November 2010 Archives

This week, PBS independent documentary series Independent Lens is airing Copyright Criminals.

The film, which has accompanying curriculum materials that can be downloaded from the PBS website, talks about copyright law in the age of digital sampling, which became popular in the hip-hop movement during the mid-80s after the creation of technologies that made it easier to record and mash-up various artists' work. The documentary features the hip-hop artists who pioneered this trend, such as De La Soul and Public Enemy, as well as the artists whose work they sampled, copyright lawyers, and researchers.

The problem is that copyright laws were written several decades after these technologies evolved, experts say. Today pretty much anyone can download free software to create mash-ups without needing a recording studio or fancy equipment. However, the law has not kept up, making any type of sampling a copyright infringement unless the song goes through sampling clearances, which are both time-consuming and, in some cases, incredibly expensive.

Relating pop music to copyright law, intellectual property law, and digital literacy etiquette should make this documentary a good watch for your students. Check your local listings to see it on a channel near you.

Posted by Katie Ash at 5:20 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

In honor of it being Thanksgiving eve—meaning there won't much be blogworthy stateside news until Monday, and even if there is, you'll be too bombed on tryptophan to care—I'd like to share a series of eight blog entries from CoSN CEO Keith Krueger's travels to South Korea early this month.

Krueger, who attended the Korean & World Bank Symposium on National Strategies for Information and Communications Technologies in Seoul, reminds us that America is not alone in attempting to solve educational challenges through the increased integration of technology.

He reports the trend of hiring district-level technology administrators is not unique to the United States, nor is the restructuring of national information and communications technologies, nor is the push to achieve a one-to-one computing environment. For example, the South American nation of Uruguay (perhaps best known globally as perennial World Cup overachievers, and in the states as "that country between Argentina and Brazil") is in the third year of a laptop program that so far has distributed 420,000 machines to students and educators. The nation's population is just 3.5 million.

Anyway, hope you'll find this interesting reading, whether you're sneaking away from the in-laws, waiting for the darn bird to cook already, or just perusing the Web after your family's annual Adam Sandler sing-along.

And, oh yeah, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Posted by Ian Quillen at 5:20 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Last spring, Middlebury College in Vermont and online course provider K12 Inc. launched a partnership to create and distribute high-quality, interactive online foreign language courses to high schoolers. And earlier this week, I got to see first-hand what those courses look like and how they're being used.

The partnership has formed under Middlebury Interactive Languages, and so far, Spanish I and French I courses are being piloted in several schools. The betas for both of those courses will be available in January, said representatives from the company.

A main goal for the courses was to re-create as much as possible the authentic, immersive environment online that students get from Middlebury's face-to-face language courses and programs, they said. In order to reach that goal, the course is broken down into three parts: the course itself, which has modules that are based around videos shot in countries where the target language is spoken; passport city, which is a social network created for the course where students can have discussions with each other; and a 3D game students can play that requires students to know and use the language in order to progress.

For example, in the Spanish I program, the game starts with the student being a waiter in a cafe who has to take orders, put the orders into the kitchen, then remember who ordered what in order to keep customers satisfied. The waiter also has the option of making small talk with the customers to increase their satisfaction.

Putting students in authentic situations, such as ordering food at a restaurant, was a main goal when the course was developed, I was told. Even the activities in the modules are based around possible real-world situations. One I previewed had students practice numbers by challenging them to dial into their voicemail on a virtual phone, retrieve the phone number of the person who called, and call them back. By allowing students to learn the language in an authentic environment, rather than through drill-and-kill or strictly memorization, it alerts students to listen for what they do know rather than to focus on all the words that they may not know, the course developers explained.

"Less than fifty percent of kids [in the U.S.] take a foreign language," said David Benoit, the chief executive officer of Middlebury Interactive Languages. "One of our goals is not only to make it fun and accessible for teachers, but to see that number start to tick up." Creating courses that are affordable and accessible for the average school is a big part of that, he said.

