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Is your one-to-one program destined to fail?

one-to-one-failure

If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll never know when you’ve arrived

It’s been a busy summer leading workshops at many schools and districts with one-to-one iPad, Chromebook, and laptop programs. Many of these schools are years into a one-to-one program, and my conversations with school administrators often focus on the success of their program.

In several of these conversations, school administrators have categorized their one-to-one program as “stagnating” and that they face continued resistance from a significant number of teachers. Yet, at first glance, the administrators have provided everything the faculty needs for success.

For one, every student and teacher has a device (and in some cases multiple ones). These schools have a stable wi-fi network, so accessing websites and online programs in the classroom is not a problem. Network filtering is restrained so that teachers can bring social media websites into the classroom. Administrators have also hired instructional technology specialists to assist the teachers. Finally, teachers are afforded much latitude in tech implementation. At these schools there is no explicit requirement for teachers to use the devices and no one is tracking the hours of classroom time dedicated to technology integration.

So, these administrators naturally wonder why their technology integration program is not entirely successful.

Next page: How to think beyond the device

At the outset, I typically ask a series of questions: “Why did you decide to go one-to-one?” “How does technology integration align with the school’s vision of meaningful and purposeful learning?” “How is learning supposed to be different as a result of a one-to-one program?”

When I ask these questions, it’s not uncommon for there to be silence for a few moments. The administrators often glance at each other and hesitate before responding. What might emerge is a vague statement on improving student proficiency in the four Cs — creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, and communication. Sometimes administrators divulge that they do not have a vision of how learning should be different as a result of the technology. Many point out that the teachers have everything they need and have given teachers freedom to develop implementation strategies.

From the outside, it often seems crazy that schools make major technology purchases with no clear plans for how learning should change. We’ve found, however, that there are so many details in technology planning—acquisition, security, sustainability, teacher training, parent education, and so on—that many schools lose track of the most important issues. To paraphrase educator/speaker Dan Meyer: “If iPads/Chromebooks/laptops are the answer, what was the question?”

A defining trait of effective leadership in successful school technology programs is a well-defined vision of technology-aided teaching and learning that is shared with various constituents: administration, faculty, staff, parents, and students. A well-defined vision communicated effectively and consistently provides a common mission for the entire school and a rallying point for change.

Yet when I speak to teachers, they often question the purpose of the one-to-one program. “Why are we doing it?” With no clear motivating educational vision, some faculty ascribe less-than-altruistic reasons for the program (such as the desire to “keep-up-with-the-Joneses” district that has gone one-to-one). One interesting paradox is that faculty at one-to-one schools often praise administrators for the autonomy teachers enjoy in designing and implementing tech-infused lessons, yet at the same time criticize administrators for a lack of direction and leadership.

From our vantage point, school leaders need to do three things to make the most of the investment in technology :

  1. They need to work with their communities to articulate a clear vision for how new technology will improve instruction.
  2. They need to help educators imagine how new technologies can support those visions.
  3. They need to support teachers and students on a developmental journey that will take them from using technology for simply organizational and administrative tasks to using them as objects to spur thinking.

Many one-to-one programs focus on learning the device itself and not enough on thinking beyond the device. The best technology integration (one-to-one or otherwise) tends to take place in schools created around a focused pedagogical vision, such as project-based learning, differentiated instruction, and digital citizenship. Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia and High Tech High in San Diego feature project-based learning. The Silicon Schools Fund in the San Francisco Bay Area supports schools concentrating on blended learning and differentiated instruction. Providence Day in Charlotte, N.C., has a One to World initiative that seeks to connect students to the global community, and empower them to become active participants.

It’s hard to move a faculty along if teachers are left to their own devices (pardon the pun) and there is no broad consensus on the purpose and implementation of a program. A “let’s try this” or “it’s all up to the teachers” environment is not a recipe for success. As one teacher recently opined: “‘Let’s try this’ is not leadership.”

Tom Daccord is director of EdTechTeacher [1], a professional learning organization.

The secret of developing a technology-based classroom

Posted By By Kristi Martin On In Boosting Classroom Efficiency with the Help of Technology,IT Management,One-to-one computing,Teaching & Learning,Top News | No Comments

The secret to a successful technology filled classroom is teaching your students to respect the device as a learning tool and not a toy

Integrating learning and technology can be a tedious task in today’s school systems. We open a whole new world for research, learning, and innovation when we bring technology on a one-to-one basis into the classroom. However, there is a fear, as educators, that we will not be able to “control” our students when they have the freedom of the web.

School technology departments put limitations on devices to restrict student access to certain websites. This can also limit students’ uses of the device by blocking useful research or information teachers plan to use for activities. So, what is the answer to a successful technology filled classroom you ask?

The solution is simple: teach your students to respect the device as a learning tool and not a toy.

(Next page: Creating an engaging environment that is student-centered and group focused)

Create an engaging environment that is student-centered and group focused. Of course, this takes a lot of preparation and classroom management skills, but it can be done. To start this process, consider developing behavioral contracts to establish expectations within the technology-based classroom. One effective practice is to have students place their devices in “polite position” when it is time for instruction or group collaboration.

The University of Texas at Tyler’s Innovation Academy [2] is implementing this exact philosophy in the classroom. Each student is provided with an iPad, which they are expected to treat as a tool. The student takes the device home to use for extensive “at home enrichment,” which allows the student to not only be a responsible at school, but at home as well. Students are taught to respect the devices as well as understand the importance of technology in everyday situations.

The teacher, also known to us as facilitators, write curriculum that not only focuses on content skills, but they also take into account other important life skills. These include 21st Century Skills [3], STEM education [4], Project Based Learning [5], and group dynamics.

The important issue here is that students are learning accountability for their actions. Students learn accountability by using different technologies and skills that allow them to prepare for the real world and college, through collaborative learning, and by self-monitoring their research for appropriate content.

Developing a technology-based classroom can be a wonderful opportunity for students and educators. We have the chance to not only teach but to model skills that are imperative to student success in the 21st century. Learning to integrate technology seamlessly in the classroom is a learning process that will take time, but is well worth the effort.

Kristi Martin is a teacher at the University of Texas at Tyler Innovation Academy.

One-to-one computing programs only as effective as their teachers

Posted By By Meris Stansbury, Associate Editor On In District Management,eClassroom News,Making One-to-One Computing a Reality,New Options in One-to-One Computing,One-to-one computing,Registration Required,Research,Teaching & Learning,Top News | 10 Comments
Studies show that 1:1 success depends more on teachers than on the equipment itself.

A compilation of four new studies of one-to-one computing projects in K-12 schools identifies several factors that are key to the projects’ success, including adequate planning, stakeholder buy-in, and strong school or district leadership. Not surprisingly, the researchers say the most important factor of all is the teaching practices of instructors—suggesting school laptop programs are only as effective as the teachers who apply them.

The studies were published in January by the Journal of Technology, Learning, and Assessment [6], a peer-reviewed online journal from Boston College’s Lynch School of Education.

Despite growing interest in school 1-to-1 computing programs, “little published research has focused on teaching and learning in these intensive computing environments,” say editors Damian Bebell, an assistant research professor at BC’s education school, and Laura O’Dwyer, an assistant professor of education.

According to Bebell and O’Dwyer, a big mistake that both researchers and educators make in talking about 1-to-1 computing programs is assuming that by adding computers to the classroom, nothing else has to change.

One-to-one computing “refers to the level at which access to technology is available to students and teachers; by definition, it says nothing about actual educational practices,” say the editors.

The studies they present are intended to shed more light on how 1-to-1 programs influence, and integrate with, teaching practices.

The studies found improvements in student engagement and modest increases in student achievement among classes using laptops effectively. But results varied widely among the various programs.

For example, in a study of laptop programs in five public and private middle schools in western Massachusetts, Bebell and Rachel Kay, a doctoral candidate in the Educational Research, Measurement, and Evaluation program at BC’s Lynch School of Education, found that teaching and learning practices changed when students and teachers were given laptops, wireless learning environments, and other ed-tech resources.

Bebell and Kay found that while the implementation and outcomes varied across all five schools and across the three program years, access to 1-to-1 computing led to measurable changes in teacher practices, student engagement and achievement, and students’ research skills. Specifically, seventh graders in the second year of the program showed statistically significant gains on state test scores in English and language arts after controlling for prior achievement.

But one school struggled with laptop implementation so much that students weren’t using technology any more frequently by the third year of the program than were students in non-laptop classes.

