Tech-support Costs on the Rise
Added On 08/29/2007

A new report prepared by the research firm Quality Education Data QED has found that tech support is the fastest-growing cost area for school technology budgets. In 2002-03, QED found that tech support accounted for about 14 of the technology budget. This amount has doubled to 28 in data released in 2006.The newest report indicates, sadly, that most schools make poor decisions when trying to reduce costs such as limiting professional development. The article provides some good suggestions for making long-term decisions to help reduce costs.

Myths that Keep Girls Away From Technology
Added On 08/29/2007

The National Science Foundation has found that one of the most effective interventions to help young women choose and sustain a STEM science, technology, engineering, math educational path and subsequent career is mentoring. What are you doing to resolve the five myths below? 1. Most girls are less interested in STEM than boys are. FALSE for grades K-1, TRUE for grades 82. Classroom interventions geared to increase girls interest in STEM run the risk of turning off the boys FALSE. Interventions work for both.3. Science and math teachers are no longer biased toward their male students. FALSE4. When girls arent interested in STEM, parents cant do much to motivate them. FALSE5.At college, some women are weeded out of STEM programs. TRUE Danica McKellar, the actress who played Winnie on the 90s hit television show, The Wonder Years, just released a new book, Math Doesnt Suck. Her book shares her struggles and successes as she went on to major in math at UCLA. She even co-authored a groundbreaking mathematical physics theorem the Chayes-McKellar-Winn Theorem.

Success Strategies for On-Line Professional Development
Added On 08/24/2007

The need to meet the ISTE NETS and NCLB technology training requirements for teachers and students, will seem overwhelming if you try to establish traditional face-to-face training solutions. You may want to study and adapt the successful professional development program implemented by St. Mary Parish Schools in Louisiana. Their Professional Development in Your Pajamas,' or PDNPJ,' program uses InfoSource Learning, an online curriculum that supports individualized learning from anytime, anyplace. The successful Louisiana model established innovative tracking and incentive programs and has resulted in an increase of the ISTE NETS-T proficiency levels in all six areas of 720 teachers from 12 to 29 in just two years. The project is also just as successful with students. Although the InfoSource Learning curriculum was used in this success story, other solutions, such as MySkills Source or Career Academy offered at greatly reduced costs by TechSETS, may apply the same program implementation to achieve similar results.

Advice for Educational Job Seekers
Added On 08/22/2007

This site is filled with helpful information for teachers and others who are looking to change careers, locations or positions. From portfolio and resume creation to credential and transition strategies, you will find good advice. You can even search for available jobs.

Clearinghouse Releases Reading Program Results
Added On 08/22/2007

The What Works Clearinghouse, from the U.S. Department of Educations Institute of Education Sciences, was created in 2002 to produce research on what works in education. The clearinghouse has recently released its research results that focused on the impact of reading interventions for students in the areas of alphabetics, reading fluency, comprehension and general reading achievement. Once again, the clearinghouse has given few of its coveted positive ratings. Review the results quickly on a chart that compares 24 different beginning reading programs. The programs which received a ...strong evidence of a positive effect score in one or more areas include DaisyQuest, Earobics, Fast ForWord, Kaplan SpellRead, Reading Recovery, and Stepping Stones to Literacy.

ATTAIN Senate Act Expands on EETT
Added On 08/16/2007

The ATTAIN Achievement Through Technology and Innovation Senate Act will update the existing Enhancing Education Through Technology EETT program in several areas to improve technology curriculum, professional development and research.

Internet Safety Revisited
Added On 08/16/2007

As part of starting up a new school year, its a good idea to see what is new with Internet safety. I-SAFE, Inc. is a non-profit foundation whose mission is to educate and empower students, parents, seniors, and community members to safely and responsibly take control of their Internet experiences. Update your own skills in personal safety, predator identification, and intellectual property issues, and browse the curricula for teachers, students and parents.

Crafting a Service-level Agreement for Educational IT
Added On 08/16/2007

IT Directors often include Service-Level Agreement SLA requirements in RFPs for IT goods and services. This two-part article provides instructions on how to set up an SLA for educational users on such issues as network uptime and hours allotted to solve technical problems.

