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September 15, 2002
Trend Watch
By T&L Editors
Consolidation, innovation, compensation, and reorganization -- we take a look at the business of education.
Technology Funding EETT-cetera
The Bush administration's No Child Left Behind Act consolidates the former Technology Literacy Challenge Fund and local Technology Innovation Challenge Grants into a single state ed tech program entitled Enhancing Education Through Technology. Grant seekers take note-the primary objectives of EETT include the following:
- reaching underserved students and areas
- the full integration of technology into the curriculum
- ramping up on staff development, including training for administrators
- encouraging innovative uses of technology in education
- establishing a stronger home-school connection
- ensuring broad access to technology across the community and within the school
- providing for ongoing funding and maintenance of technology
- a call for evidence-based evaluation of the use of technology.
Teaching: Gain-ful Employment?
The good news from the American Federation of Teachers 2000-2001 salary survey is that the average salary for new teachers was up last year-though only 4.4 percent from the previous year, capping at $28,986. The bad news: average teacher salaries still lag far behind those in other white-collar professions. We talked to John See, spokesperson for the AFT, who observed that forty years ago, more than half the money spent on education went to teacher salaries. Today, that figure is less than 40 percent. Teachers' standard of living is also at its lowest point in 40 years. Notably, the survey didn't ask for specific salary information for technology coordinators. See admits "they may have been overlooked," when putting the survey together because "they don't fit into easy categories."
What's Your Opinion?
Should technology coordinators in your school or district be compensated at a different rate than teachers? We'll report your responses on the Back Page in a later issue. |
Sizing Up the New HP
Now that the Compaq/Hewlett-Packard merger is several months behind us, and reorganization is in full swing, what can we expect from the new company? In terms of products, the reborn entity essentially has adopted those considered the strongest in their respective categories. For example, Compaq-branded printers will be replaced by HP's printer line, but Compaq's iPAQ Pocket PC will replace the HP Jornada (some of the Jornada features will be incorporated into the iPAQ, however, along with wireless Internet and phone capabilities). And with the exception of Compaq's commercial desktop and laptop computers, all products will bear the HP brand. The most promising part of the merger, some industry observers say, will be the combined brainpower going toward product innovation. Over $4 billion has been earmarked for research and development efforts.
Attack of the Blogs
When "blog" first appeared as a Watch Word in our May 2001 issue, Web logs were primarily first-person online journals created by tech-industry workers. Since then, blogs have been adopted by schools as easy-to-use collaborative tools. A variety of self-publishing software programs-including Blogger, Moveable Type, and Manila-give teachers and students a Web-based interface for posting links, assignments, progress reports, personal thoughts, and more to their intranet or Internet sites. See an introduction to blogs in the classroom.
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