Technology

EDC today released an independent evaluation of IBM’s Reinventing Education Program which indicates that investments in educational technology are yielding gains in student performance, teaching quality, and school management. The three-year study was conducted by EDC’s Center for Children and Technology (CCT) based in New York City.

The Internet is full of math problems, but many of them are pointless, says EDC’s Paul Goldenberg. They exist solely to practice what a student already knows, without leading to or developing larger concepts or questions. In such cases, he says, “the individual problems don’t matter, and neither do the answers.”

A roundtable discussion featuring Judith Zorfass, associate director of the Center for Family, School, and Community; Glenn Kleiman, EDC vice president, and director of the Center for Online Professional Education; and Robert Spielvogel, EDC’s director of technology.

Change comes slowly to Macon Ridge, Louisiana, a rural area spread out over 150 square miles in the northeast corner of the state. The region is home to five of Louisiana’s poorest counties—or “parishes,” as they’re known locally, a term that dates back to the days when Louisiana was still a French Catholic colony. But the slow pace of change in Macon Ridge is evident in more than just its nomenclature: Cotton, corn, and lumber are still the dominant industries in the

This past summer, a group of science teachers from northern Illinois spent six weeks poring over student work from Japan, Germany, the Czech Republic, and six other countries. As part of an EDC online workshop, the Illinois teachers logged on to a website to review student work and accompanying commentary from teachers.

Speech recognition technology is a relatively new word processing software. Rather than typing in your words, you speak into a microphone and the text appears on screen.

When Sara was in the first grade, her teacher discovered that she had weak writing skills. No matter what techniques they tried, the teacher saw no improvement. Throughout her elementary school years, Sara made little progress in writing and often felt embarrassed about her handwriting. On occasion classmates ridiculed her.

The diffuse ways we develop IT skills may mean that traditional models of literacy and skills development are ill-suited to the natural, and rapid, evolution of IT skills.

Community-based technology centers narrow the "digital divide" between the technology haves and have-nots by providing computer access and education to the unemployed and working poor, according to a National Science Foundation (NSF)—funded report released this month.