As districts look at the millennials in their classrooms and plan for the most effective educational strategies to reach them, it is clear that technology can enable learning in ways that never before have been possible. It is also clear that this generation grew up with tools and techniques that are well integrated with their lifestyles. To these…

This article provides CIOs suggested training, development, and administrative tasks to prepare for the technology infrastructure challenges that lie ahead in the upcoming school year. These suggestions cover a range of subject matter from personal/professional development to data audits, social networking, acceptable risk policies, and data…

Laptop computing programs have been in K-12 schools since the 1990s, but in recent months one-to-one learning seems to have reemerged as a top topic in education technology circles. According to Tim Wiley, senior analyst at research firm Eduventures, about 1,000 of the 15,000 school districts in the United States currently have one-to-one…

Few have the long-term experience with one-to-one computing that Cincinnati Country Day School has. The small, private, grade 5-12 institution in Indian Hills, Ohio, began its pioneering laptop program in 1996. With six years of practical experience under its belt, the school made the decision to begin transitioning to tablets in 2002, with an…

Open source has continued to evolve and in the past three years the development of a graphical user interface has made it increasingly accessible and viable for end users without special training. Open source relies to a great extent on the free software movement. In this context, the term free refers not to cost, but to the freedom users have to…

This article relates the story of one California school district that is making laptop ownership for students a reality, despite the overwhelming financial burden. In January 1996, Clovis Unified School District found itself in a situation familiar to many districts. Fresh from a conference in Redmond, Washington, sponsored by Microsoft and…

As an educational leader, the technology administrator can and should take the lead in ensuring students benefit from the integration of digital technologies into classroom practices. This article presents numerous practical strategies for achieving a culture in which students can be more engaged in their learning, have multiple means of accessing…

The Freedom to Learn (FTL) program is a statewide initiative coordinated by the Michigan Department of Education and Ferris State University in Big Rapids. Now beginning its third year, the program targets underperforming middle schools in 100 of the state's 500 districts. More than 23,000 students and 1,500 teachers have been issued HP nx9010…

A report recently released by the Center on Education Policy reveals that the four-year-old No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act has indeed served to shine a light on the importance of professional development for K-12 educators. Beyond that basic fact, though, any real broad-based impact on the training of educators remains inconclusive. While the…

The concept of data-driven professional development is both straight-forward and sensible. Implementing this approach is another story, which is why many administrators are turning to sophisticated tools to help manage data collection and analysis. These tools allow educators to assess and correlate student outcomes, instructional methods, and…