Updated : May 31, 2011
Tablet PCs Change Korea's Educational Environment
Tablet PCs are taking the world's IT market by storm.
Korea is no exception to the trend, with tablet PC users roaming its streets everywhere.
Now, tablet PCs are transforming not just the way we live but also the way we learn.
We're now at an elementary school in Incheon, where students are taking lessons at a whole new level.
On their desks are tablet PCs and electronic pens instead of the usual paper and pencils.
This is a classroom of the digital age.
This school is currently conducting digital textbook lessons for 4th and 5th graders.
[Interview : Han Gyeong-su, Vice Principal
Incheon Samsan Elementary School] "The digital textbook is a technology combining reference books, exercise books and other resources into one device. It could totally change our educational paradigm."
These lessons are conducted using digital textbooks, which are tablet PCs with a touch screen and keyboard.
"June 8, 2011, 7:01 pm
By Marc Parry
A budget approved by a legislative committee last week would force the University of Wisconsin to return $39-million in federal grants awarded to expand high-speed Internet access across the state, state education officials said.
The plan would also require all University of Wisconsin institutions to withdraw from WiscNet, a nonprofit network cooperative that services the public universities, most of the technical and private colleges in Wisconsin, about 75 percent of the state's elementary and high schools, and 95 percent of its public libraries, according to David F. Giroux, a spokesman for the university system. (...)
Another provision in the plan would bar any University of Wisconsin campus from participating in advanced networks connecting research institutions worldwide, according to Mr. Evers's memo. For example, the Madison campus would have to withdraw from Internet2, a high-speed networking consortium, said Mr. Giroux."
That's what Lessig had in mind when he said:
"Think about the question of broadband policy. (…) The US has been a dismal failure in this respect. As we watch the US going from number 1 in broadband penetration, now to, depending on the scale, number 18, 19, or 28.
And that change is because of policies that effectively block competition for broadband providers. Their answer, these broadband providers brought to our government, and got our government to impose actually benefited them and destroyed the incentives for them to compete in a way that would drive broadband penetration. (…)"
From Lessig's Keynote Address at g8 7:48 - 8:42 - http://www.universalsubtitles.org/en/videos/C6wmjKWrZwlP/
"TITLE II - PUTTING WORKERS BACK ON THE JOB WHILE REBUILDING AND MODERNIZING AMERICA
Subtitle A - Veterans Hiring Preferences
Sec. 201. Returning Heroes and Wounded Warriors Work Opportunity Tax Credits
Subtitle B - Teacher Stabilization
Sec. 202. Purpose
Sec. 203. Grants for the Outlying Areas and the Secretary of the Interior; Availability of Funds.
Sec. 204. State Allocation
Sec. 205. State Application
Sec. 206. State Reservation and Responsibilities
Sec. 207. Local Educational Agencies
Sec. 208. Early Learning
Sec. 209. Maintenance of Effort
Sec. 210. Reporting
Sec. 211. Definitions
Sec. 212. Authorization of Appropriations
Subtitle C - First Responder Stabilization
Sec. 213. Purpose
Sec. 214. Grant Program
Sec. 215. Appropriations
Subtitle D - School Modernization
Part I - Elementary and Secondary Schools
Sec. 221. Purpose
Sec. 222. Authorization of Appropriations
Sec. 223. Allocation of Funds
Sec. 224. State Use of Funds
Sec. 225. State and Local Applications
Sec. 226. Use of Funds
Sec. 227. Private Schools
Sec. 228. Additional Provisions
Part II - Community College Modernization
Sec. 229. Federal assistance for Community College Modernization"
"June 23, 2011, 6:20 pm
By Jie Jenny Zou
California State University's Accessible Technology Initiative suggests in a report released this week that universities limit their campuswide use of Google's free Web services based on what it calls a variety of inaccessibility issues for the blind and those with other disabilities.
The report, "ATI Google Apps Accessibility Evaluation," looked at the accessibility of Google Apps for Education, a free software suite available to colleges and elementary and secondary schools. Hundreds of colleges have adopted Google Apps as their official campus e-mail and communication service for students."