FCC Works on National Broadband Plan for Education as More Schools Move Toward Open Digital Texts

On August 20 the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) held a National Broadband Plan Workshop on education to receive ideas for the plan, which is due 181 days from the date of the hearing. National broadband development focuses on ways that technology and telecommunications infrastructure can further the national priorities of education, job training, energy, environment, health, the economy and public safety. The FCC seeks collaboration on developing the plan, and hopes to obtain exemplars, best theories, data, research and evidence.

Learning Platforms for the 21st Century and Beyond

The 2009 AEP Summit session “Learning Platforms for the 21st Century and Beyond,” presented three different cutting-edge technologies that could be used to deliver content to students. Jeff Keltner from Google, Laura Porco from Amazon.com, and Michael Riordan from the Open Publishing Lab at Rochester Institute of Technology discussed why classroom technology is 10 years behind the consumer world and how their products could be used in the education market.

All speakers agreed that the students are the biggest driving force behind advancing the technology in the classroom. Keltner said that for every generation, technology is what is invented after the students were born. Reflecting the advancements of iPhones, laptops, and social media sites, students expect their education to be mobile, use multimedia, and have the ability to involve the community. Riordan concurred that students are asking their teachers to use educational technology that lets them learn together; they want teachers to abandon podium-style lectures for a dialogue.

Hall of Fame Portrait: Nelson B. Heller, Ph.D., Part 3

On December 3, 2009, AEP will induct Nelson B. Heller, Ph.D., MDR; Michael Ross, Encyclopaedia Britannica; and Pleasant Rowland, Rowland Reading Foundation and American Girl into the Educational Publishing Hall of Fame. Here in his third installment, Nelson B. Heller, Ph.D., President, EdNET at MDR, discusses the greatest challenge facing educational publishing in the next five years.

The Heller Reports news and conference activities have provided me with a marvelous platform for observing the evolving impact of technology on educational publishing’s products and services, not to mention its back-office operations. The advent of the Internet and web 2.0 have greatly expanded this digital imperative, but for a host of reasons, including still limited hardware penetration in schools and the cautious response of most school systems to widespread adoption of technology, we’re still looking for critical mass and sustainable business models.

C. Blohm & Assoc. Honored as Top Communicators

AEP member C. Blohm & Associates (CB&A) has been been recognized as a Top Tech Agency by more than 500 journalists in PR SourceCode’s fourth annual Top Tech Communicators survey.

PR SourceCode surveys more than 500 technology and business journalists to honor the “best of the best” in tech PR. This year, C. Blohm & Associates was honored among the top small PR firms among the IT industry, which is a great honor since the survey recognizes PR professionals from across the IT industry, not just education.

For more information, visit the C. Blohm & Associates web site.

Hall of Fame Portrait: Nelson B. Heller, Ph.D., Part 2

On December 3, 2009, AEP will induct Nelson B. Heller, Ph.D, MDR; Michael Ross, Encyclopaedia Britannica; and Pleasant Rowland, Rowland Reading Foundation and American Girl, into the Educational Publishing Hall of Fame. Here in his second installment, Nelson B. Heller, Ph.D., President, EdNET at MDR, discusses the greatest challenge he faced during his career and his proudest accomplishment.

What was the greatest challenge you faced in your career, and how did you handle it?

I suppose my greatest challenge was when, in late 1987, I lost my job at SFN and Scott, Foresman due to liquidation of our publicly traded parent company and the sale of its component companies to a host of information and publishing organizations. At 47 I found it impossible to match that job or salary in another publishing firm and reluctantly tried my hand at consulting.