Articles in the Multimedia and Webinars category

Finding the silver (or gold) lining in cities

Urban centers are often the hub of creativity, innovation, and business development in most American cities, but the fact is, they can also be where some of the roughest neighborhoods and schools exist.  Poverty rates are high, community involvement can be low, and a combination of variables make it a difficult place for positive things to happen.  This morning, “The Today Show” took Al Roker on the road to San Francisco, where beyond the Golden Gate and the Wharf, a neighborhood exists that is doing something right.

A program called R.O.C.K. (Real Options for City Kids) has been very successful in an area of the city called Visitacion Valley, where success is sometimes hard to imagine.  The organization is not looking for quick fixes and focuses on long term solutions for students there, mostly working through the ability to utilze play as a tool.  By working both in school and after school, the group focuses not only on fitness, but also leadership training, and working through difficult challenges peacefully and respectfully.  “The Today Show’s” visit also brought along three truckloads of supplies for the schools and ROCK, and as you might imagine, organizations like this are particulary stretched thin in the budget times we’re experiencing in cities.  But the next time you’re looking for a success story about an urban district, remember that programs like this are in most American cities, it’s just a matter of finding them. 

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Kevin Scott|June 21st, 2010|Categories: Governance, Multimedia and Webinars, NSBA Opinions and Analysis, Student Achievement|

One Laptop Per Child’s $100 tablet

Remember that One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) tablet concept we showed you back in December? On Thursday, the foundation announced a partnership with silicon solutions maker Marvell to make that concept a reality by 2011. They plan to launch the device at the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2011 for less than $100. The hardware is being produced by Marvell using its Moby Platform, featuring a built-in camera for video conferencing, and support for 3D graphics and Flash.

Although the OLPC device will run the traditional Sugar operating system as an application, the Marvell version could ship with the Android operating system from Google, the Windows Mobile platform, or Ubuntu.

The device appear as if it will be ultra thin. OLPC Chairman Nicholas Negropante says the tablet will be part laptop, iPad, and Kindle. However, it likely won’t include many features Negroponte had described: it won’t be all-plastic components for durability, it won’t be waterproof or half the thickness of an iPhone, and its Marvell processor will likely be just one gigahertz.

For many, the features lacking from the new tablet may represent another in a long history of disappointments from a nonprofit that has often failed to meet its near-science-fictional aims. People have called Negroponte’s concepts unrealistic, but “we think unrealistic is good,” says Negroponte. “The world needs some people who aren’t realistic, or you’ll always get the same old stuff.”

Watch the video below to learn more.

Andrew Paulson|May 28th, 2010|Categories: Educational Technology, Multimedia and Webinars, NSBA Opinions and Analysis, Student Achievement|

Take a break with TED

In case you’ve never spent a little time with TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design), the series of talks on their site can get you thinking.  Sometimes it’s a comedian or actor who gets into some deep thoughts about a variety of topics which surprises you, while other times they present a business leader or expert from academia who talks through some of the world’s biggest problems in less than 20 minutes. The most recent post is from Sir Ken Robinson, who devotes his talk mostly to the subject of education, and he makes some excellent points.

While we spend a great deal of time talking about education reform in the U.S., and as more news about standardized scores and results (see the Edifier’s post on NAEP results released on Friday) seem to depress even the most optimistic educator, Robinson discusses fundamental innovation that needs to occur in education.  Does that mean we need to prepare everyone for college?  According to him, no.  He talks about the “fast-food model of education” and how that may not be the best way to educate our children.  We don’t want to ruin the talk for you, but if you’re serious about working toward reform in education, this video is worth 18 minutes of your time.  But BoardBuzz says beware…these videos can become addictive.

Kevin Scott|May 24th, 2010|Categories: Educational Technology, Multimedia and Webinars, NSBA Opinions and Analysis|

Photos of Sunday’s events

Look for photos of Sunday’s events at our photo gallery.

Andrew Paulson|April 11th, 2010|Categories: Multimedia and Webinars, NSBA Annual Conference 2010, School Board News|

ASBJ to host free webinar on Education 3.0

Time is running out to register for our free webinar on Education 3.0.  American School Board Journal is partnering with Cisco for a free webinar on how to move your school district into the next generation. Led by Jim Lengel, a professor at Hunter College of the City University of New York, the session will feature a seven-step process on how to assess where your district is now and how to get where you need to go. The webinar will take place on Thursday at 2 p.m. EST. Register here.

