ONE way districts are negotiating cheap, reliable internet for themselves

By Bridget McCrea, eSchool News

“The state used an E-rate bid for internet… and wound up saving money across the state,” says Jeff Mozdzierz, Pontiac’s director of field services for Oakland Schools (of which Pontiac is one of 28 districts that together serve 200,000 students in 425 connected buildings). Through ONE, the internet is provided over consortium-owned private fiber into a connection with telecom providers, with all consortium members sharing two 10 Gigabit connections. According to Tammy Evans, chief technology officer for Oakland Schools, the county was an early adopter of the concept of “shared internet” across multiple, geographically-dispersed schools. In 2000, the county rolled out a 36-connection network that links all local public school districts and its technical campus sites.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2015/02/18/one-internet-418/

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from Educational Technology http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/uis/edtech/~3/cR6nY7i2z9k/

Addressing the data skills gap with bootcamps

by eSchool News

Bootcamps focusing on data science aim to set students up for workplace success. NYC Data Science Academy is conducting a series of training it calls data science “bootcamps.” These full-time bootcamps accept talented students from a wide range of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) backgrounds and equip them with the skills they need to hit the ground running as data scientists on day one. Data science bootcamps are separated from universities by offering more hands-on skills, real work experience, industry connections, and job placement. MGI reports a predicted shortage of 190,000 skilled data scientists, and 1.5 million managers capable of implementing big data insights by 2018 (Big Data: The Next Frontier).

http://www.ecampusnews.com/top-news/data-skills-gap-894/

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from Educational Technology http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/uis/edtech/~3/HdNVepFIkvQ/

Technology-Driven Service Learning: The Instructor’s Role and the Student’s Experience

by Andrew Martin and Lindsey Joyce Chamberlain, EDUCAUSE Review

To enhance student interactions with community organizations in a service-learning course, Ohio State University’s Sociology Department introduced mobile technology, giving its students iPads to use throughout the semester. Working in teams, the students helped local businesses solve specific problems, using the iPads both for in-class research and to communicate with business owners and each other. Far from diminishing the instructor’s role, the use of iPads both enhanced that role and showed how it must change in a course heavily reliant on mobile technology. Course-end surveys show that students benefitted from the technology use, not only in coursework but also in terms of their confidence about using mobile devices and applications in the job market.

http://www.educause.edu/ero/article/technology-driven-service-learning-instructors-role-and-students-experience

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from Educational Technology http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/uis/edtech/~3/EH1H3uo1qsM/

The Mathematics Behind Getting All That Damned Snow Off Your Street

This winter has dumped a lot of snow on the east coast. A lot of snow. Boston, to offer an example, has seen 99.9 inches of the stuff, just eight inches shy of its all-time record with another storm approaching. In what seems like a losing battle to clear it all, cities deploy fleets of […]

The post The Mathematics Behind Getting All That Damned Snow Off Your Street appeared first on WIRED.

from WIRED » Science http://feeds.wired.com/c/35185/f/661470/s/43bdd285/sc/10/l/0L0Swired0N0C20A150C0A20Cmathematics0Ebehind0Egetting0Edamned0Esnow0Estreet0C/story01.htm

via Science News

School within a school provides a different approach to learning

by Fox 13

It’s online learning with a human touch, minus the “herd mentality.” “We have the kids all day with us, even though they switch from class to class, we’re still able to meet with them whenever we want,” Kailin said. Twelve-year-old Casey Harkins loves it. “Now I’m getting better grades, and I’m really good at it,” Casey said. This type of blended learning where high-tech meets human interaction is all the buzz in education today. “It keeps me above pace and lets me do my best,” says student Shelton Reid. They all have assignment deadlines, and going above and beyond is common.

http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/story/28122658/2015/02/16/school-within-a-school-provides-a-different-approach-to-learning

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from Educational Technology http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/uis/edtech/~3/yQDm6051ChY/

In Emerson, an early lesson in ‘Digital Citizenship’ and online presence

BY ANDREW WYRICH, the Record

Dennis Gordon, a social studies teacher at Patrick M. Villano Elementary School, stood in front of his third-grade class and pointed at a picture of footprints on the board in front of them and asked two simple questions: “What are these and what do they tell us?” The class enthusiastically answered that they were looking at footprints on a beach and those footprints, they said, can show evidence that someone stepped somewhere — but also added that footprints can get washed away by waves. Smiling, Gordon brought up a new slide. This time, an outline of a foot filled with internet company logos such as Google, Facebook and Instagram flashed on the screen. This is a “digital footprint,” he explained to the class as they peered over their Google Chromebook laptops, but a better word to describe what the internet is really like would be “digital tattoo.”

http://www.northjersey.com/news/education/lessons-in-online-citizenship-begin-early-1.1272258

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from Educational Technology http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/uis/edtech/~3/DDLAvf1-fFs/

Virtual learning may make snow days a thing of the past

by Jenn Savedge, Mother Nature Network

Winter has been hammering certain regions of the U.S. this year, burying some cities in foot after foot of snow and resulting in a backlog of missed school days that will have to be tacked on to the schedule in the summer months. But there are some parts of the country where school doesn’t stop for snow days, schools where students are expected to log-in from home so that the learning can continue — even when school buildings are closed.

http://www.mnn.com/family/family-activities/blogs/virtual-learning-may-make-snow-days-a-thing-of-the-past

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