In the late 1990s and early 2000s, as schools first started getting widespread access to the internet, many administrators saw the potential in this new technology, but also huge risks and liabilities. While billions were being spent on hardware and connectivity, the mainstream media was fueling parental fears with stories of online predators…

EdCamp is a grassroots movement of do-it-yourself professional development "un-conferences" that originated in Philadelphia in November 2010. In just a little over a year and a half the phenomenon has gained serious momentum across the country and now around the globe. This teacher-driven, bottom-up approach to professional development…

Schools fear the predatory behavior that lurks around social networking sites, where the exchange of personal information can make users sitting ducks for hackers, thieves, cyberbullies, and scammers. So they're caught in what appears to be an all-or-nothing choice: take advantage of the academic opportunities that social networking sites can…

When Matthew Slaughter stood before a roomful of staff, community members, and former and current students at Minnetonka High School to receive the Distinguished Alumni award, the honor was not only his, but belonged in part to the effectiveness of a coordinated, integrated, multi-pronged online communication strategy. He reconnected with this old…

Upgraded with new features and components, the learning management system (LMS) has transformed into a platform that allows teachers to answer the challenges of 21st century education. Educators are taking full advantage of the new features that LMS vendors are regularly adding to their platforms. Although the formative years of LMSs trace back…

Ten years into the new century, people are still trying to find the web 2.0 tools that best facilitate collaboration--one of the fundamentals of 21st century learning. As the number of tools continues to grow, and fuzzy terms like "cloud computing," "hashtags," and "synchronous live platforms" are introduced into the lexicon daily, even the most…

With K-12 students seeming to, at all times, have one foot in the real world and one in the virtual, school districts are starting to acknowledge a new collective responsibility: to teach kids what it means to be a good digital citizen and how to go about being one. The movement to address and characterize digital citizenship originated in the UK,…

The benefits of deploying a communications system that runs over the Internet Protocol are well documented. Sending voice over the Internet, a process commonly known as VoIP, has been shown to save money on long distance calls, make voice mail more accessible, and enable users to answer their phones from anywhere. The technology also makes adding…

Technology is allowing anyone with a computer, the ability to type, and an Internet connection to become a published author--of sorts. Web logs, or "blogs," are the latest way that students, businesses, and many others are publishing their musings. The term was coined in 1999, and today Webster's dictionary defines a blog as a "diary; a personal…

A computer virus is a program--a piece of executable code--that has the unique ability to replicate. Like biological viruses, computer viruses can spread quickly and are often difficult to eradicate. They can attach themselves to just about any type of file, and are spread by replicating and being sent from one individual to another. Simply having…

Internet Protocol (IP) Telephony, or voice-over IP (VoIP), has proved to be a wise decision for many organizations. This technology crosses the boundaries of public and private networks, enterprise and residential markets, voice and data technologies, as well as local and long-distance services. The convergence of voice and data into a single,…

The interest in new media for teaching and learning has highlighted the potential of innovative software and hardware for education. This has included laptops, hand-helds, wireless systems and Web-based learning environments. Most recently, however, this interest has focused on blogs and blogging. Weblogs, or blogs, are Web pages often likened to…

Through conversations with students across different grade levels, there is clear evidence that two of the things they most desire contradict each other--and they use electronic technology to get both of them. This author had conversations with three groups of students in Seattle about their favorite electronic technologies, and any concerns they…

The wireless bandwagon is rolling across Mississippi, picking up a fresh load of converts and turning calamity into opportunity. Traditional wired school networks, many of which unraveled during Hurricane Katrina, are giving way to advanced wireless mesh networks that frequently include voice-over-IP (VoIP) capabilities. Vendor funding is helping…

The Web is no longer a novel ingredient in the learning experience, it is intrinsic and constant. In fact, a host of new technologies has sparked an age of inexpensive, effortless, and universal Web access in the classroom, while wireless devices and protocols have steadily moved downstream and down the socioeconomic ladder. With this incredible…