The author has been a witness to the birth of the personal computer culture, with its intense one-on-one relationships with machines, and then to the development of the networked culture, with people using the computer to communicate with each other. In her most recent work on the revolutions in social networking and sociable robotics, she sees a…

A larger scale context for power teaching includes ideas from Duane Elgin, Lester Brown, Al Gore and many others. Collectively, they say the convergence of systems level global problems without national borders place before humankind a choice the species has never encountered in 195,000 years of life on "Spaceship Earth." In Elgin's…

In the tug-of-war between researchers and IT for supercomputing resources, a centralized approach can help both sides get more bang for their buck. As 2010 began, the University of Washington was preparing to launch its first shared high-performance computing cluster, a 1,500-node system called Hyak, dedicated to research activities. Like other…

This article presents an interview with Kathy Schrock, Administrator for Technology for the Nauset Public Schools on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. She is currently a member of the the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Board of Directors. She has been an administrator for technology, a technology coordinator, a library media…

The growing national awareness of the importance of technical skills for "all students" opens up a tremendous opportunity for today's technology teachers. In this interview, Cary Sneider of the National Center for Technological Literacy at the Museum of Science, Boston, talks about how technology educators can establish clear standards…

Explores technology planning possibilities via interviews with a district-level technology director, a state instructional technology director, and a state administrative technology director. Schools' biggest planning challenges are funding, professional development, and technology integration. The Web browser is becoming a "universal…

One of the most prominent engineers and entrepreneurs in the country, Dr. Randal D. Pinkett keeps a high profile on issues related to minorities, technology and education. The holder of five degrees, Pinkett has built an academic record that includes a doctorate and MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He was also named a…

Describes a pilot program in which grade-seven and grade-eight girls with varied academic histories and cultural backgrounds signed up for an after-school club where they learned to use the Internet to communicate with volunteer high school and adult mentors. Emphasizes the importance of mentoring to provide a personal bridge between middle school…

New economic strategies used by states are described, and case studies of the recent innovations in economic development policies of Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Michigan are presented. A number of programs in other states are briefly reviewed, and various models of state intervention are evaluated, along with the principles that underlie…