Special report on virtual schools

Van Dusen, C. (2009) eSN Special Report: Beyond the Virtual School eSchool News, Nov 1

Because of the volume of stuff that comes through my portal, I don’t usually cover k-12 reports, but I’m including this one because it provides some excellent examples of what I like to call hybrid learning (reduced but not eliminated face-to-face [...]

Special report on learning with 3-D video

Stansbury, M. (2009) eSN Special report: Learning in 3D eSchool News, December 11

Will three-dimensional video be the next flavour of the month in educational technology? Quite possibly.

Costs of creating and showing 3-D video have dropped dramatically – under $700 for projection/viewing. Throw in 3-D sound and you are running up to $8,000 on the ’show’ [...]

New research on educational games

Stansbury, M. (2009) Can gaming change education? eSchool News, December 9

An interesting article on educational games with excellent links to the original research reports. Also a good analysis of the barriers to educational gaming. Perhaps the most important point made in the article is that ‘researchers are still in the early stages of trying to [...]

Hints on a national strategy for educational technology in the USA

Downey, G. (2009) ED’s new tech chief previews national plan eSchool News, December 2

This is a report of a recent speech by Karen Cator, the new director of education technology at the US Department of Education. The new National Education Technology Plan will have four areas of focus: access, assessment, learning support, improving cost-effectiveness/productivity.

Cator said [...]

Suggestions for a national ed tech plan for the USA

eSchool News (2009) Stakeholders advise on national ed-tech plan eSchool News, November 17

U.S. Department of Education (ED) is preparing a new National Education Technology Plan and is accepting public feedback as it develops the new plan. A department spokesman did not know how long the public comment period would remain open, saying only that ED [...]