Obama calls for more STEM teachers, longer school year
Barely into the new school year, President Barack Obama issued a tough-love message to students and teachers on Sept. 27: Their year in the classroom should be longer,…
Month: September 2010
ASBO conference helps schools save money
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.
Students: Social media blackout eye-opening, ‘annoying’
Students at Harrisburg University, where technology officials recently deprived students of social media access for one week, said the restriction was a minor inconvenience for many on campus,…
Anger as a private company takes over libraries
A private company in Maryland has taken over public libraries in ailing cities in California, Oregon, Tennessee, and Texas, growing into the country’s fifth-largest library system. Now the…
Gates Foundation focuses on college graduation
For many years, diversity in higher education has been measured by how many low-income students and students of color enroll in college. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation…
‘Waiting for Superman’: A simplistic view of education reform?
“Waiting for ‘Superman,’” which opened Sept. 24 in New York and Los Angeles, has generated buzz for months in education circles. The film also offers a broad-brush indictment…
Texas sues feds over $830M in education aid
Texas officials filed a lawsuit Sept. 23 against the U.S. Department of Education, seeking to overturn the federal agency's rejection of the state's application for more than $830…
Obama: Money alone can’t solve school predicament
President Barack Obama started the school week Sept. 27 with a call for a longer school year, and he said the worst-performing teachers have "got to go" if…
A comprehensive approach to math reform pays off
Officials in North Carolina’s Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District knew they needed a change when the annual number of students performing at grade level on state mathematics tests grew by…
Evidence suggests that the interactive classroom model works
A four-year, $3 million study funded by the Institute of Education Sciences and the U.S. Department of Education found that Algebra I students whose teachers used TI-Navigator networked…
Teaching the hardest-to-learn math concepts
What are the concepts within core math topics that students struggle to understand in particular? Under the direction of Melendy Lovett, president of education technology for Texas Instruments,…
An essential tool for teaching
The National Council for Teachers of Mathematics holds that technology is “an essential tool for teaching and learning mathematics effectively” and that it extends teaching and learning opportunities.
Putting our ideas of assessment to the test
Here’s a pop quiz: What are the skills that today’s students will need to be successful in tomorrow’s workplace? The answer to this question has enormous implications for…
Taunt them with technology and they will not resist the fever
As unusual as it may sound, I used a new technology to attract teachers’ interest when our district approached implementation, rather than face pushback when we implemented the…
Free online learning coming to some in Haiti
The founder of the tuition-free online University of the People said providing an education for Haitians after a massive earthquake destroyed most of their country’s colleges could demonstrate…
FCC opens up unused TV signals for broadband
In a highly anticipated move that could lead to faster, more robust Wi-Fi networks in schools, the Federal Communications Commission is opening up unused airwaves between television stations…
Education Department grants $442M for teacher merit pay
The federal Education Department is giving school districts and nonprofit organizations from across the country $442 million to create merit pay programs for teachers and principals, reports the…
New software can help ‘proofread’ Wikipedia
A new tool might help fight malicious editing that introduces incorrect or misleading information in online sites such as Wikipedia, UPI reports. University of Iowa researchers are developing…
South African students study math via cell phone
A South African think tank said Sept. 23 that it has lined up volunteers to tutor on a popular mobile phone platform after a nationwide teachers' strike left…
Japan to pilot digital textbooks in classrooms
Japan soon will start piloting electronic textbooks in its primary schools, enhancing the role of IT in the classroom for a generation of "digital natives" born in the…
e-Rate gets facelift with wireless pilot, community access
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Sept. 23 voted to upgrade and modernize the federal $2.25 billion-a-year e-Rate program by allowing schools to make e-Rate funded, internet-enabled computers…
Newark, NJ, schools to get $100M Facebook donation
Mark Zuckerberg, the 26-year-old wunderkind behind Facebook, is making a move to become a player in philanthropy just before the opening of a film that portrays him as…
RIM readies its answer to iPad
The Wall Street Journal reports that BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. could unveil its new tablet computer—as well as the operating system that will power it—as early…
Facebook founder to donate $100 million to remake Newark’s schools
Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive and a founder of Facebook, has agreed to donate $100 million to improve the long-troubled public schools in Newark, and Gov. Chris Christie will…
For-profit higher ed company opens national ad campaign
The national ad campaign by for-profit higher education provider Corinthian Colleges Inc. seeks to draw decision-makers and the broader public into a long-simmering debate over whether the federal…
U. of Florida debates flat-fee tuition
The Miami Herald reports that Florida's state university system is mulling a one-size-fits-all tuition structure for full-time students--an idea that could lead some to graduate sooner, but also…
Campus recovering after massacre
It’s been more than five years now since a 16-year-old student at Red Lake High School in Minnesota shot and killed his grandfather and the grandfather’s girlfriend. He…
Groups urge updates to teacher preparation programs
The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education and the Partnership for 21st Century Skills are calling on teacher education programs to update their curricula to better prepare…
Students: Video lectures allow for more napping
College students gave video lectures high marks in a recent survey, although many students supported the technology because it freed up more time for napping and hanging out…
Federal grants target education ‘from birth through college’
Organizers in distressed communities from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., soon will begin plans to create what the federal Education Department (ED) envisions as “Promise Neighborhoods,” where children…
Indiana students get online tutoring in math
At least 35,000 Indiana middle school and high school students will get online math tutoring as part of a state Department of Education pilot program, according to an…
House OKs more degrees for community colleges
Community colleges could offer four-year degrees in nursing, under legislation passed by the House and now headed to the Senate, where the state's 15 universities hope to block…
Value of college degree is growing, study says
Despite rising tuition and student-loan debt levels, the long-term payoff from earning a college degree is growing, according to a forthcoming study from College Board, reports the New…
Google reports on government requests and censorship
Google has lately found itself on the receiving end of criticism from privacy and transparency advocates. But with two new tools, Google is trying to convince them that…
Study: Teacher bonuses failed to boost test scores
Offering big bonuses to teachers failed to raise students' test scores in a three-year study released Sept. 21 that calls into question the Obama administration's push for merit…
FTC web site helps students become smarter consumers
'You Are Here,' a web site from the Federal Trade Commission, provides lessons on advertising, marketing, recognizing scams, protecting personal information, and other consumer concepts. The site is…
Panelists: Digital tools expand learning opportunities
The nation's ed-tech director called on schools to replace textbooks with mobile learning devices, and the head of the FCC said his agency would be voting this week…
Internet service upgrade coming to poor and rural schools
The Federal Communications Commission is expected on Sept. 23 to approve an overhaul of the $2.25 billion eRate program, which subsidizes internet service for schools and public libraries,…
Victims of online bullying may be more likely to be depressed
A study released on Sept. 21 shows that as bullying has moved beyond the schoolyard and on to Facebook pages, online chat groups and cell phone text messages,…
Google promises Docs editing for iPad
Google said on Sept. 20 that Apple iPad owners would soon be able to edit Google Docs files on their tablets, according to a report in ComputerWorld. The…