It’s “impossible to overstate the power of individual teachers in the success or failure of 1-to-1 computing,” Bebell and Kay write. “Teachers nearly always control how and when students access and use [the] technology during the school day. In addition, teachers must make massive investments in time and effort to adapt their teaching materials and practices to make the 1-to-1 environment effective and relevant.”

Similarly, a study of laptop use in 21 high-need Texas middle schools noted that “teacher buy-in … is critically important, because students’ school experiences with [the] technology are largely dictated by their teachers.”

The authors of the Texas study conclude: “Respondents at higher implementing schools reported that committed leaders, thorough planning, teacher buy-in, preliminary professional development for teachers, and a commitment to the transformation of student learning were keys to their successful implementation” of the state’s Technology Immersion Project.

Researchers and educators who weren’t part of the BC-published studies agreed with their findings.

Torsten Otto, an educator from Hamburg, Germany, said at his school (Wichern-Schule), the 1-to-1 computing model is only as successful as the teachers’ 21st-century classroom practices.

“In our 1-to-1 program … we put a big emphasis on project-based learning; otherwise, the laptop is no more than an expensive notepad. … Research needs to show the effects of this different style of teaching in terms of student engagement, motivation, and so-called 21st-century skills. The subject matters themselves don’t have as much room for improvement,” Otto said.

Where it all needs to start

Though the journal’s editors and researchers agree that teaching practices are key in making any 1-to-1 computing program successful, it takes a lot of steps to support innovative teaching.

A fifth journal article, not so much a study as a theoretical paper on 1-to-1 computing, argues that school district stakeholders should agree on a clear set of program goals.

The study, titled “The End of Techno-Critique: The Naked Truth about 1-to-1 Laptop Initiatives and Educational Change,” written by Mark Weston, adjoint professor in the Graduate School of Public Affairs and the Graduate School of Education and Human Development at the University of Colorado, Denver, and Alan Bain, associate professor in the School of Teacher Education at Charles Stuart University, says that the first step in creating a successful 1-to-1 program is to have a “set of simple rules” created by a community of students, teachers, school leaders, and parents, that defines “what the community believes about teaching and learning.”

Schools and districts must outline their goals in implementing a 1-to-1 program, and how they think teaching and learning should change under this model, and then base their decisions on this plan.

In addition, the community must understand what technology infrastructure is needed for a sustainable program, and must be willing to make the necessary investment.

“Programs that have worked have started with a plan that was well thought-out and formulated by a vision committee that involved stakeholders,” agreed Pamela Livingston, author of 1-to-1 Learning: Laptop Programs That Work (published by the International Society for Technology in Education [7]). She is also an education technology analyst for EdisonLearning and adjunct professor at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia and the University of Massachusetts-Boston.

“They have nearly all given laptops to teachers first, sometimes a full year ahead, so teachers can use the laptops and begin developing curricular possibilities,” Livingston said. “They have done a serious look at issues of infrastructure (network, electricity, wireless plan) and considered logistical issues (carrying cases, insurance) and formulated good policies and procedures.”

One common problem, said David Peterson, chief technology officer for ed-tech firm Fiddlehead and a project manager of ubiquitous computing initiatives for two decades, is that technology moves on and schools get stuck in a “technology refresh strategy financial quagmire. It costs money to keep PCs up to date, it takes technicians to keep them up to date, and those resources must be allocated year after year, requiring school board resolve. That resolve is tough to come by when it becomes a choice of teachers, buses, or new PCs.”

If a school or district can’t maintain a continuous 1-to-1 program, teachers will not have an adequate chance of improving student achievement and engagement through classroom practices.

Peterson recommends that during the planning stage, schools consider sustainable PC implementation strategies. For example, schools could use a mainframe delivery model.

“Instead of planning to replace 500 laptops every three years, schools could get by with replacing the CPU in the mainframe, or system board, or both,” he said. “But the end result is that all students have equitable technology and the upgrades are applied at one spot, the computational technology is applied at one spot, and when complete, everyone still has equitable [access to] technology. When the school has more students, or wants to go from a 4-to-1 to a 3-to-1 ratio, they simply add the ‘dumb’ terminals.”

Supporting teachers

Given the importance of teachers in the success of school laptop initiatives, it’s no surprise that “teacher preparation through [ongoing professional development] was important for successful implementation,” write Bebell and O’Dwyer. “As 1-to-1 programs become more popular, the quality and depth of preparation that teachers receive for implementation will become a central predictor of program success.”

Professional development that is “tied to curriculum support and development is most successful,” said Livingston. “PD works best when it is not a one-shot undertaking, but is varied and continues yearly. Studies again and again show that with any major school-wide initiative, the most important factor for success is what happens in the classroom.”

Otto agrees, saying his school gives teachers advance preparation: One and a half years before the laptops arrived, teachers sat down to plan their technology-based lessons. “Teacher training is critical,” he said, “because we need to know what works to be able to use it productively in class.”

John Orban, system administrator for The Country School in Easton, Md., said that whenever possible, schools should have faculty conduct these training workshops, “as it seems their peers pay more attention to them than [to] the ‘technology folks.’”

Orban said his school requires teachers to submit a written technology plan each month indicating how they plan to use technology in their classroom.

“The biggest fault with 1-to-1 initiatives is not looking at the entire process,” said John Thompson, associate professor in the education technology program at New York’s Buffalo State College.

“Buying laptops is the easiest part of the process, but too often school districts neglect such fundamental items as providing initial and ongoing professional development for the teachers and providing sufficient tech support,” Thompson said. “Taking a true TCO [total cost of ownership] approach would avoid many of the mistakes, as schools often do not have a good grasp of the real costs of starting and continuing a 1-to-1 program. And part of the TCO approach should be setting measurable program objectives and then doing formative and summative program evaluations, whose results are made known to everyone to provide a feedback loop in the continuous planning and re-planning that characterizes successful programs.”

Student involvement

But it’s not just teachers who experts say must be involved in the 1-to-1 planning process—students should be, too.

“Perhaps a backwards way of thinking by some accounts, we believe a ‘bottom-up’ approach is better than a ‘top-down,’” said Katie Morrow, technology integration specialist at O’Neill Public Schools in O’Neill, Neb.

“Put the technology in kids’ hands as early as possible and let them drive the initiative forward. Students should be involved on planning committees, tech support teams, and any visioning or research teams. Publish student projects early on, bring in visitors to see the possibilities in action rather than just talk about them, use students to share at community meetings, board meetings, and in any way possible. Students will push and promote the laptop’s application in their various courses much more effectively than an administrator forcing it upon an unwilling teacher.”

Morrow said that when the benefits are apparent beyond the school building, stakeholders are willing to support education—and students realize it’s not just about the grade at the end of the unit.

“Collecting data is important, but more important is collecting stories,” she explained. “Compile anecdotal evidence and interview students. Publish projects that evolve out of the students’ opportunity to have 21st-century access 24/7—as opposed to purely test scores and teacher-driven assignments. This culture can cultivate in an initiative where the learning is the focus, rather than the instruction.”

Advice and help

Stephan Sorger, instructor of advanced marketing analytics at UC Berkeley, said he follows a few simple principles for teaching with laptops.

For example, every computer project is done in groups; not only can team members help each other, but this also gives students the experience of working on complicated projects in groups. In addition, every computer project has a wrap-up discussion. The discussion ties the project to real-world situations and brings the subject alive for the students.

A new tool, released last month, can help schools and districts in planning their 1-to-1 computing initiatives.

Created by IT solutions provider CDW-G and Educational Collaborators, a national education consulting organization, the free resource—called the One-to-One Readiness Assessment Tool [8]—is based on a number of evaluations and planning matrices that the two firms have used with their education customers for many years.

The online tool helps school leaders assess the technical and cultural readiness of their school’s environment for a 1-to-1 program, helps them identify critical success factors they might not have considered, and provides specific, next-step recommendations to reduce risk and time-to-launch.

The tool takes a three-phase approach, said Lance Busdecker, sales manager for CDW-G:

• Online survey: Schools gather key stakeholders, such as faculty, technology staff, and administrators, to complete the online survey.

• Survey review and discussion: Based on the survey results, an Educational Collaborators consultant, paired with the school or district based on demographics, goals, objectives, and other key factors, leads a one-hour review of the survey and discusses areas of concern or issues that require extra customer attention.

• Summary assessment and recommendations: CDW-G and Educational Collaborators deliver a final report, summarizing key discussion points and recommending next steps for the customer.

According to researchers Weston and Bain, indicators of success in a 1-to-1 computing program will appear in classrooms that are “differentiated in genuine ways for all students, with teachers who gather and mine just-in-time data. … Further, teachers, students, and parents use [technology] every day to collaborate about what to do next in their collective pursuit of learning. For them, waiting passively for the results of the big, once-a-year standardized test is not an option. That is why, if asked about the value of using a laptop computer in school, each would struggle to see the relevance of such a question, because computers have become integrated into what they do.”

