Digital Discourse / Archives for education technology

SIIA Announces Finalists for 2012 CODiE Awards in Ed Tech

March 19, 2012 By

SIIA today announced the finalists for its 27th annual CODiE Awards in education technology categories. The winners will be announced on Monday, May 7, at the CODiE Awards Reception and Dinner held each year in conjunction with the Ed Tech Industry Summit.

This year, for the first time, all nominated products were reviewed solely by educators, who evaluated products through live demonstrations, trial access, and supplementary documentation. Educators selected the 128 product finalists in 23 categories (see the full list).

This year’s highlights include:

-The Best K-12 Instructional Solution category had the highest number of nominations.
-The Best Educational Use of a Mobile Device category had the second highest number of nominations, with nearly double the submissions from the 2011 CODiE Awards.
-Pearson had 11 product finalists, the highest number of any company.

“We’re thrilled to see so many excellent educational technology products making it to this year’s finalist round,” said Karen Billings, vice president of the SIIA Education Division. “We look forward to honoring the winners at our awards dinner in May.”

SIIA members will now select the winners from among the finalists during the SIIA member voting phase of the program from March 26-April 13. SIIA members include software, digital content, and other technology companies that address education needs, as well as the financial and other professional services providers who support the industry. As such, the CODiE Awards are the industry’s only peer-reviewed awards program.

The CODiE Awards, originally called the Excellence in Software Awards, were established in 1986 by the Software Publishers Association (SPA), now SIIA. The original awards program was created so pioneers of the then-nascent software industry could evaluate and honor each other’s work. Today, the CODiE Awards continue to showcase the software and information industry’s finest products and services, and to honor excellence in corporate achievement.

Laura Greenback is Communications Director at SIIA.

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Filed Under: CODiEs, Ed Tech Industry Summit, Education Tagged With: , ,

Cyber bills proliferate in Sen., Admin Privacy Reports, and SIIA Conference focuses on Dig. Learning Policy

February 22, 2012 By

Cybersecurity
On the same day that the Sen. Homeland Security Committee held a high profile hearing to discuss the Cybersecurity Act of 2012 (S. 2105), Sen. McCain (R-AZ), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) and four other Republicans announced their intention to introduce an alternative cybersecurity bill after Congress returns from the President’s Day recess. It will include measures to reform FISMA and facilitate information sharing between the government and private sector about cyber threats, among other things.

Also, following the introduction of S. 2105 last week, Sen. Leahy introduced new legislation to address the law enforcement component of cybersecurity (see summary). The legislation closely tracks Title I of Leahy’s Personal Data Privacy and Security Act of 2011 (S. 1151), which passed out of Committee last year, and is intended to be offered as an amendment when cyber is considered on the Senate floor.

FTC releases App. Privacy Report, Long Awaited DOC Report Expected Thursday
Last week, the FTC issued a staff report regarding the results of a survey of mobile apps for children. The Report, “Mobile Apps for Kids: Current Privacy Disclosures Are Disappointing,” asserts that mobile apps can capture a broad range of user information from a mobile device automatically, including the user’s precise geolocation, phone number, list of contacts, call logs, unique identifiers, and “highlights the lack of information available to parents prior to downloading mobile apps for their children, and calls on industry to provide greater transparency about their data practices.” Additionally, a report from POLITICO has the DC privacy community abuzz with anticipation that the long awaited Dept. of Commerce Privacy Report will be released at a White House privacy event scheduled for this Thursday.

SIIA Ed-Tech Policy Conference to Focus on Digital Learning Needs
As outlined by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan more than a year ago, the New Normal in education is the challenge of “doing more with less” in our pK-20 education system. SIIA continues to support our education system’s efforts to reimagine and retool by personalizing learning and leveraging technology and digital learning. SIIA’s upcoming Ed Tech Government Forum will bring SIIA member technology and education entrepreneurs together with national, state and local education leaders to dialogue about the policies of the “New Normal.”

Payroll Tax Holiday Advances Sans Key Tech Tax Provisions
The final payroll tax holiday extension package agreed to last week and expected to be signed by the President later this week does not extend key tech industry tax provisions such as the expired R&D tax credit or extension of the 100 percent bonus depreciation provision for qualified property placed in service before 2013.

