|
 |
|||
|
||||
|
||||
Volume 2, Number 46, May 11, 2007 |
||||
|
||||
| Editor's Note | |
 |
There's an invitation on the Department of Education web site that may interest many of you. The Department is trying to develop a new perspective on the role of technology in education reform. It is inviting comments ( http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/os/technology/roundtable.html ) from the public on four specific questions related to integration of technology in education:
I'm not sure that these are the questions that will help define school's use of technology in the 21st century, but they appear to define the way the Department is thinking about technology as it seeks renewal of No Child Left Behind. Those of you who work with schools and teachers may want to encourage them to respond, especially spelling out their successes in terms of Question 1. And we can all share our views of how technology contributes to preparing students for the 21 st century workplace and global competition, which certainly goes far beyond mere proficiency in math and reading. I've always thought the whole idea was to use technology to support the transformation of our schools and classrooms into places that stressed higher order thinking skills, collaboration and empowering students to be in charge of (and responsible for) their own learning. |
Lead of the Week A
LEAD FOR YOU FROM QED's SCHOOL PURCHASING MONITOR WHAT: Videos |
Contents Feature
Story K-12 Market Headlines Higher Ed Market Headlines Internet/Telecom International Headlines Financials/Mergers/Corporate Product
Announcements She Snoops for Scoops: The
Personal Side of the EdNET |
Feature Story USDLA 2007 Awards Presented for Excellence in Distance Learning for Individuals, Organizations and Companies Honoring Their Outstanding Achievements Kansas City, MO - May 9, 2007 -- The United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA -- www.usdla.org) presented its 2007 Distance Learning Awards in conjunction with the 20th Anniversary Conference in Kansas City, Missouri. The USDLA Awards program honors outstanding individuals and organizations for excellence in the field distance learning, education and training. These prestigious Global Awards are presented annually to organizations and individuals engaged in the development and delivery of distance learning programs. Included in the recognition ceremony were awards for 21st Century Best Practice, Best Practice for Distance Learning Programming, Excellence in Distance Learning Teaching, Outstanding Leadership by an Individual, Hall of Fame and Eagle Awards. Find the full story here. |
K-12 Market HeadlinesWarsaw Community Schools (11 Schools, 6,800 Students) Select CCC! Video On Demand (New Dimension Media, May 10, 2007) Interwrite Learning Simplifies Student Assessment with Cricket Easy To Use Radio-Frequency Clicker (Interwrite Learning, May 9, 2007) Students at Daphne Elementary School South Improve Their Reading Skills Using Speech Recognition Technology (Soliloquy Learning, Inc., May 9, 2007) Budget and Hardware Still a Concern for Windows Vista Adoption in Education (CDW Corporation, May 8, 2007) Carnegie Learning Math Curriculum Receives Highest Ranking from Kentucky Committee for Mathematics Achievement (Carnegie Learning, Inc., May 8, 2007) ECS Releases New Paper on the Role of Community Colleges in Teacher Preparation (Education Commission of the States, May 8, 2007 Harcourt School Publishers Correlates to Schlessinger Media in New Social Studies Text with Programs Also Available Digitally on SAFARI Montage (Harcourt School Publishers, May 8, 2007) America's Top 100 Schools Recognized for Leveraging Student Voices in Educational Decision-Making (Project Tomorrow, May 7, 2007) Illinois District Chooses Pearson Products To Help Capture, Report, and Diagnose Student Performance (Pearson School Systems, May 4, 2007) SRA/McGraw-Hill Announces New Research-Based Elementary Reading & Language Arts Program: Imagine It! (SRA/McGraw-Hill, May 4, 2007) New Microsoft Office PowerPoint and Excel Features Boost Flexibility and Efficiency of Indigo Learning System (LearningSoft, May 3, 2007) Voyager Expanded Learning Releases Summary of Effectiveness of its Reading Solutions (Voyager Expanded Learning, May 3, 2007) |
Higher Ed Headlines Colleges, Universities Nationwide Enrolling in the Power of Predictive Analytics(SPSS, May 7, 2007) |
Internet/Telecom Chat Life about Career Opportunities in Aviation(Space Explorers, Inc., May 9, 2007) Study Concludes istation's Online Assessment of Reading Skills as Valid as DIBELS (istation, May 9, 2007 NextReads(tm) Popular Email Newsletter Service Offers More Intuitive User Experience and Enhanced Customization Options (EBSCO Publishing, May 9, 2007) ebrary Signs Five New Publishing Partners Including ABC-CLIO and Temple University Press (ebrary, May 7, 2007) |
International Headlines (Blackboard Inc., May 7, 2007) |
Financials/Mergers/Corporate Curriculum Advantage Acquires Training Resource Associates(Curriculum Advantage, Inc., May 9, 2007) Reed Elsevier Announces Sale of Harcourt Assessment and Harcourt Education International To Pearson PLC for $950 Million (Reed Elsevier, May 4, 2007) Leapfrog Announces First Quarter 2007 Financial Results (LeapFrog Enterprises, Inc., May 3, 2007) |
Product Announcements (MMS Education, May 3, 2007) Pennsylvania Department of Corrections Taps PLATO Learning for Integrated Skill Development Program (PLATO Learning, Inc., May 3, 2007) |
| She Snoops for Scoops: The Personal Side of the EdNET | |
 |
