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

Next-Gen Educator Earns USDLA Award for Innovative Mediasite Course
A professor and her Mediasite coursecast won the highest accolades at the United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) National Conference. Professor Diane Zorn won the USDLA Excellence in Teaching for Online Distance Learning award for her use of Sonic Foundry’s market-leading webcasting platform in a fully-online, rich media Philosophy course at York University. — PRNewswire

The Boston Digital Bridge Foundation Wins National Verizon Tech Savvy Award
The Boston Digital Bridge Foundation’s Technology Goes Home @ School Program at the Lilla G. Frederick Middle School has been selected as the national winner of the Second Annual Verizon Tech Savvy Awards. Through the Technology Goes Home program, Boston public school teachers provide computer and technology training to students and their parents after school or on weekends. — Media Newswire

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

Outsell, Inc. Issues Trio of Reports Analyzing Markets for Education Content, Technology, and Related Services
Outsell, Inc. has published three significant reports as part of its recently expanded education coverage. The reports examine what educators are doing with information, identifying what those at the forefront are using, and where they are investing: K-12 Education Market 2007: Key Trends and Dynamics, Mainstreaming K-12 Special Needs Students: Impact on Products and Services, and Digital Content: Analyzing Demand in the Postsecondary Education Market. — BusinessWire

Study: Teens See Disconnect Between Personal and School Writing
Students see a distinction between the writing they do for school and the writing they do in their personal lives. While the vast majority of 12- to 17-year-olds (85 percent) engage in some form of electronic writing–IM, e-mail, blog posts, text messages, etc.–most (60 percent) don’t consider this actual writing. That’s one of the findings from a study released last week by the Pew Internet & American Life Project and the National Commission on Writing for America’s Families, Schools and Colleges.However, 64 percent admitted that conventions from their informal writing do creep into their formal writing occasionally (such as the use of emoticons and common abbreviations, like LOL). The study, Writing, Technology and Teens, involved 700 students aged 12 to 17 and their parents. — The Journal

More than scores, the quality of education is what matters: study
As the center of gravity of technology development and innovation shifts to emerging economies, developed nations have begun taking stock of their science and math education, believed to be determinants of a country’s place in the new global economy. But two articles in Thursday’s issue of the journal Nature say caution is needed so that we do not create policies that overstock the science and technology workforce. The authors dispel some of the myths associated with international science and math testing scores, and also point out how school teaching has lagged even in continental Europe. — LiveMint

Study challenges stereotype of tech entrepreneurs
Twenty-somethings with dreams of starting technology companies shouldn’t worry about competing with each other. It’s their parents they need to watch out for. Twice as many U.S.-born tech entrepreneur start ventures in their 50s as do in their early 20s, according to a study released on May 1 by the Kansas City-based Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. Results challenge the stereotype of the typical tech entrepreneur as college-age whiz kids. — Kansas City Business Journal

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

Building Powerful and Robust Websites with Drupal 6, is authored by David Mercer and published by Packt Publishing (http://www.packtpub.com/drupal-6-create-powerful-websites/book)

The code is available for free at http://www.drupal.org.  According to many programmers, Drupal code is excellent.  It’s easy to set up, intuitive, flexible and scalable.

This book guides users and helps them create

1.  Community portal sithes

2.  Intranet sites

3.  Directories

4.  Share/discuss pages

5.  Social networking

6.  Educational learning communities

The book leads the reader through a step-by-step process of setting oneself to be the administrator of the content management system. The process is perhaps a bit daunting for the novice, but an experienced network or server administrator will probably not have any problems in installing server-side software (Apache2Triad).

The book goes through Drupal’s functionality:  modules, blocks, links:  how to manage modules and workflow.

It also discusses site configuration, with directory structure, in order to maximize the unique attributes of Drupal and its power to effectively manage, manipulate, and deploy content.  Drupal can accommodate a wide range of content types, including blog entry, book page, forum topic, page, poll, and story (which could be short-lived announcements or other kinds of ephemera).

In addition to delving into how best to manage basic content as well as advanced content, Building Powerful and Robust Websites with Drupal 6 explores image and aesthetics.  It also works with the management of backups.

This book is indispensable for anyone who needs an open-source content management system and is willing to invest in creating one from the ground up.  Nevertheless, not everyone will have the time to devote, and would benefit from a small library of pre-prepared solutions.  If the book came bundled with a few templates, or an access code for downloads on the web, many of the barriers and obstacles that face programmers as they weigh open-source vs. commercial solutions would be overcome.

posted by susan  

Adult workers have a lot to learn online
Societies that are serious about raising their standard of living should focus on enhancing the productivity of parents rather than boosting teenage test scores. Ageing populations of Europe, China and North America increasingly enjoy long and healthy lives. Yet as they grow older, wealth creation depends on the ability to acquire and convert information, skills and technologies into new value. — Ninemsn, Australia

Radio, ‘older’ tech remain relevant in ICT for education
Unless universal broadband Internet access becomes available to all Filipinos, traditional technologies such as radio will remain a relevant tool in the delivery of education in remote areas in the country. This was the finding of a foundation helping local communities harness information and communications technology for education and learning. — Inquirer.net, Philippines

EF Education First Selects Omniture to Optimise Their International Business Operations
Omniture, Inc., a leading provider of online business optimization software, announced it has been chosen by EF Education First, the world’s largest education company, to help optimize their international business operations, better convert Web site visits into enquiries and improve online sales. — Market Wire

Open-source students get mentoring help
Junior programmers are to get mentoring help, following the granting of nearly $600,000 in funding to set up an Open Source Learning Laboratory. The learning centre will use an online mentoring model, where senior programmers mentor juniors in a structured way, within a pedagogical framework, says Richard Wyles, director of the Open Source Learning Laboratory project. — Computerworld New Zealand

NASA Offers Educational Online Gaming Opportunity to Developers
NASA Learning Technologies sponsored a workshop to present its concept of delivering NASA content through a Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) educational game to interested development partners. Designed to enhance learning in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), such an online educational game would draw players into a synthetic environment that can serve as a powerful “hands-on” tool for teaching a range of complex subjects. — NASA

Oberon Media Unifies Publishing Division under New I-play Brand
Oberon Media, a leading multi-platform casual games company, unveiled a new brand identity that communicates the scope of the company’s newly integrated publishing division. The consolidation around the new I-play brand affords developers, licensors, and content partners looking to introduce or expand their intellectual property, access to a single, multi-platform publishing powerhouse. — Ad-Hoc-News