ICANN/Domain Name Application Update
ICANN stated that, thus far, 100 applicants have applied for new gTLDs during the current January 12-April 12 application period. The ICANN Board also reaffirmed that there will be a second gTLD registration period at some point after the first window is over.

David LeDuc is Senior Director, Public Policy at SIIA. He focuses on e-commerce, privacy, cyber security, cloud computing, open standards, e-government and information policy.

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Leveraging the New Normal in Ed Tech

February 17, 2012 By

As outlined by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan more than a year ago, the New Normal in education is the challenge of ”doing more with less” in our pK-20 education system. But as Duncan — and others including SIIA would respond – ”this challenge can, and should be, embraced as an opportunity to make dramatic improvements . . . [E]normous opportunities for improving the productivity of our education system lie ahead if we are smart, innovative, and courageous in rethinking the status quo.”

The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) continues to support our education system’s efforts to reimagine and retool by personalizing learning and leveraging technology and digital learning. SIIA’s latest effort is the March 7-8 Ed Tech Government Forum, which will bring SIIA member technology and education entrepreneurs together with national, state and local education leaders to dialogue about the policies of the New Normal digital age in education. 

The following keynote speakers will share how at the local, state and college levels, they are removing outdated policy barriers and modernizing practices to better meet the individual needs of their students through digital learning:
- Jorea Marple, State Superintendent of Schools, West Virginia Department of Education
- Kaya Henderson, Chancellor, Washington DC Public Schools
- Jay Box, Chancellor, Kentucky Community and Technical College System

We will share examples of how agencies and institutions are Doing More w/Less through Technology and eLearning, featuring Michael Casserly (Council of Great City Schools), Amber Winkler (Thomas B. Fordham Institute) and Todd Wirt (Mooresville, NC Graded School District) which was recently featured in the NY Times. 

And senior officials from state agencies in TN, OH, KY, GA and UT will share their initiatives in digital and open content, online assessment, virtual learning and data systems to meet the goals of Race to the Top and other state policies and ensure students meet the Common Core State Standards.

Throughout, this members-only SIIA forum will support two-way dialogue, enabling technology and digital learning providers to understand the needs of our pK-20 education system, while also providing learning opportunity for education leaders to understand the vision and innovative learning technologies coming from the private sector.

SIIA members not yet plannign to attend, please review the full agenda and speakers and register. For all, SIIA will be sure to help attendees and presenters leverage the results of this discussion to further support all stakeholders in Leveraging the New Normal to improve education and our students’ college and career readiness.

Mark SchneidermanMark Schneiderman is Senior Director of Education Policy at SIIA.

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Filed Under: Ed Tech Government Forum, Education, Education Events, Education Policies, Education Policy, Events, Personalized Learning, Policy Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Sen. Cyber Bill Introduced, IT and IP implications of FY13 Budget, and Patent Reform Rules Proposed

February 14, 2012 By

Cyber

The long-awaited Senate comprehensive cybersecurity legislation, the Cybersecurity Act of 2012, was officially introduced this afternoon by Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), Susan Collins (R-ME), Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA).  And Sen. Lieberman’s Homeland Security Cmte. will hold a legislative hearing on Thursday.

SIIA issued a statement in response to the legislation expressing support for the significant progress in striking a balance between preserving innovation and identifying and regulating critical infrastructure, and urging swift, bipartisan support for legislation that would advance critical cybersecurity priorities to immediately enhance our cybersecurity preparedness.

IT Implications of President’s FY13 Budget

The President’s FY13 budget proposal introduced this week includes a couple key items that reflect the continued support for IP protection.  First, the proposal includes a $5 million increase in funding to combat piracy and counterfeiting, raising the total spent to combat IP crimes by the USG to $40 million. Also, the budget provides support for the PTO’s new fee-setting authority and termination of fee diversion, estimating that the PTO will collect $2.9 billion in 2013, but any amount received in excess of $2.9 billion and deposited in shall remain available to the PTO until expended.