They continue by noting that “laptop computers [would not be] technological tools; rather, [they would be] cognitive tools that are holistically integrated into the teaching and learning processes of their school.”

But even with the right tools, professional development, planning, and student input, the journal’s editors and researchers, as well as other experts, agree that changing teaching practices through 1-to-1 computing programs will take time.

Tammy Stephens, CEO of the Stephens Group LLC, a private investment firm, is working on a dissertation that focuses on the evolution of transformational communication patterns in 1-to-1 computing environments. She has been evaluating a 1-to-1 program in the Milwaukee Public Schools for the past three years.

According to Stephens, changing teaching practices to incorporate 21st-century skills with laptops “is definitely an evolution, and it takes time for teacher practices to evolve.”

Links:

JTLA: Volume 9: Special Edition [6]

CDW-G [9]

Educational Collaborators [10]

The Stephens Group [11]

One-to-One Readiness Assessment Tool [8]

Educators intrigued by Apple’s iPad

Posted By By Dennis Carter, Assistant Editor On In Creating the 21st-century classroom,IT Management,One-to-one computing,Registration Required,Teaching & Learning,Top News | 4 Comments
The web-enabled Apple iPad starts at $499.

Apple’s new tablet computer, the iPad, could push other companies to bring more color-capable eReaders to the market in a move that could make digital books more commonplace on school campuses, educators said after the long-awaited release of the technology giant’s latest product.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad Jan. 27, calling it a new third category of mobile device that is neither smart phone nor laptop, but something in between.

The iPad, which is Wi-Fi enabled, has 10 hours of battery life, features a 9.7-inch screen, weighs 1.5 lbs, and will use the iPhone operating system, meaning education companies that have made iPhone apps can make their technology available for iPad users.

The iPad will be available in two months, according to Apple.

Jobs said the device would be useful for reading books, playing games, or watching video, describing it as “so much more intimate than a laptop—and so much more capable than a smart phone.”

He said the iPad can sit for a month on standby without needing a charge. What’s more, Apple is selling a dock with a built-in keyboard for the device.

A 16-gigabyte iPad will cost $499, according to Apple’s announcement. A 32 GB version will cost $599, and a 64 GB version will cost $699. Jobs also said Apple soon will launch an iBooks site that will be much like iTunes, where customers go to download music and movies to their iPods.

Penguin, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, and Harper Collins are among the publishing companies that will have digital books available in the iBooks store—an encouraging sign for eReader advocates who hope students soon will be downloading their textbooks on a tablet rather than lugging them around campus.

“I think this changes the picture for eBooks considerably,” said Larry Johnson, CEO of the New Media Consortium, an international group of colleges, universities, museums, and technology companies. “This has a lot of potential for higher education. … [Apple] has really seemed to think through the book experience.”

Educators have long complained that eReaders like Amazon’s Kindle lack the color that brings textbook graphs and charts to life. With the iPad bringing color to eBooks, Johnson said he expects competitors to follow.

“It’ll really drive others” to embrace a color screen, he said.

Carolyn Reidy, chief executive of Simon & Schuster, called the iPad a “terrific device” that gives readers the ability to adjust the typeface and turn pages by touching a finger to the screen, as opposed to pushing a button, as the Kindle requires.

Steven C. Mitchell, owner of Componica, an Iowa-based company that developed an iPhone app called “Memorize Words for Spanish,” said the iPad holds promise as a learning device for students.

“Most eBook readers, for whatever reason, are priced at about the level of a low-end netbook, which proves to be a significant barrier,” Mitchell said. “A tablet that is both an eBook reader and a netbook-like device would make it much more attractive to your everyday user. Plus, interactivity will bring new content and media that hasn’t been imagined yet.”

Still, tablet computers have existed for a decade with little success. Jobs acknowledged that Apple will have to work to convince consumers who already have smart phones and laptops that they need the iPad.

“In order to really create a new category of devices, those devices are going to have to be far better at doing some key tasks,” he said. “We think we’ve got the goods. We think we’ve done it.”

Cost tempered some of the excitement surrounding the iPad’s release. Although the entry-level price of $499 was less than most analysts had anticipated, many in education remain skeptical that students or their schools will spend $500 for an unproven electronic reader, even if it comes with the web-browsing features of Apple’s latest release.

Jobs said the iPad—like the iPhone—would use AT&T’s 3G service to supplement its Wi-Fi connectivity. Technology experts had speculated that Apple would tap Verizon to provide the iPad’s connectivity after consistent customer complaints about AT&T service.

The iPad models that can connect to AT&T’s wireless network will cost more, however—$629, $729, and $829, depending on the amount of memory they have.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.

Links:

Apple iPad [12]

New Media Consortium

Report details coming trends in campus technology

Posted By By Dennis Carter, Assistant Editor On In Blended Learning,District Management,IT Management,One-to-one computing,Registration Required,Teaching & Learning,Top News | No Comments
Typing on a laptop could be outdated in four or five years, according to ed-tech projections.

Open scholarly content will become more commonplace in higher education in the next year as online universities and textbook companies organize and harness the internet’s mass of educational material, according to a report that predicts campus technology advances within the next five years.

The 2010 Horizon Report, released this week by education technology advocacy group EDUCAUSE and the New Media Consortium, describes technological changes that will have the greatest impact on college students and faculty.

The seventh annual report’s short-term prediction focuses on open content—a trend buoyed by MIT’s Open Courseware Initiative and the Open Knowledge Foundation, among others.

Rather than releasing educational material into free online repositories, some colleges and universities have embraced open content as a “social responsibility,” according to the report, compiled by decision makers in technology, business, and education.

The rising popularity of open-content programs is “a response to the rising costs of education, the desire for access to learning in areas where such access is difficult, and an expression of student choice about when and how to learn,” according to the Horizon Report.

Institutions such as Tufts University have launched open courseware initiatives in the past year. Tufts now makes all learning material available online for free. The free program doesn’t require registration, and completing the classes doesn’t contribute to a college degree.

“The general public may glimpse the depth and breadth of what leading universities are offering and benefit from reading lists and lectures,” the school’s web site says.

The acceptance of open content has led to a handful of open universities, including University of the People, a free, non-accredited online school that does not charge for its course content.

Peer 2 Peer University (P2PU) is another venture that has grabbed the attention of open-source advocates over the past year. Like University of the People, P2PU is not accredited, but officials and advisers said they are researching ways to secure accreditation for students.

P2PU students are placed into groups of 8-14 people for six-week college courses hosted by what the university calls a “sense maker,” a class facilitator present to answer student questions, identify essential readings and assignments, and ask overarching questions.

P2PU invites experts and graduate students to pitch ideas for new courses and how they should be taught to online students.

(See “Scholars try tuition-free online colleges [13].”)

The Horizon Report peers deeper into education technology’s future and sees widespread use of hand gestures to use computers. Mouses and keyboards may be considered antiquated by 2015, the report says, as college students become accustomed to human movements to control what they see on a screen.

Devices like the iPhone and Nintendo Wii already use “gesture-based systems,” instead of clacking on keys or clicking and double-clicking a mouse.

“The idea that natural, comfortable motions can be used to control computers is opening a way to a host of input devices that look and feel very different from the keyboard and mouse,” the report says, adding that the coming release of Sony’s Gem gaming system will reveal the next step in gesture-based interaction. “Instead of learning where to point and click … we are beginning to be able to expect our computers to respond to natural movements that make sense to us.”

Augmented reality is a technology that the Horizon Report’s authors expect to take hold in the next two to three years. Mixing “virtual data” with the real world could enhance college lessons in ways a textbook—or even a computer—could not.

Overlay maps will let students view a historical site, for example, and see what it looked like at different points throughout history with the help of augmented reality.

The European Union is funding a project called iTacitus that will someday allow students to see the Greek Coliseum and what it might have looked like with athletes in action and onlookers cheering, according to the report.

A German company has already developed a book that uses augmented reality, the report says, and the results could add a new dimension to reading. Users install software, point a webcam at a standard textbook, and watch as 3D globes and geographic locations pop up.

The University of Canterbury in New Zealand developed a high-tech tool that “translates sketches into 3D objects,” perhaps allowing for building designers to create and present a complex architectural proposal.

“Students receive immediate visual feedback about their designs and ideas in a way that allows them to spot inconsistencies or problems that need to be addressed,” the report says.

