New paper proposes ed-tech evaluation system

A proposed nonprofit would evaluate educational technologies.

In a new paper, two researchers have proposed to create a new third-party ratings system for educational technology products, which would help link ed-tech buyers and sellers and offer reports on software’s effectiveness.

The proposed EDU STAR system, dubbed a “Consumer Reports” for educational technology, also could promote transparency in the ed-tech product market and encourage innovation.

In “Harnessing Technology to Improve K-12 Education,” published by The Hamilton Project, co-authors Aaron Chatterji and Benjamin Jones maintain that K-12 education has seen much less technological change when compared to other U.S. markets. Chatterji is an associate professor in the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, and Jones is an associate professor of management and strategy in the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.…Read More

SETDA urges shift to digital instruction

The report acknowledges that policy changes regarding instructional materials are not enough to ensure that digital content is used in classrooms effectively.

Everyone remembers lugging a 20-pound textbook. But should today’s students still have to consult hefty—and often outdated—printed texts? And should states and districts still pay for resources that few students now find relevant?

A new report says “no”—and it urges states and districts to stop delaying the inevitable shift from print to digital instruction. It also provides examples of how some states are making this shift and overcoming the hurdles this involves.

The report, “Out of Print: Reimagining the K-12 Textbook in a Digital Age,” is produced by the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) with support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.…Read More

Lenovo acquires Stoneware, boosts cloud offerings

Cloud computing can help tie together different devices for the ed-tech market.

In a move to expand its cloud computing solutions and extend learning opportunities to students, Lenovo on Sept. 18 announced that it is acquiring educational technology provider Stoneware Inc.

Stoneware sells a number of cloud-oriented products to schools. Its webNetwork service, which uses a browser-based interface to give users access to all their applications and files in the cloud with a single sign-on, has been rebranded as Secure Cloud Access. LanSchool, which Stoneware itself acquired last year, is the company’s classroom management solution.

Those products reportedly serve a combined 5 million users, mostly in education.…Read More

CoSN examines BYOD safety and security

BYOD initiatives are popular, but they present unique security challenges.

A new report from the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), titled “Safe & Secure? Managing the Risks of Personal Devices,” examines today’s advancing Bring Your Own (BYO) initiatives and related safety and security risks facing school districts nationwide.

“Apps and mobile devices are being utilized more and more in education, forcing schools to reexamine their mobile device policies,” said CoSN CEO Keith Krueger. “These continuous advancements are creating an unprecedented set of safety and security challenges for school leaders, so it’s imperative that leaders are prepared and have at their fingertips a set of technical solutions to prevent data breaches and protect personal devices.”

The report outlines leading BYO initiatives—namely, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), Bring Your Own Network (BYON), and Bring Your Own Cloud (BYOC) / Bring Your Own Applications (BYOA)—and explains the factors driving these initiatives, including ensuring that students receive a 21st-century education and lowering district costs.…Read More

Top ed-tech news: September 2012

Here are some of the top educational technology stories from the September 2012 edition of eSchool News.

A new project aims to transform the first five days of school; federal officials urge teachers to connect through online communities of practice; Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. launches a new tablet-based pilot for education: These are among the top educational technology stories in the September 2012 edition of eSchool News.

Our September edition is now available in digital format on our website. You can browse the full publication here, or click on any of the headlines below to read these highlights:

Starting school off with a bang…Read More

New graphing calculator lets students plot on top of real-world images

Plotting over actual images links math lessons with real-world relevance.

A new graphing calculator from Casio lets students plot mathematical equations on top of real-life images and user-uploaded photos—adding relevance to math concepts that many students find abstract and not applicable in the real world.

With conventional graphing calculators, students learn by inputting equations to create graphs. Casio’s PRIZM includes its proprietary Picture Plot technology, which lets users perform meaningful mathematical equations on top of real-life images such as Ferris wheels, jets from a water fountain, or building shapes. Students and teachers can upload images or photos to the calculator for further use, and photos are automatically formatted.

