XplanaZine

Tech Companies Working to Try to Eliminate the Digital Divide at School
The online teacher resource portal Curriki has formed a partnership with Canada-based Nortel Networks Corp. The new Nortel LearniT website will enable teachers to share lesson plans and ideas online, encouraging learning through the use of digital technologies such as video or the creation of web pages. — Canada East

Idaho and Minnesota High Schools Go Virtual
Insight Schools, a company with a network of free, diploma-granting, online public high schools, recently announced virtual campuses for students in Minnesota and Idaho, which will open for the 2008-2009 school year. The schools offer accredited teachers in each state to provide instruction for 120 different courses. The service is free for the participants. — The Journal

KidZui Promotes Itself as a Kid-Oriented Internet
A network of child-appropriate and parent-approved websites accessible through a browser called KidZui debuted on March 19. The service offers more than 500,000 sites, images and videos customized for children ages 3 to 12, with access to additional content available as users mature. KidZui is available for Mac and PC by subscription. — St. Louis Today

YouTube in the Classroom
The author of the Geek Dad blog at Wired Magazine shares his personal concerns regarding the use of public streaming video services to share classroom presentations. Previously reluctant to publish the faces of his children online for privacy reasons, the author changes his attitude when his daughter’s teacher posts a video of her book report that receives comments from the author of the book. — Wired Blog Network

NYPhilkids.org - What an Educational Website Should Be
Christopher Dawson at ZDNet reviews the New York Philharmontic websites for children, NYPhilkids.org, deeming it “a how-to of solid, purposeful, interactive site design.” — ZDNet

Technology, Social Networking Websites Spur Education Debate
Social-networking websites spurred an education debate at Queen’s University in Canada after a first-year engineering student was accused of cheating through a Facebook group called Dungeons/Mastering Chemistry Solutions. The online group brought together a total of 147 students from the class. They swapped information on assignments that collectively totalled 10 per cent of their grade. However, the professor for the class had said that the assignments were to be done independently. — The Kingston Whig-Standard