In The News

An act of kindness will mean new technology for Smithville School. A check for $150,000, which was awarded to the school and is part of a much larger donation given to Smithville Church of Christ, will go toward new equipment and a number of enhancements for the new school's Technology Center.

Gov. Rick Snyder got some hands-on experience Tuesday with the type of cyber charter school program that will be expanding next fall under a new Michigan law when he read to a class of children who watched and listened online through the Michigan Virtual Charter Academy. The children could see Snyder, but he couldn’t see them.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Facebook plan to hold two “hackathons” this month, bringing together software developers and educators to create new Facebook applications for teaching and learning.

Knox County (Tenn.) Schools has made a push to implement more technology in the classroom through its "School Technology Challenge." The program's mission is to have one technology device for each student and teacher. A total of 28 schools applied to be a part of the pilot initiative.

President Barack Obama plans to visit Manor (Texas) New Technology High School, technology entrepreneurs and middle class workers Thursday during his trip to the Austin area. The president’s visit to the Texas state capital is among the first pit stops in his “Middle Class Jobs & Opportunity" tours.

Shawnee State University (Ohio) Outreach Services is helping middle school students in Portsmouth by offering tech-driven programs to 10 participating schools. The programs provide a safe place for homework centers, intensive mentoring in basic skills, drug and violence prevention counseling, and helps middle school students prepare for college preparatory courses in high school.

Students and faculty members at the Academy of Information Technology & Engineering met faculty from other school districts this week to discuss the school's online learning program. The program, run by the Virtual High School Collaborative, provides the magnet school with several hundred courses for students to take from teachers across the globe, including 21 advanced placement courses.

Utah ranks No. 1 when it comes to state policies dealing with online education, according to a new national study. The "Beehive State" was the only state to receive an overall "A" grade, according to the Digital Learning Now Report Card, a pro-digital nonprofit in Washington, D.C.

As education leaders and state legislators are considering approaches to fixing South Carolina's education system, several people are already hard at work shaping the future of education. One of those people, Nathan Yon, says his new school opening this fall focuses on a combination of traditional and online learning.

The Post Falls (Idaho) School District's learning opportunities have been boosted by two technology-related grants totaling nearly $200,000, including a $150,000 grant from the Idaho State Department Education to hire two curriculum and technology integration specialists.