•
Season’s Greetings
Nimble Press wishes you peace and joy in the new year
•
Laying the Foundation for Ubiquitous Learning
As a member of the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) Board of Directors, I have the opportunity to meet and learn from educational technology leaders from around the world. At our last board meeting, I volunteered to draft a statement for the group to respond to the development of the National Educational Technology Plan by the U.S. Department of Education.
CoSN members are professionals who have first-hand experience with planning, implementing and maintaining the nation’s educational infrastructures. The plan’s vision for learning, assessment, and teaching with technology assumes seamless, reliable access to networks and computing devices. It assumes applications are intuitive, easy to learn, and responsive to changing needs. It assumes information is secure, integrated, and authentic. To become reality, this vision requires a comprehensive technology infrastructure with massive scalability and micro adaptability. Please view and vote for our statement if you agree: Laying the Foundation for Ubiquitous Technology.
•
Why Aren’t More School Districts Using the Cloud?
School districts come in all sizes and most of them seem to build their own applications and systems. Web 2.0 and the browser as a platform really opens the door to lots of low-cost, specialized, nearly free or subscription-based tools that could really help schools improve their productivity.
•
Project RED: Changing Policy to Support Schools
National School Boards Assocation T+L Conference
Denver, CO
I missed the first 10 minutes of the Project RED presentation, but was immediately engaged by the slide displayed when I walked through the door. More than half of survey respondents (62%) reported that ubiquitous technology in their schools increased high-stakes test scores, and 48% reported a reduction in disciplinary action.
You can participate in the survey at Project RED Deadline: November 16, 2009
Project RED is the research project of Jeanne Hayes, the Hayes Connection; Tom Greaves, the Greaves Group; and Leslie Wilson of the One-to-One Institute. Through surveys and interviews, the group seeks to show the true financial benefits of education technology. They have focused on two key issues: student achievement and the financial impact of technology on state budgets. To my knowledge, no other group is making a research-based financial connection between education technology investment and state economies by analyzing cost savings, cost avoidance and revenue enhancements to state budgets with investment in educational technology.
•
A Virtual High School in San Diego
National School Boards Assocation T+L Conference
Denver, CO
I arrived at the convention center as the sun was coming up for the first session of the day. I shook off the melting snow from hat, scarf, coat and gloves to a warm welcome from Darryl LaGace, Chief Information and Technology Officer at San Diego Unified School District. I’ve been following Darryl’s innovative projects since 2000 when he helped transform Lemon Grove School District. The great thing about Darryl’s projects is that they are not just pilots. He thinks big and he thinks long-term.
At San Diego, the 2nd largest district in California and the 8th largest in the country, the school board committed to developing a comprehensive online high school program over a 3-year period. Drop outs were increasing. According to LaGace: “We wanted to provide an opportunity for kids in our school district rather than refer them to a resource we couldn’t manage (such as an unaffiliated virtual school).” iHigh is a blended approach with facilities on high school campuses as well as satellite locations, offering core courses, AP courses, and extracurricular options. In year 1, 2008-2009, 3933 students completed 5052 courses for credit recovery. iHigh also engaged 20 full-time students and 200 part-time students. LaGace shared lessons learned after the first school year: 2008-2009.