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This article reports that special education can eat districts alive. This was confirmed by Clark Easter, founder and chairman of 4GL School Solutions Inc. It devours 20 percent to 25 percent of the average district's budget with only 11 percent to 12 percent of students. Many special education teachers spend nearly half of the day buried under piles of paper. Inequitable resource allocation, staff burnout and turnover and near zealous focus on compliance rather than instruction further complicate the scene. A handful of districts have deployed technology-based special education management systems to save time and money and better serve special education students. INSET: The Software Checklist.

The article reports on North Grenville District high school, which is located north of the border in Kemptville, Ontario, but by placing palmOne handheld wireless computers in the hands of its 35 teachers this school about 45 minutes south of the Canadian capital Ottawa has moved to the heart of a brave new world. This fall, North Grenville High installed a new WiFi wireless network. And currently, the school is upgrading its palmOne fleet to WiFi-enahled Tungsten G models and adding eSIS software from MediaX that will let teachers take attendance with a click. Physical education teacher Sean Kelly uses his handheld to assess his students according to rubrics for skills in various sports. He estimates that he saves a half hour for every skill set he evaluates, compared to the paper and pencil routine he used to go through.

The article discusses "The Future of Information Technology," a white paper by the U.S. Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) regarding topics associated with information technology in schools including cloud computing, data virtualization, and student-owned technology.

The article discusses how the use of technology in education parallels traditional classroom activities. The author suggests that blogs function as interactive versions of student journals and that electronic mail communication is similar to school pen pal programs. He suggests that social networking websites build on previous classroom social activities and that the creation of wikis reflect the drafting process for research papers.

The article discusses a robotics program proposed for Portsmouth, Virginia public schools. The program is designed to expose students to science, technology, engineering and math in ways not traditionally utilized. Students would engage with Lego Mindstroms NXT robots and the accompanying programming software that allows them to control the robot's behavior. The project would involve students writing papers and developing PowerPoint presentations to discuss what they have learned.

The article profiles the Stidham Public Schools in Oklahoma. The public schools is at the forefront of technology integration in the state, with a 1:1 laptop program that provides every student from pre-K through eight grade with access to a computer throughout the school day. Superintendent Bart Banfield has engineered the year-old laptop program, leading about 90 minutes from Tulsa, in the shift from paper to pixels.

The article reports on the publication of "WritingNext" by the Alliance for Excellent Education in the U.S. It aimed to identify effective instructional practices and aid administrators and educators on writing instruction. Moreover, the authors of the paper listed three practices that will affect on students' skills which include explicit instruction in writing strategies, precise and systematic education in summary writing and collaborative writing.

The 3,000 students in rural Maine's Regional School Unit 19 begin compiling electronic portfolios of their schoolwork in pre-K, when the district issues every child a Google account. In the [...]

Personalized learning is beginning to produce positive results in student achievement as it becomes more established in districts nationwide. These success stories are encouraging more districts to adopt the tech-heavy [...]

Digital coursework, student/teacher collaboration, assessment, and customization are only some of the many popular features Learning Management Systems (LMS) have to offer a KI2 classroom. Though on the surface many [...]

Like a fine-tuned piece of machinery, districts across the nation are taking advantage of high-tech tools and software programs to collect reams of data on students, make sense of it [...]

A District Administration Web Seminar Digest * Originally presented on March 10, 2015 It's crucial for today's students to develop foundational technology skills that can be applied to their core […]

It's never too early to start thinking about college and careers. And that's why kindergarteners at Kankakee School District in Illinois are already on the right path. Superintendent Genevra Walters, [...]