Ark. officials discuss tech curriculum for 21st century-classrooms
Wed, Aug 27, 2008    Primary Topic Channel:  21st Century skills
A task force told Arkansas legislators Aug. 25 that classrooms in the 21st century won't have lecterns or rows of desks, but instead students grouped together working with computers and other technology as teachers mill about, the Arkansas News Bureau reports. [ Read More ]

N.C. officials suggest buying more online versions of textbooks
Wed, Aug 27, 2008    Primary Topic Channel:  Curriculum
Winston-Salem/Forsyth County, N.C., school officials told the school board Aug. 26 that buying more online subscriptions for social-studies textbooks might be a necessary next step, the Winston-Salem Journal reports. [ Read More ]

Digital inclusion, but how?
Wed, Aug 27, 2008    Primary Topic Channel:  Community
At one end of the trendy Cafe Aprendiz in Brazil, patrons enjoy dishes such as three-cheese ravioli and salmon salad with cucumber, but it's not the food that has drawn a group of older women seated in the back, CNET reports: They've come for the computers. [ Read More ]

Mexicans to use cell phones to pay for services
Tue, Aug 26, 2008    Primary Topic Channel:  Handheld technologies
Mexicans soon will be able to pay for small purchases such as restaurant meals and taxi rides using their mobile telephones, Reuters reports. [ Read More ]

Microsoft taps RFID for Tech.Ed delegates
Tue, Aug 26, 2008    Primary Topic Channel:  RFID technology
Microsoft on Aug. 25 announced plans to track Australian delegates attending its annual Tech.Ed conference in Sydney next week using RFID tags embedded in conference badges, CNET reports. [ Read More ]

Small school districts get creative to find teachers
Tue, Aug 26, 2008    Primary Topic Channel:  Recruiting & Retention
It can be hard to attract new teachers to small school districts, so superintendents have had to become more creative and aggressive, reports the Associated Press. [ Read More ]

Learning in a digital world
Tue, Aug 26, 2008    Primary Topic Channel:  Handheld technologies
Montpelier High School Peter Evans was meeting with a parent recently when the conversation turned to technology in the classroom, reports the Times Argus of Vermont. [ Read More ]

Keeping district files safe
Tue, Aug 26, 2008    Primary Topic Channel:  Safety & security
As teachers at the Palisades School District in Pennsylvania return to school this year, they're getting lessons in how to better protect computer files, reports The Intelligencer of Bucks County, Pa. [ Read More ]

A teacher on the front line as faith and science clash
Mon, Aug 25, 2008    Primary Topic Channel:  Science
With a mandate to teach evolution but little guidance as to how, Florida's science teachers are contriving their own ways to turn a culture war into a lesson plan--and how they fare might affect whether a new generation of Americans embraces scientific evidence alongside religious belief, reports the New York Times. [ Read More ]

Olympics set the stage for emerging web-tech fight
Mon, Aug 25, 2008    Primary Topic Channel:  Technologies
As the world's best athletes competed in Beijing, the summer Olympic games were setting the stage for a battle between Microsoft Corp. and Adobe Systems Inc. over the internet's next big competition, Reuters reports. [ Read More ]

A Kindle aimed at college kids?
Mon, Aug 25, 2008    Primary Topic Channel:  Technologies
Amid reports that Amazon is working on new models of its eBook reader, the Kindle, one analyst says the online titan has an academic spin in mind, reports CNET. [ Read More ]

Judge: Copyright owners must consider 'fair use'
Fri, Aug 22, 2008    Primary Topic Channel:  Litigation
A federal judge on Aug. 20 gave more weight to the concept of "fair use" when he threw a lifeline to a Pennsylvania mother's lawsuit against Universal Music, CNET reports. [ Read More ]

Caution to teens: Don't send those racy cell videos
Fri, Aug 22, 2008    Primary Topic Channel:  Litigation
High school senior Andy Dougherty sent a 17-year-old buddy a 10-second cell phone video that showed Dougherty with his pants down, fooling around with his teenage girlfriend--and the prosecutor in Woodbury County, Iowa, charged Dougherty, 18, with a sex crime: telephone dissemination of obscene material to a minor, reports the Des Moines Register. [ Read More ]

How not to teach about internet safety
Fri, Aug 22, 2008    Primary Topic Channel:  Safety & security
Students and parents at Colorado's Windsor High School are outraged after a Wyoming police officer doing a presentation on internet safety scrutinized individual students' MySpace pages, calling the students' pictures "slutty" and saying their sites invited sexual predators, the Coloradoan of Fort Collins, Colo., reports. [ Read More ]

Australian school takes modern approach to student exams
Thu, Aug 21, 2008    Primary Topic Channel:  Assessment & Evaluation
Not long ago it would have been called cheating, but students at a Sydney girls' school are now being encouraged to take their phones, laptops, and MP3 players into exams and even phone a friend if they want help with a question, reports ABC News. [ Read More ]

Intel chairman: Teachers are key to promoting global tech use
Thu, Aug 21, 2008    Primary Topic Channel:  Tech Leadership
Technology plays a big role in economic development, but Intel Chairman Craig Barrett says more teachers are needed to educate users on its usage, especially in emerging economies, PC World reports. [ Read More ]

Comcast to throttle some customers' web speeds
Thu, Aug 21, 2008    Primary Topic Channel:  Broadband
Comcast plans to reduce internet service to customers it deems to be using too much bandwidth, a move that comes on the heels of federal regulators ruling that the internet service provider violated the law by throttling BitTorrent transfers, CNET reports. [ Read More ]

Algebra requirement highlights teacher shortage
Thu, Aug 21, 2008    Primary Topic Channel:  Recruiting & Retention
Now that California has mandated Algebra 1 for all eighth-graders within three years, a deeply entrenched problem has become even more urgent: California does not have enough qualified teachers of mathematics, reports the Sacramento Bee. [ Read More ]