New K12 TCO Calculator Available
Added On 08/16/2007

Technology planning should be integrated into annual budgeting, training, data gathering, and assessing school performance. The K12 TCO Calculator can help you estimate the multiyear costs of implementing and maintaining technology systems in a K-12 school. The new calculator is now easier to use and more flexible. Enhancements include district summary reports, construction figures based on regional profiles, revised professional development criteria, and more.

ISTE Administration and Supervision Certificate Program
Added On 08/16/2007

ISTE has partnered with Johns Hopkins University JHU to offer an 18 credit online Graduate Certificate in School Administration and Supervision. The ISTE JHU Certificate is designed to provide aspiring administrators and supervisors with effective strategies and tools for infusing instructional technology to ensure student success.The deadline to apply for the 20082009 ISTE JHU Administration Certificate is April 11, 2008. This cohort will kick off in June at NECC 2008 in San Antonio.

Free iLife for Windows
Added On 08/14/2007

This Wiki provides excellent help for PC users who want to use the free Web 2.0 tools Picasa, Photostory, Audacity and Movie Maker for educational purposes. Picasa is a free software from Google that helps you locate, organize, edit, add effects, and share the photos on your computer. Photostory allows you to create and share slideshows, add special effects and soundtracks including your own voice to your digital presentations. Audacity is all about audio editing and Movie Maker is a free video-editing tool that will allow you to turn home movies into awesome videos.

Technology News From a 9-year-old
Added On 08/14/2007

Meet Adora Svitak, a 9-year-old, tech-savvy news correspondent who has already written hundreds of short stories, maintains her own blog, and has been featured on CNN and Good Morning America. In this article, she discusses how students can use iGoogle.

Plan Your 2007-8 Technology Conference Attendance Now
Added On 08/14/2007

California educators have an array of excellent conferences to attend this year. Review the following offerings and submit your travel paperwork soon. The school year starts out with CETPA California Educational Technology Professionals Association, which is scheduled for Indian Wells October 9-12. This is nearly a month earlier than prior years, so register now. The California League of Middle Schools and the League of High Schools will present the Digital Immigrants, Digital Natives Conference in Monterey November 29 December 2, 2007. Visit http//www.cue.org/2007/06/16a439 for more information. CUE Computer Using Educators will be in Palm Springs March 6-8. Visit http//www.cue.org/2007/06/11a438 for more information.

A Parent's guide to Internet Safety
Added On 08/22/2006

As children begin a new school year, you will often hear parents express concerns about Internet Safety. The FBI has produced a website, ''A Parent's Guide to Internet Safety,'' that provides information such as The signs for at-risk behavior, actions that parents should take, frequently asked questions, and common definitions.

California Adopts New Digital History Program
Added On 08/22/2006

Last November, the California State Board of Education unanimously approved a new History/Social Science for California adoption from educational publisher Pearson Scott Foresman. This new program has already been selected by 200 schools and has history teachers scrapping traditional textbooks in favor of digital learning materials that blends printed text, digital, and activities-based instructional methods aligned with state standards.

Calisphere Web -150,000 Digitized Primary Sources for Educators
Added On 08/22/2006

The State superintendent of Public Instruction joined officials from the University of California to announce the launch of the Calisphere Web. This free Web offers educators, students, and the general public access to more than 150,000 digitized primary sources from the libraries and museums of the UC campuses and cultural heritiage organizations across California.

Improve Your School or District Website with These Tips
Added On 08/17/2006

As the new school year begins, webmasters scramble to update their websites with current information. In addition to updating the content of a site, here's a checklist from Global Knowledge of technical updates to consider1. Make sure your web pages are accessible2. Take steps to minimize security risks3. Use web server statistics to determine how popular your site is4. Use dynamic technologies styles5. Be aware of web development software and how to use it efficiently to enhance your web site6. Use XHTML, DOM Scripting, and CSS to make your site browser and rule independent7. Choose an appropriate database to ensure it is more dynamic, and does the job of many static pages8. Use image editors for fast-loading graphics9. Learn to use planning and project management techniques to build great web sites with large teams10. Use new technologies like XML, DTDs, and XSL to help your application communicate with other platforms in the most flexible manner.

