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Understand E-Rate Funding for K-12 Technology Needs: Access to technology is a crucial element in providing students with the skills they need in the 21st century. But shrinking budgets make it difficult for many schools to provide that access, creating a digital divide between the haves and the have-nots. This webcast discovers how the school district can...; Tags: K-12, E-Rate, Digital Divide; Webcasts 2007-12-01
Transforming Education for the 21st Century: Technology is not a panacea for the problems facing K-12 schools today. However, when intelligently applied, it can empower education leaders to deliver the 21st-century skills that students need to succeed in today's world. This webcast shows why and how schools need to change, discusses ways to achieve this goal,...; Tags: K-12, Education, School, Cisco Systems Inc.; Webcasts 2007-12-01
Just what do techies really need to know?: Most of our districts have techies in some form or another. I'm talking about the folks who provide direct hardware and software support to end users. Maybe they are just well-trained power/champion users among faculty (hopefully with a stipend of some sort, or just a deep vein of...; Tags: K-12, Software, Skill, Teacher, Tools & Techniques, Productivity, Internet, Management, Christopher Dawson; Blog posts 2007-11-25
Got something to say?: Obviously, Marc Wagner and I bring very different perspectives to this blog. His focus is higher education in a well-established, Windows-centric IT department at a major research university. I, on the other hand, am more of an in-the-trenches, K-12 sort of guy. I have a lot more...; Tags: K-12, Blog, Blogging, Internet, Christopher Dawson; Blog posts 2007-11-21
Open source booming in K-12 education: Open source booming in K-12 educationOne thing...Peer reviewed journals are nice and all. But do you really expect high schoolers to understand the papers, and how many of them are free and accessible for free from home?Other than that, I'd be interested to see you delve deeper into this topic.I...; Tags: Operating systems, UNIX, open source, Internet, computer, K-12; Discussion threads 2007-08-31

Open source booming in K-12 education: Can open source succeed where Windows and the Mac have failed? I'm talking here of K-12 education. An eSchools report right says open source spending is growing 70% per year, and will be up 800% in 2011 from last year's level. The harsh words...; Tags: K-12, Education, Internet, Science, Open Source, Kid, Dana Blankenhorn; Blog posts 2007-08-31
Back to school? Make sure you get Office 2007: The Kane County Chronicle is reporting that one district in this Illinois county has recommended that all high school students have a copy of Office 2007 running on their home computers before heading back to school this fall. Since the district (Batavia, Illinois, if anyone outside Kane County cares)...; Tags: K-12, Education Technology; Blog posts 2007-07-29
Evaluating thin clients from a position of strength: All too often our schools (and even our colleges and universities) turn to thin-clients as a 'last resort' to address severe budgetary constraints without regard for other alternatives which can also reduce costs without sacrificing needed computing resources. Many view thin-clients as a one-stop solution which fixes easy-to-identify problems within an existing infrastructure. Often...; Tags: K-12, Higher Ed, Funding, Emerging Tech, Education Technology, Classroom Tech; Blog posts 2007-07-27
Want to help out your school? Do it now!: This morning, I ran across a piece in eSchool News that should be of interest to anyone involved with K-12". It is called Samsung's Hope for Education and the description reads:Through a partnership with Microsoft Corporation, Hope for Education will provide more than $2 million in technology and software to K-12...; Tags: Classroom Tech, Education Technology, Funding, K-12; Blog posts 2007-07-12
What if I get hit by a bus?: After reading Marc Wagner's post "Don't be fooled, Linux is not free," I was struck by a few items. First and foremost, Marc is right. Linux is not a panacea. It doesn't take away the cost of doing business and it certainly requires a degree of expertise,...; Tags: Open Source, K-12, Education Technology; Blog posts 2007-07-09
Don't be fooled, Linux is not free: I just finished reading Chris Dawson's most recent piece Linux definitely has a place in education and I couldn't agree more, until he said ..."If the choice is arbitrary, then would you rather pay hundreds of dollars or many thousands or millions at the enterprise level or would you rather...; Tags: Open Source, K-12, Higher Ed, Education Technology; Blog posts 2007-07-08
The computer can do that?: We're finally hitting the home stretch on scheduling our students for next year. I have a so-called "Master Schedule" that I'm pretty happy with and I'm loading students into it to see just how well it works. If any of my favorite students get bumped out of the...; Tags: K-12, Education Technology; Blog posts 2007-06-29
Is Linux right for your school?: My colleague, Chris Dawson, has written several excellent pieces recently about Linux mostly about the latest from the Ubuntu family of products but more recently about SuSE and he has made some excellent points. The question one has to ask though in deciding whether Linux is right for your school is...; Tags: Education Technology, K-12; Blog posts 2007-06-28
Easy (sort of) and free (sort of) webcam security: True closed-circuit security systems are pricey often unobtainable for K-12 educational institutions. However, there are many times and places where video surveillance would be both useful and appropriate. Front entrances, main offices, final exams, and standardized tests could all benefit. Enter Motion, an open source bit of...; Tags: K-12, Education Technology; Blog posts 2007-06-28
Welcome Nicholas, to the world of unintended consequences: When the IBM PC was introduced to the public, in 1981, it sold for around $2500. By 2000, the cost was down to around $1500, and today, you can get a decent PC for under $500.Several years ago, Steve Balmer hinted at the possibility of a $100 PC geared...; Tags: K-12, Education Technology, DigitalDivide; Blog posts 2007-06-07
When faculty say 'NO' to UNIX/Linux: Well, sooner or later, it was bound to happen. We are in the process of retiring our last two instructional UNIX/Linux labs. And guess what? Nobody seems to care! In fact, the faculty who have been using those labs for instruction have asked us to give...; Tags: Open Source, K-12, Higher Ed, Education Technology, Classroom Tech; Blog posts 2007-05-08
OLPC founder finally faces a 'grim reality': OLPC to run Windows? Say it ain’t so! was the headline and so far reader reaction is mixed. Adrian Kingsley-Hughes reports $175 OLPC deals blow to open source, guarantees Microsoft’s continued dominance. From the beginning, the One Laptop per Child foundation, the brainchild of MITs Nicholas Negroponte, has...; Tags: Education Technology, Emerging Tech, Funding, Hardware, K-12, Microsoft, Open Source; Blog posts 2007-04-30
Privacy is for the ignorant: Lately, Ive increasingly had trouble understanding why people worry about privacy, particularly online. Several people responded to Teachers + MySpace = Bad Idea? and Google spyware? Fine by me… with concerns about privacy. This includes people who were worried about their personal information floating around Googles servers as...; Tags: Legal Issues, K-12, Education Technology; Blog posts 2007-04-30
Bringing tech to the most rural schools: Whats this? An actual use for iPods in the classroom? I cant say that Ive ever bought into the idea that iPods can be of any use for educational purposes. However, ars technica is reporting on an initiative in Arkansas to outfit schoolbuses with wireless Internet access,...; Tags: K-12, Classroom Tech, Education Technology; Blog posts 2007-04-18
Schools roll out remediation software for standardized tests: Schools across the country are looking for the best ways to bring children up to speed on standardized testing materials. All too often, there simply isnt enough time in class to address remediation needs for students who perform poorly. Given that the stakes on these tests are so...; Tags: K-12, Education Technology, Classroom Tech; Blog posts 2007-04-17