Posted by Katie Ash at 12:20 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Online education watchdog group Common Sense Media has released a new version of its free digital literacy curriculum directed toward 4th and 5th graders to add to its existing material for middle schoolers.

The curriculum includes a focus on Internet and security, privacy, and responsible digital behavior, and uses print, video, and interactive components as well as real-life stories to deliver lessons on the subjects. According to a press release, cyberbullying is a major focus of the curriculum, which is based upon ethics findings of the GoodPlay Project from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

The curriculum was previously piloted at schools in San Francisco, where Common Sense Media is based, and Omaha, Neb., during the 2009-2010 school year.

The nonprofit group also announced that more than 10,000 schools have now registered to use its materials.

Posted by Ian Quillen at 4:10 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

News Corp., Rupert Murdoch's media conglomerate, has purchased 90 percent of New York-based ed-tech company Wireless Generation for $360 million, according to multiple media reports. The move comes less than two weeks after another Murdoch foray into the education world: the announcement that outgoing New York City Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein will go to work for News Corp. as an executive vice president.

Wireless Generation will operate as an independent subsidiary managed by the company's current executives, including founder and Chief Executive Officer Larry Berger. Berger also serves on the board of trustees of Editorial Projects in Education, the nonprofit corporation that publishes Education Week.

News reports say Berger, along with President and Chief Operating Officer Josh Reibel and Executive Vice President and Chief Product Officer Laurence Holt, will retain 10 percent of the rights to the company, which offers ed-tech software, systems, and services to 200,000 educators and more than 3 million students, according to its website.

"When it comes to K through 12 education, we see a $500 billion sector in the U.S. alone that is waiting desperately to be transformed by big breakthroughs that extend the reach of great teaching," said Murdoch, the chairman and CEO of News Corp., which includes The Wall Street Journal and Fox Broadcasting Co. among its holdings.

The Wireless Generation move, along with the hiring of Klein, appears to signal the emergence of a new player in the education market, particularly in educational technology. Shortly after being hired by News Corp., Klein told reporters his job would be to help to help his new company drive private investment in technologies he believed would "change the way K-12 education is delivered."

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The Florida Virtual School and educational publishers Pearson have announced a partnership that will offer FLVS-designed courses through a program called Pearson Virtual Learning.

Schools worldwide will be able to choose from one of four options to offer middle and high school content to students. The programs vary based on whether a subscribing school is using its own teachers and learning management system, and whether it is paying for courses on a per-student or a subscription basis. Information provided by Pearson does not include more specific pricing models for the program.

The program will offer credit recovery courses in the four core subject areas for high schoolers, math credit recovery courses for middle schoolers, as well as an assortment of Advanced Placement courses and exam reviews. Schools choosing to use their own teachers for instruction will can also gain access to professional development courses.

Florida Virtual School, considered a leader in the online school industry, has been pushing ways to expand its operations as other virtual schools have followed their lead. FLVS, which as its own public school district is still free for all Florida students, has worked with brick-and-mortar schools to provide blended learning opportunities, sold some of its courses to other schools, and established a franchise option for counties in the state who wish to manage their own virtual schools.

Posted by Ian Quillen at 12:15 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

To follow up on last month's national cyber security awareness initiative, (ISC)2, or "ISC squared", on Wednesday released 10 tips for parents to help keep their children safe online, including warnings against letting children use computers in their bedrooms and guarding against a gender gap in children's perception of online risk.

The list—authored by the group that educates and certifies information security professionals throughout the world—made other suggestions that are perhaps more common knowledge, such as maintaining an open dialogue with children and understanding that even mobile devices that connect to the Web pose risks.

But its warning against bedroom computer use is perhaps more surprising since it goes against convention for those whose mode of connectivity at home is a laptop or netbook and a WiFi Internet router. Apparently, that's a lot of us, because (ISC)2 says most children report having access to laptops in their bedrooms, and many of them past 11 p.m., even on school nights.