Kathleen Vail,  Managing Editor

Kathleen Vail|February 24th, 2010|Categories: American School Board Journal, Educational Technology, Multimedia and Webinars, NSBA Publications|

What to do if you’re snowbound (and even if you’re not)

This past weekend was one for the record books for us in Washington, D.C. — a snow storm socked us with more than 20 inches of snow. Many of us are from colder areas (Pittsburgh, for me), but we’ve been here so long that we’ve acclimated to snow-less winters.

Schools and offices are closed all over the Washington, D.C., metro area and beyond. While we’ve been trying to come up with names for the big storm (Snowpocolypse, Snowmaggaden, and Snowtorious B.I.G.), yet another storm is fixing to dump yet another 10 to 20 inches on us.

For the snowbound, this is a perfect time to catch up on reading — and ASBJ.com offers plenty of useful and thought-provoking articles to keep you occupied as the snow piles up. Read what schools can and can’t learn from business in our February issue. Also, find out how administrators and school leaders are coping with the stress of the down economy.

While you’re in an information-gathering mode, register for a free webinar on how to move your district into the next generation. ASBJ is partnering with Cisco on this webinar, which will be at 2 p.m. ET on Feb. 25 and will feature a seven-step process on how to assess where you are now and how to get where you need to go.  Go here to register.

Social networking? Then follow us on Twitter for updates, insights, and other items for school leaders and anyone interested in education.  Are you on Facebook? Become a fan of ASBJ here.

Interested in federal education policy and legislation? Read our coverage of NSBA’s Leadershiop and Federal Relations Network conferences at School Board News Today.

Happy reading — Spring will be here, soon.

Kathleen Vail, Managing Editor

Kathleen Vail|February 9th, 2010|Categories: American School Board Journal, Budgeting, Educational Technology, Governance, Multimedia and Webinars, NSBA Publications, School Climate, Wellness|

Finding the green to go green

clipart.com

clipart.com

 

A few days ago I was asked to participate on a panel at a conference held by the U.S. Green Building Council, the people who certify schools and other buildings that are built with environmentally friendly principles. And as these things tend to go, I learned as much from the audience as they did from me.

Almost everyone told me they had tried to contact their school board members. What became clear after a few conversations was that school board members are often skeptical, and in this case, many either did not have a construction or renovation project in the works or did not see the need to learn about sustainable designs and practices.

But they should, we agreed: Building green has become a no-brainer for school districts. Green, or sustainable, school designs shouldn’t cost significantly more, and lower operating costs will ultimately save money. And perhaps most compelling is that there is a growing body of research that shows students and staff who spend their days in these school buildings are healthier, miss fewer days of school, and actually learn more.

Not to mention that these buildings have a minimal impact on their environment, and their features can be used as teaching tools.

One person told me about a presentation on green schools he’d given recently at a statewide meeting of school administrators. His show was hijacked, he said, by the school officials who had built green schools for their communities and wanted to convince the skeptics of those benefits.

What many people don’t realize is that you don’t even need to build a new school to take advantage of some of the best green designs. Most older buildings can be retrofitted with features like solar panels, energy-efficient windows that let in more daylight (one of the factors that has been linked with better student performance) and ventilation systems that allow better indoor air quality, a key factor in reducing flare-ups of asthma and other respiratory conditions.

Here at ASBJ, we want to help you learn about sustainable designs and how to incorporate those into both new buildings and renovations of existing facilities. Join us tomorrow, Sept. 24, at 2 p.m. EDT for a webinar  that will feature Rachel Gutter of the USGBC, who will explain the benefits of green, and John Gayetsky and Kathy Prosser, environmental specialists with the Association of School Business Officials International, who will explain how to use these principles to improve and maintain your facilities. We’ll even tell you how to find new sources of money to do so.

Joetta Sack-Min, Associate Editor

Kathleen Vail|September 23rd, 2009|Categories: American School Board Journal, Budgeting, Governance, Multimedia and Webinars, School Buildings, School Climate, Student Achievement|

Should you wait to build your new school?

StockVault

StockVault

 I’m feeling a bit duped.

Three years ago, when I was writing about school construction, experts were saying that school districts needed to hurry up and build before prices rose any further. Back then, there seemed to be no limit to how high the prices of construction materials would go, contractors were in high demand, and enrollments in many districts just kept rising.

