DiscoverE Educator Awards
Posted on November 9th, 2011 by Jaimie Schock
The DiscoverE Educator Awards from the National Engineers Week Foundation shine a spotlight on the educators who are inspiring tomorrow’s innovation generation. Unique to this program, engineers and engineering students are part of the nomination process. The deadline for nominations is Dec. 1, 2011.
Filed under: For Teachers, K-12 Outreach Programs | Comments Off on DiscoverE Educator Awards
Tags: National Engineers Week, Teacher Awards, Technology for Learning
Apple’s iPad hasn’t yet taken over the nation’s classrooms, but it’s starting to look as though it might. In Colorado, Manitou Springs Middle School plans to buy an iPad for every fifth-through-eighth grader next year and have one for every high schooler the following year. Now in pilot: an iPad-only algebra curriculum. 
Ever stumble with students’ names? Or struggle to perk up class participation? Most schools view cellphones as disruptive nuisances, but a new iPhone app called Pikme could turn them into powerful tools for educators.
Forget politics and budget battles. Digital learning, not legislatures, represents the biggest threat to teachers’ unions, argues Stanford political science professor Terry Moe in his new book, Special Interest. Part history, part analysis of education trends, the book details the rise of the National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers.
Can digital media and video games boost student learning? The Bill and Melinda Gates and Pearson foundations clearly think so. The pair announced a $20 million effort to create online reading, math, and science courses tied to new Common Core state standards that will use video, interactive software, games, social media and other digital materials. 
More than 1 million K-12 students take online courses. Advocates say Web-based make-up classes and other offerings allow students to take a richer menu of electives and Advanced Placement courses. Critics call them an effort by school districts to shave costs on buildings and teachers.
Farewell, bulky backpacks–at least in Florida. State education officials recently rolled out a five-year proposal that calls for all students in K-12 to use only “electronic materials” delivered by Kindles, iPads and other similar technology by 2015.
Pathways In Technology Early College High School, a new school opening this fall in Brooklyn, N.Y., is partnering with IBM to offer internships and hands-on training in computers, engineering and information technology for all students. Students also will be able to take college-level classes at CUNY and earn an associate’s degree.
Within five years, every K-12 student in America will be using a mobile handheld device as a part of learning, according to Elliot Soloway, a professor at the University of Michigan. “Smart phones are the one technology that can eliminate the digital divide.”