Colors can be added to a multitude of graphing objects, including dotted lines, circles, and bars, as well as grid lines on graphs, labels of coordinate axes, and coordinate values displayed during tracing. The Color Link function links the colors used in graphs to the designated values in the spreadsheet screen, to help students visually comprehend trends and changes in values. PRIZM also automatically color-codes brackets when entering equations with multiple brackets, as a visual aid to facilitate the entry of complex equations.…Read More

Survey: Ed-tech use falls short of desired goals

Despite the tough economy, schools still have been able to maintain ed-tech integration plans—though they’d like to do more.

Despite budget constraints brought on by a lagging economy, K-12 schools and colleges are holding steady when it comes to ed-tech use. But they’d like to be doing even better.

That’s the key takeaway, anyway, from a self-assessment of educational technology use conducted by the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA).

The organization’s “2012 SIIA Vision K-20 Survey,” the fourth in an annual series of benchmarking studies, surveyed nearly 1,700 officials representing all levels of K-20 education. The self-assessment asks school and campus leaders to rate their progress toward SIIA’s vision for ed-tech use, represented in two ways:…Read More

Students publish ed-tech textbook on iBookstore

More than 600 school districts have iPad programs.

At Georgia College, educational technology could spawn more educational technology.

A group of graduate students at the Milledgeville, Ga.-based campus have used Apple’s iBookstore to publish a video- and image-laden eTextbook filled with information and advice for educators hoping to better incorporate technology in their classroom lessons.

The eBook, “Using Technology in Education,” is a student-created textbook available for the iPad and available for free in the iBookstore, which was introduced in January.…Read More

Top ed-tech news: August 2012

Here are some of the top educational technology stories in the July/August edition of eSchool News.

The FTC appears ill-equipped to guard students’ electronic privacy; schools need more broadband capacity to realize the benefits of technology, a recent report argues; and a new tablet from Microsoft aims to compete with the iPad where it’s most vulnerable, which is content creation: These are among the top educational technology stories in the July/August edition of eSchool News.

Our July/August edition is now available in digital format on our website. You can browse the full publication here, or click on any of the headlines below to read these highlights:

FTC ill-equipped to guard ePrivacy…Read More

Fifty of the best ed-tech products for schools

Here are our readers’ top picks for educational technology products and services in 2012-13.

Here are the results of our 2012-13 Readers’ Choice Awards, which recognize the educational technology products and services that have had the greatest impact in our readers’ schools.

This past spring, we asked readers to give us their top picks for school hardware, software, websites, and services. Nearly 1,300 readers responded via one of our three websites: eSchoolNews.com, eCampusNews.com, and eClassroomNews.com.

In nominating their favorite ed-tech products, we asked readers to tell us how they’re using these products to improve teaching, learning, or school administration—and to what effect. We then chose the 50 best responses, which appear alphabetically by product name and grouped into two categories: K-12 and higher education.…Read More

To support ed tech, schools need to rethink budgets, infrastructure

Faculty and IT staff ranked limited budget as the top barrier to more tech-based learning.

As schools seek to provide more interactive, engaging, and personalized learning, newly released survey results reveal they need to radically rethink their budgets and infrastructure to support this new learning model.

Two-thirds of students want to use technology more often in their classrooms, and 76 percent of IT staff said faculty members show increasing interest in implementing educational technology.

But 87 percent of IT professionals said they would need to upgrade their infrastructure before they can incorporate much more technology in their classrooms, and almost nine in 10 faculty members anticipate problems moving away from the traditional lecture model.…Read More

New program prepares educators for blended learning

Upon completing the course, educators should be well versed in designing, presenting, and assessing lessons in both an online and a blended learning environment.

Many brick-and-mortar schools want to incorporate more online instruction—but how should teachers prepare for the newly popular blended classroom? An update to a national certification program for educators promises to help them teach in a blended learning environment.

Leading Edge Certification (LEC)—an alliance of education agencies, nonprofit organizations, and universities—has updated its educational technology course, now renamed the Online and Blended Teacher Certification program.

In a shift from its previous focus solely on online learning, the eight- to 10-week course—which debuted last year—now includes both online and blended learning topics in each of its eight modules. Upon completion of the course, which follows iNACOL’s national standards for high-quality online teaching, educators should be well versed in designing, presenting, and assessing lessons in both an online and a blended learning environment.…Read More