A new, comprehensive PD solution is now available to help educators achieve their ultimate goal of positively impacting student achievement in the classroom. To complement the extensive technology training and tech integration projects already available to subscribers through its website, Atomic Learning adds these high-impact courses facilitated by live instructors.

"Using technology alone is not enough for students," said Cindy Johanson, executive director of The George Lucas Educational Foundation, publisher of Edutopia. "Training teachers to effectively integrate technology in the classroom will help engage students and create an interactive learning environment."

View the findings at http://shar.es/mUywB

Washington, D.C. (June 8, 2010) - The Education Division of the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) announces the release of its most recent report on the K-12 and postsecondary education technology markets - officially titled the SIIA Trends Report for Education Technology.

Authored by various members of the education industry, the report highlights industry shifts and emerging trends as they relate to five main topics: K-12 learning management systems, postsecondary learning management systems, online learning, state of the states, and mobile computing.

"The purpose of this report was to identify the opportunities, challenges and potential areas for growth in K-12 and higher education institutions with regards to education technology.  We aimed to find where technology has the greatest impact and where it can provide the most prolific benefits moving forward," said Karen Billings, vice president of SIIA's Education Division.

Read the rest of this article

A recent column by Michelle Singletary, a personal finance columnist at the Washington Post, caught my eye. "We are Flunking Personal Finance" looks at a recent study by the University of Wisconsin at Madison entitled Teachers' Background & Capacity to Teach Personal Finance. The study indicates that less than 20% of K12 teachers feel they were “very competent” in the six areas of financial literacy focused on in the study.

Funding for Classroom Technology is in jeopardy!  Join ISTE members and education technology advocates from across the country for a day of blogging and tweeting in support of 21^st century learning.

President Obama’s budget provides no funding for education technology.  The Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) program, which was funded at $100 million in 2010, is rolled into a the new program “Effective Teaching and Learning for a Complete Education.”
Without funds specifically set aside to pay for education technology the administration’s messaging about the importance of technology for classroom teaching and learning rings hollow. If education technology is so important, why has the proposed 2011 budget eliminated funding for the only dedicated ed tech funding program?

Although the President has recommended to eliminate funding for EETT, Congress does not have to agree with this recommendation.  ISTE is urging congress to fund education technology at at $500 million for next year. To get this issue on congress’ agenda we need to tell  policymakers that we are not going to take the loss of EETT quietly.

On Wednesday, May 12 we are going to flood the Web with messages in support of funding for education technology. We’ll provide some Twitter messages to get you started, but we’re asking for a major effort from all the ed tech bloggers, tweeters, Facebookers and Ning-regulars out there to write in support of dedicated federal funding for education technology.

Keep watching ISTE Connects for information on how you can help secure $500 million for ed tech in 2011. Together we can make our voices heard!

http://www.isteconnects.org/2010/05/06/join-the-campaign-tweet-and-blog-for-ed-tech-may-12/

Most of those things don't seem very long ago, do they? Are you keeping up?

New and expanded tutorial series
Safari 4
As stated by Apple®: "It’s a browser. It’s a platform. It’s an open invitation to innovate. Safari® continuously redefines the browser, providing the most enjoyable way to experience the Internet."

View 2 free tutorials

Word 2010
Microsoft® Word 2010 offers the best of all worlds: enhanced features to create professional-quality documents, easier ways to work together with people and almost-anywhere access to your files. Use this introductory level tutorial series to watch, listen, and learn the basics of how to create high-quality documents that you can be proud of.

View 2 free tutorials

PixWriter 3
PixWriter™ is a talking picture and word processing program designed for beginning and struggling readers and writers. The program combines print, pictures, and speech allowing users to compose written documents even if knowledge of sound-symbol relationships, spelling, and alphabet skills have not been mastered. Teachers can quickly create a customized word bank that includes symbols for students to use for writing.

View 2 free tutorials

Social media addiction. Crackdowns on abuse. Passion for progress. Differing opinions have come to a head this week between those who would retain or recover pre-information-age social qualities and those who believe online social tools are an inevitability to be harnessed and prepared for.

Click here to register for this FREE event

In order for students to have 21st century skills to succeed and compete in today's global workplace, districts first need to develop those skills in their teachers. How do you build a professional development program that creates a solid understanding of the skills and develop the ability to integrate them into the classroom?

Join us as a panel from Lincoln Public Schools shares best practices and collaboration between departments to create a successful training and staff development program to help their teachers – and students – succeed with 21st century learning.

