Bing for Schools pilot begins, lets users earn tablets for classrooms

Bing for Schools pilot launches, lets searchers earn Surface RTs for classrooms video

Now that back to school season is upon us, Microsoft has launched its promised Bing for Schools in a pilot phase. The test lets more than 800,000 K-12 students search Bing ad-free while receiving daily learning activities, improved privacy and automatic adult content filtering. Schools wanting to join the pilot can apply today. Those who have long since graduated can pitch in, too: Microsoft has launched a program that lets Bing Rewards members contribute their credits toward Surface RT tablets for their preferred schools. All you need to know is available through the source links; we’re just wondering where Bing for Schools was when we were kids.

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Via: Bing Search Blog

Source: Bing for Schools, Partners in Learning

Sony K-12 initiative puts the Xperia Tablet S into schools

Sony K12 initiative puts the Xperia Tablet S into schools

The selection of tablets in education has been narrow, especially for teachers that want support after the hardware is on their doorstep. Sony figures that it can widen the field through its K-12 Education Initiative. The effort gives schools a discount on the Xperia Tablet S, but that’s just the start: they have access to Education Ambassador, an online resource for incorporating Android tablets into the classroom, as well as 50GB of free Box storage and a year’s worth of Kaspersky security services. Sony is already taking orders for schools waiting to hop onboard; if they’re willing to try a company that’s relatively untested in education, they may get a better deal than they expect.

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Via: ZDNet

Source: Education Ambassador

Doodle 4 Google 2013 challenges kids to dream big, describe their best day (video)

Doodle 4 Google 2013 challenge invites kids to

Google loves inspiring kids to go wild with ideas in its annual Doodle 4 Google competition, and that tradition is carrying on for 2013. This year’s just-started drawing exhibition asks American kids to visualize what they imagine would be their best day ever — no mean feat, as you’ll see in the video after the break. The K-12 student who wins on the national level may find all that daydreaming worth the effort, however, as the top prizes are about as grand as they were for 2012. Along with seeing their drawing become the homepage doodle for a day, the top-ranking child gets a $50,000 technology grant for their current school, a $30,000 college scholarship, a Chromebook and a Wacom tablet to foster that now-obvious creative talent. Budding young artists need to get their entries to Google’s real or virtual doorsteps by March 22nd; we have a hunch the winner’s best day ever will be May 23rd, when millions of searchers will catch a glimpse of that early magnum opus.

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Via: SlashGear

Source: Doodle 4 Google

New National School Speed Test hopes to help all K-12 students get effective digital learning

EducationSuperHighway launches National School Speed Test to help all K12 students get effective digital learning

With 99 percent of the nation’s K-12 schools hooked-up to the internet, you’d think online learning was an educational staple. Sadly, it’s also estimated that some 80 percent of those connections can’t provide the 100Mbps per 1,000 students bandwidth the State Education Technology Directors Association recommends. That’s why NPO EducationSuperHigway has announced the National School Speed Test initiative, with the goal to take actual stock of the state of internet connections in our schools. The NSST hopes to measure the internet capabilities of every K-12 school, and identify those that are lagging behind. Educational staff and students can also help out by checking their own school’s speeds on a dedicated website (linked below). The results of the NSST will be open to the institutions themselves, districts and state departments of education, enabling them to better plan upgrade strategies for the future.

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New National School Speed Test hopes to help all K-12 students get effective digital learning originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Sep 2012 09:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Kno textbooks arrive on Android with the Galaxy Note 10.1, take on a social side

Kno textbooks arrive on Android with the Galaxy Note 101, take on a social side

Kno’s post-hardware textbook platform has called the iPad its only tablet home for more than a year; it’s about to spread its wings. Starting with a bundled presence on the Galaxy Note 10.1, Kno is an option for K-12 and college students who’d rather go the Android route. While all the 3D, note-taking and navigation features remain the same, there’s an obvious selling point in supporting the S Pen (and hopefully other pens) to more directly put thoughts to virtual paper — or, let’s admit it, doodle in the margins. All of us, Android and otherwise, get a new Social Sharing component that lets us crib each other’s notes before the big exam. We’re still waiting on Kno for other Android devices as well as the already-promised Windows 7 support, but it’s hard not to appreciate at least a little more variety in our digital learning.

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Kno textbooks arrive on Android with the Galaxy Note 10.1, take on a social side originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Aug 2012 00:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Kno starts offering K-12 textbooks on tablets, scores industry-first deal with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Kno starts offering K12 textbooks on tablets, scores industryfirst deal with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Kno’s tablet textbooks have only ever been available to the college crowd; the younger among us have typically had to get a comprehensive digital education from either the tablet maker’s own solution, like Apple’s iBooks 2, or less-than-integrated options. A new deal for K-12 books is giving the students, if not necessarily the teachers, a fresh alternative. Parents can now rent books for home studying at prices under $10 per title. They’re not state-specific books, but their Common Core roots will keep learners on the same (virtual) page as classmates while adding Kno’s usual 3D, links, notes and videos. Just to sweeten the pot further, Kno says its current catalog centers around a pact with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt — a publisher that hasn’t offered K-12 books on any tablet platform until now, according to Kno. The initial focus is on iPad, web and Windows 7 readers, although Android-loving parents looking for that at-home edge will have to wait until sometime “soon” to leap in.

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Kno starts offering K-12 textbooks on tablets, scores industry-first deal with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Aug 2012 00:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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