Hi everyone….I am writing this week's column, looking out on the Gulf of Paria on the island of Trinidad. Am I dedicated or what? I assure you I have done little work this week and have had a marvelous time with my girlfriends. I will be back in Houston for the weekend and back to work next week. Let me share news I have received this week…. Sundance/Newbridge Educational Publishing, publisher of instructional materials for the PreK-12 market and a Haights Cross Communications company, has announced the appointment of John C. Atkocaitis as Senior Vice President of Sales. John will report to Paul Konowitch, Sundance/Newbridge President and CEO. He joins Sundance/Newbridge from McGraw-Hill/Wright Group/SRA, where he was Vice-President of Sales/National Sales Manager. He has also held senior sales and marketing positions with Tribune Education/Everyday Learning Company, ITP School Publishing/Southwestern Educational Publishing, and D.C. Heath and Company. Please join me in wishing John all the best on his new position. SRA/McGraw-Hill has honored textbook publisher M. Blouke Carus with the 2007 Pride of SRA Academic Recognition Award for Lifetime Achievement in Education. He will be recognized at Toronto's Hockey Hall of Fame on May 15th during a ceremony that coincides with the International Reading Association (IRA) annual conference. Blouke is chairman of Carus Corporation, a privately held holding company that owns Carus Chemical Company. He also is vice chairman of Carus Publishing Company, which includes Open Court General Books and the 14 children's magazines that his wife Marianne Carus oversees as editor-in-chief. Several of Carus Publishing Companies most-loved magazines include Cricket, Spider, Baby Bug, and Cobblestone. Blouke, sharply focused on understanding how successful teachers helped children learn, went to work at the family publishing house, Open Court, in 1962 to develop a reading and language arts program based on the work of successful teachers. Over a 30-year period, this initiative developed into Open Court's Collections for Young Scholars, a research-based Pre-K-6 reading and writing program, which later became known as Open Court Reading. In 1970, he launched an elementary mathematics program called Real Math, featuring a much broader concept of math than other programs at the time. The textbook division of Open Court Publishing Company was sold in 1996 to SRA/McGraw-Hill. Blouke has served, by presidential appointment, as a member of the National Council on Education Research. He was chair of the Citizens' Committee to establish Illinois Valley Community College. He was instrumental in establishing the International Baccalaureate North America in 1973 and was its chairman until 1985. He was a Council member for the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) in Geneva, Switzerland, from 1977 to 1994 and still assists the IBO as a member of the IBO Fund. He also initiated and led the Foundation Officers, which eventually developed into the Philanthropy Roundtable. In 2006, he was named to the Association of Educational Publishers' Hall of Fame. Join me in warmly congratulating Blouke on this most deserved recognition! Wireless Generation, a company combining mobile technology, the Web and high-touch professional services to manage and improve teaching and learning in grades pre-K-12, has named Margaret Honey, Ph.D. to the new position of Senior Vice President for Strategic Initiatives and Research. She is among the nation's foremost education technology research, evaluation and policy leaders. During her 25-year career, she has published scores of papers in the most prestigious education journals; overseen numerous multi-million dollar, multi-year grant-funded projects and initiatives developing, implementing, and evaluating creative applications of digital technology and media to K-12 school environments; and testified before Congress, state legislatures, and federal panels on education technology policy. For the past 15 years, Margaret has served as Vice President of the Education Development Center (EDC) and Director of EDC's Center for Children and Technology (CCT). In this role, she has supervised numerous large-scale projects funded by organizations including the National Science Foundation, the Institute for Education Sciences, The Carnegie Foundation, The Milken Family Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Energy. She also currently serves as Co-Director of the Northeast and Islands Regional Education Laboratory, the federally-funded organization designed to help educators, policy makers, and communities improve schools by helping them access and leverage the most current and important education research findings. At Wireless Generation, she will oversee the company's research and program evaluation activities and work with other organizations to further the company's continuing commitment to conducting innovative research and development. She will draw upon her deep knowledge of education technology and what works in schools to advise on editorial and content development for new and existing offerings. Please join me in warmly congratulating Margaret on joining the great Wireless Generation team! ePals, Inc. has announced the addition of two education industry professionals to its team, Dr. Rita Oates and Dr. Kari Stubbs. As Vice President of Education, Rita will ensure that ePals' curricular products and services are research-based, and she will have direct responsibility for the oversight of the continuing efficacy of ePals products and services for the K-12 market. She will also play an active role in working directly with ePals customers and schools to ensure the company is meeting the needs of students and educators nationwide. Rita has more than 30 years of experience working in the intersection of education and technology. For more than a dozen years, she worked as a consultant to organizations such as Microsoft, Scholastic, AOL, BBN, CELT Corporation and the U.S. Postal Service. Earlier, she directed preK-adult computer education and technology for Miami-Dade County Public Schools for seven years. A published author of 10 books, a monthly columnist for Kids and Computers , and a frequent