Mac patches serious OS flaws

Apple Computer on Wednesday released a security update for Mac OS X that fixes 20 vulnerabilities, including a high-profile Web browser and Mail flaw disclosed last week.

Article continues

Parents complain about book's undertones

A children's book about two male penguins that raise a baby penguin has been moved to the nonfiction section of two public library branches after parents complained it had homosexual undertones. The illustrated book, "And Tango Makes Three," is based on a true story of two male penguins, named Roy and Silo, who adopted an abandoned egg at New York City's Central Park Zoo in the late 1990s.

Read the whole article

Interactive abbreviations and acronyms

AbbreviationZ.com

http://abbreviationz.com/

“Launched on 2001, AbbreviationZ.com is the largest human-edited acronyms and abbreviations directory on the internet with more than 350,000 entries classified by over 120 different categories and sub-categories.

The new innovative meta-search feature allows users, who are searching for acronyms and abbreviations definitions on the local AbbreviationZ.com directory, to locate additional meanings on the internet by using a meta-search engine, which is based on proprietary natural-language-processing algorithms, that lookup and parse multiple search-engines simultaneously.”

Unique and compelling educational resources

“What does the Internet bring to your classroom?
The Internet can be an overwhelming educational resource. Learn how the idea of Unique and Compelling can help educators take advantage of some of the Internet's most powerful learning opportunities. “

Explore Unique and compelling …

New Interactive healthy eating calculator

Finding customized information about what and how much to feed your child is just a click away, thanks to the CNRC's new Interactive Healthy Eating Plan Calculator.

The calculator is available on the web at http://www.kidsnutrition.org/HealthyEating_calculator.htm

"By entering a child's sex, age, weight, height, and physical activity level, parents can obtain a general eating plan that provides all the nutrition and energy their child needs to grow and be active without excessive weight gains," said Joan Carter, an instructor in the department of pediatrics and CNRC dietitian who developed the calculator.

Test scores not lowered by television - study

Does television rot children's brains? A new study by two economists from the University of Chicago taps into a trove of data from the 1960's to argue that when it comes to academic test scores, parents can let children watch TV without fear of future harm.

Article continues

Talk it up Website - about health strength, happiness and growing into adulthood

Talk It Up is a website about health, strength, happiness and growing into adulthood. It is designed to connect young people across urban and regional Australia, at school or after hours, in a safe online environment.

Make eating 5 a day fun

Dole – 5 a day –makes eating 5 a day fun – includes teaching resources

At school not all computers are equal

n“ … Though Florida promises an equal education for its students, children get anything but equal treatment when it comes to computer equipment. And the disparity is growing even as the ability to navigate an up-to-date computer is seen as being just as key to learning as the ability to read an up-to-date textbook. ..“
Read the whole article

An interactive tour of the brain + Alzheimers

What happens in the brain of a person with Alzheimer’s disease? This tour explains how the brain works and how Alzheimer's affects it.Taking the tour: There are 16 interactive slides.

Image searching supplemented

Ask.com introduces its image search

Chess as a school subject

Back in January, I noted the news story about Chess as a subject at school.

It was American.

Now, the indefatigable Bill Kerr has reported that

“My school has agreed to let me teach chess as a subject. It will be a SACE Stage 1 Integrated Studies Unit delivered off line to students from Years 8-10.”

Read the whole blog post where he shares his curriculum outline.

A unique example of how a community can work together on the web

From Alan Levine’s CogdogblogWhatever your way of describing what “social software” is how, submitted below is a nice example of the informal way the web, blogs, maybe even RSS play a role in collectively building something in a way not previously possible.  Read the whole post.

Has eLearning revolutionisied education?

“Does eLearning have the ability to ease many of the pressures that educators are currently facing? As we entered into the 21st century, leaders in this field argued that eLearning could respond to accelerating global competition, increase the quality of learning experiences, remove situational barriers, and be more cost effective.   …   While the unbridled enthusiasm we saw for eLearning 10 years ago is now being replaced by growing disenchantment, these problems are now being overshadowed by the possibilities offered by eLearning. One example of the possibilities that eLearning can provide is the Professeurs pour la liberté. This Canadian-led collaborative initiative aims to provide free online education to Africans by having one course donated from academic institutions from the G8, European and Scandinavian countries, along with re-useable computers, books and volunteers. This innovative and self-funded initiative is possible only through eLearning. So, while eLearning has not delivered on the promises made by technologists at the turn of the century, it does have great potential to widen access, cost effectively, under certain circumstances.”Read the whole article

Reading is fundamental - website

Reading Is Fundamental, UK is an initiative of the National Literacy Trust that helps children and young people (aged 0 to 19) to realise their potential by motivating them to read.We promote the fun of reading, the importance of book choice and the benefits to families of having books at home. Our projects provide motivational activities, opportunities for family and community involvement, and free books for children to choose and keep.

