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April 12, 2005 - Vol. 6, No. 15
TechLearning News
- Two South Florida schools are using their share of a $3.3 million grant to infuse technology into their students' daily classroom life.
- Silverton High School's Technology Assistants program gives students hands-on experience in technology related subjects and helps the district take care of its technology support needs at the same time.
- An experimental program will soon equip some school buses in Price George's County (MD) with digital video cameras inside and out.
- Connecticut's Attorney General plans to sue the U.S. Department of Education over its failure to fully fund the mandates of No Child Left Behind.
Whole Class Technology
Two South Florida schools are using their share of a $3.3 million grant to infuse technology into their students' daily classroom life. Franklin Park Elementary and Fort Myers Middle Academy are investing in technologies that they hope will change the way teachers deliver instruction. All classrooms at both schools will be equipped with interactive whiteboards. The devices connect to the Internet or a computer and students can work their way through web sites and software application by just touching the whiteboard screen, which responds as if to a mouse click. Students and teachers can write on the boards and notes can be saved and printed or posted to the web. Students at the elementary school will learn to use Palm Pilots and middle school students will get a new computer lab and an upgraded television production studio. The interactive whiteboards will let all students interact with a computer program or Web site at the same time, making the computer both more central and less isolating. Teachers will be more easily able to use the technology to support lesson plans. To help teachers see the potential of the technology, both schools have included teacher training as part of their grant activity. Middle school teachers will spend 40 hours training during the next school year and 20 hours for the two subsequent years after that. School leaders know that in the end it's not about the technology, but about how the technology is used to support daily classroom activity and student learning.
Source: The News Press
Student Tech Support Keeps District Running
How does a 2½-person Technology Department support 14 schools and the district administration? With the help of some dozen high school students who are being trained in Silverton High School's Technology Assistants program. The program gives these Oregon students hands-on experience in technology related subjects and helps the district take care of its technology support needs at the same time. Currently the class has 16 high school and two Chemeketa Community College students learning and working in areas of computer support, Web page support, video production and E-bay sales for the district. The computer-support curriculum absorbs the majority of students currently enrolled in the Technology Assistant program. Students in this class report to the district's help desk administrator to pick up their work orders before going out to the schools to perform the needed work. Students debug software program, help classroom teachers solve technology problems, develop web site for the district and sell various tech-related items on E-bay that are no longer useable for the district. The program started five years ago with just one student. Today the class, based on independent study and hands-on experience, is in great demand. In addition to being vital to the school district, students know they will leave the program with readily marketable skills.
Source: Appeal Tribune
School Buses To Get Video Cameras
An experimental program will soon equip some school buses in Price George's County (MD) with digital video cameras inside and out. The cameras are meant to enhance student safety. They will be capable of sending the county's centralized transportation center streaming video of activity inside the bus as well as real time views of external activity along the bus route. School officials say the cameras could be used by law enforcement authorities in an emergency. The National School Transportation Association says that external bus cameras have been tested in North Carolina to help catch motorists who violate laws requiring them to stop when school buses pick up or drop off passengers. The new program will roll out in the fall on some 20 buses, a tiny percentage of the schools system's 1,300-bus fleet. The pilot will be funded by a $200,000 from the Maryland State Police and U.S. Justice Department. There is some question about the external cameras invading the privacy of people who might be observed unawares by a passing bus. School officials note that some parents express concern about street and sidewalk safety, especially at bus stops, and are likely to welcome the extra security.
Source: The Washington Post
CT To Sue DOE over NCLB
Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut's Attorney General, confirmed plans to sue the U.S. Department of Education over its failure to fully fund the mandates of No Child Left Behind. Blumenthal expects other states to join the suit, which will challenge the Department to live up to the law's provision that bars the federal government from requiring states to spend funds "not paid for under this Act." Specifically, Connecticut contends that the law's requirement to test all students in grades 3-8 annually is onerous and unnecessary. The state currently administers standardized tests in grades four, six, eight and 10. The state conducted a study that concluded that it would cost more than $112 million to enforce the law's requirements, while the federal government has appropriated only $70 million, leaving the state with a shortfall of $41.6 million. In March, the Department of Education denied Connecticut's request for a waiver of NCLB's testing requirements. Responding to Blumenthal's announcement, the Department said the state's assessment of its education costs was "inflated." The day following Blumenthal's statement, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings announced that she will entertain "common sense" changes to implementing the No Child Left Behind Act so long as states can guarantee that they are producing higher student achievement and following the law's basic tenets. She released new guidelines related to the number of learning-disabled students exempted from passing standardized tests, but made no concessions on annual testing and teacher quality. She also did not address the full funding issue.
Source: TheDay.com (registration required)
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