Interactive whiteboards hold 6 point lead in key battleground states...

The NSBA polled 500 school leaders attending the T+L Conference in Seattle this week, asking them about technology, budgets, and classroom devices. You can read the whole report here. Their findings have shocked political analysts, and threaten to redraw the electoral map. (Okay, not really, but bear with me I'm trying to jazz it up a bit!)

Among the findings:
49.6% said funding was the biggest challenge in implementing new technology in their district.
93.1% said technology has increased educational opportunities for students in their district.
70.5% said they would invest in either devices or professional development if they had the funds.

And 50.9% said that interactive whiteboards are the most useful device to support instruction and engage students.
It's important to note that the runner up, laptops, holds a solid 44.1% and continues to poll well particularly in more conservative districts in the Midwest, the Rust Belt and the South. Analysts are predicting laptops may enjoy a slight bump in the polls after the Consumer Electronics Show, when they may choose a running mate. Possibilities include third place device overhead projectors (polling at 23.7%, and providing the presentation capabilities and foreign policy experience that laptops lack), document cameras (13.5%, and particularly strong in West Virginia) or there could be a wild card candidate in iPods, which polled at just 3.5% but would bring in a lot of younger administrators.

It's shaping up to be a nasty race, watch for mudslinging about whiteboards' Vietnam service, associations with controversial fundraisers, and questionable patriotism.

I am swamped with work, getting the Top 100 issue under way, working on current issues, blogging and the like, so I will soon report on what I saw at T+L. Happy Halloween.

Off to Seattle...

...for a few days to attend the NSBA T+L Conference, to meet with some companies, attend some workshops, hear some speakers, meet some folks, hand out magazines, drink some coffee, eat some oysters. I will blog once I'm there and give you the inside scoop.

In the meantime: looking to save gobs of cash on your district's electric bill? Have you considered shutting off computers when not in use? This New York district could save $47,000, a state audit found.

SMART unveils multitouch table concept

You might have noticed that I have mentioned various touchscreen technologies lately, as I recently wrote the cover story for our November issue on the subject, and how more and more touch devices are coming to the education market. On that note, SMART Technologies, interactive whiteboard maker to the stars, today announced the SMART Table, a soon-to-be-released, multi-touch interactive platform. I report in my article about a similar concept in the UK that was in the very infant stages. SMART really kept this one under wraps, I had heard rumors about other companies' upcoming touchscreen plans but nothing about this. It isn't yet on the market, and the estimated retail price will be $8,000, so at this point implementation will be pretty limited, but it's an intriguing look at the future.

Iowa schools surrendering in battle with cell phones... learning with them next?

(by Staci Hupp, Des Moines Register)
At Waukee's welcome-back meeting this fall, Superintendent Dave Wilkerson held up his cell phone and handheld computer to a group of teachers.
"I said, 'We're fighting a losing battle,' " Wilkerson said. "We're creating a false world for them in the school, a world so different from what they're dealing with on the outside."
[...]U.S. schools also face pressure to prepare children for an economy that now spans the globe. Chinese schools already are experimenting with cell phones as learning tools, researchers say.
Researchers predict U.S. students soon will use cell phones to photograph field trips, search the Internet and answer classroom polls via text message, among other things. Read the full story....

NEWS FLASH: Apple releases new, highly anticipated, innovative products that get a lot of attention.

I've heard from a lot of our readers for our upcoming Top 100 Products issue (look for it in mid-January) that they love their Mac laptops. So the big releases yesterday should really get you excited. More powerful, smaller and more compact, with cool new features.
The new MacBook laptop has a 13-inch display, Intel Core 2 Duo processor up to 2.4GHz, hard drive up to 320GB or 128GB solid state, Nvidia GeForce 9400M graphics chip, weighs 4.5 pounds, and starts at $1299. The larger MacBook Pro  has a 15.4-inch display, Intel Core 2 Duo processor up to 2.8GHz, weighs 5.5 pounds and starts at $1999. Both are less than an inch thick!
The features that really get everyone's attention, though are those like the "multi-touch glass trackpad," for example, which enables you to use multiple fingers to pinch, rotate, zoom in, or scroll through photos or other files. And dispenses with a trackpad button entirely, kinda like an iPhone screen. Pretty neat, though I wonder if it can get frustrating and confusing to use. One early reviewer called it "surprisingly usable," which isn't all that reassuring. The other feature touted by Apple is the manufacturing process: each chassis is carved from a single brick of aluminum, making them more solid and durable. I can only exclaim "Apple!" which translates as "Wow, that's cool!" and "Wow, that's expensive!" simultaneously.