Mind rewind - brain runs in reverse

When faced with a new learning task, our brains replay events in reverse, much like a video on rewind, a new study suggests.This type of reverse-replay is also used in artificial intelligence research to help computers make decisions. The finding could explain why we learn tasks more easily if we take frequent study breaks: the pauses between sessions give our brains time to review information.  Read the whole article

RSS Ideas for educators

RSS Ideas for educatorsBy Quentin D'Souza from TeachingHacks.com

The Professor as intant messenger

By Kathryn Wymer
Determined not to be left behind, I decided last semester to follow the lead of those pioneering instructors who have become IM buddies with their students. If my students found e-mail a clunky and outdated way to communicate, I wanted to reach out to them and use instant messaging.  

Read the whole article

Study: "Power Users" drive pedagogy

Research suggests tech-savvy students are having an impact in the classroom Students who excel in the use of technology are driving change in classroom instruction, according to a new survey of educators. Dubbed "Power Users," these ultra tech-savvy students have a growing influence over what--and how--teachers now teach, the survey saidArticle continues

Microsoft - accelerating search in academic research

Live Labs is a partnership between MSN and Microsoft Research (MSR) focused on applied research for Internet-enabled products and services at Microsoft. Live Labs includes people with many different skills and perspectives on internet technologies -- researchers, engineers, developers and designers. Together, they foster Internet-centric research programs, rapidly prototype and launch emerging technologies, incubate entirely new inventions, and improve and accelerate Live product offerings. The Live Labs team will collaborate closely with the academic research communities through research grants, fellowships, workshops, conference sponsorships, sabbaticals, internships, and more. More information on Live Labs is available at http://labs.live.com. This Request for Proposals is in support of Live Labs’ collaboration with the academic research community and is focused on the Internet Search research area.

National Youth week: just add you

National Youth Week  1-9 April 2006
NYW is a joint Australian Government, State, Territory and Local Government initiative.
The Australian Government Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaCSIA), in collaboration with the Departments responsible for youth affairs in each State and Territory, coordinate NYW.
NYW aims to encourage young people to:
share ideas
attend live events
have their voices heard on issues of concern to them
showcase their talents
celebrate their contribution to the community
take part in competitions, and have fun!
Find out more

Loomia - podcast and videocast search engine

Loomia is a podcast and videocast search engine plus much more. Our goal is to help you discover, share, and manage things of interest to you. We make use of the likes and dislikes of an ever-increasing community to filter through thousands of channels to help you find good stuff.

Paying kids to attend school?

And for Perfect Attendance, Johnny Gets... a Car - New York Times"I was at first taken a little aback by the idea: we're going to pay kids to come to school?" said the principal, Morton Orlov II. "But then I thought perfect attendance is not such a bad behavior to reward. We are sort of putting our money where our mouth is."Read the whole article

Schools open up to single sign-in

Open source software provides foundation to transform UK education
The Government's educational technology agency has picked an open source solution to give every student, parent and teacher a single secure sign-on for all web resources in schools.

International Polar year Portal launch

The National Science Foundation (NSF) today launched a portal Web site to provide the general public and members of the news media with easy access to news releases, classroom resources, listings of museum and gallery exhibits, and catalogs of video and still images and other materials produced or supported by the federal government as part of the U.S. contribution to the International Polar Year (IPY) 2007-2008.The site is at http://www.us-ipy.gov

Norman Lindsy festival of children's Liyerature

The Norman Lindsay Festival of Children's Literature Saturday and Sunday 25th and 26th March 2006Norman Lindsay Gallery 14 Norman Lindsay Crescent Springwood, Blue Mountains NSW Featuring:  Andrew Daddo, Kim Gamble, James Roy, Mark Macleod, Emily Rodda, John Hockney, Bruce Whatley and Suzanne Gervay. There are workshops for adults and children included in the cost of admission. For more information and to download a copy of the registration form visit the NSW Branch of the National Trust's website : http://nsw.nationaltrust.org.au/

Using instant messaging for collaborative learning

 “…In this article, I describe the results of a pilot study involving the provision of corrective feedback to ESL learners through collaborative work utilizing the text-based chat and audio features of Yahoo! Messenger (Yahoo IM), a form of synchronous desktop videoconferencing (DVC). I also discuss the implications of such studies for enhancing language learning outside of traditional contexts and possibly encouraging connectivity and informal collaboration with colleagues and students." Read the whole article