Link:

2010 Horizon Report [14]

New electronic devices could interest schools

Posted By From staff and wire reports On In Creating the 21st-century classroom,IT Management,New Options in One-to-One Computing,One-to-one computing,Top News | No Comments
The Skiff eReader is among new technologies with implications for education.

New netbooks, tablet computers, and eBook reader devices, as well as fresh developments in television and even a wireless tether to keep cell phones from getting lost, are among the technologies being unveiled this week at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas–technologies that might hold interest for schools and colleges as well.

Small and inexpensive netbooks have been among the most popular computers during the recession, wooing schools and consumers alike with their portability and prices that were often below $400. Now, with the economy improving, computer buyers will be asked to open their wallets to new styles of computers, including some costing a bit more.

Among the new offerings introduced at CES: lightweight, medium-sized laptops meant as a step above netbooks in price and performance, as well as a new category of device called the “smartbook,” a tiny computer that combines elements of netbooks and so-called smart phones.

That isn’t to say the netbook has reached the end of its line. PC makers such as Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, and Toshiba are demonstrating new netbook offerings with such features as touch screens and the latest Intel Atom processors, which offer improved performance over the earlier Atoms that fueled the initial run of netbooks.

But the netbook’s popularity has come at a price for the industry: slim profit margins for chipmaker Intel Corp. and the PC manufacturers.

For many PC makers, the rise of netbooks has meant falling revenue and profit from PC divisions. HP, the world’s largest computer maker, gets a third of its revenue from its PC business but just 15 percent of the company’s operating profit, numbers that are shrinking thanks to netbook sales and price cuts on other machines.

Ever since Taiwan-based AsusTek Computer Inc. got the netbook craze going with its 7-inch Eee PC in late 2007, schools and consumers have been gravitating to the devices. According to data from research company Gartner Inc., netbooks made up an estimated 10 percent of all PC shipments in 2009, up from 4 percent a year earlier.

These devices had small screens–generally 7 to 11 inches, compared with about 14 to 17 inches on a full-sized laptop–and often smaller-than-normal keyboards. PC makers kept prices down by avoiding extras such as DVD drives and Bluetooth wireless connectivity.

Netbooks were meant to be companion devices that could slip into a purse or backpack for on-the-go web surfing, though for many schools and consumers, netbooks were the only computer they bought in 2009.

Now, computer buyers can expect to see a number of devices that fit above and below the small laptops in price, size, and performance, as PC companies try to widen the market.

Lenovo Group Ltd. is banking on so-called “smartbooks,” which are meant to combine the constant internet connectivity and long battery life of a smart phone with a laptop’s classic shape.

The company announced its first smartbook, the Skylight, on Jan. 5. The skinny Skylight has a 10-inch screen, full-size keyboard, and 10 hours of battery life and weighs less than 2 pounds. It includes Wi-Fi connectivity, and users can use it over AT&T Inc.’s high-speed data network if they sign up for a data plan. If they do, the Skylight will be able to switch automatically between the two network types.

But under the hood, it’s less powerful than a netbook because it uses a weaker class of processors.

The Skylight is slated to be available in April at $499, though AT&T might subsidize the cost for users who also sign up for a data plan.

Computer makers also are coming out with devices that are thin and light like netbooks, but have more powerful processors and screens that are a bit larger, at 11 inches to 13 inches. The price tags are be a bit heftier, at $400 to $600.

Philip Osako, a director of product marketing for Japanese electronics company Toshiba Corp., said those laptops should resonate with consumers who want an affordable gadget that can do more than surf the web and check eMail on the go. As it is, netbooks aren’t good at demanding tasks such as viewing high-quality video.

“It’s the natural step up from the netbook,” he said. “It’s also a sweet spot relative to where full-size traditional notebooks are.”

At the same time, PC makers are releasing a new generation of improved netbooks.

Lenovo, a fairly early player in the netbook market, is showing the latest entrants to that line at CES, one of which has a 10-inch touch screen that swivels around to become a tablet.

The new S10-3t model, like Apple Inc.’s iPhone, will understand multiple finger gestures, allowing you to pinch the screen to zoom in and out of photos, for instance. It will have Intel’s latest Atom processor, which should consume less power and depict graphics better than an earlier version.

The S10-3t is expected to be available in January for $500, while a similar model without a swiveling touch screen will cost $350.

Toshiba, meanwhile, is demonstrating the mini NB305. It keeps the 10.1-inch screen and full-sized keyboard available on the company’s current mini NB205 model but adds the new Atom processor and 11 hours of battery life, two more hours than before. The netbook is expected to be available Jan. 12 with prices that start at $350.

New eBook readers

For the first time, eBook readers have their own section of the CES exhibit hall floor, with 23 exhibitors hoping to follow Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle to the cusp of the mainstream.

Samsung, the leading maker of phones and TVs for the U.S. market, is launching eBook readers early this year, it announced at CES–joining a host of manufacturers who hope to capitalize on the shift away from paper books.

Samsung will be launching two models with 6-inch and 10-inch “electronic ink” screens, similar to the sizes of Amazon’s Kindle models. Users of the devices will be able to download public-domain books from Google Inc. via Wi-Fi, and the e-readers will come with styluses so users can write on the screen.

The models will cost $399 and $699, respectively, Samsung didn’t say who would provide for-pay eBooks for the devices.

Also, Sprint Nextel Corp. said it has made a multiyear deal with a startup called Skiff for a thin eBook reader that operates over Sprint’s high-speed 3G network, as well as over Wi-Fi.

The Skiff Reader will have an 11.5-inch screen, larger than those on competing devices such as the Kindle, Sony Corp.’s Reader, and Barnes & Noble Inc.’s Nook.

Sprint and Skiff tout the device as the thinnest to date, at just over a quarter of an inch thick. The e-reader’s entire page will be a touch screen, unlike the Kindle, which uses physical buttons for navigation, or the Nook, which has a small built-in touch screen separate from the book page.

The Skiff Reader will connect to its own online content store. Skiff said it’s also working with other electronics manufacturers to put its technology into a variety of devices. Pricing and availability had not been disclosed as of press time.

New tablet devices

Delivering Microsoft Corp.’s customary keynote on the eve of the show’s opening Jan. 6, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer demonstrated a new touch-screen, tablet-style computer from Hewlett-Packard Co., the first of several such devices expected to be unveiled this month.

The tablet–also known as a slate, a one-piece portable computer without a physical keyboard–was one of several new PCs Ballmer demonstrated. During his speech, Ballmer said the HP tablet will be available later this year. He also gave a glimpse of two similar devices from Archos and Pegatron Corp.

Tablet-style computers that run Windows have been available for a decade, but HP’s new machine is bound to draw extra attention thanks to expectations that Apple Inc. will launch a similar device later this month.

Apple, notoriously secretive about upcoming products, has not commented on the matter. But given the iPhone’s success, which propelled competitors to come out with copycat touch-screen phones and centralized “app” stores to sell add-on software, all eyes are on Apple to define what a slate or tablet-style computer should look like and how it will be used.

Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s entertainment and devices division, announced that Natal, new technology that lets video game players control the action by moving their whole bodies instead of using a joystick, will go on sale for the Xbox console in time for the holiday shopping season in late 2010.

Bach said in an interview with the Associated Press that devices built for touch, gestures, and other so-called natural user interfaces will become much more mainstream in the next few years. While Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has for years said the same thing, Bach says computer science and hardware technology are now sophisticated enough to support Gates’ and other visionaries’ big ideas.

Microsoft also said it forged a new search distribution deal with HP that will make the company’s Bing search site and MSN.com content portal the default search engine and web home page on new HP computers sold in 42 countries.

The software maker has signed similar deals in the past, including one with HP in 2008 that made Live Search, Bing’s predecessor technology, the default on computers sold in the U.S. and Canada. People who buy such computers can still change their preferred search engine to something else.

Ballmer also announced a new version of Mediaroom, its technology that delivers TV over the internet on such services as AT&T Inc.’s U-verse system. The newest version of Mediaroom will let subscribers watch live and recorded TV and video-on-demand on Windows computers and phones and through Xbox 360 consoles, in addition to a set-top box. It will work over regular broadband, not just special fiber connections.

Other TV-related news

In other TV-related news from CES, the prospect of watching live, local TV shows on mobile phones and other portable devices is getting closer, as manufacturers showed off gadgets that can receive a new type of digital TV transmissions.

”Mobile DTV” gadgets will be available this spring for consumers in the Washington, D.C., area to try. The devices include a cell phone made by Samsung and a Dell Inc. laptop. There’s also the Tivit, a device about the size of a deck of cards that receives a TV signal, then rebroadcasts it over Wi-Fi so it can be received by an iPhone or BlackBerry.

