Schools Expect to Swap Textbooks for Digital Ones

In Singapore, more classrooms will be digital in the future. More students can soon replace bound texts with Tablet PCs.

The Backpack.net centre, located on the grounds of the National Institute of Education, aims to bring digital learning to schools also in Korea, Malaysia and Indonesia.

I wonder what the relative cost will be for a Tablet PC for each student vs. multiple printed hardcopy textbooks? Someone must have run these estimates, or investments if you please. I'll see what I can find.

Summer Academy for Talented Youth 2007

Vanderbilt University offers a Summer Academy 2007 (VSA) for talented youth, rising 8th to 12th grades.

... highly gifted students can soar—learning at a rapid pace in a true community of peers. Students have the opportunity to flex their intellectual muscles, make lifelong friends, and have lots of fun ...

Check it out, Students. Here's another credit/application-entry-item and more skills you can add to your toolbox for applying successfully to the university of your choice.

Ask your teachers for help in applying, but expect to carry your own water as a demonstration of part of your qualification for admission.

If it doesn't work out for you this summer, note the week-end and other programs available for talented youth, including for those of you in kindergarten.

Also, other universities offer similar programs. See Stanford, Duke, ...

Be sure to ask if they support you using your Tablet PC or UMPC. The answers may please you!

2008 Tablet PC Academy

Rob Mancabelli, Director of Information Systems at Hunterdon Central School District, Flemington, New Jersey, invites teachers to consider attending their 2008 Tablet PC Academy, July 15-17 and July 22-24.

Rob said in an email, Our teachers began using tablet PCs 4 years ago, and it has evolved into a District-wide initiative where over 250 teachers use tablet PCs each day in conjunction with a wireless projector and wireless connectivity. It has had an amazing effect on the integration of technology into instruction and has improved teaching and learning outcomes across our classes. In fact, Purdue University Press just published the findings of one of our research studies in a book called Beyond the Tipping Point which illustrates the implementation of pen technologies in education.

As a Tablet PC Cohort teacher said about using a tablet in the classroom, “This has been the most fun and exciting [time] of my teaching career -- after 14 years, that's saying a lot” (title page).

And that's just the beginning of useful information in this research report.

The Academy appears to address important points for teachers wanting to use Tablet PCs and other mobile PCs in classrooms:

􀂾 Learn practical applications for tablet PC integration in your classrooms

􀂾 Use the tablet to increase student engagement

􀂾 Practice productivity tips

􀂾 Share knowledge with colleagues

􀂾 Collaborate with other professionals

􀂾 Understand how to plan a successful tablet PC program

Kudos, Rob, your IT team, and school personnel from Board of Education, administrators, and instruction and support staff for setting a brisk pace by demonstrating how public schools can use mobile PC technology to increase student learning.

And thanks, community tax payers, for supporting and encouraging this bold move to provide contemporary schooling practices for your young people.

Thanks, Rob, for reminding me of your program! Let us know of your progress. Many of us are interested.

Call for Fordham Scholar Grants

(The program) ... aims to fund junior researchers working on key issues in American K-12 education.

The foundation will award three to five grants ranging from $15,000 to $25,000 each year.

Advanced doctoral students and junior faculty members--especially those in economics, law, political science, and public policy--are invited to apply for these grants.

This year's theme: The Courts and K-12 Education. Successful projects will examine how the courts (state, federal, etc.) may affect the ability of educators, policymakers, and entrepreneurs to foster stronger pupil achievement; greater choices for families; more efficient school operations; promising innovations in curriculum, instruction, school organization and, leadership; and sound, workable accountability mechanisms.

Under the topic of "School finance litigation and its effect on sound budgetary practices," I wonder who might submit a proposal to examine the redeployment of budget items from, say, personnel (administrative?) lines, to Tablet PC, and other mobile PC equipment purchases and support in order to increase teaching-learning efficiency.

Or perhaps, under the topic "Special education litigation (and costs)," to analyze the extent to which special education funds may be used to purchase and maintain mobile PCs for special education students to complete successfully more regular curricula than now.

State High School Exit Exams: Working to Raise Test Scores

The Center on Education Policy released the report State High School Exit Exams: Working to Raise Test Scores.

... the Center’s findings indicate that the exams are having a major impact in influencing curriculum and instruction, especially for disadvantaged students. To develop a better understanding of this relationship, the Center recommends that states take steps to monitor the effectiveness of high school exit exams as a tool for influencing and advancing curriculum, instruction and student performance.

“States have poured valuable resources into exit exams without seemingly having a clear purpose for their use,” said Jack Jennings, president & CEO of the enter. “And regardless of the aim of the tests, they are having a major impact on classroom teaching and learning, which leads to serious questions about the rigor of state standards and tests.”

More than half of the exit exam states reported providing targeted funding or technical assistance intended to close achievement gaps in mathematics (14 states) and reading/language arts (15 states).

Programs often included funding specifically to help English language learners, disabled, and low-income students.

States reported that students with disabilities are the at-risk group whose performance is most difficult to lift.

State exams equate to 10th grade performance expectations, and do not indicate a graduate is prepared for college or for work.

The Center on Education Policy is a national, independent advocate for public education and for more effective public schools. They do not represent any special interests and try to help make sense of conflicting opinions and perceptions about public education in order to help create conditions that may lead to better public schools.

From Tech to Teaching

The Associated Press published a story about Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's bet of using experienced scientists and engineers nearing the end of the professional careers to help ease the shortage of math and science teachers in California.

The $12 million initiative, part of his 2007-08 budget proposal, would be a small step toward addressing the state's acute teacher shortage.

Better trained math and science students will strengthen the California labor pool and businesses that rely on sophisticated math and science employees.

He wants to encourage retirees to contribute their experience to their replacements. IBM and six other companies already have signed on to the venture, dubbed EnCorps. Its goal is to recruit 2,000 would-be teachers during the first two years after the program is funded. Their companies will provide up to $15,000 per teacher candidate, with no limit on the number of participants. Candidates will collect their retirement benefits along with their teachers' salaries.

Participants in the new program must have a bachelor's degree, allowing them to earn a teaching credential in one year. They would be required to pass the same tests as other teachers.

Now, let's support them with infrastructurre so they will bring their Tablet PCs, UMPCs, and other mobile PCs into classrooms.

Teacher Prep at High Tech High

Erik W. Robelen reports that The California Commission on Teacher Credentialing has approved High Tech High to certify teachers in mathematics, science, English, history/social studies, Spanish, Mandarin, and art through its Teacher Intern Program.

High Tech High leaders say establishing formal programs for educators was a natural outgrowth of a school climate that by design fosters adult learning.

“We already have lots of contexts within the teacher’s day where teachers reflect on their practice and do planning together,” said Robert C. Riordan, High Tech High’s director of instructional support.

The program will have distinguished visiting faculty members, including Mr. Vander Ark (former official of the Bill and Milenda Gates Foundation), who is now the executive director of the X Prize Foundation in Santa Monica, Calif., and Theodore R. Sizer, the founder of the Oakland, Calif.-based Coalition of Essential Schools and a former dean of the Harvard education school.