Education IT News For VARs — February 14, 2014
By Amy Taylor, contributing writer
While winter weather interrupts school systems across the country, technology steps up to help parents track their children’s school buses. Also, Utah presents its technology plan, and MOOCs set sights on high school classrooms.
App Helps Boston As Snow Complicates School Systems Nationwide
Government Technology showcased the Where’s My School Bus app as an essential technology during the winter blizzards. An analysis of the city’s needs and highest priorities during severe winter weather put parent and student travel communication at the top of the list.
Infrastructure And Training At The Heart Of New Education Technology Bill
The Deseret News said that the school technology plan would begin with infrastructure and training in Utah. The initiative to bring learning devices, such as a tablet or other personal computing device, to every Utah public school student estimates a total cost of between $200 million and $300 million. The proposed bill would begin by upgrading the infrastructure, while also investing in teacher and administrative training to effectively implement the technology.
While Schools Quickly Collect Snow Days, MOOCs Find High School Platform
NEA Today said that MOOCs are setting sights on the high school classroom with a “hybrid” approach that would employ technology in a flexible way. This combines the best online learning with face-to-face instruction. The NEA acknowledges the need for 21st century high school students to “master digital tools” and “develop the initiative to become self-directed learners.”
Education IT Talking Points
The Huffington Post claims in a recent article that Market Values Are Not MOOC Values. Two historians are preparing to launch Cornell’s first MOOCs, American Capitalism: A History, and they believe MOOCs can transform higher education and enhance the role of traditional teaching.
The Record Online said that Gov. Andrew Cuomo Finally Forms Common Core Panel, presumably taking the first step in overhauling the Common Core learning standards in New York.
KFGO-AM reported Moorhead’s Public School District is adding up to 500 new security cameras as part of a four-year plan to upgrade all security cameras to digital cameras. Administrators say the upgrades are not directly connected to a series of alleged sexual assaults involving a Moorhead High School student.
For more news and insights, visit BSMinfo’s Education IT Resource Center.