XplanaZine

Updates on: One Laptop Per Child, Hoover City Schools in Alabama, PBS and Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s literacy initiative, No Child Left Behind, and LeTourneau’s Tyler Educational Site

India is the latest of the countries where the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) experiment has started. Children from the village of Khairat were given the opportunity to learn how to use the XO laptop. — Wiki News Reports 

Hoover City Schools in Alabama is expanding access to library services with the adoption of a centralized, Web-based system that allows students to search for and reserve books online and have them delivered to their desks the next day using Follett’s Destiny Library Manager. The district is also using the system to provide library enhancements, including providing previews of books. — T.H.E. Journal

In January PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting will launch a five-year literacy initiative for preschoolers and young learners aimed at teachers, parents, and caregivers. Funded in part through a grant from the United States Department of Education, the multi-pronged initiative, dubbed “PBS Kids Raising Readers,” will include a wide range of new tools and media, including television series, Web content, professional development, and a preschool curriculum, designed to develop literacy skills in kids aged 2 to 8. — T.H.E. Journal

No Child Left Behind is up for reauthorization this year, giving supporters and opponents alike a chance to change the federal law. Bush signed the bill into law in January 2002. The law has become one of his most prominent domestic achievements. Bush has asked Congress to reauthorize the law, saying No Child Left Behind “is working for all kinds of children in all kinds of schools in every part of the country.” — The Durango Herald

LeTourneau is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Most students follow a “blended” track by attending classes at LeTourneau’s Tyler Educational Site and also taking some courses online. This article profiles the institution and some of the students who have benefited from its flexible program. — Tyler Paper