On the Fed. IT funding front, U.S. government spending on information technology would decline 1.2 percent next fiscal year, as part of the efforts to “do more with less,”  increasing efficiency through the use of cloud computing, shared services and mobile technology.

Regardless of the budget politics in an election year, these are both very significant elements, as they serve as markers for where the Obama Administration sees funding priorities that affect software and digital content companies.

Patent Reform

The US Patent & Trademark Office released notices of proposed rulemakings last week regarding a number of key provisions of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, including review of the new inter partes and post grant rules.  Comments must be submitted by early April.  Proposed fees for these procedures, as well as higher fees for applications, also were introduced, with the goal of reducing the patent backlog.  The PTO will hold a public hearing on fee proposals on February 15 at the PTO, and February 23 in Sunnyvale, CA, and the deadline for comment on the proposals is February 29th.

ACTA

With the European Parliament is scheduled to consider ACTA in June, the past few weeks have seen several EU member states, including Poland, Latvia and the Czech Republic, withdraw their intent to ratify ACTA or delayed the decision in their national parliaments in response to domestic protests.  On February 10th, in anticipation of these protests the European Commission released a “Factsheet on the Transparency of ACTA Negotiations.”

Ed-Tech Interoperability Standards

On Monday, SIIA released a Primer on K-20 Education Interoperability Standards that provides a framework for understanding interoperability standards that impact educational data, digital content, and software applications. The primer is a component of SIIA’s ongoing efforts to help inform on technical issues that are important to the success of educational technologies.

David LeDuc is Senior Director, Public Policy at SIIA. He focuses on e-commerce, privacy, cyber security, cloud computing, open standards, e-government and information policy.

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Vision K20: Achieving Personalized Learning through Public-Private Partnership

January 26, 2012 By

[This blog was also published January 26, 2012 by the Alliance for Excellent Education, sponsor of Digital Learning Day.]

The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) is pleased to be among dozens of education and technology organizations partnering to promote Digital Learning Day (DLD), 2/1/12, sponsored by the Alliance for Excellent Education. SIIA is promoting DLD to its high-tech member software, digital content and online services companies, and asking them to promote DLD through their networks. 

For those with the vision and successful use of digital learning, the idea of a DLD awareness campaign — showcasing how technology supports students learning and teacher instruction – may seem unnecessary.  But the reality is that too many of our educators and education leaders have not been provided the support they need to understand what is possible, nor the resources to make it happen.  This shift is not simply about replacing print with digital or giving every student a computer.  This shift is about reimagining how we teach and learn, and creating more customized, engaging, and productive learning made possible through technology and through public-private partnership with high-tech innovators.

SIIA has developed a series of resources to assist education stakeholders in this process, including:

For SIIA member and other high-tech companies, we encourage you to support Digital Learning Day:

  • Sign up and be counted in this effort
  • Add the DLD button to your website, and promote DLD to your customers and partners
  • Provide access to your online teaching and learning resources for the day
  • Showcase success stories of how teachers and students are using technology
  • Visit the DLD toolkits for more ideas and resources. 
  • Promote SIIA resources for educators, including Vision K20 and Software Implementation Toolkit
  • Use your imagination and creativity to promote education technology and Digital Learning Day

Thank you to the Alliance and all DLD partners for this important effort and for including SIIA and the high-tech industry. We look forward not only to A successful day on February 1st, but more importantly to THE day soon when all students will have access to the most relevant, engaging and effective learning opportunities that meet their personalized needs anytime and everywhere.

Learn more about Digital Learning Day at http://www.digitallearningday.org.

Mark SchneidermanMark Schneiderman is Senior Director of Education Policy at SIIA.

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Filed Under: Ed Tech Government Forum, Ed Tech Industry Summit, Education, Education Events, Education Policy, Personalized Learning, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , ,

Just Do It (Again): How Virtual and Video Game Labs Give Students the Freedom to Fail

December 9, 2011 By

With all the discussion about job creation and a difficult economy in Washington, it’s hard to see the positive outliers on the edges. STEM positions, as reported by Mel Schiavelli at the US News and World Report, are being created every day for those lucky enough to have the education necessary to take on the task. Unfortunately STEM, short for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, is the greatest weakness of the US education system. Ranking 35th in math literacy and 29th in science (according to the Institute of Education Sciences), we as a nation not only risk not filling our open technical positions but have already begun to struggle against international competition. Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway, claims the US’s worrisome STEM rankings are caused by a fear of failure. As he tells the US News and World Report:

“I think we’ve created a society that is so risk-averse that kids are taught—”Whatever you do, don’t fail.” A consequence of being unwilling to fail is that you’ll never try really big, bold things. Once you define success as loss of failure, we’ve lost innovation, we’ve lost our edge.”

