Education IT News for VARs — December 10, 2013
In the news, school technology leaders are challenged to keep up with BYOD, Common Core online testing, and data processing. The Consortium for School Networking encourages schools to form partnerships and use cloud services “outside of district walls.”
Schools Need Bandwidth For BYOD, Common Core Online Tests, Data Processing
An infographic from the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) illustrates how the role of the school technology leader is changing. The biggest concern CoSN identified is trying to find more bandwidth and infrastructure to support BYOD (bring your own device), for online assessments required by Common Core, to keep up with population growth, and to process school data. In addition, CoSN says virtually all tech leader in the U.S. are trying to speed up the transition to digital textbooks. View the infographic at eSchool News.
CoSN Encourages Partnerships, Cloud Services
The CoSN released two reports. In the first, “The ‘Undiscussables’ of Technology Leadership: Engaging in Challenging Conversations,” the CoSN encourages schools to encourage collaboration between technology specialists and curriculum leaders to leverage education technology tools and to continue to move to digital content. The second report, “Technology Department Landscape: That was Then, This is Now!” encourages expanding partnerships with the “outside community,” and using cloud services “outside of district walls” for technology support.
Are iPads Working In Schools?
A Los Angeles Times article reports teachers and administrators differ in their opinions of the success of the $1 billion iPad project in the Los Angeles Unified School District. A survey found only 36 percent of teachers favored continuing the roll out, while 90 percent of admins favored continuing it. Challenges faced by the project began just hours after distribution of iPads, when hundreds of students had already removed security filters. The district then fielded questions arose about responsibility for lost or stolen devices and about curriculum licensing fees. Teachers are frustrated with problems connecting and with sending or receiving data quickly.
Education IT Talking Points
Edudemic offers a list of education technology resources that “are meant to promote modern education and take the classroom organization to the next level.” The list includes ways to make social media useful for education, online tools, and web resources.
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have success in some cases — and have met challenges in others. An Education Dive article lists seven issues MOOCs will face in 2014, including needing to make money, attracting the right students, and putting good data to use.
A surveillance video shows a tornado hitting Southwestern Middle School in Layfayette, IN. The Tippecanoe School Corp. hopes the video will provide information to others on keeping students safe in the event of a natural disaster.
Cal Calamari of Motorola lists “Three Mistakes Schools Make With BYOD,” in a guest column for BSMinfo.
For more news and insights, visit BSMinfo’s Education IT Resource Center.