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Assessment is at the heart of education: Teachers and parents use test scores to gauge a student's academic strengths and weaknesses, communities rely on these scores to judge the quality of their educational system, and state and federal lawmakers use these same metrics to determine whether public schools are up to scratch.

In recognition of such growing concerns about Internet safety, the National Association of Secondary School Principals has adopted a policy statement with recommendations for educators and policymakers about Internet usage. The NASSP recommendations form the cornerstone of CTAP's work in cybersafety education. All school districts can benefit from applying these leadership directives. NASSP recommends that school leaders: Familiarize themselves about all aspects of computer technology, including the mechanics of the Internet, blogs, social networking Web sites, and the liability issues associated with the use of these technologies Form a technology team that comprises staff members, parents and students to act in an advisory capacity to the larger school community Educate staff members and students on using technology within the boundaries of the law Guide teachers and students on how the Internet can serve as effective educational tools Formulate clear guidelines to protect students and teachers against cyber bullying and other criminal activities Conduct orientation sessions for parents regarding student use of the Internet Reinforce these guidelines with parents and encourage vigilance of Internet use at home, including the elimination of derogatory statements against other students or staff.

If you don’t have a good or powerful story, script, and storyboard, then there will never be enough decorating that technology can do to cover it up. On the other hand, demonstrating exemplar craftsmanship with mixing the technical elements in artful ways to unfold your story creates compelling, insightful, original and memorable pieces of communication. The richness of a good story can be diluted when technical elements are not artfully developed, over used, distracting, or just plain annoying.

Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) announced today that should the Federal Communications Commission adopt a framework requiring greater competition and consumer choice, Google intends to participate in the federal government’s upcoming auction of wireless spectrum in the 700 megahertz (MHz) band.

Welcome to the June/July issue of Innovate. This issue opens with two features that explore the characteristics, needs, and expectations of current students in higher education, followed by three features that illustrate specific examples of innovative practice. Our issue then concludes with two features that provide models of faculty development and technology-enhanced teacher education.

by Grace Rubenstein AUDIO SLIDE SHOW: Lawrence Township Narrated by Grace Rubenstein It is one thing to create change inside a classroom -- the best teachers, masters of their one-room domains, break from tradition and foster innovative learning environments all the time. A harder task, which a growing number of schools are proving can be done, is to convert an entire school to embrace new practices that fulfill the changing educational demands of our age. Then comes the next -- and the messiest -- frontier, the entity most resistant to cohesive change: the school district. Five years ago, administrators in the Metropolitan School District of Lawrence Township, in the northeast corner of Indianapolis, tackled this challenge. With a $5.9 million grant from the Lilly Endowment, a local philanthropic organization, they set out to transform the prevailing vision of what preK-12 education is for -- as one district official put it, "to meet the needs of the kids' future, and not the teachers' past." They decided that they needed to teach a modern set of skills in a student-centered way. Critical thinking, self-direction, and cultural competency, along with fluency in technology, information resources, and visual and graphic presentations. These were the elements of digital age literacy the district believed its students would need in the twenty-first century. Educating students for the new era demanded not only new content, they believed, but also new teaching methods. Teachers needed to recast themselves as facilitators, and to demand that students take more ownership of their learning. Into Focus Visit classrooms in Lawrence Township -- at least those where the change has caught on -- and you'll see kids inventing their own projects, using computers in daily work, involving themselves in community initiatives, and inquiring on their own about continued . . . 1234567next ›last » This article was also published in Edutopia Magazine, June 2007