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Advocacy in Education IT: Lots of the comments Chris and I receive from readers speak from the position of acceptance of deplorable funding levels and a sense of resignation that things will never get better.Â Well, I don't buy it!Â Few of us are happy with the state of educational funding in America today...; Tags: Education, Educator, Administrator, Information Technology, Marc Wagner; Blog posts 2007-12-17
What does fair-use really mean?: What does fair-use really mean?Just remember one thing[i]Absence an on-site legal staff, Education IT has an opportunity to clarify for our educators and our administrators that they have broad latitude in the classroom when it comes to the “fair-use” of copyrighted materials. [/i]However, if you are sued you may as...; Tags: Digital media, music, RIAA, educator; Discussion threads 2007-11-16
What does fair-use really mean?: Prior to passage of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (or just DMCA, for short), the fair-use rules were pretty clear.Â Quoting from the U.S. Code (TITLE 17, CHAPTER 1, SECTION 107, "Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair Use"):Â Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of...; Tags: Educator, Use, Copyright Law, Digital Media, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, Marc Wagner; Blog posts 2007-11-16
Red Hat voices concerns over Microsoft patent model: Red Hat voices concerns over Microsoft patent modelRed Hat voices concerns over Microsoft patent modelRed Hat needs to concern itself about its shoddy products before making statements about others. What would be even better is if Red Had minded their own business instead of sticking it in places it...; Tags: OPEN SOURCE, Red Hat Inc., patent, educator, Microsoft Corp.; Discussion threads 2007-10-25
And speaking of 1:1 computing initiatives...: My evaluation Classmate PCs from Intel didn't come today! I was really looking forward to putting one of them through its paces on Wednesday while I was at a conference. What better way to give it an initial run than with a bunch of other geeky educators talking...; Tags: Educator, Teacher, Kid, Linux, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Open Source, UNIX, Software, Christopher Dawson; Blog posts 2007-10-23

Latest OpenSUSE a mixed bag for educators: Latest OpenSUSE a mixed bag for educatorsOld wisdom...Upgrading is always a bad idea, for any operating system under the sun. At worst you encounter strange problems, at best you always have some debris left on your system. A clean install is therefore always preferable.I always say: if you want a...; Tags: BIOS, RAID, OPEN SOURCE, clean install, Upgrading, educator, Novell OpenSuse, mixed bag; Discussion threads 2007-10-08
Web-based applications perfect for most educators: Web-based applications perfect for most educatorsZoho better than GoogleDocshttp://www.zoho.com/ is free and better than GoogleDocs.RE: Web-based applications perfect for most educatorsMy school has been using Moodle, a fabulous course management system, for 2 full years. Although true collaboration is still sometime off (think locally-hosted Google Apps integrated with Moodle) the...; Tags: Web technology, Groupware, educator, web-based application, GoogleDocs, Moodle; Discussion threads 2007-10-01
Web-based applications perfect for most educators: I just published a quick set of instructions for marshmallow geodesic domes to my class blog. Since it's hosted on Blogger (i.e., Google), it was just a couple clicks to post it directly from the Google Docs page where I typed it. Most people know that I'm a...; Tags: Google Inc., Educator, Google Docs, Web-based Application, Teacher, Productivity, Web Technology, Microsoft Office, Office Suites, Software, Christopher Dawson; Blog posts 2007-09-30
Is the road to Moscow paved with good intentions?: I just finishedÂ reading a most interesting post from my colleague, Chris DawsonÂ --Â Russia installing Linux in every school in the countryÂ -- reporting that ... ... the Russian government is actively pursuing the development of a "Russian OS" to be available to every school in the country -- based upon Linux!...; Tags: Educator, Russia, Microsoft Corp., Chris, Government, Linux, Vertical Industries, Operating Systems, Open Source, Software, Enterprise Software, Marc Wagner; Blog posts 2007-09-20
