District CIO

Queen Bee School District 16
Glendale Heights, Ill.

Benton Harbor Area Schools
Benton Harbor, Mich. 

Bryan Independent School District
Bryan, Texas

Non-profit international, after school, K-12 robotics organization, FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) announced the appointment of Sheri McCoy and Bob Tuttle as board of directors co-chairs and Don Bossi to serve as president effective May 22.

The Federal Communications Commission announced today it has hired Michael Steffan as the director of digital learning. In his new role, Steffen will lead initiatives to expand access to broadband Internet in schools.

Both Houston ISD and South Carolina's Richland 1 School District raised their students' writing scores by training teachers in professional development for the instruction of writing.

Big data is making headlines in education, where schools and technology vendors are using data to customize the learning experience. In response to this trend, this SIIA white paper is a comprehensive road map designed to guide data policies. It includes recommendations for empowering data-driven innovation in education, while addressing privacy concerns.

With so many cloud options, district CIOs should push vendors for details about their security and privacy services. “With the cloud, you have to ask big questions,” says Taiye Lambo, founder of CloudeAssurance. He suggests that CIOs assess three major security areas: confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

Next year, Sherwood, Ore. students will spend three fewer days in class, pay more for high school sports and no longer have specialists teaching technology in elementary school labs. The district proposed $1.72 million in reductions under the 2013-2014 budget unanimously approved by the budget committee.

A student convinced Blackhawk School Board members to videotape their meetings and post the video to the school’s website. Matt Young, a junior who made a presentation at Thursday’s meeting, told the board that video will increase “public access and awareness.”