October 20, 2008
Digital Directions, Vol. 02, Issue Fall 2008
Education Funding
The Universal Challenge
Over the past several months, as concerns about the economy have grown, chief information officers and other ed-tech leaders are facing a universal challenge: how to maintain, or even grow, IT programs with declining resources.
Curriculum
Opinion
Open-Content Options
In a recent online chat, Lisa A. Petrides, the president and founder of the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education, which researches and supports the use of open content, answered questions on this topic from educators across the country.
Curriculum
The Open-Content Movement
A small but growing movement of K-12 teachers are latching on to educational resources that are "open," or free for others to use, change, and republish on Web sites that promote sharing.
Curriculum
Digital Persona
For educators who think real life does not offer enough opportunities to practice their profession, there is 'Second Life.'
Education
Disruptive Innovation
Technology-based forces of “disruptive innovation” are gathering around public education and will overhaul the way K-12 students learn—with potentially dramatic consequences for established public schools, according to a new book that draws parallels to disruptions in other industries.
IT Infrastructure & Management
IT Performance Lessons From Texas
Jim Hirsch, the associate superintendent for academic and technology services for the Plano, Texas school system, discusses how his district has built a reputation for embedding technology into learning and the management of schools.
Classroom Technology
'Credit Recovery'
Under pressure to raise graduation rates, some high schools are turning to online courses to help faltering students revive their academic careers and retrieve the credits they need to earn their diplomas.
School Climate & Safety
GoinGreen
"Green technology" is fast becoming part of a school tech leader's lexicon. It's being incorporated into everything from saving paper to building new high schools.
Professional Development
Join the DD Expert Network
Digital Directions Senior Writer Michelle R. Davis is managing a social-networking project with the aim of identifying the top 10 problems in educational technology and determining how to solve those problems.
Education Funding
Dollars & Sense
Ed-tech leaders are employing creative tactics to cut IT costs and save programs.
IT Infrastructure & Management
IT Experts Turn to 'Virtualization' As a Money-Saving Approach
A growing number of schools are turning to an IT method called “virtualization” to save money and operate in a more environmentally friendly way.
IT Infrastructure & Management
Help Wanted: Finding the Right IT Worker
School technology leaders across the country differ when it comes to the skills, education, experience, and personality they look for when hiring an IT specialist.
IT Infrastructure & Management
Alternate Reality Games
Alternate-reality games, which use the actual world as their stage and encourage players to participate by imagining themselves, as themselves, in simulated situations, may be the curriculum of the future.
Curriculum
Student Moviemakers
Because of user-friendly video-editing programs and Web 2.0 technologies, digital video has begun to creep into art classrooms across the nation—and the world.