Conventional digital TV broadcasts are designed for stationary antennas. So devices that are moving–because someone’s carrying them, or because they’re in a car–have a hard time getting a picture. The Mobile DTV technology gets around that problem, letting broadcasters add a secondary signal to the towers they use for sending TV signals to homes. About 30 stations have done so in the last year, hoping to reach viewers on the go as gadgets such as smart phones gain in prominence.

So far, only prototype devices have been able to receive these new signals. Cell phones, particularly ones with large screens, would be natural devices for Mobile DTV reception, but U.S. carriers have shown little interest in the technology. The two largest ones, AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless, sell phones that are compatible with a rival broadcasting system, FLO TV, run by Qualcomm Inc. It provides 10 channels for $15 per month.

Mobile DTV differs from FLO TV by providing local channels with traffic, weather, and sports content, and by being free, at least for some channels. One of the goals of the consumer trial is to figure out how willing consumers will be to pay, according to the Open Mobile Video Coalition, an industry group that represents both broadcasters and equipment makers.

The new Samsung phone is a version of the already available Moment, with an added telescoping antenna for TV reception. It has a screen made of organic light-emitting diodes, providing eye-popping color saturation. Samsung spokesman John Godfrey said about 300 of them will be in consumers’ hands in the D.C. area in the first few months of the year.

Phone service will be provided by Sprint Nextel Corp., which doesn’t have a deal with FLO TV. But the extent of Sprint’s support doesn’t yet go very far: It hasn’t said it will sell Mobile DTV phones.

The Tivit approaches the phone market differently: It’s a separate device that can beam a TV signal to most Wi-Fi-capable phones. It thus bypasses the cellular carriers. It was originally designed to provide TV viewing to the iPhone in Japan, where TV reception is considered a must for phones. Valups, the Korean company behind the device, said the Tivit will go on sale this spring for about $120.

LG Electronics Inc., which like Samsung has helped develop the Mobile DTV technology, has said it will introduce a portable DVD player that will also tune in Mobile DTV. It will be available later this year for $249, it said.

Dell will be supplying hundreds of small laptops for the trial in Washington, and the computer maker believes it will be able to sell Mobile DTV tuners as upgrades for its laptops, said spokesman James Clardy. Dell already sells laptops with the option of a built-in receiver for standard digital TV, for about $50.

This also is supposedly the year 3-D television becomes the hot new thing: Updated sets and disc players are coming out, and 3-D cable channels are in the works. But it’s not clear the idea will reach out and grab mainstream viewers.

Besides having to spring for expensive new TVs, users would have to put on special glasses to give the picture the illusion of depth. Unfazed by the potential hang-ups, however, the biggest TV makers began revealing their 3-D models Jan. 6 before the official opening of CES.

Tim Baxter, president of Samsung Electronics’ consumer division, said in an interview with AP that 10 to 14 percent of the roughly 35 million TVs sold in the U.S. this year will be 3-D-capable.

Samsung is determined to make 3-D a big feature on its more expensive TVs this year. And Panasonic Corp. said it will debut four 3-D sets this spring, but they won’t be LCD sets, the most common type of flat panel. Instead, Panasonic is using plasma panels, saying the viewing quality will be superior to 3-D on LCDs.

Sony Corp. said its 3-D sets will be out this summer. Some will come with glasses, while others will be “3-D ready,” which means that buyers will have to complement with a separate plug-in device and glasses for 3-D viewing.

LG Electronics Inc. said it will introduce 47-inch and 55-inch flat-panel TVs with 3-D capabilities in May. LG didn’t announce exact prices for its new sets. But Tim Alessi, director of product development at LG Electronics USA, said 3-D TV sets will likely cost $200 to $300 more than comparable flat-panel sets without 3-D capabilities, which already run more than $1,000.

Manufacturers aren’t counting on 3-D to take over instantly. Color TV and high definition caught on over many years. Like those earlier advances, 3-D programming requires upgrades throughout the TV and movie infrastructure, from shooting to editing to distribution. But as the technology evolves, and as more 3-D content becomes available, 3-D TVs could become technologies that schools might consider, too.

New cell phone tether

Losing a cell phone can be exasperating and expensive, something that could easily challenge already tight school budgets–but what if your phone could call out to you, letting you know it was about to be left behind?

Zomm, a newly minted consumer electronics company from Tulsa, Okla., believes this would cut down on disappearing handsets. At CES, the company showed off a small device that does just that.

The company’s device, also called Zomm, connects wirelessly with your phone via Bluetooth and sets off an alarm if you walk away from it.

The Zomm, which is about the size of an Oreo cookie, also includes a personal alarm that users can activate and a button that will call emergency services with your phone. It acts as a speaker phone and alerts users of incoming calls as well.
The product includes a rechargeable battery that can last for three days per charge and is expected to be available this summer for $80.

Laurie Penix, co-founder and president of Zomm, came up with the idea for the gadget earlier this year after a friend’s husband lost his third iPhone. She started the company with her husband, Henry Penix, who is also its CEO.

Link:

International Consumer Electronics Show [15]

eSN Special Report: Convergent Education

Posted By ESchool News On In IT Management,One-to-one computing | No Comments

Few would argue with the idea that education–not only the business of education, but also the way educators teach and students learn–is undergoing great change, and it could be on the cusp of an even greater transformation. Technology has changed the way the world works, and inevitably, it’s changing the nature of learning as well.

Today’s students are wired 24 hours a day and seven days a week with laptop computers and mobile devices. Content is available from a variety of sources and content experts online, and much of it is available free of charge. Students of today, growing up in the Information Age, have a vast world of knowledge available at their fingertips: If they learn something of interest in school, they know they can find out more about the topic in just a few clicks. Sometimes, what they learn online differs from what they were taught, and they are learning to question the veracity of information.

In short, students no longer are limited to learning only in classrooms under the tutelage of certified instructors during designated school hours–and this change has profound implications for educators.

“When I was growing up, your teacher and the library were really the conduits to be connected externally beyond your local community,” says Don Knezek, chief executive officer of the International Society for Technology in Education, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting the use of information technology to aid in teaching and learning. “Today, if that’s all the connectivity you have, your world is pretty bland.”

With all this information available through such a variety of media, today’s students have become masters of the art of multitasking. Barbara Kurshan, executive director of Curriki, a community of educators, learners, and education experts who are working together to create high-quality online materials for teachers and students, refers to a recent experience she had with a group of middle school students she encountered in a friend’s basement. Some students were on the computer, some were sending text messages via their mobile phones, and others were on Facebook. She asked them what they were doing, and they responded, “Studying.” They had been given a problem set and were collaborating on how to find the answers, working together and reaching out to other friends to see who had the knowledge they needed.

“That’s exactly what goes on in the work world when solving a problem,” she says–and too often, “it doesn’t go on in the classroom.”

Some people believe that when students are multitasking, they are not learning as well. “I disagree,” Kurshan says. “I think they’re learning the way we work in the business space. If there’s something you don’t know, you’re finding it, and you’re doing a lot more critical thinking and problem solving. At the moment, kids may be learning more outside of schools than they are [inside them].”

As the world changes, a gulf has grown between the way students have begun to learn and the way many schools continue to teach. Students are becoming used to learning in a nonlinear way. They’re learning in both formal (schools) and informal (within their own communities, online, and so on) situations.

Yet schools are still, for the most part, entrenched in teaching in a linear fashion, starting on page one of a textbook, moving through the last page, and then testing to ensure the students have learned the subject. And they’re not allowing students to use many of the very tools–social networks, YouTube, and their mobile devices, to name just a few–that keep kids anchored and learning within their own communities.

This has led to a feeling among today’s students that schools have become less relevant and meaningful, and dropout rates are increasing.

A recent survey of students showed that 66 percent say they are bored in class each day, says Caleb Schutz, president of the JASON Project, a nonprofit subsidiary of National Geographic founded by Robert Ballard, the oceanographer and explorer who discovered the shipwreck of the Titanic. Moreover, a National Science Teachers Association study showed that the No. 1 problem science teachers face is a lack of motivation among students.

“The longer they’re in school, the more it’s like a prison. That’s a greater and greater problem as we get to middle and high school,” says Keith Krueger, chief executive officer of the Consortium for School Networking. “Kids have to power down as they walk into a school. They have to turn off the technology they use and go back to a traditional lecture environment. No wonder kids are bored and disengaged.”

Yet it is difficult to get educators and school leaders to tackle the problem, because of the existing school system infrastructure. “There are long-term pacing guides and scope and reference guides, and those dictate what a teacher will do every day of the school year,” Schutz explains. Those pacing guides need to be made revolutionary and exciting for real change to take place.