Cooee! Aussie books

Get lost in Aussie books
Cooee! website live all year
www.connectqld.org.au/cooeeThe Cooee! family summer reading club 2005/6 was developed by the State Library of Queensland in collaboration with Qld Public Libraries to engage children and young people in the discovery of great Australian books, reading, writing and art activities during the summer holidays.  The program was conducted in public libraries throughout Queensland and via the interactive website www.connectqld.org.au/cooeeThe website will remain online for use in schools as curriculum support.In levels 1, 2, & 3 you can access:
Choose your own adventure stories by Queensland authors Jill Morris, Rebecca Johnson, Anita Bell, Josie Montano and Pat Flynn
What happens next? Continuous stories by Narelle Oliver
Book Reviews
Activity sheets
In the ‘for the whole family’ section you will find: Reading Compass – young readers can match a book to their interests
Transcripts of online chats with Andy Griffiths and Meme McDonald
Pirate Plunge fun interactive game
A-Z: know your library
Celebrity readers
…..and test your own knowledge of Aussie books, play the adult book quiz.

Earthworks- interactive game for kids promoting sustainability

"Earthworks is a new interactive game aimed at children to encourage them to be more aware of sustainability issues and the environment. The game was commissioned by Pembrokeshire Coast National Park and funded by the EDF."

Google Earth for Macs released

Google Earth in a Mac world (PC too)
"We feel like proud parents around here. Our eldest, Google Earth for the PC, is officially leaving beta status today, and we couldn't be more pleased. For those of you who downloaded early, upgrade to the latest and discover Google Earth all over again.And we have a brand new member of the family -- Google Earth for Macintosh."

Teachers' Guide to Scientriffic

Teachers GuideThe Teachers's Guide supports articles and activities in each edition of Scientriffic. With blackline masters, extension activities and links to the curriculum, the Teacher's Guide has been designed to assist teachers to stimulate young minds about science.

Student book reveiws WANTED for YARA

From Barbara BraxtonYARA is live again for 2006 and we are seeking student reviews of books by Australian authors with a publication date of 2005-2006. 
So if you are including book reviews in your planning, you might like to consider reading the criteria at  http://www.yaraonline.org/main_pages/write_review.htm  and submit your students' work.  ONLY reviews which meet these criteria can be published because of our limited web space.
Later, I am hoping to be in a position to send review copies of books to schools and I will ask for expressions of interest when I have some titles to share.
Barbara

Virtual professional development

  VIRTUAL CONNECTIONS
The ICT Learning Innovation Centre is pleased to present a number of 'Virtual Presentations" which allow teachers and other staff, who may not be able to make it to the Centre, to connect with us virtually to build their skills and knowledge in the quest to make the use of ICT integral to learning. Some of the presentations can be downloaded from this site, whilst other CD and DVD resources are available usually  through a small charge to recoup duplication and postage charges  
Visit the site

Digital literacies and learning in the information society

Digital literacies and learning in the information society
5th International Conference on eLiteracyLoughborough University,Loughborough, East Midlands, UK 28 - 30 June 2006
eLit2006 is the 5th international conference examining the challenge of eLiteracy. eLit2006 will draw together teachers, educational researchers, policymakers, trainers, librarians, IT support staff, learning technologists, and many others to share experiences and to talk and think through issues such as the embedding of eLiteracy skills in the curriculum to the challenges of creating online education.

Information Literacy: food for thought

INFORMATION LITERACY: FOOD FOR THOUGHT
 by Marylaine Block 
 Students sometimes seem to have a kind of magical view of the net, without a great deal of understanding of the information landscape on it and beyond it. The invisible net (and the visible library) remain largely invisible to them, because they appear to believe everything they need to know is available for free with a simple Google search -- and, if they don't find it there, that it doesn't exist at all.   My guess, though, is that, if absolutely forced to think about it, they'd readily admit this is not the case. So I'm offering here a few leading questions to ask at the start of information literacy sessions that might force students to examine their assumptions.  
Read the whole article

refurbished PCs for low=income students

Kentucky offers refurbished PCs to students Some low-income eighth-graders throughout Kentucky soon will get used personal computers through a program that teams the Kentucky state government with Microsoft and Lexmark.

Early childhood interventions

Early Childhood Interventions
Proven Results, Future PromiseRead the e-book

Computers a drag on learning

Contrarian finding: Computers are a drag on learningBy G. Jeffrey MacDonald | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor For all the schools and parents who have together invested billions to give children a learning edge through the latest computer technology, a mammoth new study by German researchers brings some sobering news: Too much exposure to computers might spell trouble for the developing mind. Article continues

Google Earth for Macs released

Google Earth in a Mac world (PC too)
We feel like proud parents around here. Our eldest, Google Earth for the PC, is officially leaving beta status today, and we couldn't be more pleased. For those of you who downloaded early, upgrade to the latest and discover Google Earth all over again.And we have a brand new member of the family -- Google Earth for Macintosh.

