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April 19, 2005 - Vol. 6, No. 15
TechLearning News
- The Cobb County (GA) School District is about to launch one of the country's largest one-to-one computer projects, with an estimated price tag of $69.9 million.
- On April 11, the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee held a hearing to consider legislation that would permanently exempt the E-Rate program from coverage under the Anti-Deficiency Act.
- Interactive videoconferencing, not the yellow school bus, is taking students across Indiana to the state's museums, zoos, historical, and cultural sites.
- Teachers at NJ's Union City High School are being equipped with personal emergency transmitters that can summon help at the push of a button worn on a wristlet or necklace.
Cobb County Schools Go 1:1
The Cobb County (GA) School District is about to launch one of the country's largest one-to-one projects, with an estimated price tag of $69.9 million. The district will partner with Apple to provide 63,000 iBook G4 notebook computers, first to teachers this spring and to high school students in spring 2006. The computers will be pre-loaded with Mac OS X, Microsoft Office, wireless Internet connection and iLife, Apple's music, photo, & movie suite. The price of each laptop, based on a four-year lease, is $271.26 per year. Adding local training and support brings that total to $350 per student. An ongoing training program for teachers, staff, parents, students and tech leaders, including a dedicated center focused on leadership, learning, coaching and coordination of best practices for teachers within the district, is part of the plan. Students at four high school demonstration sites will receive laptops in the fall of 2005 and will serve as training and observation sites for teachers throughout the district, as well as research and development locations in preparation for wider deployment. Beginning in fall 2006 laptops will be issued to high school students when their schools meet the established readiness requirements. Middle school students will receive their laptops in the fall of 2007. The school system will pay for the initial phases with money received through a 1% sales tax voters approved in 2003. That tax expires in 2008.
Source: Cobb County School District
Senate Hearings Consider E-Rate Exemption
On April 11, the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee held a hearing to consider legislation that would permanently exempt the E-Rate program from coverage under the Anti-Deficiency Act (ADA). It was the sudden application of the ADA law to the E-rate program that forced the Schools and Libraries Division to suspend new funding commitments last fall until the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) had collected enough money to cover the commitments. A last-minute exemption of universal service from the ADA was secured last December, but the exemption expires at the end of this year. The committee heard testimony from the Federal Communications Commission; USAC; the General Accounting Office (GAO), which recently released a report on the E-Rate; and a rural provider to schools and libraries from Alaska. The GAO recommended that Congress grant the Universal Service Fund a two- or three-year exemption from the law, or a more limited exemption until the National Academy of Public Administration completed its study of the program and how it could be improved. S241, a bill sponsored by Senators Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and John D. Rockefeller (D-WV) and cosponsored by 32 senators would permanently exempt all of universal service from provisions in the ADA. Sheryl Abshire, district administrative coordinator of technology for the Calcasieu Parish Public Schools in Lake Charles, LA, appeared at the hearing on behalf of the Education and Libraries Networks Coalition and the Consortium for School Networking, detailing the broad positive impact that the E-Rate has had in her district and the devastating effect that another shutdown would have on schools and libraries in her district and around the country. The hearing was well attended and there was widespread support for passing some form of legislative relief. The picture is darker on the House side, where House Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton (R-TX) has stated his opposition to the E-Rate program.
Source: Funds for Learning
Virtual Field Trips Catching On
Rather than collecting bus money and permission slips, teachers at a number of Indiana schools are spending their time preparing students for virtual field trips. Using interactive videoconferencing, students are connected to experts located at the state's museums, zoos, historical, and cultural sites. Before signing on, teachers use study guides provided by the site to be visited to prepare students for the experience and to be sure that it is integrated with the specific national and state teaching standards they are responsible for covering. At Edison Intermediate Center in South Bend, teachers conduct their distance learning field trips in a classroom with $40,000 in equipment obtained through a grant five years ago. Videoconferences at the school have included the Lake County Solid Waste Management District, the Indianapolis Zoo and the Indiana Repertory Theatre. National sites are also available. The new National Museum of the American Indian, located in Washington DC, recently offered a distance learning program to introduce students to its collection, sharing Native music, dance, baskets, weavings and other objects through discussions with Native American museum staff. The Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration, a nonprofit that acts as a national clearinghouse for distance learning programs created by more than 100 different organizations, says that while the technology has been available for the past decade, interest is just now burgeoning because of wider availability of content and tighter school budgets. Costs vary. A session with the Indiana State Museum costs $85, but some events are as much as $300. That can still be cost effective when schools factor in the price of transportation and admission fees for a "real" field trip, to say nothing of the time teachers spend finding chaperones and getting in the last few, elusive parental permission slips.
Source: USA Today
Panic Buttons for Classrooms
Using the same technology spotlighted in the "I've fallen and I can't get up" commercials, teachers at New Jersey's Union High School are being equipped with personal emergency transmitters. The devices allow teachers to summon help at the push of a button on a wristlet or necklace. Following a successful three-month pilot, the school district expects to pay $50,000 for 245 of the devices, which are part of a wireless classroom security system. Once the button is pressed, a detailed page that includes the location of the signal is transmitted to roaming security guards and the central office. District officials say the purchase is not related to any increased violence at the high school. It's just another measure, like the wall phones in classrooms, the intercom system and teachers' cell phones, that is intended to ensure the safety of students and teachers. They noted the devices also can be used in a health emergency in a classroom or even on a playing field.
Source: The Star-Ledger
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