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NECC Roundup
Anne Wujcik — Thursday, July 02, 2009
Welcome to our NECC 2009 issue. This was a fun meeting, which I think had something to do, at least in part, with being in Washington, DC. There was a sense of new possibilities in the air. There was certainly a lot of energy in the Exhibit Hall. I don’t have the official attendance figures, but I think that attendance was level or maybe down slightly from last year. What really matters is that the educators who were there were focused and enthusiastic. The exhibitors I spoke with were happy with what they described as a “steady” stream of “really smart” visitors to their booths. Read More »
NECC #30
Anne Wujcik — Friday, June 26, 2009
Like many of you, I’ll be heading to Washington on Sunday for the National Education Computing Conference. This meeting marks NECC’s 30th anniversary. The first NECC was held in 1979 in Iowa City, Iowa and there were only two sessions devoted to K-12 education. By the next year in Norfolk, VA, that had grown to five sessions and people like Alfred Bork, Bob Tinker, Dave Morsund and Beverly Hunter were talking about computer literacy, LOGO sand selecting a microcomputer for use in education. That discussion centered on the Apple II, Commodore PET, and TRS-80. Read More »
Education Is on Everyone's Agenda
Anne Wujcik — Friday, June 19, 2009
It was a busy week. Congress turned its attention to educational technology, with the House Education and Labor Committee hearing testimony about how technology and innovative education tools are transforming education and SIIA and SETDA hosting a showcase to allow legislators and aides to experience how some of the technology they’d been hearing about actually works. Pearson and McGraw Hill made moves to highlight their digital strategies for education. The First National Summit kicked off, focused on ways to improve America’s ability to compete in the 21st century. And the Department of Education kept the innovation pot simmering by announcing more details about the Race to the Top. Read More »
Doing School Differently
Anne Wujcik — Friday, June 12, 2009
The three headlines included in this week’s Featured Story section point to three new reports. Each is interesting in its own right and each focuses on major issues that challenge American schooling. Taken together, they highlight the complexity and contradictions that are so much part of the education landscape. How do we pull all these threads together and begin to build that path that will make it possible to “do school differently”? Read More »
Making Data Systems Useful
Anne Wujcik — Friday, June 05, 2009
Data systems were already on my mind after posting Diane Kline's article in today's Community Insight section, when I saw an Education Week headline about an Oklahoma district leading the charge for real-time data. I was pretty sure before I clicked through that they were talking about the Western Heights School District under the leadership of Superintendent Joe Kitchens. You'll want to read Diane's article and check out the Education Week story. Read More »
Some Updates
Anne Wujcik — Friday, May 29, 2009
I came across an interesting news items from the United Kingdom this past week that I’d like to share, as well as a resources that reports on how the states are allocating the money they’re receiving from the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund. The UK story points to an effort by the British government to ensure that all schools introduce a learning platform by 2010. Those of you interested in tracking the distribution of the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund, will want to check out The Ed Money Watch Blog at the New America Foundation web site. Read More »
Virtualization and the Cloud
Anne Wujcik — Friday, May 22, 2009
I’m often struck by how stories come in clumps, focusing attention on one theme or another in the school market. The last few weeks there have been a number of headlines related to virtualization and cloud computing, including announcements from Pano Logic, SIMtone Corporation and NComputing. Dell also announced a new netbook, with the claim that it’s the first netbook developed from the ground up with an eye to the requirements of students and schools. Read More »
Fueling Innovation
Anne Wujcik — Friday, May 15, 2009
I’ve been somewhat pessimistic about the potential for stimulus funding to support or encourage innovation, give the way it is structured and distributed. But a series of interesting developments around the states, some related to the stimulus and the Obama administration’s education policy and some that are next step developments in education market trends are throwing some wild cards into the mix. Read More »
FY 2009 Budget Details
Anne Wujcik — Friday, May 08, 2009
In the wake of the announcement that the Department of Education would release the first part of the Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT/Title IID) funding under the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act by July came the news that the FY 2010 education budget cut EETT funding by $100 million. The White House finally released its detailed FY 2010 education budget. The President has asked for a total of $46.7 billion in discretionary appropriations for the Department of Education. Read More »
NAEP Trends Report
Anne Wujcik — Friday, May 01, 2009
The National Assessment Governing Board released The Nation's Report Card: NAEP 2008 Trends in Academic Progress which paints a mixed picture of the educational progress of students at ages 9, 13, and 17 in reading and mathematics on the NAEP. And Pearson announced an interesting addition to its college-level MyLab product line, this one designed to support pre-service teachers. Read More »
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