Meanwhile, (ISC)2 warns that children, and particularly boys, need to be warned against the process of competitive "friending"—i.e., accepting friends on Facebook or other social networks that children may not even know, simply to maintain an appearance of popularity. Boys are especially at risk of this, the list says, because they believe girls are more likely targets of stalkers or sexual predators.

The complete top 10 list is available at (ISC)2's website, which appears to have absolutely no connection to David Letterman or Worldwide Pants.

Posted by Ian Quillen at 11:34 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Postsecondary online education has grown by roughly one million enrollments in the last year, according to a new report by the Sloan Consortium, a professional leadership organization created to support online education in higher ed. The survey found that approximately 5.6 million postsecondary students, or nearly 30 percent of all higher education students, were enrolled in at least one online class in the fall of 2009.

About 75 percent of colleges and universities surveyed found that the economic downturn has increased demand for online courses and program offerings, and 63 percent said that online learning was a critical part of their institution's long-term strategy. This is the 8th-annual report, which pulled results from a survey of 2,500 colleges and universities.

The report breaks down its responses based on public, private nonprofit, and private for-profit institutions. About 76 percent of public institutions surveyed said that learning outcomes from online courses were as good as or better than face-to-face offerings, for instance, while only 55 percent of private nonprofit and 67 percent of private for-profit institutions felt the same way. The report surmises that this discrepancy is because public institutions were the first to embrace online learning, the most likely to view online courses as critical to their overall long-term strategy, and the most likely to report that faculty accept the legitimacy and value of online learning.

Although this report focuses on higher education, as we've seen often in online learning, what's happening in postsecondary education often trickles down into K-12.

Posted by Katie Ash at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

One of the latest in the stream of reports emanating from the ongoing iNACOL Virtual School Symposium says the biggest emerging trends in online learning include the growth of district-led online schools, the expansion of blended (or hybrid) learning, and the acceptance of mobile learning.

Those trends, says a primer from iNACOL that attempts to address developments in online learning during the past three years, come at a time when, despite lagging behind postsecondary schools, more K-12 educators and administrators are realizing and pursuing the benefits of online learning.

With regards to district-led schools, the report notes 85 percent of attendees to a session on starting a virtual school at the 2009 symposium attended to gather information about starting a district-level program. Just two years prior at the same session, that figure was only 10 percent.

On blended learning, the document defines what it calls a "buffet model," where a student takes traditional brick-and-mortar course and also enrolls in one or more online courses, as well as an "emporium model" in which face-to-face courses that implement elements of online learning. Both models, it says, are growing.

And on mobile learning, the primer points to a survey conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project in late 2007 that says devices like netbooks, cell phones, smartphones, media players, and tablet computing devices will be the primary point of connectivity for Americans by 2020. It then notes data from Project Tomorrow's Speak Up survey that shows students are receptive to using their own mobile devices for education.

The 2010 Sloan Survey of Online Learning and the 2010 edition of Keeping Pace have also been released at iNACOL's Virtual School Symposium, which closes today in Glendale, Ariz. The hosts, meanwhile, announced the second annual class of winners for their Online Innovator Awards.

Posted by Ian Quillen at 4:13 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

I always look forward to the newest edition of the Keeping Pace report, which details tons of data and trends in online learning each year, and this year's is no exception. The report, which has been published annually since 2004, has chronicled the expansion of K-12 online learning in meticulous detail, which makes it a great reference point and resource.

