District CIO

Located on the Northeast Ohio Medical University campus, the Bio-Med Science Academy, a year-round public high school, is bringing opportunity to rural students who may be interested in pursuing careers in science and medicine.

In a recently released study, Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen introduces a fundamentally new concept into the world of disruptive innovation: the theory of hybrids.

The nonprofit assessment and analytics organization – also called ACT – announced last week that it will take its flagship test online in 2015. Students shouldn't toss their bubbled answer sheets just yet, though. ACT will pilot the online delivery in select high schools before making it available for all test takers.

This summer, Ridgewood (N.J.) Public Schools students will get more access to the district's digital library. In addition, for the first time, soon-to-be high school freshmen and some upperclassmen will receive online textbooks for their biology, algebra I and II, art history, and AP chemistry classes.

One of northeast Florida’s fastest-growing tech companies is launching a trade school program for .NET Framework developers. In August, Pragmatic Works will open Vivo School, an 18-week accelerated training program that will give students Microsoft certification preparation, help them create a portfolio of real-world projects, and spend time developing actual corporate client projects.

Only about one in four students in many of the public schools’ top tech programs is a girl, a statistic that mirrors women’s participation in tech jobs nationwide. As a result, city educators are trying to introduce more girls to STEM, but many say there’s more to it than just getting the word out.

Big data, open content, mobile learning, and digital printing are just some of the big themes represented in this year’s "NMC Horizon Report: 2013 K12 Edition." The report is a collaboration between the New Media Consortium, the Consortium for School Networking, and the International Society for Technology in Education.

In an age of declining budgets and disappearing arts programs, technology could help make music education more feasible—a hackathon hosted by Spotify and the New York City Department of Education is an early step.

In September, Glacier Hills Elementary School (Eagan, Minn.), a science magnet school, will open a new laboratory that combines science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics. The "STEAM room" will allow students to create objects using new tools, such as a 3D printer and laser etcher, when exploring scientific concepts.

The Lenawee Intermediate School District (Adrian, Mich.) opened the Center for a Sustainable Future, a $4 million, 9,000-square-foot building. The school and its surrounding 75 acres of fields and forests will serve as a living laboratory for the future of agriculture.