In The News

Students enrolled in a blended educational course at Medina High School presented an app and website that is all student-built to City Council Monday night.

Westford, Mass. schools will more than likely have to face another year of difficult decisions during this spring’s discussions on the next fiscal year’s budget, including the question of whether to hire a districtwide technology coordinator.

St. Paul district leaders have picked Dell to design a key piece of their eight-year technology plan. At more than $4.2 million over five years, the proposal was also more expensive than other pitches.

Blended learning combines teacher-led instruction and online instruction using computers. Early results suggest the combination of both models gets better results than either element used alone.

Worried about exposure to foul language, immodest dress, peer pressure and other inappropriate behavior, Susan Brown didn't want her two daughters attending public schools — even though she's a substitute teacher in a public school in Minnesota.

From his desk at the Massachusetts Virtual Academy office on Davis Street, Carl Tillona looked out across the large room at four teachers, each of whom wore headphones and spread out at tables with laptops, communicating lesson plans virtually with students and parents.

Detroit Public Schools officials say two men who stole at least 38 computers from the district are now behind bars. A Detroit Public Schools police investigation, in conjunction with the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office, led to the arrests and guilty pleas from Cornelius Johnson and Lewis Raymond Buyck, alleged gang members who stole multiple computers from the school system.

During Wednesday night's Stratham School Board meeting, the school's Budget Advisory Board asked Fosher to cut the total increase down to 3.5 percent. However, one increase Fosher identified as justified is a $119,831 increase in computer equipment. This increase includes six new interactive Whiteboards, 100 Chromebook computers and 90 iPads.

A technology bond, approved by voters in the Northville Public Schools district in November, will start to make improvements to the schools' technology plan this spring. Improvements include new PCs, interactive white boards and replacing some school buses.

Last week, Marblehead Public School Supervisor of Technology Ken Lord, delivered some grim news. "The Marblehead Public School technology systems are in very poor shape," Lord writes in the executive summary of a draft of the Marblehead Public Schools' Technology Plan, the final version of which was presented at the School Committee's Jan. 10 meeting.