Kamen is right, but there’s a difference between being right and being easy to implement. In an underfunded school what little laboratory equipment they have is expensive, delicate, and difficult to replace. Teachers fear losing their resources in the classroom, which prevents students from having complete and open access to hands-on lessons in the sciences. Innovation, while not outright forbidden, can not adequately flourish in this environment.

So what’s the solution? Have you checked in with a computer game lately?

The educational technology sector has seen potential in utilizing video games since their inception; the interest has only grown stronger and broader over time. The Education Game or Simulation category proved to be one of the most popular for entrants at this year’s CODiE Awards. If you look at the list of finalists, the popularity is no wonder. Game developers have created an unprecedented number of educational games for a bevy of diverse audiences, from small children to high schoolers and beyond the traditional K-12 system. For instance, the 2011 CODiE winner Hospitality and Tourism Interactive uses an interactive and online virtual world to encourage college students to explore career paths in the hospitality industry.

While controversy remains on to what extent educational and serious video games can teach children one thing is certain – in a video game you really learn how to fail. James Paul Gee called this the “Psychosocial Moratorium Principle” in his landmark book What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy. Put simply, in a video game your consequences for failing are far lower than in a real world environment; thus the player feels more comfortable with taking risks and innovating in a virtual space. While “death” is a common trope in almost all games, most still save your progress with only some token punishment for whatever error caused your loss of life (such as a loss of experience, lowered health, or the loss of a certain amount of progress). Even the most major losses can be rectified by starting again. Pride is the only loss one might endure in the “real” world. If only students felt the same way when playing with a chemistry set or trying to practically apply Newton’s 3 Laws.

With a virtual lab, students could play with all the different disciplines in the STEM spectrum without fearing reprisal for failure. Meanwhile, parents and teachers would not have to fear injury as a result of a lab experiment. While in a real world classroom students would not be allowed to use a Bunsen burner alone, in a virtual environment the same students could mix any number of chemicals and see the results, both the desired and the undesirable. This idea extends far past traditional K-12 schools. Carnegie Mellon and Stanford are working together on EteRNA, a game environment for simulating and experimenting with RNA molecules. Through this powerful application gamers are not only learning about RNA but helping scientists uncover new breakthroughs in how the tiny cells behave. Innovation might be scary in the real world, but in a virtual environment even the impossible can be tested and played with – and made a form of entertainment as well.

See also:
CyGaMEs Selene: A Lunar Construction GaME
Muzzy Lane’s ClearLab Project

Tracy Carlin is a Communications and Public Policy Intern at SIIA. She is also a first year graduate student at Georgetown University’s Communication, Culture and Technology program where she focuses on intersections in education, video games and gender.

 

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Filed Under: CODiEs, Education, Postsecondary Tagged With: , , ,

Senate Committee approves reathorization of ESEA

October 25, 2011 By

Last Thursday, the U.S. Senate HELP (education) Committee approved a bill to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), updating the current No Child Left Behind Act. The bill has been stalled for years, though minimal bipartisan support allowed it to move forward at this time with expectations for significant amendment if/when it gets to the Senate floor.

Among the approved amendments were two on the technology. The first, supported by a broad coalition, would add the Achievement through Technology and Innovation Act, providing direct support to states and schools around technology acquisition, implementation and professional development. The second, generally supported by SIIA, would create an ARPA-ED research agency within the U.S. Department of Education focused on learning technology R&D advancement. SIIA will advocate for further infusion of digital learning in ESEA moving forward.

Mark Schneiderman is Senior Director, Education Policy at SIIA.

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Filed Under: Education, Education Policy, Policy Tagged With: , , ,
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