Inspiring New Futures

Texas School District Embarks On Widespread iPad Program To Close Digital Divide : A Texas school district is trying to close its digital divide by distributing thousands of Apple tablet computers in a move that could make it the largest iPads program for students in the nation. McAllen Independent School District in the southern part of the state began distributing 6,800 devices this week – mostly the iPad tablet computers, but also hundreds of iPod Touch devices for its youngest students.

BBC News - Eye-controlled computer games for disabled children : Children who cannot use a mouse or keyboard can play computer games using their eyes Computer games which can be controlled by eye movements are being developed by researchers at a UK university. The project at De Montfort University aims to allow severely-disabled youngsters to play computer games. Learning to control games by eye tracking is also intended to help disabled children navigate real-world environments

Educators sound off on 3D in the classroom | eSchool News Some readers say 3D technology engages students, but they're not ready to spend money on it yet As educators grapple with school reform, many agree that schools must update their practices and technology to better engage students and prepare them for 21st-century careers. Some educators believe 3D technology could hold a key: After all, if it works for the movies, it can work for schools, too. But others aren’t so sure.

Schoolchildren should study the arts until age 16, says report | Education | The Guardian : The report suggested the English Baccalaureate should include one subject such as dance, drama, design or music. Photograph: Martin Argles for the Guardian Ministers should consider making pupils study the arts up to the age of 16 amid concerns that cultural education in England is still "patchy", a government-commissioned report has said. It warns that there is concern about how much the coalition government values cultural education in schools , adding that this has been partly caused by the introduction of the English Baccalaureate (EBacc).

Students should do 10-week summer internship, report recommends | Education | The Guardian : Under-graduates should do at least a 10-week summer placement internship with companies, a new government-commissioned report advises. Photograph: Alamy Every student should have the opportunity to do an internship as part of their degree, a government-commissioned report suggests. Sir Tim Wilson, the author of the review of university-business collaboration, said every undergraduate should do a 10-12 week internship in a summer vacation.

Study: Social Media Helps With Teenage Empathy, Awareness | Education News World Vision’s 30 Hour Famine study has found that many teens say that social media has made them more aware of the needs of others, both at home and abroad. Despite a recent study by Stanford University, which suggests that social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace are no replacement for real human interaction , a new World Vision 30 Hour Famine study has found that these sites aid teens with developing empathetic skills .

CT Elementary School Invests in Technology to Boost Reading | Education News Blending technology with reading specialist interaction, an elementary school in East Haven, CT is trying to boost literacy using 21st century tools. The D.C. Moore Elementary School in East Haven has invested in technology as a way to answer to the district’s achievement gap by spending more than $120,000 on 220 iPads and software.

Seattle Kids Encouraged Into Computer Programming Courses | Education News Seattle teachers expound the 21st century applications and critical thinking skills developed by computer programming courses. With an array of introductions into computer programming, computer science teachers at Seattle’s Lakeside School have been encouraging courses as a way for students to develop critical thinking skills that are “completely transferable” to other areas of learning.

The Global Search for Education: A Life of Learning | Education News Sir David Watson, Professor and Principal at Oxford University, England, shares his views with C. M. Rubin about higher education and a life of learning. "THE EVIDENCE IS STRONG FROM THE UK THAT THOSE MEMBERS OF SOCIETY WHO HAVE HAD A POSITIVE EXPERIENCE OF POST-COMPULSORY EDUCATION LIVE HEALTHIER, HAPPIER AND MORE DEMOCRATICALLY TOLERANT LIVES." -- SIR DAVID WATSON

Giving children the perfect start (From Your Local Guardian) : Downsend School in Leatherhead introduces little ones from age two to the important world of learning in a caring and supportive environment at its three nursery/pre-preparatory schools called Lodges. Each has its own headteacher and dedicated team of staff.

Boys 'close reading gap with girls' - Education News - Education - The Independent : Boys have caught up with girls on reading ability, according to a study into the book-reading habits of school children. What Kids are Reading 2012 found that the difficulty level of books read by boys is no longer generally lower than girls. The report, written by Professor Keith Topping of Dundee University, analysed what more than 210,000 British primary and secondary school children are reading for pleasure.