To give you a little taste, here's some of the most useful features in the 2010 edition:
-A top 10 list of major developments in online learning in 2010
-An explanation of online learning with definitions for newbies
-A list of notable reports on online learning from 2010
-A chart breakdown of online learning opportunities in each state
-A comprehensive overview of state virtual school programs, including growth, governance, and enrollments
-An overview of multi-district, full-time online schools, single district programs, and consortium programs by state
-Detailed profiles of each state's virtual education policies

The report also offers analysis on emerging trends in virtual education, like the rise of blended learning, competency-based learning, and mobile learning. In particular, blended learning brings up many questions that I think many folks are now asking, such as what exactly is blended learning, and should policy treat it differently than "traditional" online learning?

There is a lot of information packed into this report, and I highly recommend that you take a few minutes to sift through some of it, even if only to read through the most recent developments in K-12 online learning. There is even a graphic that breaks down the online learning market landscape, although, as the report states, it's not a complete list of providers, only a "snapshot of a rapidly changing landscape."

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Allan Jordan, a developer of the institution which eventually morphed into the North Carolina Virtual Public School, was honored Sunday by the International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) with its award for outstanding individual contribution to K-12 virtual learning.

Jordan, who was also a founding member and first chairman of the North American Council for Online Learning, or NACOL, helped start what was then the Web Academy in Cumberland County schools in Fayetteville, N.C. He received the award—along with winners of the second annual iNACOL Online Innovator Awards in four other categories—at the first day of the group's three-day virtual school conference in Glendale, Ariz.

Other Award Winners:
• Outstanding/Innovative Online Learning Practice for an Individual/Team/Program for a Practitioner: Broward Virtual School, Broward County, Fla.
The school developed a remedial reading course for high school students to extend the school day via distance learning.
• Outstanding/Innovative Online Learning Practice for a Non-Profit or For-Profit Individual or Team: Ed Tech Leaders Online
The group, a division of the Education Development Center, has used its e-Learning for Educators program to help states and stations collaboratively build capacity for online K-12 teacher professional development.
• Important Research by an Individual, Team or Organization: The University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and Arizona State University
The two institutions partnered on a study called "Examining the Use of Laboratory Activities in Teaching Science in an Online Environment."
• Important Research by a Student, Team, or Educational Institution: Kathryn Kennedy
She wrote "The Essence of the Virtual School Practicum: A phenomenological study of preservice teachers' experiences in a virtual school" as her dissertation.

Posted by Ian Quillen at 11:50 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

A guest post from Education Week reporter Sarah Sparks:

Outgoing New York City Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein hopes to leverage his experience with new school and technology models in the city at his next job as an executive vice president at News Corp., the media company founded by Rupert Murdoch.

"I believed and I believe now that in essence, while education is not a business, it is a service delivery challenge and that people didn't understand that and not surprisingly, most educators didn't understand that," Mr. Klein told researchers and other stakeholders at the release of evaluations of the Children First initiatives he led with Mayor Michael Bloomberg. He claimed New York City's focus on experimenting with new online and other instructional platforms as one of the best parts of the initiative. "No place else has tackled what I call the core instructional delivery mission by both changing the model, as we do in School of One and New American Academy, and by changing the methods, and that seems to me to be one of the great hopes of the future," Mr. Klein said.

At News Corp., he told reporters after the conference, "I'll be looking at how to stimulate private investment in what I think are instructional platforms and other technologies I think will change the way K-12 education is delivered. I've got a lot to do before I tell you the details, but that's the basic concept. I think it's going to take substantial private capital to be able to generate the kind of technological advancement I think is absolutely essential. New York City is so far ahead in this discussion, but we're still in the earliest phases of that discussion."

Photo credit: Christopher Powers/Education Week

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A new report released yesterday outlines the top ten essential elements and policy steps to push personalized learning forward.

The document was created by the Software and Information Industry Association, or SIIA; ASCD, formerly the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development; and the Council of Chief State School Officers, or CCSSO, following a three-day invitation-only event in Boston this past August that gathered local and state practitioners, national education thought leaders, and senior executives from technology companies.

The group identified the importance of personalized learning for each student and outlined steps to redefine the education system to facilitate customized learning experiences.

