Students want personalized learning, mobile technology

An annual report reveals that student-owned mobile devices, including tablets, are on the rise.

More and more students own mobile devices, including tablets, and indicate a strong desire to use those personal learning tools in school to increase collaboration and access to resources, according to the annual Speak Up Survey, which is facilitated by Project Tomorrow.

This year’s survey, “Mapping a Personalized Learning Journey: K-12 Students and Parents Connect the Dots with Digital Learning,” explores how students want to take control of their learning and the tools they use to learn. It includes parent and administrator input on issues such as personal technology use in schools, online learning, and top technologies.

“Students, perhaps without realizing it, are already seeking out ways to personalize their learning,” according to the report. “Looking to address what they perceive as deficiencies in classroom experiences, students are turning to online classes to study topics that pique their intellectual curiosity, to message and discussion boards to explore new ideas about their world, or to online collaboration tools to share their expertise with other students they don’t even know. Students now expect in their learning lives the same types of personalized interactions that adults already experience in our everyday lives.”…Read More

How to expand students’ ed-tech access—and stay out of court

Cracking down on cyber bullying, searching students’ cell phones, and filtering internet access are some of the areas where educators can get into trouble if they don’t know their proper legal boundaries.

Finding the right balance between keeping students safe and letting them explore their world digitally was the focus of an April 21 session during the National School Boards Association’s 72nd annual conference, in which NSBA senior staff attorney Sonja Trainor gave advice on how school districts can open their doors to technology without getting sued.

Cracking down on cyber bullying or harassment, searching students’ cell phones or laptops, and filtering school internet access are some of the areas where educators can get into trouble if they don’t know their proper legal boundaries, Trainor said. Here’s what she had to say about each of these areas.

Cyber bullying and harassment…Read More

Top school technology news: April 2012

Here are some of the top technology-related stories in the April 2012 edition of eSchool News.

In the April 2012 issue of eSchool News, we report on several significant technology-related developments of interest to schools, including Microsoft’s attempt to compete with Apple and Google in the era of mobile computing, the use of video as a key tool in teacher training and evaluation, and how technology is changing the lives of students with disabilities.

To read these stories in our digital edition, click on the headlines below—or browse through the entire publication by clicking here.

Microsoft sees future in Windows 8 amid iPad’s rise…Read More

Boost your grant-seeking success by demonstrating strong credibility

While your entire proposal should send a strong, “unspoken” message that you are credible and reliable, here are some suggestions for what you can include in the Capacity section to reinforce this message.

“Grants & Funding” column, February 2012 edition of eSchool News—You might have noticed that some funders require you to address the “Capacity of Your Organization” to carry out the project you’re describing in your grant proposal. If you come across this requirement, how can you demonstrate the sustainability of your organization to potential funders? To put it another way, what types of information can you provide that will convince a funder that you’re a credible applicant who will not carry substantial risk if you are chosen for a grant award?

Keep in mind that your entire proposal should send a strong, “unspoken” message that you are credible and reliable. But here are some suggestions for what you can include in the Capacity section of your proposal to make this message even stronger:

1. Describe your experience receiving and managing other grants, especially noting those for significant amounts of money (say, more than $25,000) and those that were funded by a federal agency. (I suggest mentioning any federal grants because most funders will recognize that these tend to be larger, more complex grants that are extremely competitive and can be hard to receive.) Talk about the scope of the project(s) and the dollar amounts you received. When addressing grants management, you can discuss how your staff track their time on grant-funded projects and who has responsibility for making sure that programmatic and fiscal reports are submitted on a timely basis.…Read More

Tips for making the move to online assessments

Online assessments will provide a more detailed look at student ability, stakeholders say.

As states move toward implementing online assessments in 2014, a panel of experts agreed that school technology leaders must ensure that districts have the capacity, manpower, and foresight to see that the transition is a successful one.

Online assessments present a handful of concerns for school technology leaders, said Ray Eernisse, chief information officer for Missouri’s Francis Howell School District, and Daniel Honore, director of information services for Wisconsin’s Kenosha Unified School District.

Eernisse and Honore were part of a Jan. 17 Consortium for School Networking webinar panel that addressed how preparing for these assessments can help set the school technology agenda and make network development a top priority for the future of teaching and learning.…Read More

Central High makes student achievement, tech access its top priorities

Central High's best ed-tech advice? "Ensure that everything you do is student-centered."