Classroom Toolkit

ClassroomToolkit
"ClassroomToolkit is an Open Source movement for teachers. We offer strategic planning and management tools and tell-it-like-it is advice. We offer creative materials, reproducible modules, and tutorials that save teachers time and reduce stress. We provide a newsletter and eZine."

Enrich teaching with technology

Download presentations from the Microsoft conference (link)
Enrich teaching with technology and two presentations by Innovative teaching award winners

Chess in school

Chess, the Game of Royalty, Is Now the Game of Grade Schoolers, Too“… In Philadelphia, which has the seventh-largest school system in the country, 18 of the city's 280 public schools have added chess to their curriculums in a pilot program. About 4,000 students are getting chess instruction this year, according to Marjorie Wuestner, executive director of the school district's office of health, safety, physical education and sports administration.The goal, she said, is to have all second and third graders receiving chess instruction by next year.Paul G. Vallas, chief executive of the school system, said anecdotal evidence showed that chess is a great educational tool. "Chess seems to improve problem-solving skills," he said. "It improves discipline. It improves memory. It certainly seems to improve mathematical skills." Teaching chess, he added, is meant to enrich the curriculum, not replace another subject….”  Read the whole article

Pew report on the internet at school

The Internet at School
The internet is an important element in the overall educational experience of many teenagers. Schools are a common location where online teens access the web, although very few online teenagers rely exclusively on their school for that web access. Further, there is widespread agreement among teens and their parents that the internet can be a useful tool for school. However, 37% of teens say they believe that “too many” of their peers are using the internet to cheat. And there is some disagreement among teens and their parents about whether children must be web-literate by the time they begin school. Additionally, large numbers of teens and adults have used the web to search for information about colleges and universities.  

Read the whole Pew report

Awesome stories

AwesomeStories.com uniquely uses the Internet to link its story content to hundreds of thousands of the world's best on-line primary sources. Enjoy an interactive learning experience as you see relevant maps, pictures, artifacts, manuscripts and documents, IN CONTEXT, within each story. Take advantage of human-based searches for a safe, fast and fun way to learn the real story behind historic events, famous people, heroic exploits, legends, disasters, movies, plus topics of current and general interest.

Learning vs Education

Learning vs Education

“…what learning is (as opposed to education) and what the future might bring in

terms of "Personal Learning Environments" (PLE). And the underlying question here is what role do schools and teachers play in all of this.”  

Website warns parents about new technology

Parents warned over new technology
The need to educate children and teens about the new risks associated with devices such as webcams and mobile phones has sparked a revamp of a Government advisory website.  

Article continues

Teaching vs Learning

Our learning environments need to change to take advantage of the people and information and ideas that we can now connect to. We cannot continue to be enablers to our students' dependence on a school selected, force fed curriculum that was in some ways necessary 50 years ago but is quickly becoming irrelevant today. Our students need to learn how to learn, because there is so much more to learn from, and they need to be given the license to start making some of those decisions on their own

Read the details

Bush pushed to promote science and technology education

Bush pushed on science, innovation
Former ED Sec. Alexander urges president to promote science, technology education Responding to what he believes is a critical need for the future of American industry, Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., former U.S. education secretary, has urged President Bush to make science and technology research and education key themes during the remainder of his presidency.  
Article continues

Curbing education dropouts

Education quandary: curbing dropouts The past year has seen unprecedented attention paid to the shortcomings of America’s high schools, prompting national leaders to pledge to transform high school and toughen graduation standards. But that means little to the nearly one-third of high school students who fail to meet current standards and don’t graduate on time.  Read the whole article

Merit based pay for teachers?

Houston Ties Teachers' Pay to Test Scores
HOUSTON, Jan. 12 - Over the objections of the teachers' union, the Board of Education here on Thursday unanimously approved the nation's largest merit pay program, which calls for rewarding teachers based on how well their students perform on standardized tests.Article continues

Virtual software for schools

'Virtual' software: The future for schools?
Software virtualization could greatly simplify IT management A new paradigm in software delivery, called "software virtualization," is poised to transform school IT management, some experts say--making software independent of an operating system and simplifying network administration. 
 Read the article

