Music instruction goes virtual
Trigg County Public Schools Deploys ZeroEyes’ AI Gun Detection and Intelligent Situational Awareness Technology
Kentucky School District Integrates Leading Proactive Solution to Mitigate Gun-Related Violence
U.S. ramps up efforts to improve STEM education
A grant program that challenges students to design their own video games is one of several new initiatives announced by President Obama Sept. 16 as part of a…
Intel awards $1 million to schools
Things are looking up for America’s innovative and dedicated STEM schools, thanks to Intel Education’s over $1 million donation to six math and science schools as part of…
Study: Online learning might be less effective for some
Higher education’s embrace of online courses could hurt the performance of some groups of students, according to a study that contradicts the findings of a 2009 report from…
Spell-check use on writing exam prompts debate
A decision by the Oregon Department of Education to let students use a computer spell-check feature when taking an online version of the state’s writing exam this year…
Year of the smart phone on college campuses?
An international market research firm predicts a 55-percent jump in smart-phone sales this year—a projection that could lead to an unprecedented increase in internet-enabled phone use during colleges’…
Publishing giant makes $400M commitment to ed tech
Educational publishing giant Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) is making a $400 million investment to back up the company's increasing emphasis on putting more technology into classrooms. The reason,…
Coming soon: ‘Super Wi-Fi’ connectivity?
A new flavor of Wi-Fi, with longer range and better wall-piercing power, could show up in wireless gadgets a year from now if the Federal Communications Commission works…
Campus IT staff to supercomputers: Be cool
In Mike Shuey’s line of work, turning off a computer means losing up to 3 million processing hours—a few weeks of work, gone in an instant. But new…
Five lessons from the nation’s best online teacher
Educators who teach in an online setting should foster strong relationships with their students' parents and should offer plenty of positive feedback, says the nation's first-ever K-12 Online…
What schools can learn from charters about teaching English language learners
As charter schools become testing grounds for innovative approaches to education, many of these schools with high English language learner (ELL) and Latino enrollments are identifying best practices…
To skip or not to skip? New web site helps students decide
Jim Filbert considered billing his web site, Skip Class Calculator, as the online tool that enraged every college professor in America. But that wouldn’t be entirely accurate.
Social media site an ‘academic supplement’ to Facebook
Instead of a Facebook news feed cluttered with tidbits about friends’ FarmVille progress, Boris Revsin wants a social media site that alerts college students to the latest in…
Doctors eye health hazard in powerful laser pointers
A 15-year-old boy damaged his eyes while playing with a laser pointer he'd bought over the internet, say doctors who warn that dangerously high-powered versions are easily available…
Gates Foundation to invest in next-generation instructional tools
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation plans to invest up to $250 million over the next eight years to develop ... Read more
New grant program seeks solutions to toughest classroom challenges
The U.S. Department of Education has partnered with the nation’s largest teachers union and its charitable foundation to launch a grant program encouraging public school educators to identify…
Students object to attendance-taking technology
Officials at Northern Arizona University are reminding students that faculty members have the choice to use new electronic scanners that track attendance at the campus’s largest lecture halls,…
Job forecasts point to importance of higher education
Whenever companies start hiring freely again, job seekers with specialized skills and education will have plenty of good opportunities. Others will face a choice: Take a job with…
Teens sue Facebook over ‘like’ button
Two Los Angeles County teenagers are suing Facebook, claiming the social networking giant effectively sold their names and images to advertisers without parental permission.
Are open textbooks gaining momentum in higher ed?
Officials from open-license textbook publisher Flat World Knowledge say more than 1,300 instructors at 800 colleges and universities will use their books this fall semester—doubling the 400 institutions…
States given millions for new assessments
Education Secretary Arne Duncan on Sept. 2 announced the recipients of millions of dollars in federal grants to provide new state assessment systems to test students’ 21st-century skills.…
Early iPad adopter to use art application this fall
Seton Hill University, one of the first campuses to board the Apple iPad bandwagon before the device was released in April, announced Aug. 23 that its art history…
FCC seeks input on rules for online services
In the latest twist in the Federal Communications Commission’s pursuit of “net neutrality” rules to prevent broadband providers from discriminating against certain types of traffic flowing over their…
When defense meets education
Thanks to a new direction at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the phrase “always 10 years behind” no longer might apply to education: The agency that…
Universities use tool to battle student ID theft
College students have to know which data are most vulnerable before they can protect their Social Security numbers, passwords, and online banking personal identification numbers. The creators of…
Newspaper’s teacher ratings stir up controversy
In a move that has many local educators seething, the Los Angeles Times has published an online database comparing more than 6,000 elementary school teachers based on a…
Can online flashcards help students ‘Crush That Test’?
Sundar Nathan was a college student prepping for an exam, cramming hundreds of pieces of information into his overfilled memory bank when he resorted to flashcards—a strategy he’s…
Are qualified teachers always effective teachers?
Amid a growing consensus that “highly qualified” doesn’t necessarily mean “highly effective,” a movement is under way to reshape how the nation views successful teaching.
New software turns paper into an inexpensive digital tablet
New software will enable Livescribe's digital "smart" pens to stream all notes taken live, in real time, to a computer—turning special dotted paper into an inexpensive digital tablet,…
Class of 2014: eMail’s for old people
For students entering college this fall, eMail is too slow, phones have never had cords, and the computers they played with as kids are now in museums.
How to tailor your school site for mobile web users
With smart-phone use exploding in the U.S., it’s only a matter of time before having a mobile web site becomes a necessary component of school communications.
$3.4B for 9 states, D.C. in Race to the Top grants
More than 13 million students and 1 million educators will share $3.4 billion from the second round of the federal "Race to the Top" grant competition, the U.S.…
Columbia grad sues Google to unmask malicious poster
A business consultant wants a court to force YouTube and its owner, Google Inc., to reveal the identity of someone who posted what she says are unauthorized videos…
Opinion: Corporate policy making would result in a net loss
The future of digital-age learning could hinge on the boardroom deals being made by giant corporations as they seek to head off “net neutrality” regulations—and education leaders ought…
What’s more important: School buildings or the teachers who fill them?
A new public school building in Los Angeles that cost more than $500 million to build--at a time when the city has laid off more than 3,000 teachers…
Not getting the (text) message
It is a typical morning on campus, with students heading to class and professors and staff arriving for work, when suddenly there is an emergency. It could be…
Former governors fight for digital learning
To help schools implement digital resources effectively, former Republican Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida and former Democratic Gov. Bob Wise of West Virginia have put their party differences…
Facebook Places could meet skepticism on college campuses
Facebook’s opt-in feature that lets friends check each other’s locations could be useful for colleges and universities tracking the most ... Read more
Mac-based districts could face SIS quandary
Education industry giant Pearson says its PowerSchool student information system will cease to support Macintosh database servers by Dec. 31, forcing Mac-using districts to make some tough decisions.
More college marketing cash going to social media