"The industrial-age, assembly-line educational model—based on fixed time, place, curriculum and pace—is insufficient in today's society and knowledge-based economy," said Gene Wilhoit, the executive director of CCSSO, in a press release.

The following is a list of essential elements and policy steps required to create a personalized learning environment for all students.

Essential elements:
1. Flexible, anytime/everywhere learning
2. Redefine teacher role and expand "teacher"
3. Project-based, authentic learning
4. Student-driven learning path
5. Mastery/competency-based progression/pace

Policy Steps:
1. Redefine use of time (Sound familiar?)
2. Performance-based, time-flexible assessment
3. Equity in access to technology infrastructure
4. Funding models that incentivize completion
5. P-20 continuum and non-grade system based on proficiency

This list of goals, while ambitious, feels very familiar. I've read and heard about these goals many times from ed-tech advocates and education reformers. The bigger question, in my mind, is how these changes would be implemented in a realistic and practical way.

Posted by Katie Ash at 11:37 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

The third annual Energy Efficient IT report by CDW-G found that three-fourths of IT professionals are working to increase energy efficiency in their organizations. But the biggest barriers cited by K-12 IT professionals to becoming more energy efficient were budget constraints and an inability to isolate and measure the energy used in IT operations.

While finances hurt those efforts, cost savings and environmental impact are also the reasons 756 respondents from across business, government, higher education, and K-12 education are driven to become more energy efficient, the survey found.

Of those that are actively managing their energy efficiency, 56 percent have reduced their IT energy costs by at least 1 percent, up from 39 percent in 2008. Some of the ways that IT professionals are cutting down on energy use is by purchasing servers, computers, and other equipment that utilize less power and wattage and adjusting desktop operating systems to make use of built-in power management tools, the report said.

Energy efficiency is becoming an increasingly important factor in purchasing decisions, 39 percent of respondents said, up from 26 percent of respondents in 2009. Almost 80 percent of IT professionals said they either have or are developing a data center consolidation strategy, such as employing virtualization, consolidating servers, or moving applications into the cloud, in part to cut down on energy costs.

What do you think? How does your school or district compare to these results? Is energy efficiency a priority for your school?

Posted by Katie Ash at 12:33 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

A new report out of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center finds prekindergarten and early-elementary students are capable of learning from applications on their parents' smartphones. The next the question its authors say they would love to answer is whether that is more effective or desirable than other methods of learning.

The findings, released Wednesday from the group that works out of the Sesame Workshop, also include that most children are capable of intuitively learning how to use their parents' mobile devices, but that their interest in educational apps can be fleeting.

As a result, the authors recommended educational mobile content be delivered in short bursts while balancing concepts with entertainment value, and that industry leaders move to establish best practices for when, where, and how mobile learning makes the most sense for young children.

"The question I still have is, 'As compared to what?'" said Michael Levine, the Cooney Center's executive director. "If I'm really making a choice between [my kids] playing 15-20 minutes on an educational app versus sitting down with me or Grandpa to read a book, what really is a more valuable expenditure of time?"

The report is broken into three portions. The first examines the implications of what it calls the "pass-back effect," where parents hand small children their smartphones as a means of keeping them entertained. The second assessed the results of three studies—one that determined the usability of mobile devices for young children, one that determined parents' attitudes toward their children using mobile devices, and one that studied the effectiveness of two educational apps for iPod touches. And the final portion assesses their results and recommends how to use mobile devices to best promote learning, as well as area where more research may be needed.

Some other interesting findings:
• Young children were found to most frequently use smartphones while traveling in the family vehicle.
• Young children showed a far more favorable rating of Apple's iPhone than other smartphones or a BlackBerry.
• Children reported that they used smartphones mainly for playing games, while parents who let children use their smartphones said children used the devices for a wider range of activities.