Teens optimistic about innovation

Study: Teens optimistic about innovation

Curbing eduction dropouts

Education quandary: curbing dropouts The past year has seen unprecedented attention paid to the shortcomings of America’s high schools, prompting national leaders to pledge to transform high school and toughen graduation standards. But that means little to the nearly one-third of high school students who fail to meet current standards and don’t graduate on time.  Read the whole article

New Intel Macs

Jobs: New Intel Macs are 'screamers'
SAN FRANCISCO--Addressing a packed crowd of the Mac faithful, Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs on Tuesday served up the first Intel-based Macs, introducing a new high-end laptop and a revamped iMac.  
Read more

Making schools work

PBS finds a recipe for "Making Schools Work"
A companion web site to the PBS television series "Making Schools Work,"this online resource invites educators to follow host Hedrick Smith and his production team into classrooms from coast to coast to see how different communities, large and small, are coping with the challenge of preparing students for success in the face of higher federal standards and a new global economy. Among the site's many features are best practices detailing effective reform efforts underway in individual schools; a look at district-wide initiatives in New York City, San Diego, and Charlotte, N.C.; and a library of community-focused resources meant to help teachers and parents gauge how much work still needs to be done in their schools. "The common denominator"of all these programs, producers note as they welcome visitors to the site, "is results--lifting scores and closing achievement gaps, not just for a few hundred children but for nearly 2 million, from our inner cities to rural America."

Interactive learning does not improve literacy

Interactive learning fails reading test
INTERACTIVE computers used in British schools to teach children to read are harming their learning, research shows.  

Read the whole report

New science resouces on the web

Applied Math and Science Education Repository (AMSES) – A portal of educational resources and services built specifically for use by those in community and technical colleges, which is open to everyone. AMSES highlights new science resources on the Web

TV time increases

We're Spending More Time Watching TV
Even with increased competition from video games, the Internet, DVD's and portable devices, the average television viewing time has risen four minutes a day so far this season over the same period last season.

Article continues

Hector Protector

Hector Protector is a "safety button" to protect children frominappropriate Internet content.  The Hector safety button is the first stage of the Internet Safety Group's education initiative - Hector'sWorld - designed for children between the ages of 3 and 10.  For more information see www.netsafe.org.au

Human minds like computers?

Is the mind like a computer? Evidence that it is not“What is your mind doing when you think about something? For decades, the prevailing wisdom was that when you imagine, say, the scent of a flower or your lover’s perfume, your mind is doing something different from when you actually smell those things. The metaphor was a computer: The hardware for sensing things was distinct from the software for thinking about things.More recent evidence suggests that the way we understand concepts relies on the sensorimotor system. When you think of the sound of a dripping faucet, the same parts of your brain are activated as when you are actually hearing a faucet dripping. (Computer geeks should see how the computer metaphor breaks down: it’s as if searching a database of images required the server to access its video card.)”

Article continues

Web 2 and learning

Tech Tools For Learning“Over the last few years, our relationship with the Web has been changing dramatically. Simple new technologies like weblogs and podcasts are allowing us to not only create content like text, audio, and video more easily, they are also allowing us to publish and share that content on the Web with very little effort. Instead of a “read only” Web, we’re entering the age of the Read/Write Web, where contributing knowledge is as easy as consuming it. Being able to publish worldwide this easily does raise legal and ethical issues for educators to be aware of, but it also facilitates a whole range of new learning potentials for students and teachers in the classroom. Here is a quick look at some of the technologies that are changing the way educators think about and deliver instruction.”

English teaching should incorporate techology

English 'must reflect technology'

English in schools must adapt to reflect the use of text messaging and communication via new technologies, a report says.
Research by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority says new skills are needed to keep pace with change.
It says schools should take advantage of the range of texts now available to teach the language, including online.
The recommendations come in a report which examined the future of the major curriculum subjects.  Article continues

Myths about video games

Reality Bytes: Eight Myths About Video Games Debunked
A large gap exists between the public's perception of video games and what the research actually shows. The following is an attempt to separate fact from fiction.  Read the whole article

TESOL pages

Games & Activities for the ESL/EFL Classroom
A Project of The Internet TESL Journal

This is a place were English teachers can share games and activities that they have found useful in the classroom.

Excellence in Mathematics teaching

The National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics (NCETM)
was first advocated in the Smith Report (2003), and much has been discussed about its potential impact to improve the teaching and learning of mathematics through improved CPD (continuing professional development), especially by Advisory Committee for Mathematics Education (ACME).
We are pleased to announce that the National Centre is now a reality, and will be formally launched in June 2006.  Visit the website

Educational goals

Here in Australia, outcomes-based assessment has taken a hold and is infiltrating quite successfully.  We have yet to combine it with the competitiveness and rewards-based compensation system that seems to be in place already in America.  Though I suspect those are on their way.  I wish they weren’t, and this blog and its added comments simply reinforce that fear.   Outcomes do not take into account inherent capabilities or societal influences, nor do they seem to me to rely on a holistic educational scheme.

