Explore the full series of eSchool News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.
Every Friday, I’ll be bringing you a recap of some of the most interesting and thought-provoking news developments that occurred over the week.
I can’t fit all of our news stories here, though, so feel free to visit eSchoolNews.com and read up on other news you may have missed.
In this week’s news:…Read More
Outstanding 7th grade students from families with financial need can earn special consideration for a Jack Kent Cooke Foundation scholarship if they complete a free college class offered by online course provider edX, the two nonprofit organizations announced.
The Cooke Young Scholars Program provides high-achieving students entering 8th grade with many benefits, including: individualized counseling to set academic goals; guidance on applying to colleges; and funding for summer educational programs, study abroad, internships and some school expenses.
Up to 70 students will be selected to begin the Young Scholars Program when they start 8th grade in September. Young Scholars must have earned grades of mostly As in school since 6th grade, with no grades of C in English, math, science or social studies. They must live and attend high school in the United States or a U.S. territory.…Read More
While a “new and improved” version of the hotly-debated No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) would still require reading and math testing in grades 3-8 and once in high school, states would have much more leeway when it comes to defining teaching and learning objectives and outlining accountability measures.
The Every Student Succeeds Act gives states the power to determine their own academic goals and measure progress toward those goals–a departure from NCLB, which aimed for 100 percent math and reading proficiency by 2014.
States or districts will be in charge of determining how to improve persistently underperforming schools. Previously, NCLB gave the federal government a strong voice in what happened to those schools. Now, under Every Student Succeeds, schools requiring much intervention would be among the lowest-performing 5 percent in the state.…Read More
As the familiar refrain goes, “It’s not about the device,” but even so schools need to choose one to advance their digital instruction goals. And by all accounts, Chromebooks are the device of the moment, with 2.5 million shipped to schools in the first half of this year alone. There’s no doubt they’re trendy, but is there any deeper reasons for the sales surge beyond appearance and affordability? Recently, I joined host Larry Jacobs and Google Certified Innovator and trainer Chris Scott for an episode of Education Talk Radio in which we talked through these issues at length and came up with a handful of reasons for the Chromebook’s trendsetting status. Here’s the CliffsNotes of that discussion, but be sure to check out the full conversation available online.
Google’s name has staying power. We’ve been Googling for more than a decade by this point, and with the near ubiquity of Google Apps for Education in the nation’s classrooms, educators and students feel comfortable with the Google ecosystem. Branding helps, but at the end of the day, educators do realize that Google is just the conduit for students to advance their learning, not the first and last steps.
Chromebooks have some surface-level advantages. First, they’re cheap, with models often starting around $200. And while the cheaper cost can mean lower quality, it also means cheap replacement parts, too. IT management is simple — and there are few horror stories equaling what schools went through with iPads. They’re easy to share among students, and at a time when online high-stakes testing is still very much a part of the conversation, Chromebooks have the all-important built-in keyboard. None of these things necessarily makes the Chromebook the ideal or superior device for education, but they certainly don’t hurt.…Read More
Expanding your school’s technological capabilities can be both complex and costly. You need a partner who takes the time to understand your goals and builds customized solutions that meet your needs and stay in your budget. You need PCMG.
Founded in 1987, PCMG has been on the front line of the technological revolution before smartphones, local area networks, or even the Internet. Over the decades, we’ve developed a robust portfolio of technology products and services for agencies, enterprises, governmental entities, educational institutions, and healthcare facilities. We are more than just a technology provider. We strive to be your organization partner and we succeed only when you achieve your IT goals
The other day I was working with a group of elementary school teachers on lesson planning with technology. They were introducing some new vocabulary words to their fourth grade students and were looking for some ideas. As we began, they said very little and it was clear were expecting me to introduce some new tools and apps that they might adopt in their classrooms.
Instead, I asked them a question: How can you be sure that students understand the vocabulary? Over the next several minutes we discussed ways in which the teachers would be certain that students knew and understood the new vocabulary words. One of the teachers offered that if the students really understood a vocabulary word they would be able to find and identify a relevant and appropriate picture depicting the word.
Another mentioned that if the students understood the vocabulary word they would be able to identify a recorded description of the word amongst recordings of other words. So, we began our technology integration process by envisioning learning activities that would demonstrate student mastery of curriculum content.…Read More