K-12

In 2006, more than 250,000 students, teachers and parents responded to the NetDay Speak Up survey, sharing their views of educational topics important to the K-12 community.  Amongst the topics explored, survey questions covered numerous areas of e-Learning, including online learning, digital media and social networking.

Blackboard and Project Tomorrow, a national nonprofit education group based in Irvine, CA, compiled the survey results, added further insight provided by educators during direct interviews, and recently released a report titled “Learning in the 21st Century: A National Report of Online Learning.”  This 11-page report includes valuable information from over 3,000 schools nationwide and, specifically, their views of online learning.

While compiling research for this report, we found that as the use of computing and networking technologies proliferates in K-12 schools and across districts, educators increasingly incorporate online tools and resources into their curricula—some teachers and instructors even replace traditional classroom interaction with “virtual” courses that take place entirely online.  The findings included in “Learning in the 21st Century” underscore the critical and ever-expanding role online learning plays in efforts to increase student and teacher achievement.

Last Thursday at the EDUCAUSE 2007 Annual Conference, held in Seattle, WA, well over 100 higher education CIOs and e-Learning experts gathered to learn about and discuss a topic not frequently addressed during higher education IT conferences: a continuum of education from kindergarten through college, or “K-20” collaboration.

Although conversations about K-20 collaboration (being referred to as the “education pipeline”) were previously unusual for such gatherings, when Blackboard announced the “Blackboard K-20 Connection” on Thursday, the meeting room at EDUCAUSE was filled to capacity.  The Blackboard K-20 Connection is a new initiative designed to foster collaboration between higher education and K-12 institutions worldwide.

On the same day last week, K-20 collaboration was being discussed in Tucson, AZ, where 250 people from across that state had gathered for the Arizona Summit on 21st Century Skills, a meeting sponsored by Governor Napolitano’s P-20 Council, the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, and hosted by the University of Arizona, College of Education. 

And the discussions continue this week, as 300 IT and e-Learning specialists will gather November 1–2, in Somerset, KY, for Kentucky Convergence 2007 to discuss their craft, and the benefits and positive impact of K-20 collaboration.

What exactly is K-20, and why has it become the hot topic of conversation amongst educators?

Social bookmarking (a.k.a. "tagging") and networking are noteworthy Web 2.0 technologies for a number of reasons.  A major one is that by allowing users to store online content, share it with others, and see content that others have collected, bookmarking and networking help educators and students move beyond the Google searches that are frequently mistaken for research.

And who doesn’t want to help their students become better researchers?

Looking for a single insightful online resource for following the debate over the possible U.S. Congressional reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001?

I recommend NCLB: Act II, a blog kept by David J. Hoff on EdWeek.org, which describes him as having reported “on the biggest issues in K-12 education for more than 10 years for Education Week” and now primarily covering the reauthorization of NCLB.

Hoff and two of his colleagues, Mark Walsh and Alyson Klein, post daily about NCLB, collecting links to, and commenting on, news reports, feature-length articles, and opinion pieces published within our industry media and the broader U.S. news outlets.  Yesterday, Hoff focused on President Bush’s comments made during a recent town hall meeting in Rogers, AR.

If you’re a teacher or administrator whose school or district enables online access only to officially sanctioned Web sites, you can subscribe to NCLB: Act II and receive new posts by e-mail.

Please let me know what online resources you use to obtain news about K-12 education matters; e-mail a list of your suggested K-12-related blogs and news outlets to me at blogfeedback@blackboard.com.

News for all computer users . . . Yesterday the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded jointly to two researchers for their work in the field of nanotechnology: Albert Fert of France and Peter Gruenberg of Germany.

Fert and Gruenberg will share the award for their independent discoveries in 1988 of giant magnetoresistance.  In its press release, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences explains:

This year’s physics prize is awarded for the technology that is used to read data on hard disks. It is thanks to this technology that it has been possible to miniaturize hard disks so radically in recent years. Sensitive read-out heads are needed to be able to read data from the compact hard disks used in laptops and some music players, for instance.

Details of the work completed by Fert and Gruenberg are included in the Aademy’s Scientific Background report titled “The Discovery of Giant Magnetoresistance.”

A note for K-12 educators: The official Web site of the Academy contains several online games and simulations to help students understand the work of Nobel Laureates in, and build their knowledge of, all the Nobel categories: physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, peace and economics.