The Future for Teachers

Marc Prensky, best known for his advocacy of games in education, refers to the traditional curricular subjects—math, English, science, and social studies— as MESS.  In the future teachers, Prensky suggests, will be teaching “motivation, respect, empathy and passion” because, although technology can do a good job of teaching content, it doesn’t do so well with personal qualities.  Prensky calls educators today, the last pre-Internet generation and tells us that we need to prepare our students for the future by stressing “effective thinking, effective action, effective relationships, and effective accomplishment.” —And he believes we shouldn’t  “judge the new generation based upon our old ideas and beliefs.”

Shout: Social Responsibility

Microsoft Corp, the Smithsonian, and TakingITGlobal are partnering to create Shout, a global network that will challenge students to collaborate online as they try to solve environmental problems facing our world. Shout will feature project-based learning activities designed to promote social responsibility and will help teachers use technology to enhance students’ problem solving skills. Although, work on the Shout network is still in progress, you can preview content from the Environmental Education Online Conference with Smithsonian experts.

Is the Chromebook for Your Students?

What is done on a Chromebook is stored in the Cloud. That means, for the most part, that your students need access to the Internet to make it work. The storage, and the fact that you’d need to use Chrome OS apps, seem to be the basic differences between Chromebooks and laptops. The CNET Community has a good discussion going on this topic, which you’ll want to browse if you are looking into using Chromebooks with your students. Some of the advantages of Chromebooks listed by those responding to the Chromebook question include: low cost, speed, automatic file backup, and no worries over viruses. Disadvantages listed included: inability to use Windows applications, slower for storage, Internet access needed, can’t be upgraded, looks like a laptop but isn’t, and is like a dumb terminal. So, is a Chromebook for your students? It depends on how robust your wireless network is and what you are planning to do with your students and technology.

eRate Filing Survival Kit

Free eRate Filing Window Survival Kits are available from Funds for Learning. The Kits are intended to “help reduce the stress E-rate applicants often experience.” Included in the Kits are stress-reducing goodies to help you get through the forms. If you’d like to sign up for a kit, go to Funds for Learning and click on Keep Calm and File On.

Funds for Learning has also announced a redesign of its Website, which will enable users easier navigation to news, updates, funding request information, and guidance in filling out appropriate forms.

Hurricane Sandy & Internet Connectivity

We know what it’s like when the Internet goes down. It’s then that we realize just how dependent we are upon this resource in our schools, homes, communities, and businesses. When Hurricane Sandy devastated the East Coast, many Internet systems came to a halt. According to Will Knight in the MIT Technology Review, when 10% of the networks in the New York area are not available, it’s “like taking out an entire country the size of Austria, in terms of impact on the global routing table.” With your students, take a look at the video of how the networks were silenced during the days of Hurricane Sandy and have them consider what this means in terms of communications, quality of life, and vulnerability.

USAC—eRate News

For those of you who have been waiting on funding decisions by USAC (Universal Service Administrative Company), the School and Libraries News Brief of 12/09/11 announced that for the Funding Year 2011, decision letters for Internal Connections and Basic Maintenance at 90% will be going out beginning 12/13/11.   Funding letters for the year 2010 for Internal Connections and Basic Maintenance at all levels will be going out beginning 12/14/11.  Don’t forget, even if you haven’t received your commitment letter for this school year, you’ll need to get started on completing your 470 Form for year 2012. The funding letters are slower to come out this year because the deadline for the 471 forms was in March and because there was a need to recheck applications from the 2010 year for Internal Connections and Basic Maintenance. If you’d like to subscribe to the Schools and Libraries News Briefs, just enter your email address on the USAC site.

Beware of the Holidays

On Tuesday, December 6, 2011 at 1 PST and 4 EST, Tech & Learning is offering the Webinar, BYOD (Bring Your Own Devices) Headaches: Why Every IT Director Should be Afraid of the Holidays. Just think about what students in your school or district are requesting for gifts. Digital devices will probably top the list again this year and what will happen as a multitude of new devices flood your school network? Will your wireless network and your staff be able to handle it? That’s what this free Webinar is all about—learning how to avoid a BYOD headache.

Time to Think About e-Rate

November is a good time to get your e-Rate applications going. On the first form, #470, you list the services/products your school or library wishes to purchase for the coming school year. A list of eligible services is available on the USAC Schools & Libraries site. The items on your #470 must be posted at least 28 days before you can file the next form #471, which will feature the services and providers you have selected to use. You’ll usually need to file #471 by late January or early February. After this filing, USAC works through the applications submitted and makes determinations about funding. Representatives often call applicants to verify information or to request additional information. Once funding is approved, you’ll need to file form #486. The next step is to work with those providing the services/products to determine whether you wish reimbursements or wish to have discounts taken from your billing. It can all be quite confusing, especially when USAC representatives call you for details several months after a form has been submitted. That’s when you need to get your mind back in e-Rate gear, find all those forms and documentation and send the rep whatever is needed.  There’s help online at USAC, though, and you can always talk to a “real” person on the telephone to get answers to your questions.