FREE Discovery Education virtual conference on October 25

Discovery Education and the Discovery Educator Network will be offering a free professional development webinar, the DEN Virtual Conference, all day on Saturday October 25, focusing on helping educators integrate digital media and Web 2.0 into instruction. Presenters include Scott Kinney, Steve Dembo, and Hall Davidson. You can view the schedule of presentations here, and there are also local events posted in each state's DEN blog.
Another one of those free professional development tools that keep appearing on the Web. And apparently, while this is a virtual conference, it still "fills to capacity quickly," so you might want to have you or your staff register right away!

Calypso Controls' Grant program lets schools test drive ezRoom for free...

I can imagine it's tough to make a decision about district-wide technology implementation. It's difficult enough to select one piece of tech, let alone deciding on a whole fleet of computers, whiteboards, projectors or what have you.
Calypso Control Systems, the A/V connectivity company, feels your pain. If you're considering an integrated classroom technology system like their ezRoom Classroom Bundle (pictured, and featured in the October issue New Products section), Calypso is offering a grant program, value up to $1,200, for districts to try out the ezRoom installation, or certain components of your choice, in a classroom. The ezRoom system connects the PC, projector, speakers, screen, video and audio sources together. 19 districts have already qualified and installed a test classroom. Just fill out the two-page grant application form on their home page, and you can too.

PA governor videoconferences with high schoolers...

(PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/)

High school students across Pennsylvania discussed current events with Governor Edward Rendell and First Lady Judge Marjorie O. Rendell today as the first couple led a virtual class using two-way interactive video and Classrooms for the Future technology.

           

The Governor and First Lady, along with Education Secretary Gerald L. Zahorchak, led a discussion on topics that included Pennsylvania's transportation infrastructure, the cost of higher education and ways to address the nation's energy use and resources. It marked an unprecedented use of the technology the Rendell administration has provided to commonwealth classrooms in recent years. Continued at MarketWatch...

                   

Why not OLPC here in the States?

I noticed this story in the New York Sun the other day, describing how the famous One Laptop Per Child organization is donating many of their machines to New York City Public Schools, starting with two elementary schools in the Bronx. Started by MIT professor Nicholas Negroponte around 2005, the organization has made news around the world, as Negroponte meets with presidents, governors, economic leaders, the World Economic Forum, all about providing a useful laptop for $100 each to children in developing nations. That initial goal has proven impossible, $200 proved more realistic. The project is not without controversy, and initial supporter/collaborator Intel has since split off, leaving in a huff after reaching a "philosophical impasse" to design their own "emerging market" model, the Classmate PC.

Still, so far, millions have been purchased and are in use all over the world. And the New York Sun story brings up the question that has always bugged me: why, exactly, is there no organization doing this in the U.S.? Nothing against their mission, but we have at least hundreds of thousands of students in poverty here with little to no access to a computer. Even most middle class families, I would wager, wouldn't buy their child a laptop normally. Why can't we get those machines here, in our schools? Given our infrastructure and manufacturing capabilities, and with some government funding, we could easily have these in every school in the country very quickly. Hm. Maybe this is the beginning? Feel free to let me know your thoughts.

NYT article: "Using Video Games As Bait To Hook Readers"

The New York Times is running a series entitled "The Future of Reading," and this week's installment, part 2, addresses the usefulness of video games in getting kids excited about reading. The article makes for interesting reading, and I think it demonstrates the evolving genre of gaming and its pervasive impact on American society. There is still a generational gap, as many older teachers, parents and librarians don't see video games as anything other than a waste of time, but as the article shows, we're seeing an increasing number who see the positive potential. The New York Public Library has hosted some 500 video gaming events, for example (pictured). And the article cites games such as Civilization, a complex and difficult strategy game where players organize and lead a society through centuries of history. Donkey Kong it ain't.

I can see both sides of the issue, admittedly one has to wonder about the value of kids sitting in front of the television for hours. But what if the same kids were sitting alone in their rooms reading books all day? How well developed would this child be? Is that an education? Would we applaud this as valuable, and scoff at the hundreds of kids rushing to the library for a huge strategy gaming tournament?
I'm amazed at some recent games, like the "Call of Duty" series, for example, that take great pride in their historical accuracy. Yes, kids are playing countless hours of such games, but in this case, they are coming away with an intimate and detailed knowledge of the battlefields of World War II, the weaponry, strategies, landscapes, generals, specific missions, on and on. Strategy games like "Rome" painstakingly recreate historical battles to the most minor of detail and put players in command. Would you really say there is no value to this? And in regard to reading, couldn't such games inspire kids to pick up a book about the game's setting? This article, at least, seems to say yes.