XplanaZine

Chicago Public Schools Taking Grades Online
Beginning this summer, Chicago Public Schools will implement a Web-based gradebook system, piloting GradeSpeed.NET from Campusware at select campuses. GradeSpeed.NET is a customizable online tool that provides grade, assignment, and attendance tracking, as well as reporting capabilities and tools for students and parents to follow along. — The Journal

Virginia Tries to Ensure Students’ Safety in Cyberspace
responding to a state mandate that is the first of its kind in the nation. Even though today’s students have known no life without the Internet, only a couple of states have laws that recommend schools teach online safety. The state’s goal is to integrate safety skills into the curriculum, not simply teach them in one lesson. — Washington Post

Has math instruction actually changed in the last 40 years?
We don’t teach formal proof for most kids, we drill kids less on basic arithmetic, and we spend a lot of time accommodating special needs, but have we figured out a better way to help kids understand math? We’ve integrated technology to varying degrees and with varying degrees of success. However, we still basically cover the same content at the same times, though perhaps with less rigor. Perhaps the fundamental way in which we teach mathematics hasn’t changed much. — ZDNet Education

U-M launches “MEERA,” a new online resource for environmental educators
Environmental educators - whether K-12 teachers or instructors working for government agencies or non-profit organizations including universities - expressed a strong need for information to assess the quality of their programs. Reflecting on tese needs, Dr. Michaela Zint initiated a project to develop a web-based tool to assist and empower environmental educators in conducting their own evaluations. The result was “My Environmental Education Evaluation Resource Assistant” or MEERA, the latest version of which was launched this month. — Media Newswire

NBC News Launches iCue
NBC News unveiled iCue, a free, online, collaborative learning community informed by MIT research that incorporates gaming, discussion and video resources in a fun and safe environment. Designed using research from the MIT Education Arcade, iCue offers a learning platform, using patented technology of the iCue CueCard. The CueCard is a media player, flash card, note-taking tool, and trading card. The “flip card” technology allows users to watch streaming videos from NBC News and then “flip” the CueCard over for additional information. — Earth Times

Teen Superstar Works To Minimize Technology Gap
Samsung’s Hope For Education program seeks students who attend schools that lack the funding to purchase the kind of technology necessary to keep them competitive with the rest of the world. Students, parents, teachers, administrators and community members are invited to enter 100-word essays in the Hope For Education contest, which runs through Aug. 31, 2008. At www.hopeforeducation.com students can submit an essay that answers the question: “How has technology educated you on helping the environment, and how or why has it changed your behavior to be more environmentally friendly?” — Napsnet.com

IBM Launches Effort to Address Shortage of Hispanic Students in Technology Careers
IBM convened an inaugural summit titled “America’s Competitiveness: Hispanic Participation in Technology Careers,” an effort to bring together leaders in business, education, government, and community organizations to find ways to increase the number of Hispanic students pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering and math in the United States. The effort is aimed at a looming problem resulting from the significant decline in the numbers of Hispanic students pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (or STEM). This decline could affect America’s competitiveness in the increasingly global market. — Marketwire

Cisco Networking Solutions Provide 21st-Century Learning Environment for K-12 Students
Cisco showcased how school district customers are using their networks as platforms for enriching the learning environment, enhancing student performance, improving safety, and reducing operating expenses while preparing students for the future. For school districts in Washington, Florida and British Columbia, the use of advanced Cisco networking technologies such as switching, wireless and service solutions is playing an integral part in the district’s success. — Marketwire

Missing Link of Electronics Discovered: “Memristor”
After nearly 40 years, researchers have discovered a new type of building block for electronic circuits. Researchers believe that the memristor, or memory resistor, might become a useful tool for constructing nonvolatile computer memory, which is not lost when the power goes off, or for keeping the computer industry on pace to satisfy the exponential growth in processing power every 18 months. — Scientific American

OpenSolaris Ready for Prime Time
On May 5 Sun Microsystems will launch a supported version of OpenSolaris at the CommunityOne conference in San Francisco. Sun sees several opportunities for the open-source version of Solaris. For one, it wants OpenSolaris to become a part of the burgeoning cloud computing trend. The company will be working with Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) platform. — PC World

Social networking applications pose risks
People often think Facebook profiles and sometimes MySpace pages, if they’re set as private, are only available to friends or specific groups, such as a university, workplace, or even a city. But that’s not true if they use applications. On Facebook, for instance, applications can only be downloaded if a user checks a box allowing its developers to “know who I am and access my information,” which means everything on a profile, except contact info. So what do these third-parties do with the information? Sometimes, they use it to connect users with similar interests. Sometimes, they use it to target ads, based on demographics such as gender and age (something Facebook and MySpace also do). But experts who track online security issues think there’s too much personal information flying around out there, with few guarantees that it’s safe. They also think social networkers have little understanding where their information goes and how it’s used — and as a result, have a false sense of security. — CNN

Campus Technology 2008 to Explore World of Wikis, Podcasts & MashUps
Campus Technology 2008, the 15th annual higher education technology conference and expo, will open at the Westin Boston Waterfront Hotel in Boston, MA on July 28. This year’s conference, which runs through July 31, focuses on “Web 2.0,” and the cutting-edge communication and collaboration technologies that facilitate creativity, information sharing and community. Under the theme “Welcome to Next-Gen.Edu,” all workshops, general sessions and special MIT campus tours will focus on the applications, software and services that are revolutionizing education throughout the campus. — Business Wire

TargetX Launches Workshop Tour in Four Cities to Help Colleges with Interactive Recruiting
Three of the nation’s experts in interactive student recruiting will lead an intensive one-day workshop aimed at helping college admissions and marketing professionals better understand the tools and techniques for engaging today’s highly social students. TargetX, the leading interactive recruiting firm serving higher education, has created the latest in its popular series of one-day workshops: “Interactive Recruiting Redefined: Online, In Print and In Person.” The workshop will be offered on four dates in four cities: June 26, Las Vegas; July 10, Boston; August 14, Chicago; October 23, Charlotte. — eMedia Wire