Technology Added to the Preschool Curriculum in Boston | Education News : Educators across Boston are noting a shift in the emphasis of the curriculum they’re expected to teach as more schools introduce science, technology, engineering, and math – the so-called STEM subjects – to newly reading preschool students. Preschools have long followed the practice of elementary education and dabbled with bits and pieces of science-based teaching in their everyday learning: Playing with blocks, for example, learning numbers, and coloring are all aspects of engineering, math, and science, writes Michael B. Farrell at the Boston Globe.

Rise and rise of student entrepreneurs | Money | The Guardian : Lauren Moulsley, 19, bought an Avon franchise on her 18th birthday James Moseley was in his second year studying maths and computer science at Oxford University when he decided to put his academic knowledge to practical use and set up his own business. In two years his one-man consultancy, which enabled companies to measure the performance of their brand, made a net profit of £30,000. Moseley, 23, is one of a growing number of students to experiment with entrepreneurship, partly to protect themselves against a shrinking jobs market and partly to help meet the soaring expense of university.

College Readiness: Reading Critically | Edutopia : Ben Johnson served as an administrator in large and small schools, and at a charter school. He was the assistant superintendent of the Natalia Independent School District where he helped bring about major improvements in student learning. We have a generation of students that are trained to automatically trust the textbook, or for that matter, trust anything that is written. Today, many students don't know how to read things with a grain of salt. So how do we go about fixing this? Well, first we have to get them to read, then get them to read critically. Mem Fox's book, Reading Magic , states that the love of reading has to start young. Parents and teachers have to read at least 1000 books to children to prepare them to read on their own. She also states that if you want your child to stay at home and be close to family, "do not read them stories about the Amazon rain forests." As it turned out, she made the mistake o...

Jeb Bush Announces 12th Annual Celebration of Reading | Education News : As former Governor Jeb Bush and his sister, Doro Bush Koch, take to their new roles as the co-chairs of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy , Jeb and his wife Columba Bush have launched the 12th Annual Celebration of Reading to help fight illiteracy among U.S. students.

Anthony Salcito - The New Classroom Experience - YouTube

The 21st Century Version of Digitised Alphabets : This is just a short post in which I want to share with you a funny but informative picture about the alphabets and how they can are taught in our digital era. Technology and especially mobile tech is crawling into every facet of our life. Our students and learners are extensively using and depending on it to do their everyday chores.

40 Movies Your Students Probably Don't Know - Brainstorm - The Chronicle of Higher Education : By Gina Barreca Fully two-thirds of my students are writing screenplays. I bet yours are, too. (Really, just ask for a show of hands. If two-thirds of them don’t have their hands up, it’s because those who are writing screenplays at that moment haven’t yet heard your question.) Yet the only thing they know about movie history is that The Lion King is really cool and that Pacino’s Scarface contains the line, “Say ‘hello’ to my little friend.” And even the ones who are not currently writing screenplays consider themselves film buffs although–since “buff” is not a word a lot of them use except when discussing the male physique–they often just say, “I really, really like films. I know quite a bit about them, actually.”

Why Most People Say They're Addicted to the Internet [INFOGRAPHIC] Are you addicted to the Internet? If so, you’re not alone. Some 61% of people feel addicted to the Internet and are unable to quit browsing, according to an informal survey.

For Texting Without Looking, Researchers Adapt Braille Touchscreens on everything from coffee makers to treadmills are intended to provide better user experiences, but they can create a navigational nightmare for the visually impaired. A new technology developed at Georgia Tech, however, makes touchscreens more accessible to the estimated 22 million American adults with vision loss by adapting the same system used to type Braille.

'Babies With iPads' Blog Implodes From Cuteness [PICS] Two 22-year-old digital media dudes — who don’t own iPads or have babies — are the masterminds behind the adorable Babies With iPads Tumblr blog. “Whenever we see babies with iPads, we view them as social media rockstars in the making,” Stelios Phili, a GQ magazine web producer co-creator of the blog , told Mashable . Right now, they look real innocent … but really, they’re just preparing to take over the world. We think that’s cute.”

5 Ground-Breaking Competitions for Innovative Youth “To win the future, we have to out-innovate, out-educate and out-build the rest of the world, tapping the creativity and imagination of our people,” says the White House’s Winning the Future website.

5 Places to Get Digital Textbooks The days of shuffling that 10-pound textbook to class or those countless fiction novels in your backpack are slowly but steadily coming to a close. With ebooks , your wallet may gain a few pounds as well, as you will be spending a lot less money on books.