“a healthy reminder that man is not primarily made to chase after his own creations. It’s not all about getting ahead, staying competitive, etc., etc. I’m not saying those are not worthwhile goals; just that they’re not the only ones, and perhaps not even the most important”

Students exchanging cultures

"Creative Connections" helps students reach out across the world

More than 1,500 classes from around the globe reportedly have participated in this online virtual exchange program that connects students and teachers around the world in efforts to promote a free-flowing cultural exchange of art, history, and modern-day communication.

Starting a book group

Talk it Up!
Starting a bookgroup for kids? This is a great place to start.

Talk it Up! provides information about how to start and run a bookgroup and over 150 discussion guides to use with specific books.
Need more ideas?We've prepared many booklists for kids to help you make your reading selections.

Students teaching teachers

The concept of a teacher standing in front of a class and imparting knowledge had been modified severely, but never entirely lost.  The idea that maybe students can teach peers, particularly in technology subjects, has been around, but it is still challenging.  Students teaching teachers?  More challenging still, but the possibilities are huge, particularly in all sorts of side alleys of student maturity.
Students teach PowerPoint
By Jill R. Goodman, Independent Newspapers
“Ohh, cool” resounded in a school computer lab — but not from students — as four teachers at Highland Lakes School, 19000 N. 63rd Ave., learned from students how to create a PowerPoint presentation. Article continues

Tying driver's licence to educational outcomes?

From CNW
McGuinty government to give legislative backing to student success


Bill to include mandatory programs for students, new enforcement measures

    - New legislation is expected to be introduced
today that would ensure students keep learning to 18 or graduation through creative incentives that realize students' individual potential and unique enforcements to prevent them from dropping out, Education Minister Gerard Kennedy announced today.
    "It has been 50 years since Ontario updated the school-leaving age
requirement," said Kennedy. "It's time that our 21st century high schools provide the kind of programs that are relevant to students today and support parents' ambitions for their children."
    "There is more at stake than ever before for students to get a high
school education that is high quality, meaningful and prepares them for a variety of postsecondary destinations."

    The legislation, if passed, would:

    -  mandate the government's comprehensive student success programs be made available by all school boards
    -  increase the school leaving age to 18 or until graduation by keeping students learning either in classrooms or at other approved learning programs
    -  improve enforcement policies with more effective and practical
measures tied to students' driver's licences
    -  create hard links between high schools and postsecondary destinations to allow external learning to be recognized for high school credits

Communication between devices

CoCo helps diverse devices talk to each other
School pilot aims to improve emergency preparedness
“A Virginia school system has received a grant from the U.S. Justice Department to pilot-test a new communication technology that reportedly enables cross-platform communication across a variety of devices. Federal officials hope the pilot, if successful, will serve as a model for enhancing emergency preparedness on school campuses nationwide.”  Read more

After-school programs accountability

Ed-tech makes after-school programs more accountable
Student ID cards track attendance, tie it to school achievement data
“ Jefferson County, Ky., school officials are using ID cards to bring accountability to their before- and after-school programs. The ID cards link student participation in after-school programs to school achievement data to help administrators see if there's a correlation.”  Article continues

Life in space

Life's Building Blocks Are Common In Space
“After A team of NASA exobiology researchers revealed today organic chemicals that play a crucial role in the chemistry of life are common in space.
"Our work shows a class of compounds that is critical to biochemistry is prevalent throughout the universe," said Douglas Hudgins, an astronomer at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. He is principal author of a study detailing the team's findings that appears in the Oct. 10 issue of the Astrophysical Journal.”  Article continues

The Digital Divide and School success

Study: 'Digital divide' affects school success Kids with home computers more likely to graduate Access to a home computer increases the likelihood that children will graduate from high school, but blacks and Latinos are much less likely to have a computer at home than are whites, according to a new study. The study also found that the so-called "digital divide" is even more pronounced among children than adults.

What's the Return on education?

What's the Return on Education? "Schools' costs are easy to gauge. Their economic value is not."
Read the whole article

The Interfaith calendar

The interfaith calendar

10 years from 2005-2015 organised by year and by belief system.  Includes explanations of the celebrations

New Childhood Advocacy Website

•National peak advocacy organisation, Early
Childhood Australia, has its new website which
promises to be the most extensive online resource
for the early childhood field.
•National President, Judy Radich, believes that the
website will be a valuable tool in supporting the early
childhood field to provide the best experiences for
young children and their families.
•Early Childhood Australia has developed the new
website to extend its capacity to advocate for young
children.
Check it out at www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au.