Download the report as it appeared in eSchool News as s PDF. [16]

Additional Resources

Textbooks vs. online content: Do we need both? [17]

Free online learning tools engage students, give schools more choices [18]

The JASON Project, for example, works with the National Geographic Society, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the U.S. Department of Energy, and other leading organizations to develop multimedia science curricula based on its cutting-edge missions of exploration and discovery. By providing educators with those same inspirational experiences, and giving them the tools and resources they need to improve science teaching, JASON is able to motivate students to want to learn science. Innovative and creative teachers have always found ways to keep kids motivated and engaged by using resources such as the JASON Project. But many in the education sector worry that the system does not encourage such innovation, collaboration, and creativity.

This schism between how schools have traditionally taught and how students want to learn is bringing education ever closer to a tipping point.

All too often, technology is simply absorbed by schools, with educators using the technology to make their jobs easier but basically conforming it to the way education already operates–as, for example, when students take tests on a computer rather than on paper.

“When you cram any innovation, in any sector, into an existing model, that model basically usurps it, conforms it to the way the model already operates,” says Michael Horn, a co-author of Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns. “It doesn’t fundamentally change that factory model in a way that’s student-centric. It doesn’t give each student what [he or she] really need[s].”

Yet a number of trends are driving the adoption of innovative technology in education, and these are, indeed, beginning to change how education works. In many cases, technology has been used as an enabler to teach in new ways. This so-called “convergent education”–the series of developments, aided by technology, that is changing how education works–is creeping across the country, forcing transformation.

Trends spurring change

One major trend that is speeding the push toward convergent education is the availability of a far greater amount of educational content than ever before.

Content providers include traditional education publishers as well as new organizations such as the JASON Project, Curriki, and Thinkfinity, a literacy, education, and technology initiative from the Verizon Foundation, that offer content to educators and students–much of it for free. Because online content can include audio and video, simulations, and games, among other things, it is far more interactive than much of the traditional learning that takes place in schools, and more likely to engage students.

“We focus on hands-on science and doing science in the lab like the scientists do it, which gives [students] a better understanding of science,” says Patsy Magee, preK-12 science supervisor for the Beaumont Independent School District in Texas.

Beaumont is using the JASON Project for its middle-school science curriculum. Textbooks are not the way scientists learn in the field, she explains. Incorporating the JASON curriculum, with its online and offline multimedia materials, gets students involved and excited about learning science, and motivated to continue learning.

Texas is one state–California and Virginia are others–that is moving away from the linear teaching model by using more online textbooks, which can incorporate multimedia aspects to engage learners.

Distance or virtual learning has begun to spread as well, and many schools now take advantage of opportunities to offer courses outside their main curriculum. For example, 25 percent of the nation’s high schools do not offer advanced courses, claims Horn–no chemistry, no physics, to say nothing of Advanced Placement courses. But with distance learning, students can report to the computer lab or media center to take an online course.

“Progressive schools are then unbundling the completion of those courses from seat time, and are focusing on mastery,” Horn says. He believes that by 2019, 50 percent of all high school courses will have a strong online component.

Another trend that is just beginning to happen is that some school leaders are changing their mentality of providing “one device for every child.” Many districts have tried to move to a one-to-one computing environment–but the high costs of this approach have largely kept it from becoming scalable.

Students historically have not been allowed to bring their own devices from home and connect to the school’s network. Today, however, a few schools are experimenting with a guest network, where students and teachers can bring their own devices. When this is allowed, it changes the whole economics of the issue, as schools are then providing devices only for the students who cannot afford them. The one-to-one model becomes viable, and more students can be connected.

The proliferation of collaborative tools such as wikis, blogs, social networking, and communications tools such as Skype is another trend that is speeding the move toward convergent education. These are emerging technologies for learning that are being used by the most creative teachers around the world, says Krueger. And the proliferation of mobile devices, which put information in the hands of learners wherever they are, is spurring the change as well.

Change is inevitable: How do schools adapt?

Experts say a change in thinking among educators is needed for the country’s educational system to be prepared for convergent education.

Students need to be taught more critical thinking, says Magee. When learners are made to memorize facts and then spit them back, they are not learning how to think.

Memorization “means nothing, especially with the kinds of students we have today,” Magee says. “There’s no reason to memorize it. They have access to information 24/7, their hands are on the computer.” It’s better, she says, to understand the how and the why of something rather than just memorizing content.

Kurshan agrees. Students need to know content, but more than that, they need to understand the process of learning, she says: how to realize what knowledge they’re missing, and then how to discover the answers to what they don’t know. “It’s not the content that needs to be changed. There’s not a whole lot of ways to change the content of math,” she explains. “It’s the way you teach that has to be changed.”

Teaching also needs to begin to move toward differentiation, or teaching different things in different ways to students, depending on their existing knowledge and on their learner profile.

Larry Sanger, the co-founder of Wikipedia and founder of a new educational site called WatchKnow.org, a directory of educational videos for students, describes how such differentiation might happen: Teachers must currently use the lecture format–teaching a roomful of students the same thing at the same time–because there is not enough time in the day to teach them one by one. “But what if there are really excellent explanations of everything you could want to explain to a kid, available instantly?” he says. “Wouldn’t that take the necessity off the teacher to do the lecturing, and make it possible for people to proceed to learn at their own pace? This frees the teacher up to act as a tutor,” giving one-on-one time to students.

Cheryl Lemke, CEO of the Metiri Group, a consulting organization for the education sector, sees another side of differentiation. “One thing we’re suggesting to teachers is that they get to know their students,” she says. If an instructor is teaching cell biology, she might know her students well enough to know that with one student it should be approached in the sense of genetics, while with another you might approach it from the angle of disease, and so on. “There are a lot of approaches you can take, and you won’t know which to use unless you know your students pretty well. You could do interest inventories to learn about their lives beyond school,” Lemke says.

The ability to assess the quality and veracity of online materials is also a necessity in embracing convergent education. Students and educators alike need to learn skills of discernment, to understand what online sources are the most valuable and accurate.

“We’ve come to realize that knowledge-based content has exploded to such a degree that the ability to find it and use it is more critical than having it archived in our brains,” says Knezek. “What’s clear is that we can’t learn all the content. We’ve got to be sure we’re providing learning experiences that give skills for working with the body of content that is expanding so rapidly. We must learn to find it, judge it, and use it.”

Embracing urgency: The time for change is now

While some experts agree that change is happening, and happening quickly, others think the education sector does not feel the urgency it needs to force real transformation to occur.

“People say [education] can’t get any worse, that it’s hit bottom. I don’t think there’s any bottom,” says Gary Stager, a visiting professor at Pepperdine University. The system has been attacked by government regulators at an unprecedented rate, creating “the perfect storm of an abusive relationship,” Stager believes. Educators are being cowed into accepting things–like more testing and rote memorization–they know are wrong. This situation must change, and change quickly, he believes.

Countries such as Korea and Singapore, which were in the lower third of countries in terms of education, are now at the top, while the U.S. is in the lower to middle third of developed nations according to international benchmarking exams. Yet many educators are hanging on the edges, not seeing how fundamentally the world has changed, Krueger says.

“We have an inherently creative culture, but we’re on a path to squeeze out the creativity,” he says, “We’ve squeezed everything we can out of the accountability issue. Now we have to start looking at the whole system and see how we engage kids, to get them as excited in school as they are out of school. And I don’t think we’re going to get there by continuing to do the same thing.”

Jennifer Nastu is a freelance writer from Colorado who writes frequently on education and technology.

PC trends in education: Thin is in

Posted By From staff and wire reports On In District Management,One-to-one computing,Top News | No Comments

Personal computers are changing in ways that go beyond even the more recent innovations, such as the launch of Windows 7: Several of today’s laptops are missing a familiar component, computers can be controlled in various new ways, and portable PCs are slimming down.

Even with all the attention lavished on Apple’s iPhone and Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle this year, a PC or laptop still is likely to be the center of a student’s digital universe. Here’s a look at what this year’s computer trends mean for the personal computing–and especially for education.

• Drives are becoming a thing of the past.

Computers have come with “optical drives,” slots for CDs or DVDs, for years. They’ve been useful for installing new software, watching movies, or transferring music libraries into digital form. But one of the biggest lessons from the craze for netbooks is that people were so excited about the small, easy-to-carry size that they didn’t miss having a CD or DVD drive. And students who use school-issued machines primarily for word processing and accessing the internet aren’t likely to miss such a drive, either. (Plus, it’s one less way unwanted software can invade the machines.)