Read about the presenters

I admit that I've been skeptical about the usefulness of the iPad to those of us who like to create content and share information as well as take it in. Sure, it's been billed as a game-changer, but it's also been described as a consumption-only device, not having much ability to store files or spread them around. Many a blog post and Twitter tweet express concern about Apple's tight control over usability and content.

There's a debate ongoing over whether technology in schools should really be invisible. One blogger argues that technology should never be a hurdle to leap before learning, and one says it's critical to understand how technology works to alter our living environments.

Although funding concerns remain, the National Ed-Tech Plan is a promising start, ed-tech advocates say.

The new National Education Technology Plan, released March 5, sets an ambitious agenda for using technology to transform teaching and learning, ed-tech advocates say–and a call to action that is long overdue.

The plan, called “Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology,” calls for engaging and empowering learning experiences for all students; standards and assessments that measure key 21st-century skills and expertise; a shift to a model of “connected teaching,” in which teams of interconnected educators replace solo classroom practitioners; always-on connectivity that is available to students and teachers both inside and outside of school; and a rethinking of basic assumptions, such as seat time, that limit schools’ ability to innovate.

 Read more at eschoolnews.com

With the phrase “21st century skills” popping up all over the place, it is impossible not to notice that 21st century skills is a hot topic in education. What seems to be the consensus now is that even though it is clear that these skills are important, many schools are still struggling to create 21st century-ready students. To help, Atomic Learning and ISTE have partnered to lead a discussion on 21st century skills professional development strategies.

One of the themes that I regularly encounter in my social media wandering is that technology should never be employed simply to be "high tech". Doing so misses the whole point, which is to engage students and enable them to learn in new ways and collaborate on a higher level. Putting a whiteboard on the wall or a laptop in a student's hands accomplishes virtually nothing without proper technique.

Here's a funny representation of tech for tech's sake. Believe it or not, some classrooms aren't far from this scenario.

This project by PBS and the MacArthur and Park Foundations aligns well with recent posts on digital learning. It starts this evening.

More and more educators are tapping into the power of digital media and technology for teaching and learning. The variety of information resources available online is simply staggering. Explore how teachers and students are using the power of social media to promote students' active engagement, critical thinking and literacy skills.

Atomic Learning is a partner in this series of interactive events. Join us February 25 in Vegas!

Thursday, February 25, 2010Loews Lake Las Vegas
101 Montelago Boulevard
Henderson, NV 89011

HP, Intel, and our partners have joined forces with Tech & Learning to bring you the new 2010 HP & IntelDigital Learning Event Series.

In a recent post I mentioned how the public often reacts strongly to the idea of new technology being used in the classroom. Perhaps one mistake we make is to not reassure them that good ol' fashioned teaching is still taking place, and that these new tools are only augmenting the traditional education they're afraid of losing.

One school in Minnesota is doing it very well:

Anyone who has attempted to pass a public funding referendum for education knows how difficult it can be to convince John and Jane Q. Public of the merits of certain types of teaching.

After a decade or more online, many of us have become jaded or indifferent to the hostility people sometimes show toward each other in the relative anonymity of the web. If we stray outside social internet communities that are rooted in our physical ones, we find people we're likely to never meet, and they often don't show us the same respect or decency that they would face-to-face. Eventually we may reach a plateau of tolerance that's much higher than it should be, especially when children  are involved.

This speaks for itself. I'll let it.

National Thrift Week had a 50-year run in our history before being dispensed with in the 1960s. It began on Jan. 17, 1916—the birthday of Benjamin Franklin, the “American Apostle of Thrift”—and soon spread to more than 300 communities. Everyone from the YMCA to the Jewish Welfare Board to the National Education Association sponsored the event. Indeed, educators, partnering with financial institutions and businesses, played a key role in promoting thrift during the week.

Happy new year to all our readers, customers, and educators everywhere. To kick off 2010, here are some interesting looking Tweets from today. New to Twitter? Be our guest with these two free tutorials. 

chollingsworth

We've released a big batch of new tutorials this week, starting with a series on OpenOffice, the free, open-source productivity alternative.

OpenOffice.org 3.1 Writer - Intro (PC)
http://www.atomiclearning.com/k12/en/oow31_intro

OpenOffice.org 3.1 Calc - Intro (PC)
http://www.atomiclearning.com/k12/en/ooc31_intro

OpenOffice.org 3.1 Impress - Intro (PC)

Nineteen states have enacted legislation to prevent cyberbullying. Each state has different requirements as to how the policies are implemented; some have introduced new laws where as others have modified previous laws to include various pieces of electronic equipment.