In The News

St. Peter School in Quincy, Ill. has been making technological strides with financial help from an electronics recycling program. Under the program, the school collects cellphones, ink cartridges, laptops and small electronics and sends them to FundingFactory. In return, the school receives points, which can be converted to cash or used to buy new electronics from the FundingFactory's catalog.

Porter High School (Texas) was host to the Regional Technology Student Association competition held March 1-2 between school districts in the region, including Bryan, College Station, and Conroe. Several students won at the regional level, and will now compete at TSA State Competition April 11-13 in Waco, Texas.

The Dansville (N.Y.) Central School, southeast of Buffalo, is eligible for nearly $32,000 in grant money to purchase new technology and software to improve their readiness for computer-based testing and a technology-rich learning environment, according to the state Education Department. The funding is part of a $225 million settlement agreement reached between Microsoft and New York State consumers, of which schools will get $87 million.

This week, Collier County (Fla.) Public School District Superintendent Kamela Patton will lead a team of 38 district officials heading to Georgia to learn more about bring your own technology, or BYOT, through a conference held by the Forsyth County school district, which oversees Kelly Mill Elementary in Cumming, Ga. The 39,000-student district north of Atlanta has a BYOT policy at all 36 of its schools.

Carthage (Mo.) R-9 School District students went to work on Feb. 28th as part of Hacemos' National High School Technology Day. They spent the day job shadowing at the AT&T Call Center to get a first hand look at different careers in technology.

School districts will now be able to use lottery funds to buy technology devices and wire schools thanks to a bill that cleared the House Education Committee Tuesday.

Thirteen Hahnville High School students placed third in the Louisiana High School Technology Challenge held on Feb. 6. The Challenge is a unique annual educational statewide team competition intended to renew a commitment to improvement in Louisiana through a concerted effort by high school students to demonstrate creative teamwork skills.

As technology evolves at a rapid clip, the Cullman County (Ala.) Board of Education has overhauled some outdated acceptable use policies in an effort to keep up, including policies governing pagers and electronic communication devices; the student acceptable use policy for technology; the employee acceptable use of school technology policy and the student technology use agreement compliance form.

As the state prepares to move to computer-based standardized testing by 2015, the Lakota Local School District, Ohio’s seventh largest public school district, is about eight years behind when it comes to technology infrastructure, according to an independent consultant who recently evaluated the district’s technology.

Port Chester (N.Y.) schools are hoping to capture a piece of an $87 million pot of money that is available to New York schools serving low-income students to purchase new technology and software.