Bloggers' FAQ - Student Blogging

The Bloggers' FAQ on Student Blogging addresses legal issues arising from student blogging. It focuses on blogging by high school (and middle school) students, but also contains information for college students.

The Poetry archive

The Poetry archive – for educators and teachers

Bring poetry to life in your school!
These pages are specially designed to help you and your students to get the most out of the Poetry Archive. There are lesson plans and activities for all key stages and for the inclusive classroom. Poetry can enrich other areas of the curriculum too; there are ideas here for History teachers, and we will be adding material for other subject areas in the coming months.
This is a growing, developing resource, so come back and visit regularly to see what's new. Our plans include a forum for teachers to discuss their experiences, as well as a space where you will be able to create your own teaching materials and share them with colleagues.

Databases in curriculum

Digging into Databases--Using Databases to Inspire Novel Approaches to Creating Curriculum

During the past year, I spent dozens of hours looking at more than 50 subscription databases as part of research for a school's new library. These online publications are a dream for middle and high school English and history teachers in the variety of primary and secondary sources they offer. Databases can inspire novel approaches to creating curriculum. As teachers become familiar with them, their thinking about lesson planning and student research often moves in innovative directions. Below are five projects where librarians can take the lead in helping history and English teachers see the potential of this new world of sources.

Australian Geography Teachers' conference

Australian Geography Teachers’ Association Conference

(incorporating the 2006 Australasian Conference
for ESRI Education Users)

Geography       making the connections    – creating futures

English/Literacy national conference

“Voices, Vibes, Visions:   Hearing the Voices, Feeling the Vibes, Capturing the Visions”

The Australian Association for the Teaching of English (AATE) and the Australian Literacy Educators’ Association (ALEA) are pleased to host the next joint national conference to be held at Darwin High School, Northern Territory Australia from Saturday 8th July to Tuesday 11th July, 2006. Voices, Vibes, Visions is the 2006 ALEA/AATE National Conference theme.

Extra outside school hours care places

Almost 17,000 extra Outside School Hours Care places
Almost 17,000 extra Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) places will be delivered across 900 before school, after school and vacation care services as part of the Howard Government's ongoing commitment to further help families access quality child care. Article continues

World population at a glance

PopulationMondiale.com will give you the world's current population at a glance. Or you can click on the map and receive the data for a particular area.

Online conversion

Online conversionUnits conversion / metric conversion onlineWelcome to Convert Plus! Here you can convert just about anything to anything else. You can easily perform online conversions (e.g. metric conversions) for many measurement systems both commonly used like metric and U.S. Avoirdupois and quite exotic like Ancient Greek and Roman. And the popularity of the Convert Plus has grown such that there now over 30,000 people every week using it.

Top English teaching

Top English teaching.com

“Your source for English teaching resources: games, activities, worksheets, songs, lesson plans, readings, listening and much more.”

New Math Models where computers fail

New Math Models To Pick Up Where Computers Fail
For all the advances in computer power of recent years, many real-world processes are still so complex that they defy the capability of even the most advanced supercomputers to describe them - and to address such problems, mathematicians are being called for help.
As part of that effort, Oregon State University recently received a $647,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. It's one project in a national, $20-million initiative to have advanced mathematics pick up where sheer computing power is inadequate.  Article continues

Getting students to exercise

School fitness center targets tech-savvy students
Minnesota State University officials have hit upon a creative way to get students to exercise: They've outfitted the exercise equipment on their Mankato campus with computers and internet access. Now, students can check their eMail, surf the web, watch TV, or even do their homework while they work out.

Article continues

Gravity tractor

Gravity Tractor as Asteroid Mover
A huge spacecraft could use its gravity to keep an asteroid from hitting Earth. Read more

Mirror of the world

Mirror of the world
From the Read alert blog …
This Friday, the State Library of Victoria opens Mirror of the World, a new permanent exhibition tracing the history of the written word.
“Most Victorians have no inkling of the treasures their library contains because few, apart from the whitegloved scholars who consult the rarebooks collection during their research, have seen any of them”, Ray Cassin of The Age wrote in descibing the Mirror of the World.
A series of writing workshops and tours are available for school students during 2006. Writers Carole Wilkinson, Kirsty Murray, Trudy White and Gabrielle Wang will help students explore this extraordinary collection, and write imaginative pieces in response. Contact us for details of dates. There are sessions in all four terms of the school year.