presenter on technology in the education space, she was the founding editor of Internet Strategies for Education Markets, a Heller Reports publication. She also served as education editor of VIEWTRON, the first U.S. online service with color and graphics. She began her career as a language arts and journalism teacher in Kansas. Kari will serve as Director of Professional Development, where she will provide overall curricular and pedagogic leadership to the design and implementation of the company's professional development for adults, which includes teachers, pen pal participants and families. Most recently, she worked as the senior project coordinator of Technology Rich Classrooms, the Title IID initiative in Kansas, through her work with the Advanced Learning Technologies in Education Consortium (ALTEC). A Levels of Technology Implementation (LoTi) certified national trainer, Kari has presented at many national conferences and was recently honored by the National School Boards Association as one of the 20 most outstanding emerging leaders in education technology as part of the "20 to Watch" Award. In addition, she worked for Kansas City Public Television, where she developed and promoted strategies for the integration of streaming video resources into teaching and learning. Kari began her career as an elementary school teacher in Plano, Texas, and spent much of her career in Blue Valley, a leading district in technology initiatives south of Kansas City. These two women join a well respected education group at ePals that includes: Nina Zolt, Founder and Chief Program Architect; Dr. Tony Bryk, Chief Academic Officer; and Academic Advisers, Dr. Linda Gambrell and Dr. William Teale, among others. Please join me in sending congratulations to Rita and Kari on their new roles! Nick Glass, founder of TeachingBooks.net, is one of six people elected to be on the 2009 John Newbery Committee. The Newbery Medal honors the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. It is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American Literature for children. The award will be presented at the 2009 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Denver. Nick's booth number at IRA is #1223 if people want to stop by. Carol Greig Pitetti, a kindergarten teacher at Howard Elementary School in Eugene School District 4J in Eugene, Oregon, has been named this year's winner of the Kay L. Bitter Vision Award for Excellence in Technology-Based PK-2 Education. The award is given by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) to recognize PK-2 educators who demonstrate vision and creativity in a project or program that effectively integrates technology in the classroom. Carol was selected because her creative thinking has encouraged children to explore their world with curiosity and set no limits to their imagination. She developed and implemented "Reading Buddies," a program for low-achieving K-1 students and their parents. The program uses Apple iShuffles, individual student headsets, paper prompts specific to the reading skills presented, and storybooks. "Reading Buddies" is designed as an at-home intervention providing students with reading lessons designed and recorded (podcast) by Carol and related to specific student reading needs as well as daily classroom lessons. She helped support and expand the program with parent technology training events that allow families to explore and use the new technologies their children bring home. Carol will be honored at the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC), to be held in Atlanta June 24-27. She will be presented with an award and $500. The Kay L. Bitter Vision Award for Excellence in Technology-Based PK-2 Education is given annually in memory of Kay L. Bitter (1943-2001). She was involved in early childhood education for more than 20 years and was committed to bringing technology into her classroom daily. The award has been established through generous donations sent in Bitter's memory to her husband, Dr. Gary Bitter, Arizona State University . He has served on ISTE's board of directors and on the National Educational Technology Standards leadership team. Join me in congratulating Carol on this wonderful honor and recognition of her work! The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) has named Carole Colburn, technology literacy teacher with Howell Public Schools in Howell, Michigan, and Charlene Chausis, technology training and integration manager at Stevenson High School in Libertyville, Illinois, 2007 Outstanding Teacher and 2007 Outstanding Leader, respectively. These awards recognize and honor individuals who have demonstrably improved education through the use of technology. Candidates for the awards are nominated by ISTE Affiliates, a network of more than 70 professional associations representing more than 85,000 educators worldwide. Nominations are reviewed by an eight-person team of education and technology professionals from around the world; the review team is appointed by ISTE's Affiliate Member Advisory Committee. Carole was nominated by the Michigan Association for Computer Users in Learning (MACUL) for her dedication to integrating technology into instructional programs and consistently finding ways to involve the community through her technology initiatives. She works to develop and deliver grade-level and standards-based curriculum and has established positive relationships with students, parents and peers in her district. In 2006, she was selected from hundreds of applicants to participate in the Microsoft Innovative Teachers Forum, the first of its kind held in the U.S. She has received numerous awards for her work, including 2007 Outstanding Technology Using Teacher of the Year from MACUL and Certificates of Excellence from Howell Public Schools on three occasions. Charlene was nominated by Illinois Computing Educators for her