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The study, headed by Virginia Berninger, a University of Washington professor of educational psychology who studies normal writing development and writing disabilities, looked at children's ability to write the alphabet, sentences and essays using a pen and a keyboard.

The study was designed to compare methods of transcription, a basic cognitive process involved in writing that enables a writer to translate thoughts or ideas into written language. Both handwriting and spelling are transcription processes. Previous research by Berninger's group showed that transcription predicts composition length and quality in developing writers. Transcription by both pen and keyboard involves the hands. Researchers, she said, are trying to understand why units of language are affected differently when hands write by pen and by keyboard. [more]

While state-run virtual schools are relatively common, the number of individual districts creating online programs is growing, and that model is likely to be one of the biggest areas of expansion in the online world over the next three years, said Susan Patrick, the president and CEO of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, a Vienna, Va.-based group that is an advocate for virtual education options. Large-city districts are part of that growth, she said.  [more]

STUDENTS LESS CONCERNED ABOUT ACCESS TO SCHOOL TECHNOLOGY, FOCUSED ON USING THEIR OWN DIGITAL TOOLS

In fall 2012, Project Tomorrow surveyed 364,240 K-12 students, 39,713 parents, 53,947 teachers, 2,399 librarians,1,564 district administrators, 3,947 school administrators, and 500 technology leaders representing 8,020 public and private schools from 2,431 districts.  [more]

The NMC Horizon Report: 2013 K-12 Edition is a collaboration between the New Media Consortium, the Consortium for School Networking, and the International Society for Technology in Education.

The NMC Horizon Report: 2013 K-12 Edition, examines emerging technologies for their potential impact on and use in teaching, learning, and creative expression within the environment of pre-college education.   [more]

A groundbreaking experiment that bombarded US high school students with inspiring text messages was found to be a success on all counts except one: it made no difference to how the students performed in school.

Roland Fryer, an economist at Harvard University, helped establish the experiment involving nearly 2,000 pupils at state schools in Oklahoma City. [more]