Turns out, you would have saved a lot of money—and perhaps headaches–if you’d just waited.

With the fall of the economy, construction prices have plummeted, contractors are begging for work, and some districts that had projected years of enrollment growth are seeing families leave because they lost their jobs. Also, there are a bunch of new federal grants and incentives for energy efficiency and green building, both new construction and renovations.

It’s absolutely maddening, but the lesson learned is that good planning is crucial. Regardless of the economy, schools should be able to project what their enrollments will be in five, 10, or 15 years and which areas of the district are seeing growth or decline in school-age populations. And those plans, we now know, must be flexible enough to accommodate sudden and unexpected shifts like some we’ve seen in recent months.

The one thing I’ve learned from personal experience recently—after spending three years looking for the perfect house and trying to decide on the best time to sell an investment property—is that predicting the market is impossible. What matters most is what’s right for your district—if you need a new school and can raise the necessary funds, build it now. If you don’t need more space, or don’t have the cash in hand, don’t do it. You may still get a good, or better, deal a few years from now.

Regardless of your situation, it helps tremendously to know what’s happening in the construction industry and know the best design features for new schools, so you’ll be prepared when the time comes to build or renovate. Fortunately for my family, my obsession with the real estate market here in Northern Virginia helped me find a great house at a greatly reduced price. We know its value could decline if the economy goes down further, but we also know it’s the right fit for us for the next few years.

With that in mind, ASBJ’s October issue is chock-full of advice on how to plan and build schools that will fit your district for the foreseeable future, and how to best harness the ups and downs of this crazy economy we’re in. And be sure to tune in to our webinar, “Facilities and Construction Money: Where to Find It,” co-hosted with our friends at the Association of School Business Officials International, on Sept. 24. For registration and more information, go to here.

 Joetta Sack-Min, Associate Editor

Kathleen Vail|September 16th, 2009|Categories: American School Board Journal, Governance, Multimedia and Webinars, School Buildings|

What role should schools play in bullying prevention?

We held our bullying prevention webinar last week and we had more than a thousand people register (you were there, weren’t you?). That phenomenal response confirms to me that the topic of bullying prevention is on the minds of many educators, administrators, and school board members. 

A decade ago, right after the Columbine shootings, I wrote an article about bullying and what districts were doing to prevent it. I was heartened to discover that the attitude about bullying that I grew up with (it’s natural and adults shouldn’t interfere) was fading.

I revisited the topic in our September issue to see what had changed in the decade after Columbine. A lot, as I found out. The school shooting tragedy has spawned a huge body of research on how bullying affect students and the best ways to do school-based prevention. The people I interviewed said that fewer educators and administrators had to be convinced of the school’s role in prevention.

I mentioned my article to my brother when he visited this summer. He’s in his mid-50s – the age of many administrators and school board members. He asked if schools should be preventing bullying, because it was going to happen anyway. I answered with a resounding yes – school is exactly the place to do this. Schools should be a safe haven for students, and they don’t learn very well when they’re being threatened, shamed, or made fun of.

David Cullen’s excellent book, Columbine, published this year, showed that neither of the two young killers was bullied. It was a myth that took on a life of its own because of our very real need to find a rational explanation for what happened. That doesn’t change the fact that other school shootings had their roots in bullying behavior and that research has shown that bullying brings student achievement down and hurts children long into adulthood.

Read my September article here, where you can also check out my first article. Also, we’re going to post the webinar, in case you missed it.

What do you think? How big of a role should schools play in bullying prevention? Leave a comment and let us know.

Kathleen Vail, Managing Editor

Kathleen Vail|September 14th, 2009|Categories: American School Board Journal, Educational Research, Governance, Multimedia and Webinars, NSBA Publications, School Climate, Student Achievement, Wellness|

Free webinar on bullying prevention

Want to know how bullying affects student achievement and your school climate? American School Board Journal editors are teaming up with the American School Counselor Association to bring you a webinar on bullying prevention. It will be held Thursday, Sept. 10.

Listen to experts in the field of school counseling and education on cutting edge methods of preventing this threat to school security, climate, and achievement. Panelists include author Rosalind Wiseman (Queen Bees and Wannabes) and Eliza Byard, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network. 

Register for the webinar here. 

Read our article on the decade of changes in bullying attitudes and prevention here.

Kathleen Vail|August 27th, 2009|Categories: American School Board Journal, Multimedia and Webinars, NSBA Publications, School Climate|
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