For the next two weeks, classes using Promethean’s Activote Student Response System can participate in “Cast Your Vote: Decision 2008.” This online activity lets classrooms from around the world choose the next US president. Each participating classroom has been assigned a US state. Teachers are provided with flipchart templates to use in their classroom (which can be found online). The class will then use Activotes to vote for the president.
Blair adjusts to Promethean Activboards
New technology aims to engage more students and improve learning
Blair has received 82 Promethean Activboards and will receive four more in an initiative to install these boards in two-thirds of all Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) middle and high schools. The initiative is designed to engage more students in school by enhancing the learning process, according to Michael Cady, Director of the Department of Financial Operations for MCPS.
MCPS has invested $13.5 million to purchase and install 3,000 boards in schools across the county, according to Cady. The boards were purchased at a 17 percent discount using money from the Fiscal Year 2009 Capital Budget, he said.
Blair teachers learned about the new technology during the summer and were able to request a board. Most teachers who requested a board received one, according to Magnet Coordinator Dennis Heidler. “There were a couple where we had to prioritize,” Heidler said. “Just a few people didn’t get them.”
Zhanseit Tuymebayev, Minister of Education, Kazakhstan, with Jim Knight, Minister of State for Schools and Learners, UK
This week we are in London to support the ITiE Symposium, a gathering of education leaders from around the globe (over 30 countries represented) which focuses in great depth on the issues that are currently affecting the educational environment globally.
Last night Britain’s Minister of State for Schools, Jim Knight, addressed over 200 international delegates (including several dozen from the USA) and used an Activboard to link up with a middle school classroom in Montgomery County (Metro Washington, DC) and quiz middle school students in maths and reading comprehension. Following the dinner, the Minister of Education for Kazakhstan presented Knight with a medal and award, honoring the collaboration between nations.
We find the sight of so many people coming together… all of them working to make changes at once – all over the globe – to be incredibly inspiring.
The following speakers are presenting…
Professor Sir Geoff HamptonPro Vice Chancellor, University of Wolverhampton
Sir Geoff Hampton was the first school principal in England to be knighted for his distinguished service to education, having turned a failing school (Northicote) into a success story. Read more
Professor Stephen HeppellCEO Heppell.net, Professor Bournemouth University.
“Europe’s leading online education expert” Microsoft 2006. Stephen founded Ultralab in the 1980s, moving there from the UK Government’s groundbreaking Microelectronics Education Programme. Read more
Yong Zhao, Ph. D.University Distinguished Professor
Yong’s research interests include computer gaming and education, diffusion of innovations, teacher adoption of technology, computer-assisted language learning, globalization and education, and international and comparative education. Read more
