Moton Elementary School fifth-grade students talked and interacted with Damon Talley just as if he were right in the room with them — only he wasn't.

He was at the Kennedy Space Center, yet he could see the students, call on them and show them cool stuff.

For the first time at Moton, Juretta Carr's science students took advantage of special equipment and a distance learning network, with assistance from Hernando School District instructional technology specialist Roger Cousins, to bring Talley, the Digital Learning Network coordinator at NASA, to the classroom.

The children were enthralled as Talley talked directly with them, illustrated the tendencies of solids and liquids, and showed them things they had never seen before on equipment that most elementary schools don't have.

Continue reading at www.tampabay.com.

We’d like to invite you to come talk about your visions for what Jewish education could be if we “did everything right.”  What are the hallmarks of the best Jewish learning you’ve experienced or imagined, and how could we make these the norm for all Jewish education?

 

The backdrop for this discussion is a new initiative we have launched at the Lippman Kanfer Institute aimed at creating broad-scale change in Jewish education that builds on the many changes already taking place – but largely unconnected to one another – within specific educational arenas – like those we explored this year in our previous FutureTense discussions.  We believe that a number of principles have emerged in recent years, such as learner empowerment, the role of relationships in achieving educational impact, and the centrality of meaning and purpose as educational goals, that are beginning to define a powerful vision of what Jewish education can and should be.  However, in our still siloed educational world, putting these principles into action consistently will require that we forge new coalitions among “changemakers” in various settings and arenas.

 

To kick off this initiative, the Institute is holding a series of conversations among educators and learners to explore their visions for Jewish education.  We held the first of these last week in San Francisco with fascinating results.  So, we thought we would take the opportunity of our scheduled session on June 10 to invite you to be part of a similar conversation here.

 

If you are able and interested in joining us, here are the two questions to think about in advance:

1.                What are you seeing in Jewish education today – programs, people, trends, ideas, etc. – that excites and energizes you?

2.                What do you imagine Jewish education could look like in ten years if we do things “right”?

 

The conversation will happen Thursday, June 10th 5:00 PM at the JESNA Office in NYC.

If you are interested in being part of the conversation, please let Becca Leshin know at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

 

 

Alarmed at what they see as a potential setback in federal support for education technology, several dozen state and national education groups and high-tech companies have sent letters to House and Senate lawmakers, urging them to continue funding the Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) block-grant program in fiscal 2011.

The letters expressed concerns about President Obama’s budget proposal, which would fold EETT—the largest single source of federal funding for school technology equipment, support, and professional development—into a new competitive grant program that aims to promote effective teaching and learning.

According to federal officials, this new initiative would “include a focus on integrating technology into instruction and using technology to drive improvements in teaching and learning” throughout all subject areas.

Continue reading at http://www.eschoolnews.com/2010/05/14/education-groups-rally-support-for-eett/.

The Carnegie Science Center has won $200,000 in the MacArthur Digital Media and Learning Competition for a new project designed to get more girls engaged in science and gaming technology.

The project, Click!Online, will be a Web-based game for girls featuring a fictional "spy school" called the Click! Agency. Through the agency, girls will network to solve mysteries in biomedical science, environmental protection and expressive technology. Meanwhile, online "senior agents" will mentor the players, emphasizing critical thinking, problem solving, group sourcing and social action to solve real-world challenges. Spy girls can share results with each other around the world.

The Science Center's award was one of 10 announced Monday, chosen from a pool of 800 applicants from 32 countries. They will share $1.7 million to use on games, mobile phone applications, virtual worlds and social networks.

The prize is funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, which also gives the so-called "genius" awards to innovators in many fields.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10138/1058889-51.stm#ixzz0orV6WeFw

Electronic textbooks are closer to becoming a reality in Texas classrooms. Already, many are picturing classrooms where textbooks exist on the Internet or on Kindle-like devices.

In Lina Miller's Kindergarten classroom at Great Oaks Elementary in Round Rock, the children sit on the floor watching for their voice and animal pictures to pop up on the television screen.

They created Voice Threads. The students used the Internet to research an animal, and then used the computer to draw the animal. Then they used the computers again to record short story voice-overs. Ms. Miller's class is Internet savvy. They are excited about the idea of electronic textbooks.

They already refer to the Internet often when books seem out of date.

"A lot of books we have still say that Pluto is our planet," says Kindergarten teacher Lina Miller. "Whereas the new information out there online (says) it's not an actual planet, it's a dwarf planet. We use the internet to kind of check."

Electronic textbooks are closer to becoming a reality in Texas classrooms. Already, many are picturing classrooms where textbooks exist on the Internet or on Kindle-like devices.

In Lina Miller's Kindergarten classroom at Great Oaks Elementary in Round Rock, the children sit on the floor watching for their voice and animal pictures to pop up on the television screen.

They created Voice Threads. The students used the Internet to research an animal, and then used the computer to draw the animal. Then they used the computers again to record short story voice-overs. Ms. Miller's class is Internet savvy. They are excited about the idea of electronic textbooks.

They already refer to the Internet often when books seem out of date.

"A lot of books we have still say that Pluto is our planet," says Kindergarten teacher Lina Miller. "Whereas the new information out there online (says) it's not an actual planet, it's a dwarf planet. We use the internet to kind of check."

Continue reading at http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/education/the-web-could-soon-replace-textbooks.