Posted by Ian Quillen at 11:21 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

A few months ago, I interviewed Jim Kinsella, an online teacher who specializes in history and government, for this story, which talks about the transition from teaching in a face-to-face classroom to teaching online. Jim was one of the pioneers of online learning, jumping in nearly a decade ago and never looking back. Today, he teaches classes for Illinois Virtual School, Northwestern University, and Sevenstar Academy, a private Christian school in Cincinnati.

To accompany the story I wrote for Education Week, we sent a photographer out with Jim and one of his students, Sean Van Domelen, while they interviewed a World War II veteran named John Kline, who fought in the Battle of the Bulge, and last night, Jim skyped me to say that the interview has now been posted on YouTube in four parts, the first of which you can see below:

The interview continues in part two, part three, and part four.

In honor of Veteran's Day, I suggest you check out the interview. It won't teach you how to stretch your IT budget or detail the educational benefits of the latest technologies, but I promise you'll be thoroughly entertained, and who knows—maybe you will learn something.

Posted by Katie Ash at 10:04 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

A new paper, "Digital and Media Literacy: A Plan of Action," outlines specific steps that policymakers, educators, and community leaders can take to strengthen citizens' digital and media literacy skills. To check it out, you can either download the paper or read it online.

The white paper, written by Renee Hobbs, an education and communications professor at Temple University in Philadelphia and founder of its Media Education Lab, identifies 10 ways to beef up digital and media literacy, or "a constellation of life skills that are necessary for full participation in our media-saturated, information-rich society," as well as five challenges to its implementation. The effort will require participation from not only schools, but also libraries, community spaces, and policymakers, says the paper, which was released by the Aspen Institute, an international nonprofit research organization.

There is a strong role to be played by formal education, says Hobbs. Digital and media literacy education should be incorporated into teacher preparation programs, she suggests, in order to educate teachers on how to teach children those skills. In addition, digital and media literacy programs should be coordinated at the district level in order to permeate the K-12 education environment. Schools should also partner up with media and technology companies to bring local and national media into education programs, says Hobbs. Another suggestion is creating a collection of online instructional videos about digital and media literacy instruction strategies as a resource for teachers.

Hobbs outlines a number of other steps that communities could take, such as creating a digital and media literacy public service announcement, launching an annual conference to discuss research and ideas around this subject, and offering small grants to community organizations that can help incorporate digital and media literacy into existing programs. In particular, such efforts should be adjusted to underserved populations, such as minority children and families, special education students, juvenile offenders, new immigrants, and senior citizens.

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A new paper, released by the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, or iNACOL, argues that instead of allowing students to progress through the education system based on seat time, we should foster a competency- or proficiency-based learning environment where students move forward once they have mastered each concept or standard.

The report, written by Susan Patrick, the president and chief executive officer of iNACOL, and Chris Sturgis, the founder of MetisNet, which consults philanthropies, starts with a three-part definition of what competency-based pathways are:

• Students advance upon mastery of learning objectives.
• Courses are broken down into learning objectives that are shared with students. The learning objectives have real-world applications, which engage students in their learning.
• Students receive immediate feedback from formative assessments that are aligned with learning objectives.

The report also outlines the keys to successful implementation of a competency-based education system, such as a strong state policy framework coupled with state-led pilots; increased teacher satisfaction; an emphasis on continuous improvement; and early and frequent dialogues with the community about this educational shift.

"The fundamental K-12 education policy of funding students solely on seat-time—this model is outdated, expensive and doesn't help students who need extra time to master concepts or students that are ready to accelerate," said Patrick, in a press release.

The paper also points out the importance of having a protected education environment in which to pilot innovations such as competency-based pathways. This type of system has taken hold in a handful of places, such as the Chugach Alaska School District and the Florida Virtual School, where innovation has been encouraged and protected.

Although online learning is not specifically addressed in the report, there are substantial implications for competency-based pathways in e-learning. Allowing students to progress at their own pace with an online course based on mastery of the content versus time spent on learning objectives is one of the most touted advantages of online learning by virtual learning advocates.