Lesson Plan for Teaching Others about RSS
Added On 08/15/2006

Do you want to teach others the benefits of Real Simple Syndication RSS? If so, review this website created by Lincoln Nebraska Public Schools. Their site will help you define, demonstrate the value, implement the basics, and stretch the RSS capabilities of your learners.

Guidelines for Supporting Technology Integration
Added On 08/15/2006

If your educational job assignment is to assist teachers integrate technology, this ISTE report, ''Collaborative Apprenticeship A New Role for the Technology Coordinator in Teachers' Professional Development'' contains practical, research-based strategies for long-term success. Specific recommendations are provided as teachers move through the stages of ''Introduction'', ''Developmental'', ''Proficient'', and ''Mastery.''

Wiki for School Use
Added On 08/11/2006

Wikipedia has become a well-known source for sharing information, but the content may not be appropriate for younger students. Now a resource is available for schools that would like to create and control their own internal wikis A company called Socialtext has released their core wiki engine under an open source license. Socialtext includes its own blogging system and other tools for collaboration within organizations. Schools can use Socialtext to pilot wikis on a small scale with fairly inexpensive hosted blogs at Socialtext.com. If the idea catches on, the school can switch to local hosting without having to switch to a different system.

California Legislature to Consider Bills Aimed at Improving Student Success
Added On 08/11/2006

If you are responsible for managing data related to student and teacher information, you will want to follow the progress on some of the fourteen new bills being introduced to the California Legislature. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack OConnell urges lawmakers to approve fourteen new bills that expand opportunities for students to gain skills required in the competitive global economy through rigorous academics and real world work experience.

Google helps identify dangerous sites
Added On 08/11/2006

Google, in collaboration with The Stop Badware Coalition, has just added a useful feature to its powerful search engine. A warning will now appear whenever you click on a link that could take you to a potentially dangerous site. A page informs the user of the danger and allows a safe way out.

IT Disaster Plan Are you Ready? ?
Added On 08/11/2006

Its your worst nightmare. The server room floods the week-end prior to the start of school. Are you ready to exercise your disaster plan.or will you run for the hills? The University of Iowa provides both a sample plan and a step-by-step guide for creating your own plan. You may also want to check out the recent plan posted by the University of Florida at http//cio.uiowa.edu/ITsecurity/resources/documents/Enterprise-IT-Disaster-Plan.pdf, and the additional example from the University of Maryland at http//www.oit.umd.edu/ITCouncil/materials/DRPoverview052005.pdf.

Are you Certified as a 'California Chief Technology Officer CTO'?
Added On 08/11/2006

The California Educational Technology Professionals Association CETPA and the Consortium for School Networking CoSN have jointly announced the creation of a new California CTO Council, aimed at meeting the growing needs of school district technology leaders. The CTO Mentor Project will establish a curriculum of study and certification for the K-12 population of technologists.

STAND UP Educational Reform Campaign
Added On 08/11/2006

A national campaign has been launched by Bill and Melinda Gates to call on all Americans to STAND UP for excellent high schools that prepare every student for success. More than 50 education organizations, districts, and schools across the country have joined together to create STAND UP, a community-based national campaign that promotes educational reform. The website provides resources for parents, educators and community members.

Ed Tech K-12 Voucher Update
Added On 08/08/2006

The online application for the Ed Tech K-12 Voucher Program is expected to be released by the California Department CDE on September 18, 2006. Districts will apply on behalf of their eligible schools. Eligible schools include public K-12 schools, charter schools and county offices of education that had at least 40 Free and Reduced Price Meals percentage, according to the district's 2005-06 Consolidated Application.Please check the TechSETS web site for a comprehensive collection of supporting resources for the Ed Tech K-12 Voucher Program, including ''Ten Things You Can Do Right Now to Prepare for Program Implementation''.