What are you doing about rising EdTech costs?: Anyone who has worked in Education IT for very long knows that, despite the drop in hardware pricesÂ over the years,Â IT costs continue to rise, but I wonder how many of your administrators have taken the time to figure out why -- or really thought about what to do about it.Â ...; Tags: Software, Educator, Information Technology, Tool, Marc Wagner; Blog posts 2007-09-07
Building a better NCLB?: Building a better NCLB?Educators are their own worst enemiesLike so many fields of endeavor educators don't want change. They are comfortable with the way they do things so they are unwilling to make the changes necessary to improve education. Why should elementary school teachers have tenure? Tenure was designed to...; Tags: Recruitment & Selection, pay-for-performance, NCLB, educator; Discussion threads 2007-08-07
Penny-wise and pound foolish -- or just plain nuts?: This morning, I read Fed cutbacks strips schools of tech funding and a shudder went through me. Recently, Ive been speaking at length of the importance of enabling our educators to better leverage IT in their classrooms. Not by going out and buying the cheapest solution available (as...; Tags: NLCB, K-12, Funding, Classroom Tech, Education Technology; Blog posts 2007-04-16
Giving educators the tools that they want (and need): Education IT, whether in K-12 or in a college or university setting, all too often finds itself trying to provide cost-effective solutions without having any idea what our educators need to do their jobs most effectively. Among our readers, the debate rages on between Windows and Macintosh and some...; Tags: Education Technology; Blog posts 2007-04-11
Asian countries covet US love of learning, if not test scores: Why would Asian educators be coming to a middle school in Virginia to observe math and science classrooms, when they are so far ahead of the U.S. in math and science scores? The Washington Post reports that despite the fact that Singapores eighth-graders rank No. 1 in science and...; Tags: educator; Blog posts 2007-03-21
Jobs missed the point: It seems that while I was on vacation, Steve Jobs stirred up a little trouble when he voiced his opinion of teachers unions (see Jobs: Teacher unions prevents schools from excellence). I tend to agree that unions have lost sight of their original purpose -- to protect workers from...; Tags: K-12, Education Technology, Funding; Blog posts 2007-02-21
What are students really losing without technology?: What are students really losing without technology?technology? who ensures accuracy?I work in a government office where half the employees have a degree and everyone has a PC on their desk and access to the Internet. So I was aghast when a colleague didn't realise Wickipedia was an unverified collection...; Tags: PRODUCTIVITY, INTERNET, Computer Tech, educator; Discussion threads 2007-01-17
Six trends for 2007 and the 21st century: eSchoolNews editor Gregg Downey offers six prognostications for the coming year. #1. Web 2.0. YouTube is just the latest and most spectacular example of how the democratization of the internet is about to change everything. For education, it seems to me, the populism inherent in the internet...; Tags: SCORM, Education Technology, Information Systems; Blog posts 2006-12-22
Support network for virtual educators: There has been increased interest in virtual schools in recent years and as enrollment increases, so does the demand for instructional information for teachers.The Florida Virtual School FLVS, one of the nations largest virtual institutions, has recently launched a Web-based forum answering the needs of online instructors, reports eSchool News...; Tags: Education Technology, Distance Learning, educator; Blog posts 2006-12-01
Gradeway Teacher's Suite (exe): Gradeway Teachers Suite is an integrated collection of classroom tools. This includes a grade book, lesson planner, and attendance tracker. Using Gradeway Teacher's Suite, educators can also upload their classroom grades for students and their parents to see at any time - free of charge for educators, students, and parents....; Tags: Educator, Teacher, Gradeway, Productivity; Software downloads 2006-11-17
Second Life reaches out to schools with teen version: In the amazingly popular virtual world of Second Life, anything is possible. Users create an avatar while participating in an simulated environment and populate it with any kind of being. Its easy to see how educators could take advantage of this popular Web activity and incorporate it into the...; Tags: Education Technology, Distance Learning; Blog posts 2006-11-13