Posted by Katie Ash at 1:30 AM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

Pretty much everyone I've spoken with for the stories I'm working on (the final installment of our series of reports on e-learning) has asked me the same question, "Are you going to Glendale?"

What they're referring to, of course, is the Virtual School Symposium in Glendale, Arizona on Nov. 14-16. And while it's not in the cards for me this year, Susan Patrick, the president and chief executive officer of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, which hosts the event, has assured me there will be extensive web coverage, with some of the sessions even being streamed online.

Poking around the website this morning, I found a link to the resources uploaded from the 2009 conference here, and promptly spent a good hour or so downloading recorded sessions, clicking through PowerPoint slides, and reading through notes taken from the sessions. And if this year's conference is anything like last year's, there will be quite a bit more to take in a few weeks from now.

We'll certainly be checking back during the conference to check out some of the speakers and presentations, and I have to ask: are you going to Glendale?

Posted by Katie Ash at 3:50 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

The Smithsonian Institution has announced it has received a $50 million pledge from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support new programs, including $30 million of funding toward a youth outreach program that employs interactive websites, online conferences, distance learning, and games.

The remaining $20 million will be split, with $10 million going toward four consortia identified in the Smithsonian's strategic plan, and $10 million having already been directed in the fall of 2009 toward the design and construction of the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

The $30 million goes to what the Smithsonian terms its Youth Access Endowment, which aims to reach underserved students nationwide via the development of already-existing interactive programs. For example, the Smithsonian last year held online conferences on Abraham Lincoln and climate change (yes, separate events, not some funky time-traveling odyssey) that each drew more than 7,000 participants. The Smithsonian also archived the sessions for review.

The gift follows the recent unveiling of another ed-tech endeavor from the Gates Foundation, which also contributes to Editorial Projects in Education, the non-profit publisher of Education Week. That program, called the Next Generation Learning Challenges, will award grants to K-12 and higher ed programs that use ed-tech to promote use of blended learning models, open source software, and data analytics. Up to $20 million will be distributed toward higher education projects in the first round of funding.

Meanwhile, increasing digital access to the Smithsonian and other national education institutions has been a stated priority by the U.S. Department of Education, which in July announced the creation of a digital learning registry to organize those institutions' resources.

Posted by Ian Quillen at 2:32 PM | Permalink | Leave a comment | Recommend

A recent study on behalf of ed-tech company Promethean Ltd. finds that the incorporation of interactive whiteboards, accompanying software and hardware, and in-person and online professional development increased student achievement on teacher-designed tests across core academic subjects by an average of 16 percent.

The study, conducted by the independent Marzano Research Laboratory, took data from more than 5,000 students and 120 teachers from a broad, but not randomly assigned, range of schools and districts, over the course of two years. The results are derived from individual comparisons of gains of scores among students instructed by the same teacher. In each case, one group of students took a lesson, and corresponding pretest and post-test, with the Promethean equipment, and the other group took the lesson without it.

While there were some complications in the design—the lack of standardization among different teacher tests, for example, and the reality that English and history tests lend themselves to more qualitative exercises while math and sciences elicit more quantitative responses—researchers independent of the project said it made proper concessions to those factors in order to measure results in an authentic classroom environment.

"Under the circumstances of trying to run experiments in realistic conditions 'in the field,' it was very well done," Gene V. Glass, a senior researcher at the University of Colorado's National Education Policy Center, said in an email. "One way of phrasing their findings is that a class employing the technology would gain 12 months' achievement in a 9-month school year."

The study adds to a small but growing body of work that shows positive outcomes resulting from the integration of classroom technology. In late August, a study involving the application of classroom management software in Algebra 1 classrooms showed significant gains among students in classes where the software was used. In that study, as in this one, the treatment was viewed not only as the technology, but also the accompanying professional development.

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