Apple Inc. got rid of an optical drive two years ago when it introduced the first sliver-thin MacBook Air. That wasn’t seen as a trendsetting step at the time, because the computer–which cost $1,800 then–wasn’t meant for mainstream consumption. But netbooks, which start as low as $250, are made for everyone.

The tiny laptops’ popularity is proof that people are finding it easy enough to download software, movies, and music to portable computers, especially with the widespread availability of Wi-Fi and cellular internet service. And plenty of services let users store files over the internet, eliminating the need to burn backups to discs.

Taking out the optical drive doesn’t significantly lower prices. But doing so does let PC makers design much thinner laptops. Companies such as Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. have pulled DVD drives out of mid-range to more expensive computers, such as HP’s Pavilion dm3z, which starts at $550, all the way up to the $1,700-and-up HP Envy and Dell’s $1,500-and-up Adamo.

Downloading ability has improved dramatically, and often software is delivered across a network, “so there’s no need for an optical drive,” said technology analyst Rob Enderle. Students are more likely to eMail or use peer-to-peer setups to share files and other items, he said, further reducing the need for optical drives.

Users might want to think twice, however, if they are hooked on transferring CDs into MP3s–or if they spend a lot of time watching DVDs on their computer screen and don’t want to squint at an iPod screen or get a separate portable video player.

• Good enough is plenty.

It might sound impressive when a PC sales pitch mentions multicore processors, state-of-the-art graphics chips, six or eight gigabytes of memory, and hard drives with a terabyte–1,000 gigabytes–of storage. But another thing netbooks have shown is that with a few exceptions–such as professional-grade video editing, and maybe hardcore video-game playing–having lots of PC power is overkill.

There’s very little software that can take advantage of these powerful computers, Enderle said. That means there’s no “killer app,” the program that’s so cool or so useful it persuades everyday PC users to trade up.

While the microprocessors that act as the brains inside netbooks are less powerful than even those found in inexpensive full-sized laptops, they are sufficient for most web browsing, eMailing, and word processing. And these computers are getting bigger hard drives, which users need for storing digital photos, music, and video. Overall, they’re good enough that to people replacing three- and four-year-old PCs, netbooks feel downright fast.

Netbooks are gaining more popularity in education, too, where computers often are used primarily for creating documents, browsing the web, and collaborating online.

“The need for the higher-performance machines just isn’t there,” said Enderle, adding that netbooks’ lighter weight can help students who develop back problems as a result of backpacks overstuffed with heavy textbooks and other course materials.

School technology buyers, and consumers in general, should go for more power only if their machines will be used to edit high-definition video, play graphics-intensive games, or process large data sets. Those tasks would require beefier machines.

• Everything’s getting carried away.

People want internet access all the time, and PC makers are betting that “smart” phones–even the iPhone–aren’t big or ergonomic enough for anything more complex or time-consuming than a quick eMail reply.

But already the line between phones and PCs is blurring: PC makers are teaming with mobile carriers to sell netbooks that cost as little as $99 as long as the buyer subscribes to a wireless data service. A new buzzword, “smartbooks,” is emerging to describe a device that runs a smart-phone operating system such as Google Inc.’s Android, but on bigger hardware that is more like a PC than a phone.

And while cell phones and smart phones might become distractions in the classroom if students use them to Twitter or send text messages, Enderle said students will begin using smart phones like laptops in the not-too-distant future.

Most course materials don’t yet lend themselves to cell phones, he added, but the devices are on the rise and will probably replace laptops at some point.

To get students and others to carry their laptops to the corner coffee shop, PC companies are treating their wares as fashion accessories, not just tools. You’ll see more colors and patterns, more design-conscious shapes, and more use of upscale materials.

“Thin and light is sort of the new black,” said Forrester Research analyst Paul Jackson.

The next frontier: cutting the cord for longer stretches. New chips that require less energy are emerging, and advances in battery technology will extend the time people can use their laptops unplugged in the coming years.

• Hands-on has its place.

In 2007, the iPhone made “multitouch” mainstream. Unlike ATM screens, which recognize one finger pushing on one spot at a time, the iPhone’s screen responds to pinching and swiping gestures made with multiple fingers. Microsoft Corp.’s coffee-table-sized Surface computer, designed for hotel lobbies and shops and also released in 2007, responds to similar gestures and can be operated by several people at once–as can SMART Technologies’ SMART Table.

Now, the PC is in on the action. Windows 7 includes more support for multitouch applications, making some basic touch commands work even on programs that weren’t designed for it. Users will see more laptops and “all-in-one” desktops–computers that stash all the technology in the case behind the screen–with multitouch screens. HP, Dell, and others have designed software intended to make it easy to flip through photos and music or browse the web with a fingertip instead of a mouse.

Apple, for its part, has multitouch trackpads for laptops and a multitouch mouse but says it isn’t interested in making a touch-screen Mac. Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook calls that “a gimmick.”

Will multitouch functionality replace the mouse and keyboard? Probably not, but that doesn’t mean it won’t become a useful part of the way users work with computers. Watching someone who has used a touch-screen computer for several months is interesting–he’ll reach to the screen to scroll down a web page just as fluidly as he types and uses the mouse.

Many of these new computing advances deal with changes in a user’s ability to move information and materials, and education is all about moving information to students, Enderle said.

Links:

Amazon [19]

Apple [20]

Dell [21]

HP [22]

Microsoft [23]

Parents: Focus more on 21st-century skills

Posted By From staff and wire reports On In One-to-one computing,Teaching Trends | No Comments

Although parents, K-12 students, and educators agree that using technology is essential to learning and student success, parents are largely dissatisfied with the technology skills their children are learning in schools, according to a new analysis of survey data released Oct. 29 by the nonprofit Project Tomorrow and Blackboard Inc.

According to the survey data, only one-third of parents and 40 percent of students in grades 6-12 believe that schools are doing a good job of preparing students for the 21st century. In contrast, more than half of principals surveyed believe they are doing a good job of preparing students.

“The disconnect between educators and parents reveals the need for schools to improve the integration of technology into the learning environment and students’ learning experiences,” said Julie Evans, CEO of Project Tomorrow. “Parents do not feel that schools are effectively preparing students for the jobs of the 21st century, and [they] view technology implementation as essential to student success.”

Parents said they believe teachers need more training and more access to up-to-date technology, and they support the broad adoption of modern, technology-infused approaches to teaching and learning, ranging from online textbooks to tools such as interactive whiteboards, laptops for students, computer projection devices, and technology-based organizational tools.

Pam Young, a parent from Mission Viejo, Calif., said she would like her son’s school to give its students a “world-class” education and help students develop skills that will carry them through to the post-college career world.

“Using technology in school is key to achieving both of these objectives,” Young said. “I think it is essential that our schools provide opportunities for students to use a wide range of new technologies in the classroom, and that the teachers are well trained in how to use technology to increase student achievement.”

“Parents recognize that information literacy is crucial to their children’s success in the 21st-century global economy,” said Jessie Woolley-Wilson, president of Blackboard’s K-12 division. “Today’s students regularly utilize technology tools and resources in many aspects of their lives, yet [many] do not experience the same technology integration in their academic experience.”

Policy makers and educators need to “help bridge the gap between the way students live and the way they learn,” she added.

The findings are included in the report “Learning in the 21st Century: Parents’ Perspectives, Parents’ Priorities,” which examines parent responses to the aspirations of students for technology-enhanced learning environments.

The data come from a new analysis of Project Tomorrow’s 2008 Speak Up project, an annual survey that has collected and reported on the views of more than 335,000 K-12 students, parents, and educators about online education and 21st-century learning in the United States.

The 2009 Speak Up survey has just opened online, Evans said, and students, teachers, parents, and administrators from schools across the country are welcome to participate.

For the first time, the survey will ask students about their interest in teaching careers and will solicit the opinions of pre-service teachers, too, to get a sense of how the next generation of teachers might differ from (or reflect the opinions of) current educators.

Schools and districts that participate in the Speak Up survey gain free online access to their own aggregated data for internal planning purposes, with national benchmark data for comparison. National findings from the 2009 survey will be released during two Congressional briefings in the spring.

Evans said participation in the survey is increasing every year.

“Each year, more schools sign up to be part of Speak Up, because it offers them–their students, parents, and staff–a way to express their opinions about the future of learning, local and national policies, how teaching could be improved, and more,” she said.

“The information is invaluable to the schools [that] participate, [as well as] the elected leaders at all levels who use Speak Up data as a way to gauge opinions on a range of educational issues,” she added.

The 2009 online survey is open through Dec. 18 for all K-12 students, parents, teachers, pre-service teachers, and administrators.

