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PBS program "Design Squad Nation" has announced it will partner with Rocket21 to engage its community of tweens in the show's content and activities to help meet the demand for engineers in the job market in the years to come.

The use of social media is important to the venture, both through the Design Squad Nation and Rocket21 sites and through other social media sites. More information on Rocket21 can be found by liking Rocket21 on Facebook at facebook.com and by following Rocket21 on Twitter at twitter.com. Viewers also can follow Design Squad Nation on Facebook at facebook.com and through Design Squad Nation’s Twitter feed at twitter.com.

A growing number of schools across the nation are embracing the iPad as the latest tool to teach Kafka in multimedia, history through “Jeopardy”-like games and math with step-by-step animation of complex problems.

The iPads cost $750 apiece, and they are to be used in class and at home during the school year to replace textbooks, allow students to correspond with teachers and turn in papers and homework assignments, and preserve a record of student work in digital portfolios.

“IPads are marvelous tools to engage kids, but then the novelty wears off and you get into hard-core issues of teaching and learning.”

Twenty participants in 14 states, including districts, individual schools and town libraries, were chosen to receive a portion of a $9 million grant from the FCC to fund their mobile learning initiatives that will provide students Internet access during after-school hours on mobile learning devices.

Participants for the program, officially known as the E-Rate Deployed Ubiquitously Wireless Pilot Program, were chosen based on how innovative and comprehensive their mobile plans were.

San Diego will receive support to integrate 24/7 online learning into its entire curriculum to serve 6th graders in 10 middle schools. Each student will receive a laptop with wireless connectivity, providing them access to the online curriculum beyond school hours.

Sixth grade: Sixty-nine students, 1-2 hours a week, 45 percent passed. Of those who did not pass, four students gained more than a year’s progress in math on the TAKS test. Sevents grade: Twenty-six students 1-2 hours a week, 65 percent passed. Of those who did not pass, 3 students gained more than a year’s progress in math on the TAKS test. Eighth grade: Sixty students 1-2 hours a week, 63 percent passed. Of those who did not pass, 12 students gained more than a year’s progress in math on the TAKS test. After the second administration of the TAKS test, the total eighth grade pass rate rose from 74 percent to 86 percent. The only real difference was the use of Ascend Math for three weeks, where students worked six to nine hours a week before the second administration of the test. We had a few eighth grade students who have never passed a TAKS math in middle school or their entire academic lives until this year. We attribute this to the use of Ascend Math.

A major aspect was getting students to work on the program with fidelity. After meeting with students and parents, a rigorous schedule was implemented, along with automatic daily reminder phone calls and second calls to parents to inform them of the next day’s schedule. Students who missed a tutorial session are assigned a makeup day.

Parental buy in was important!