Open Ed technologies.The U.S. needs to catch up the rest of the world when it comes to open technologies in education. And the Consortium for School Networking is doing just that, having launched a new Web site as part of its K-12 Open Technologies Leadership Initiative. The site is designed to help chief technology officers and educators adopt and use open technologies--from planning, evaluating, decision-making and implementing. "This is CoSN's leadership initiative," CoSN's chief executive officer Keith Krueger says. "We need to increase the capacity and understanding of chief technology officers in school districts to understand the value of involving their networks to be more 'open.'" Jim Klein, director of Information Service & Technology at the Saugus Union School District The Saugus Union School District is a school district in the Santa Clarita Valley that serves the Saugus, Valencia, and Canyon Country communities within the city of Santa Clarita, California. As of March 25,2006, it has 15 elementary schools. in California, says, "This [site] is one-stop shopping for educators" interested in knowing about open technologies." An aspect of "openness" is open content--or when a student or teacher creates information and then allows others to add information or context, such as the Wikipedia site. When it comes to blogging Writing Weblogs. See blog. or podcasting Recording a non-music audio broadcast (news, sports, discussion, etc.) in the MP3 format for playback in a digital music player. See podcast. , for example, teachers can share educational content. "It [open content] builds a culture of open collaboration," which will increase student learning, Klein adds. Rae Ann Alton Cooper of IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) Global Education, one of the site's sponsors, says this is about enabling educators to innovate in·no·vate v. in·no·vat·ed, in·no·vat·ing, in·no·vates v.tr. To begin or introduce (something new) for or as if for the first time. v.intr. To begin or introduce something new. and building on top of open standards Specifications for hardware and software that are developed by a standards organization or a consortium involved in supporting a standard. Available to the public for developing compliant products, open standards imply "open systems;" that an existing component in a system can be replaced . IBM says this model lowers the total coast of ownership and allows customization to meet student needs, she adds. www.k12opentech.org |
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