Links:

“Learning in the 21st Century: Parents’ Perspectives, Parents’ Priorities” [24]

2009 Speak Up Survey [25]

1-to-1 computing in the spotlight

Posted By By Laura Devaney, Senior Editor On In District Management,One-to-one computing,Registration Required,Research,Top News | No Comments
Project RED examines the economic impact of successful technology initiatives.

South Dakota, Maine, and Wyoming top the list of states with the highest percentage of schools that have ubiquitous (one-to-one) computing programs for their students–while California (50) ranks last in this category, according to new research compiled from school databases and surveys.

The information is the latest to come out of Project RED: Revolutionizing Education, a yearlong effort from a group of educational technology researchers and market analysts to measure how technology can help schools save money and improve instruction. (See “Project seeks to measure ed tech’s value [26].”)

Project RED researchers began by creating a database of high-tech schools that all have roughly the same number of computing devices as students. The comparison of where states rank according to the percentage of their schools or students with ubiquitous ed-tech access comes from an analysis of this database. (Numbers in parentheses throughout this report indicate a given state’s rank in terms of ubiquitous access.)

The database reveals a national average of about 5.4 percent of schools with ubiquitous technology programs, reaching about 4 percent of students.

Once Project RED forms an advisory board, researchers will choose several states with exemplary ed-tech initiatives to serve as showcase states.

States with smaller populations, such as Missouri (11), Kansas (4), and Nebraska (6), have done a great job in ensuring students’ access to classroom technology, said Jeanne Hayes, a Project RED manager and CEO of the Hayes Connection, an ed-tech consulting firm.

Often, it’s easier for less populous states to implement statewide education technology initiatives, Hayes said, because they have a smaller percentage of the national student population and the costs of such initiatives are less.

For instance, Maine (2) has 800 schools with fewer than 214,000 total students–0.4 percent of the U.S. student population. Because the student population is so small, Hayes said, Maine is financially able to reach about 23.5 percent of its students with ubiquitous technology.

In contrast, many people consider Connecticut (30) to be an affluent state, but only 4.1 percent of the state’s schools have ubiquitous ed-tech programs, according to Project RED’s research.

States such as Texas (17), Florida (20), and New York (29) have invested heavily in education technology, but the actual percentage of their students served by ubiquitous technology programs is small owing to the states’ sizes.

But for a large state, Texas’s rank in the database is quite impressive, Hayes said. Texas has nearly 5 million students and has managed to provide ubiquitous access to technology in nearly 8 percent of its schools.

To advocates of education technology, the top two states in Project RED’s list–South Dakota and Maine–should come as no surprise, because both states have implemented statewide school laptop programs in recent years.

And although budget-troubled California (51) hopes to invest heavily in technology, it occupies the lowest spot in the rankings, reaching only about 1.2 percent of its students with ubiquitous computing. The state’s size–it holds 12.5 percent of U.S. students–works against it, Hayes said.

California’s ranking suggests many of its schools could have trouble capitalizing on Gov. Schwarzenegger’s interest in promoting free, open-access digital textbooks. The trick, Hayes said, will be to figure out a way to boost students’ access to computing devices while taking advantage of its proximity to Silicon Valley in an affordable way.

But Hayes recognizes this is just one way of ranking states’ ed-tech efforts.

“It isn’t the end-all, be-all of how they’re using technology,” but it’s an interesting snapshot of technology access in U.S. schools, she said.

Many larger, rural states, such as Nebraska (6) and Montana (7), have well-established online learning programs that reach students in remote areas or connect students to courses and programs that might not be available where they live, Hayes said.

And though the chart’s outline is relatively firm, the database might change as more successful one-to-one technology programs in different states come to light.

Hayes said Project RED is still searching for feedback and data from public and private schools that have ubiquitous technology programs. Schools that are using laptops, cell phones, iPods, and other devices are encouraged to visit the Project RED web site and submit their information.

Links:

Project RED [27]

Project RED state-by-state chart (Excel) [28]

Lenovo to research tech’s effect on learning

Posted By From staff and wire reports On In District Management,One-to-one computing,Research,Top News | No Comments

A new research initiative called the Global Education Research program will analyze and measure the impact of technology on students’ educational experiences in various areas, ranging from first grade through higher education, both inside and outside the classroom.

The program is an initiative of computer maker Lenovo and was announced during Lenovo’s recent 12th annual Think Tank [29]education conference, hosted this year at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Although educational institutions have embraced using technology such as laptops, multimedia materials, and interactive whiteboards over the past decade to help students develop 21st-century skills, streamline operations, and connect administrators, a more complete view of the role and impact of technology in all aspects of the learning environment is needed, the company says.

“We saw that there really have been no truly K-20 studies done on the efficacy of technology in all aspects of global education,” said Michael Schmedlen, director of worldwide education at Lenovo.

The research also will benefit Lenovo’s education customers and programs by helping to outline clear action and best practices for national, provincial, and local governments to improve their use of technology in education, the company said.

So far, there are three main participants in Lenovo’s program. One is UNC-Chapel Hill’s Center for Faculty Excellence [30].

The university’s faculty center immediately will begin developing and evaluating new faculty development strategies necessary to support instructional innovation. Beginning in September, Lenovo will award grants to UNC faculty members to research the efficacy of technology in teaching, learning, and assessment.

“This collaboration with Lenovo allows us to advance the university’s commitment to instructional quality. Improving student learning outcomes in higher education goes hand in hand with supporting instructors by providing them with the technologies and the tools they need,” said Todd Zakrajsek, executive director of the Center for Faculty Excellence. “By mobilizing our talented faculty, we hope to contribute to an improved understanding about the efficacy of technology in teaching, learning, and faculty development.”

Another participant is the Student Global Leadership Institute at Punahou School in Honolulu, Hawaii. This project will go live in July 2010 and will bring together eight top schools in the U.S. and China to foster a multinational online learning framework driven by technology. The institute will promote leadership development in academics and in public service for secondary school students and teachers and encourage international collaboration.

“This center will really focus on eLearning, or interactive online learning and collaboration,” Schmedlen said. “Even though these schools are multilingual and [separated] across oceans, every student in these schools will convene once a year to produce one project on a topic they think is relevant. They will work together.”

Said Wendi Kamiya, CIO of Punahou School: “In our rapidly shrinking world, international collaboration is no longer a luxury but a necessity that needs to be cultivated from an early age. The Student Global Leadership Institute will provide an opportunity for high school students from different countries to become informed, compassionate global citizens, prepared to engage with real-world issues. Technology is the perfect catalyst for this collaboration. Our contribution to Lenovo’s Global Education Research Program will be to advance global education and international partnerships through testing innovative technology applications.”

The Tiger Woods Learning Center (http://www.twlc.org [31]) in Anaheim, Calif., is the third research participant. Launched in 2006, the center serves underserved youth and is technology-rich to help motivate students who are imaginative, engaged, and are planning their paths to college and a career, the center says.

This after-school campus is designed to inspire career exploration and serves students in grades five through 12. Classes include forensic science, robotics, engineering, aerospace, video production, and marine biology.

“What this center will research is the efficacy of after-school [learning] in terms of how it affects students’ performance while they attend their more traditional schools, how it will affect their career choices, [and] how it will affect their financial decision making and planning,” said Schmedlen.

“We are extremely pleased to be working with Lenovo on their Global Education Research Program,” said Kathy Bihr, executive director of the Tiger Woods Learning Center. “Our partnership with Lenovo will help us continue to offer innovative technology to our students, examining the role this technology plays in their entire learning process.”

Although each research project focuses on a different area of education, Schmedlen said, each will share the same key metrics of study, which will be developed by the program’s advisory council.

This advisory council, according to Schmedlen, will consist of Lenovo experts, as well as third-party researchers–many of whom will be post-doctoral students from top universities interested in the efficacy of technology in education.

“Above all, we want to use these third-party assessments to ensure all the research is valid and accurate,” said Schmedlen.

Lenovo says its program will conduct both quantitative and qualitative studies using a set of criteria that are relevant to the skills students must possess to be successful in today’s society. Each project will use Lenovo’s technology, but the company also is partnering with Microsoft and Intel to make sure the technology is managed effectively.

Schmedlen said the projects will operate on a three-year schedule, producing annual research reports on what works and what doesn’t. If all goes well, “there could be the opportunity to expand beyond the three years,” he said.

He added: “The takeaway we see for this is creating a roadmap–a list of recommendations–for many public and private institutions throughout K-20 [education]. We believe that technology, when implemented correctly and with clear goals defined, can be positive and meaningful for education.”

Link:

Lenovo [32]