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"iSchool: a closer look at Manhattan Beach Unified's iPad pilot program email Does Manhattan Beach Unified's iPad pilot program represent the future of education? Kindergarten students at Grand View Elementary School use iPads two times a week. Photo by Alene Tchekmedyian Kindergarten students at Grand View Elementary School use iPads two times a week. Photo by Alene Tchekmedyian Just before 8 a.m. one recent Tuesday, Andy Caine wheeled a waist-high cart into his second-floor history classroom at Mira Costa High School, as the Beach Boys' "I Get Around" played faintly in the background. On the syllabus for the day: the First Amendment. As the first period bell rang, Caine unlocked the cart. "Come and get 'em," Caine said to his class of seniors, and stood behind his podium, on which he's pasted a sticker reading, "Think for yourself. Question Authority." The students put aside their pens and notebooks and lined up at the cart to pick up an unconventional tool that school districts across the nation have been implementing into classrooms. Each student grabbed an iPad and returned to his or her seat. Caine is one of 43 Manhattan Beach Unified School District teachers chosen to try the $500,000 iPad pilot program, which started last fall. At Mira Costa, two English, math, science and social studies teachers use iPads, along with eight science teachers at Manhattan Beach Middle School and 27 teachers of different grade levels at each elementary school. The district purchased 560 student iPads (32 gigabytes and costing around $700 each), in addition to iPads for pilot teachers and administrators. A quarter of the pilot costs are grant funded, while the district supports the rest. Later this year, the School Board will decide whether, and in what capacity, to continue the pilot. Caine and pilot teachers implement iPads into their curricula two to three times a week, a total of 30 to 90 minutes. "I would use them every day if I had the po

Digital Wish Digital Wish is a nonprofit organization that operates similarly to a gift registry. Teachers create technology wish lists, donors select wish lists to fund, and Digital Wish matches every dollar with an additional 2%-10% in funding.

Donors Choose Donors Choose is an online charity, non-profit organization that makes it easy for everyone to help students in need. Teachers create classroom project requests, donors choose which projects to fund and receive photos and thank-you notes from students in return. Projects under $400 have the best chance of being funded, but larger requests are possible.

Public v. Private Funding of the Arts The defunding of the Arts Commission by Governor Brownback has left Kansas as the only state with out federal funding for the arts. This decision has prompted a discussion among Kansans as to whether it is appropriate for funding of the arts to come from the public sector or if it should only be privately funded.

Facing shrinking enrollment and in danger of closing its doors, in 2007, the Newton (KS) School District reestablished Newton as a public charter school. Bolstered by Charter School Program funds from the U.S. Department of Education, the Walton 21st Century Rural Life Center became the first public school in the nation to completely incorporate agriculture into its elementary classrooms and curricula.

"In the face of the "new normal" of decreased budgets and increased expectations, many administrators are turning to technology to enhance teaching and learning while mitigating the consequences of consecutive years of budget cuts. Mobile learning, in particular, has attracted a great deal of attention for its potential to engage students by leveraging the technology environment they have grown accustomed to in their non-school lives; its potential to scale personalized learning and reduce the digital divide; its potential to extend learning beyond the four walls of the classroom and the limited hours of the school day; and its potential to enable new pedagogies based on the affordances of these devices that students already carry at their fingertips.Still, the field of mobile learning is still emerging and there are many questions to be addressed when contemplating a mobile learning implementation. How do we create a program with a sustainable impact on teaching and learning, rather than a superficial adoption of the currently "hot" technology? What are the steps involved in implementing a mobile learning program? How do we optimize the investment of our technology dollars? How do we choose devices, networks, and software for our implementation? What are the security considerations in implementing a mobile learning program? What are the policy considerations for a mobile learning program? What are the professional development considerations? What are the teaching models associated with mobile learning? What are the options for funding a mobile learning program?"

Just crazy, fun stuff, alternative, people utilizing simple internet tech, commucation, fund, funny

ISTE urges tech training for future teachers As the FY10 budget process unfolds in Congress, ed-tech advocates want funding for a new grant program for pre-service teacher

Upon becoming Principal of New Milford High School over three years ago, it was decided after a needs assessment that more resources and professional development had to go into the area of educational technology. I was fortunate enough to participate in two television shows that resulted in funds that normally don't just fall into the hands of a high school administrator. After researching and learning about how iPods and MacBooks were being utilized to engage learners, I quickly decided to purchase a mobile iPod learning lab.....

" Researchers: Dave Cormier Alexander McAuley George Siemens Bonnie Stewart Created through funding received by the University of Prince Edward Island through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council's "Knowledge Synthesis Grants on the Digital Economy" "

"iRead- Using iPods for Literacy By Tom | August 27, 2009 Here's a 10 minute video describing how one of our great elementary school teachers is using iPods to help with elementary literacy and reading fluency. The video needs some work1 but the idea is sound and interesting2. It's a bit of a HEF ad but they're a good group that helps fund projects like this so I'm happy to help them out."

"The Computational Science Education Reference Desk (CSERD) is a Pathways portal of the National Science Digital Library and funded by the National Science Foundation. CSERD aims to help students learn about computational science and to help faculty and teachers incorporate it into the classroom. "

Let's start with a simple definition: eLearning Authoring tools are used to create eLearning lessons. These tools have been around much longer than most people know. When asked, many guess that they started coming on the market recently or perhaps back in the 1990s. The truth is the National Science Foundation funded the first authoring tool, called PLATO, way back in 1960, and then another in 1967, called TICCIT. Both spawned many other authoring tools over the years.