Fast disappearing from schools are internet "lock and block" policies that keep students off social media and restrict them to carefully curated websites. Even with sophisticated filters and firewalls, today's learners carry all the access in the world in their back pockets. "We're past trying to stay ahead of the digital native" says Morgen Larsen, […]
Every K12 IT manager wants all school software to work together seamlessly, but incompatible programs often prevent the sharing of key data. From notebooks unable to run the most popular software to communication failures between learning management systems and key learning programs, incompatibility can result in a mess where expensive technology designed to revolutionize instruction […]
KANSAS CITY, Kansas—Superintendent Cynthia Lane learned the cello a few years ago, but not to fulfill some lifelong dream of soloing with the local symphony. The leader of Kansas City, Kansas Public Schools, who played clarinet in high school, now performs alongside fourth- and fifth-graders in their annual spring strings concert. Fifth-graders also spend months […]
As more teaching and learning activities go digital—including homework assignments, organizing classrooms through learning management systems and keeping parents informed through portals—district leaders must find ways to provide 24/7 internet availability to all their students. School officers across the country—such as Keith Bockwoldt, director of technology services at Township High School District 214 in Arlington […]
CIOs can play a key role in their district's efforts to increase parent engagement as part of wider initiatives to advance equity. Providing multilingual content on school websites and apps presents these outreach opportunities—as well as costs and challenges. "The overall benefit is to get the conversation started" says Jason Olsen, communications officer for Salt […]
In four Utica Community elementary schools in metro Detroit, students as young as 10 manipulate and pull apart the organs of the body, build roller coasters, and design and test 3D prototypes. The students wear 3D glasses on their heads; in their hands, they hold specialized styluses to maneuver digital objects projected in space in […]
A large gap between the number of computer science graduates and available jobs has led an increasing number of districts to boost instruction in computational thinking. The concept refers to the thought process of expressing a solution to a problem with a series of sequenced steps, like in a recipe. It's a critical part of […]
Middleton-Cross Plains Area School District, near Madison, Wisconsin, was facing the potential loss of a large number of substitute teachers about four years ago. The pool of substitutes was filled with retired teachers. Due to changes in retirement benefits, retired teachers would not be able to concurrently collect retirement benefits and work as substitute teachers […]
Across the country, youngsters in all grades are connecting with senior citizens on projects that transcend community outreach to provide students with true curricular value. While doing research for National History Day, students in Tea McCaulla's Florida high school stumbled upon Women's Airforce Service Pilots and Letters from Home, a book by World War II […]
When Hopatcong Borough Schools started a 1-to-1 project that distributed 1,450 Chromebooks to its students and staff in 2016, leaders in the northern New Jersey district wondered whether they had enough bandwidth to satisfy the expected demand. They worried the district's 300Mbps connection would slow down or crash, making the new computers about as pedagogically […]