New test identifies hearing problems

New test identifies classroom hearing problems in children
It is estimated that 2 to 3 per cent of all school-aged children suffer from a hearing deficit called an Auditory Processing Disorder (APD). In spite of having passed standard hearing tests, those affected by an APD have difficulty understanding speech, particularly in noisy environments. Now a test to diagnose the disorder has been developed by recently-graduated Macquarie University PhD Sharon Cameron.
Dr Cameron, whose undergraduate degree was in speech and hearing sciences, is now working as a research scientist for the National Acoustic Laboratories (NAL). But her research into APD first began in 2002 as part of her undergraduate honours project.

UN unveils windup laptop

UN unveils wind-up laptop

http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,17274463%5e16123%5e%5enbv%5e,00.htm

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and a leading US IT expert Nicholas Negroponte unveiled the bright green and yellow working prototype of a US$100 ($140) laptop aimed at millions of schoolchildren in poor countries.The robust wind-up laptop with low power consumption is meant to be the backbone of an educational project to distribute the Internet-connected computers at no cost to their future owners.

Online Education community

Learning Times.org
Join the fastest growing online community of education and training professionals!
LearningTimes.org is an open community for education and training professionals. Members have free access to a wide range of opportunities to interact and network with peers from across the globe. Member activities include live webcasts and interviews with industry leaders, online debates and discussions, live coverage of industry conferences, and international working groups.
The LearningTimes.org community also features free group collaboration tools, such as virtual meeting rooms, a site-wide instant messenger, and virtual office suites, making it a vital place on the web for thousands of education professionals to meet and interact at any time.

Evaluating websites

Evaluating Websites

The Internet contains an immense range of information that is posted by individuals and organisations from around the world. There is no single body or organisation that ensures the quality of this information. Students and teachers need to acquire critical evaluation skills which will enable them to identify and extract quality information that meets their needs.

The ICT Literacy

The ICT Literacy Assessment is a comprehensive test of Information and Communication Technology proficiency that uses scenario-based tasks to measure both cognitive and technical skills. The assessment provides support for institutional ICT literacy initiatives, guides curricula innovations, informs articulation and progress standings, and assesses individual student proficiency.

Online phys ed catches on in schools

Online phys ed catches on in schools
From eSchool News staff and wire service reports A seemingly incongruous concept that began in Minneapolis public schools is starting to catch on in other school systems, too: taking gym class online.
Minneapolis school officials said they're hearing from school districts around the country that are interested in the program. In Minneapolis, student waiting lists are filling up fast.
"It's like we started the ball rolling, and it started rolling so fast, and now we're trying to catch up," said Jan Braaten, content specialist in physical education for Minneapolis schools. Braaten is making a presentation on the program in January to a national conference of phys-ed teachers.  Article continues

Video gaming in education

Educators take serious look at video gaming Learning to leverage the enormous popularity of video games to help students excel was the core purpose of two events held recently in Washington, D.C.
The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) Summit on Video Gaming and McKinley High School's "Be the Game" video-gaming summit were meant to demonstrate the pedagogical value of gaming technology, often viewed with skepticism by generations of educators who did not grow up in the digital age. The FAS event focused on the theory behind using video games in the school curriculum, and the McKinley High School summit looked at how to use gaming curricula to engage students and improve their performance.  Article continues

Bridge the Gap and Keep children safe

Bridge the Gap and Keep Children Safe 
In this high tech society you may get the feeling you are being left behind by your children?
They seem to be speaking a different language, doing things online that you have never heard about and living in their own online world. 
Is this normal?  Are they in any danger? Am I really doing all I can for my children's safety? Will I ever be able to keep up with what they know?
These are common questions asked by parents.  You're not alone.

The value of a bookless classroom?

Teacher gleans federal kudos for bookless classroom

TAYLORSVILLE — Jerry Mangus' textbook-less teaching has dazzled the U.S. Department of Education.

Laura Seitz, Deseret Morning News
Jerry Mangus, a 5th and 6th-grade math teacher at Plymouth Elementary School in Taylorsville, received the No Child Left Behind Act Maerican Star of Teaching Award on November 2, 2005.
      Mangus, who teaches fifth- and sixth-grade math at Plymouth Elementary, uses only computers to teach fractions and other numerical concepts to kids. He's built computer labs in his school, each of his students has his or her own machine, and their test scores have leaped.  Article continues

Microsoft Seminar presentations available

Thank you for attending the complimentary Microsoft Education Seminar 2005. We hope you were able to discover new ways to use technology in the classroom to inspire and engage your students, and more importantly learn and share innovative ideas from your peers to improve learning outcomes for students.Download PresentationsAll presentations and resources are now available for download on the Microsoft Education website. Click here to DOWNLOAD.