How Setting the Cloud Free Could Change the Internet Forever When I imagine “the cloud” where most of my daily interactions with web services such as Facebook and Google compute, I think of a free-floating space — complete with scalloped edges — that isn’t tied to a physical location.

60% of UK Employees Working Remotely Within a Decade : A new study suggests that more than half (60%) of office-based employees will be ‘regularly’ working from home within the next decade, thanks to technological advances in the workplace.

Online Education is the “Real” Thing! | Online Universities Yesterday’s post was a rebuttal of Eckerd College president Donald Eastman’s post in the Tampa Bay Tribune, " Online education no substitute for the real thing ," on the grounds of some fundamental flaws in his argument against online learning.

Utilizing Game Mechanics in Online Learning | Online Universities If the notion of creating a video game is daunting, it probably should be. Making a good game requires not only a great idea, but also a host of planning, graphic design, computer programming, sound engineering, and animation skills, not to mention a fundamental understanding of what makes for good, engaging game play.

Young talent - The Times of India : When children take responsibility to make an impact in their own life and the life of other children, we see a change, more so, when children who have less opportunities take the lead. Meet a group of children who used a creative opportunity to not just empower themselves but to work for other children. Manoj Basu , whose father is a driver and mother, a maid, did not allow his background to affect his willingness to learn about robotics and make a vacuum cleaner for other children. A student of class IX from Lord Mahavira School, Noida, he and his team members showcased the project in I CAN, a one-day festival organised by Dreaming Child Productions and Vidya and Child School in the NCR region recently.

Students Learn Better with Engaged Parents - High School Notes (usnews.com) As kids get older and advance to high school , talking to them about their school life can become more difficult for parents. With younger children, parents may have been required to sign off on report cards and progress reports, attend more parent-teacher conferences, or simply drive their kids to school.

Education Department Wants Tweets from Teachers and Students - High School Notes (usnews.com) February has been a busy month for K-12 education. On February 1, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan kicked it off by announcing that all U.S. schools should transition to digital textbooks within the next five years.

Main - Technology - Tablets replacing TV, teachers and babysitters, says Nielsen @ Fri Feb 17 2012 Need a way to keep your kids quiet while traveling, entertained at a restaurant or just want to teach them some facts? More and more parents are letting their kids aged 11 and under loose on a tablet device.

A Hero’s Journey for the 21st Century | Edutopia Once upon a time . . . There were very special people. These were the bards, sorcerers, and magicians who conjured webs of intrigue and excitement; treachery and death; rebirth and forgiveness. These people were our writers, filmmakers, musicians and folklorists, and they were the keepers of our social and psychological well-being.

Changing Hearts and Minds of Teachers – Ireland | daily edventures Deirdre Butler’s passion in life is exploring what being digital in learning can mean. This means finding new ways for digital technology to revolutionize learning — by challenging us to examine how we learn and to question our assumptions about “traditional” models of schooling.

The Challenges of Being a Teacher-Writer - Teaching Now - Education Week Teacher Ariel Sacks, who is working on a book, reflects on the difficulties of being a teacher and writing about it at the same time : Like Virginia Woolf argued in A Room of One's Own —a woman cannot be expected to write while she's cooking and taking care of children in a confined space. Her writing will suffer.

Education Week: Kindergartners Blend E-Learning, Face-to-Face Instruction Los Angeles 1st grader Lena Barrett clicks through a series of icons and logs on to a laptop under the fluorescent lights of her classroom. Before long, a cartoon version of a game-show announcer appears.

Elementary School Students Go 'Global' With Technology | Education News : Elementary students in Charlotte are going “global” with a technology initiative that links them to students from around the world. Once a week, students at the Charlotte Jewish Day School meet with teacher Rachel Moore and connect with students in classrooms worldwide in a program from kindergarten to fifth grade aimed to connect with the wider world.

Designing the School Around the Student -- THE Journal This Minnesota high school's planning team started from scratch and created a 21st century facility that turns the traditional classroom model inside out. Instead of waiting for students to come to class, teachers move about the school equipped with their laptops and other teaching tools.

