Educators have seen the excitement and focus that students show when using digital devices. In hopes of increasing attendance, reducing dropout rates, and improving learning overall, more and more superintendents are driving their districts toward a 1-to-1 environment in which students take control of their own learning. The question is no longer…

If district technology leaders had a nickel for every time they heard the phrase "the new normal," they'd have all the money they need to run their IT departments. In an effort to help readers think about their budgets in creative and practical ways, "T.H.E. Journal" and the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) recently convened a panel of CTOs…

The latest compilation from the US Department of Education (from 2010-2011) reports that about 13 percent of public school enrollment consists of students served by special education programs. That count has pretty much stayed the same for the past 13 years. What is different now is that, as technology pervades all aspects of the classroom,…

Eric Sheninger, the principal at New Milford High School in Bergen County, NJ, is well-known in ed tech circles as an evangelist for the use of web 2.0 tools in K-12 education. New Milford has made collaboration a pillar of its educational platform, and Sheninger believes that social media helps students learn how to collaborate. In fact, he…

It's like a dream come true for educators: free resources available wherever a web browser can operate and with nary an iota of advertising. What's not to like? What is it about this organization, whose mission is "to provide a free, world-class education for anyone anywhere," that has provoked such vitriol? Part of it is that when its videos have…

The names of operating systems and devices have been on the lips of unlikely people lately. In this day and age, superintendents, state commissioners of education, and even state legislators certainly should understand and care about technical details, but the author is just not used to hearing such things from them. The reason for the…

Many districts around the country face some issues as they launch their own bring-your-own-device (BYOD) initiatives. Putting aside the instructional questions, the infrastructure issues alone can be daunting. In this article, four K-12 technology leaders from all over the United States describe the paths they took to BYOD, the preparations they…

January brings many opportunities for change. The new year also allows district technology leaders and innovators to reflect on how the rapid pace of technological change is impacting what happens in their classrooms. Instructional technologies that were all the rage a year ago (netbooks) can be swept aside by this year's favorite (iPads).…

When it comes to implementing a large-scale 1-to-1 computing initiative, deciding which device students will use every day to support their learning requires a significant amount of thought and research. Laptop, netbook, Chromebook, tablet--each device has enough similarities to make the decision seem easy, but enough differences to make a big…

Students pick up technology faster than their teacher's. So when it comes to troubleshooting technical headaches in the classroom, it's not surprising that schools are turning to their own best resources--the students themselves. Whether staffing a "genius bar" in the media center or troubleshooting a balky projector, students at some schools are…

The iPad takeover of public education is not just confined to the mainstream classroom: Special needs educators, too, are finding that iPads can be a vital tool to support independence. What sets the iPad apart from other devices is the simple and visually robust user interface that can be used by almost everyone. It is also a highly customizable…

The Mooresville Graded School District may rank 100th out of 115 North Carolina school districts in per-pupil spending. It might serve a community where 40 percent of its students are eligible for free or reduced lunches. Nevertheless, since the initiation of a progressive digital conversion program four years ago, Mooresville has risen from 38th…

Digital text, changes in textbook adoptions, 1-to-1 computing, Common Core standards, the rise in digital learning objects and online curricula, the push for personalized learning--all of these and other factors are part of an ongoing drama in education today that puts the future of curriculum materials very much in play. But thanks to open…

The conventional wisdom in education is that any school reform--be it curriculum, instruction, assessment, or teacher professionalism--is most likely to take hold in schools that have strong leadership. The same holds true for technology. The most successful implementation of technology programs takes place in schools where the principal sees him…

In today's economy, according to a recent "New York Times" article, the value of what Americans get from digital technologies is not calculated as part of the gross domestic product. The GDP only measures the monetary value of the goods and services that Americans pay for, not the information that they gain by using technological…