positive impact on technology use in education in her district and beyond. As her district's technology trainer, she provides teacher and staff development for educational uses of technology. She's known for consistently going above and beyond her job responsibilities, implementing creative and innovative programs to encourage the use of technology among her district's teachers and staff. She has received multiple awards in recognition of her work, including 2007 Technology Educator of the Year from the Illinois Computing Educators, 2006 Discovery Education STAR Educator and 2003 Apple Distinguished Educator. These two outstanding educators will be honored at this year's National Educational Computing Conference (NECC), to be held June 24-27 in Atlanta. Both will receive $1,000 toward travel for NECC, as well as commemorative plaques and complimentary ISTE memberships. Please join me now in congratulating Carole and Charlene on these much deserved awards! T.H.E. Journal and the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) have named Calcasieu Parish School System (CPSS) in Lake Charles, Louisiana, the recipient of the fourth annual Sylvia Charp District Award in honor of the late Dr. Sylvia Charp. Sylvia was the founding editor-in-chief of T.H.E. Journal and was an ardent, lifelong supporter of ISTE and its mission. The Charp Award recognizes school districts that exhibit effectiveness and innovation in applying technology district-wide. Criteria for the award include: CPSS, the fifth largest in Louisiana with more than 32,000 students, has been recognized for developing the most innovative and all-encompassing technology program in the K-12 education community. The school system's project included a technology planning process that involved multiple partners beyond the school system, including the community and the business world. That process resulted in a plan that continues to foster leadership and cutting-edge ideas for training and implementation of new technology programs to meet essential NETS conditions, as well as community outreach and assistance. The plan focused on four objectives for the district: strengthen leadership, improve teacher training, support e-learning and virtual schools, and provide improved access and technology usage. Particularly impressive to the Sylvia Charp Award judges was the enormous effort made to provide a multitude of professional development opportunities for both teachers and administrators. Please join me in congratulating CPSS Superintendent Wayne Savoy, Administrative Technology Coordinator Sheryl Abshire and their district for this exceptional honor and recognition of their accomplishments. The district will be honored and presented with the award at the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC), to be held in Atlanta June 24-27. The district will receive $2,000 toward NECC registration, travel and housing for two representatives. I had a fun note from Glen McCandless, President, Focus Marketing, this week as a followup to last week's posting about our friend Shirley McCandless. Glen wrote, “Did you know Shirley is my sister?” I, of course, knew she is not and that Glen was pulling my leg. But he said that you cannot believe how often over many years he has been asked if she was related to him. He continued, “Well, of course she is --- because the McCandless clan is very small - virtually every McCandless has roots in Pennsylvania, and in fact, McCandless Township is an entire county of McCandless' in Pennsylvania - just north of Pittsburg. It's the only place that McCandless has more phone directory listings than Smith, and people don't ask how you spell it. Outside of that, there are just a handful of us, so whenever another one pops up, there is always discussion and speculation about family history.” So there is some trivia for you from Glen, and he knows that with my posting about Shirley, it will once again start the speculation and questions. The Snoop is trying to help out by letting you all know that while Shirley and Glen are coincidentally in the same industry, they are not closely related, though their contact goes back a long way. Questions first came up many years ago when Glen worked for Apple, and Shirley was an early adopter of computers in schools in the Southeast area of the U.S.- a real leader for educational technology. Since Glen was also involved in the “bleeding edge” stage of our industry, the two rubbed shoulders and were often asked if they were related. He agrees with me that we will be glad to see Shirley back in our midst and looking over the important area of software licensing, a personal interest of Glen's. How about a white paper on “Trends and Opportunities in Educational Software Licensing” by Glen and Shirley McCandless? Now, that would really cause some head scratching! Happy weekend, everyone, and for those of you heading to Toronto for IRA, have a great time and productive meeting! Till next week…. Vicki, the Snoop
|
The Heller Reports/Quality Education Data News Alert
A web version of News Alert is at www.qeddata.com/MarketKno/NewsLetters/NewsAlert.aspx. Tell your associates about it.If you don’t already have access to the full stories behind the headlines, subscribe today for just $99 for 50 issues. Call 877.435.5373 ext. 1 or visit: www.qeddata.com/MarketKno/NewsLetters/Subscribe.aspx. You're free to send News Alert to others if you include all copyright and "sign-up" information. For more resources of value to education industry executives, including information on The Heller Reports’ and Quality Education Data’s conferences, mailing lists, data analysis and other products designed to help you maximize your resources and see improved performance in the education space, visit www.QEDdata.com or call 800.525.5811.
If you would like to unsubscribe
to News Alert, please click
here and enter your email address. |