Philadelphia’s Central High School focuses on making its technology initiatives student-centered, with an emphasis on boosting achievement—and this focus has paid off in a big way.

Administrators, teachers, students, and parents are able to able to access grades, news, and pertinent communications instantly, and students have access to a wide range of applications to advance their learning. By strengthening the home-school connection, Central High is enhancing students’ chances of success.

For these reasons, Central High was chosen as our “eSchool of the Month” for October. Here, Brian Howland, a teacher and technology committee member, describes some of the school’s accomplishments and its keys to success.…Read More

On ed tech, we’re asking the wrong question

Instead of examining whether technology is worth schools’ investment, the Times should have focused on two other, more relevant questions: Why are so many districts that invest in technology still failing to see success? And, what are the conditions that best lead to ed-tech success?

Default Lines column, Oct. 2011 edition of eSchool News—Does the use of textbooks lead to better student achievement? Somebody should do the research. Schools nationwide are spending billions of dollars each year on textbooks, with no clear evidence they improve test scores—and stakeholders deserve some answers.

I’m being facetious, of course. Textbooks are simply tools that educators use in their instruction, and few people would suggest that textbooks—by themselves—hold some larger power over whether students learn.

But if we wouldn’t expect this of textbooks, then why should we expect it of educational technology?…Read More

CCSC keeps the focus on teaching and learning

Student performance and motivation have increased as a result of the administration’s and staff’s commitment to integrate technology into classroom learning.

Indiana’s Crothersville Community School Corporation (CCSC) recognizes that technology is an important tool for helping students embrace learning. The district has used creative solutions to finance its ed-tech priorities, and a wireless virtual desktop solution helps keep support time to as minimum, so IT staff can focus on applications for teaching and learning.

For these reasons and more, we’ve chosen CCSC as our “eSchools of the Month” for September. Here, Assistant Principal Drew Markel describes some of the district’s accomplishments and its keys to ed-tech success.

(Editor’s note: To nominate your school or district for our “eSchool of the Month” feature, go to http://www.eschoolnews.com/eschool-of-the-month.) …Read More

IT outsourcing: Does it make sense for your schools?

Companies have been making ambitious claims about how much money schools and colleges can save by offloading the work of hosting and managing software on their own computers.

Cloud computing, Software as a Service (SaaS), and “managed” or “hosted” services: These are terms that today’s ed-tech directors surely are familiar with. But do these models always make sense for schools?

That was the question that Geoff Tritsch, vice president of Vantage Technology Consulting Group, sought to help school technology leaders answer last month during a breakout session at the 40th annual conference of the Association for Information Communications Technology Professionals in Higher Education (ACUTA).

All of these IT delivery models are forms of outsourcing, Tritsch told a packed conference room at the Hilton Bonnet Creek in Orlando. That is, all involve the contracting out of a business function—typically one performed in-house before, such as hosting software on your own internal servers—to an outside provider.…Read More

8 ways technology is improving education

Don Knezek, the CEO of the International Society for Technology in Education, compares education without technology to the medical profession without technology.

“If in 1970 you had knee surgery, you got a huge scar,” he says. “Now, if you have knee surgery you have two little dots.”

Technology is helping teachers to expand beyond linear, text-based learning and to engage students who learn best in other ways, reports Mashable. Its role in schools has evolved from a contained “computer class” into a versatile learning tool that could change how we demonstrate concepts, assign projects and assess progress. Despite these opportunities, adoption of technology by schools is still anything but ubiquitous. Knezek says that U.S. schools are still asking if they should incorporate more technology, while other countries are asking how. But in the following eight areas, technology has shown its potential for improving education……Read More

ASBO conference helps schools save money

New technologies that can save schools money were featured at ASBO's annual conference.
New technologies that can save schools money were featured at ASBO’s annual conference.

New technologies that can help schools save money and improve efficiency were on display during the Association for School Business Officials’ annual conference in Orlando Sept. 24-26.

Among the many products featured during the ASBO conference were systems designed to keep better track of the hours worked by school bus drivers, recover the costs associated with opening schools for community use, and even dry students’ hands more efficiently than by using paper towels or traditional warm-air blowers.

Missoula, Mont.-based Education Logistics Inc. (EDULOG) said its eDPS electronic driver payroll system saved the Clayton County, Ga., school system an estimated $1 million in driver payroll expenses last year.…Read More