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February 15, 2005 - Vol. 6, No. 7
TechLearning News
- The Bush administration zeroed out funding for the Enhancing Education Through Technology program in its 2006 budget.
- If Governor Rell has her way, every public school 9th and 10th-grade English teacher in Connecticut will receive a classroom full of laptop computers.
- Visitors to the Hans Christian Andersen museum can visit with a virtual Anderson, who chats with them about himself and tells his fairy-tales.
- Oregon is about to launch its first online charter school, designed to serve kindergarten through ninth grade students from across the state.
Bush Budget Zeros Out Technology Funding
Less than a month after the National Educational Technology Plan noted that "Technology ignites opportunities for learning, engages today's students as active learners and participants in decision-making on their own educational futures, and prepares our nation for the demands of a global society in the 21st Century," the Bush administration zeroed out funding for the Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) program in its 2006 budget. The administration argues that schools are far enough along on the technology curve to negate the need for a program targeted specifically on technology. Further, NCLB is structured to allow schools to purchase technology using other federal funding sources, such as Title I, Reading First or the Improving Teacher Quality program. Technology leaders contend that the elimination of targeted funding will negatively affect the development of the infrastructure and data systems needed to implement NCLB accountability goals and report on AYP requirements. In many states, the elimination of EETT funding will also spell the end of meaningful technology training for teachers. States distribute EETT funds to districts with 50% allocated by poverty-weighted formula and 50% by competition. EETT gives schools broad discretion to spend their money on a wide range of technology acquisition, enrichment, and integration purposes with at least 25% required for professional development.
Source: ISTE
Connecticut Governor Proposes Laptop Plan
If Governor Rell has her way, every public school 9th- and 10th-grade English teacher in Connecticut will receive a classroom full of laptop computers. The $15.5 million proposal calls for putting more than 19,000 computers into more than 600 Connecticut classrooms. The initiative will be paid for out of operating funds and will be part of the education department budget. If approved by the General Assembly, 300 classrooms would be equipped by fall 2005 and the remaining classrooms would receive their laptops by the fall of 2006. It's likely that teachers will receive a cart of laptop computers that they can pass out as needed. The computers will remain in the classrooms. Teachers will use the laptops to improve the learning skills of students and prepare them for the Connecticut Academic Performance Test writing test. The computer equipment will also allow the high schools to implement a state Department of Education plan that calls for administering part of the Connecticut Academic Performance Test online, starting in the 2008-09 school year.
Source: The Connecticut Post
Chatting with Hans Christian Andersen
Children in Odense. Denmark, the hometown of Hans Christian Andersen, can visit with the great storyteller. The virtual Andersen interacts with visitors to the Hans Christian Andersen museum, chatting with them about himself and telling his fairy-tales. The virtual storyteller is the creation of NICE (Natural Interactive Communication for Edutainment), 3-year European Human Language Technologies (HLT) project. NICE aims to demonstrate universal natural interactive access, in particular for children and adolescents, by developing natural, fun and experientially rich communication between humans and embodied historical and literary characters. The communication consists of domain-oriented spoken conversation combined with 2D input gesture into a 3D dynamic graphics virtual world inhabited by the fairy-tale author Hans Christian Andersen and animated characters from his fairy-tale universe. Using some 600 output templates and primitives, the NICE system recreates the original author's personality. It also enables Andersen to chat with others about his life and stories, or to respond correctly to both verbal and non-verbal input. For example, he can make gestures or facial expressions in line with visitors' remarks or questions, whether in Swedish and English. The education and gaming industry are interested in the system's abilities to recognize natural language and to manage an entire conversation through words or gestures. The system's ability to answer questions outside of its knowledge domain holds great promise for educational simulations.
Source: Information Science Technologies
Oregon Opens First Online Charter
Oregon is about to launch its first online charter school, designed to serve kindergarten through ninth grade students from across the state. The school will operate under the auspices of the Scio School Board, The Board contract with a private for-profit organization to operate the school and provide curriculum. The school will use certified Oregon classroom teachers to deliver the curriculum, monitor student progress and communicate with parents and students. While teachers communicate by e-mail and assignments are submitted online, much of the learning takers place away form the computer, using textbooks, manipulatives and other print material. Parents assume the role of learning coach, guiding students through the prepared lessons. The curriculum also includes field trips with students in the same area and small study groups made up of students who might be scattered across the state. Charter schools are independent public schools operating with a contract, or charter, from a school district. Like other public schools, charter schools are free to the students, receiving money from the state based on enrollment. The contractor will receive 90% of the money to operate the program. The other 10% will be split between the Scio district and the home district of the student taking the online program. The school hopes to reach an enrollment of 500 students in the first year.
Source: The Oregonian
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