materials, which include books, videos, and artifacts.

Visitors at a reception last night had open access to tour the library, renowned for its architectural beauty and priceless collection, and learn about its newest Web resource—a project called Teaching With Primary Sources Direct.

The free online database is a space where educators can create customizable professional development resources for educators in their school, district, or state. The TPS Direct project first received funding from Congress in 2005 and was developed over time through a partnership with 21 different colleges and universities. Elizabeth Ridgway, the Director of Educational Outreach at the Library, said the site’s main goal is to get teachers using primary source materials that will build students’ critical-thinking skills.

“We hope that these primary source documents don’t just answer questions students might have, but also spark questions they might want to discover,” said Ridgway.

Right now, The Library of Congress has more than 15 million digitized items online, and the TPS Direct site will show teachers how to integrate historic documents into their classroom lessons.

“By the fall, we are hoping to have every state on the site. And, we will add additional professional development exercises in the coming months, so that it serves as a living resource,” Ridgway said

From the site’s main page, educators can build their own activities using primary documents from a variety of subject areas. Each plan is downloaded into a PDF, but there will also be another option to export these files into an HTML version soon. Right now the site has approximately 12 hours of training for using primary documents, and the Library’s Education Outreach team will add more once the materials have passed review standards set by the National Society of Staff Development and the International Society for Technology in Education. Also, all professional development activities have been aligned with standards from the American Association of School Librarians Standards for the 21st Century Learner.

The library is encouraging educators to test-drive the features of the new resource and provide comments or feedback.

(Photo of NECC reception at the Library of Congress, by Tim Ebner.)

EDIT: The resources available through the Library of Congress are also aligned to the American Association of School Librarians Standards for the 21st Century Learner.

Posted by Kathleen Kennedy Manzo at 8:44 AM | Permalink | No Comments | TrackBacks (0)