Sarah Butrymowicz: What Do the Greek Austerity Measures Mean for Education? : Greece will receive a second bailout from the European Union -- to the tune of €130 billion ($173 billion )-- as part of a deal reached by Eurozone finance ministers on February 21st. Last week, the Greek government passed new austerity measures, making even deeper cuts to the country's public sector. Thousands of Greek citizens have taken to the streets to protest the plans, which will include more cuts to the education budget. "The country is in a very deep crisis and, naturally, education is affected," Panos Tsakloglou, a professor in the department of International and European Economic Studies at Athens University of Economics and Business, said in an email. "If we really believe that human capital is the most important factor associated with economic growth, these cuts are likely to have a lasting impact."

Online Safety Portal Helps Districts Educate Parents -- THE Journal As part of its Student Bullying and Violence Prevention program, PublicSchoolWORKS has developed the Parent InfoCenter, an online district-hosted information portal featuring training, awareness information, and reporting tools for students and parents.

At Las Vegas charter school, iPads power project-based learning | eSchool News A dozen Las Vegas second-graders were given a common English assignment one recent morning: Write a story using new vocabulary words. But instead of picking up a pencil and paper, these students launched the Pages word processing application on their iPads and started tapping.

Time to embrace learning languages | Teacher Network Blog | Guardian Professional : According to recent research two thirds of the world's children grow up in a bilingual environment. More precisely, of the approximately 570 million people worldwide who speak English, over 41 percent or 235 million are bilingual in English and in one if not several other languages. So, if bilingualism and multilingualism are currently the norm throughout the world, why is it so difficult in England to encourage students to learn another language?

10 educational iPad apps recommended by Explore Knowledge Academy | eSchool News When Explore Knowledge Academy has its grand opening celebration in March 2012, it will become the first “iSchool” in Nevada, with a 1-to-1 ratio of iPad tablets to students. EKA students as young as kindergartners use the iPad to learn traditional subjects in math, English, social studies, and science.

Michelle Obama and the Blues - ABC News First lady Michelle Obama today hailed blues music as “deeply American” and “deeply human” at a workshop for several dozen middle and high school students in the State Dining Room – an event held as part of the ongoing White House music series and in recognition of African-American history month. video platform video management video solutions video player

Has the battery run out on India's $35 tablet computer? | Reuters (Reuters) - A "$35" computer launched last year in India as the world's cheapest tablet has run into problems and companies will be invited to bid again to make the device after complaints of poor performance and hiccups rolling out a pilot model.

Computers in schools: money well-spent, Concordia University study says active engagement is the key; Concordia study suggests technology helps students, but only moderately MONTREAL - Concordia University researchers set out to answer a "big picture" question: Does computer technology have a positive effect overall on learning in the classroom? "There have been lots of arguments both pro and con regarding this issue, (like) is it worth the investment," said professor Richard Schmid, chairman of Concordia's education department.

HOW TO: Unlock The Power Of Google+ | Edudemic In a new series of screencasts, Edudemic will model the ins and outs of relevant software and publishing platforms, starting with Google’s latest behemoth, Google+.

Lights, Camera . . . Engagement! Three Great Tools for Classroom Video | Edutopia : How many times have you thought to yourself, "In what way can I spice up this unit and make it student-centered?" One great way is to let your students be creative using video. With all the tools and technology available, making videos is easier than ever for you and your students. Recently at the annual National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) conference, Becky Ellis, Greg Kulowiec and I presented three different ways you can use video with your students in the classroom. Below is the slide show we used to introduce these tools: There are plenty of ideas and resources available through the links we shared. In this post, I present an overview of these video styles, each with varying degrees of technology and resources needed.

International Mother Language Day, 21 Februar y International Mother Language Day was proclaimed by the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization ( UNESCO ) in November 1999 ( 30C/62 ).

Dean Baker: What If the Next Steve Jobs Is Chinese? As Apple's stock continues to hit record highs and its sales and profit reports exceed all expectations, Steve Jobs' reputation as an entrepreneurial genius grows ever larger. He succeeded in developing products that people around the world very much want to buy.

Saul Garlick: An Ecosystem for Innovation in Higher Education There is something happening which is long overdue yet incredibly exciting. Academia is tackling reality. Disruption in higher education is getting sexy, and it's going to change the world. Social entrepreneurship, the often practitioner-focused undertaking of merging meaning and money, has caught the eye of countless universities around the world.