Field trips, travel to sporting events, and other student travel require the planning and management of costly transportation resources. Tandem Plus offers a robust school transportation management system that simplifies the request and approval process and helps administrators manage transportation logistics and costs more effectively. Tandem’s transportation software also automatically checks for double bookings and driver conflicts. The school transportation module is available with purchase of Tandem Plus.

Streamlined Request and Approval for Trips
Tandem’s transportation module allows for school staff such as teachers or coaches to request transportation online. The request is sent to the administrator in charge of the approval of transportation requests and they can approve or reject a request with a couple of clicks. If rejected, the requester is notified with a reason for rejection. The requester has the opportunity to correct any problems and resubmit the request. If the trip is approved, it automatically goes into the trips section for management.

Vehicle Management
The transportation module from Tandem Plus allows for the easy management of the vehicles of a school or district. You can enter information of the vehicles and use Tandem to assign them to trips. This will help administrators determine what vehicles are available for use on a particular day and which are already assigned to a trip. You can also organize and track vehicles that your school or district uses from charter bus companies.

Driver Management

Tandem’s transportation module allows the organization of driver information such as expiration of licenses, pay rates, contact information.

Dispatch Reports for Drivers
Tandem’s school transportation management will produce a printable dispatch report for drivers so they can see the location of stops, order of stops, and times and dates of their routes.

Print Out Bidding Sheets
You will be able to print out a bid sheet for available trips that drivers can use to bid on trips. Each bid sheet provides spaces for names so that drivers can write down their names for trips they want to do. If a trip is already taken, the name of the driver that has secured that trip will be filled in.

Manage the Transportation Budget
With Tandem’s transportation tool you can define a budget, calculate costs of trips, manage driver pay rates, and bill transportation costs to outside parties (like parents).

Have questions about Tandem’s school transportation features? Sign up for a free demo or call 866.685.3449.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/19181972@N00/ / CC BY-ND 2.0

The nation’s economic troubles have increased focus on how to better prepare today’s youth for making better financial decisions in the future, parents and teachers can enhance learning through online tools designed to teach financial literacy. Some highly recommended tools include:

MoneyU provides a game-based environment to teach high school and college students about making sound financial decisions. The course consists of 120 three-to-five minute lessons incorporating videos, cartoons and simulations to cover a wide range of personal finance topics, including banking, savings, financial planning and credit card use. Individuals can purchase it for $14.95 or schools can purchase the course for $4 per student. The website also includes free online tools for assessing your child’s financial literacy in the areas of money management, savings, spending, credit, and income.

Stock Market Game this free, web-based game teaches students to work in teams to invest a hypothetical $100,000 in the stock market. Students learn to evaluate and track stocks and bonds using Internet research and news updates. An independent study showed that this game not only increased students’ financial literacy scores but that it improved students’ math skills and increased student participation.

Financial Soccer, developed by Visa and following on the success of its 2005 Financial Football game, this free web-based game uses the World Cup soccer format to teach children about personal finance. Players answer questions about credit and debt, savings, and other personal finance topics to advance down the field and score goals.

See also Games Evolve as Tools for Teaching Financial Literacy Education Week

The San Francisco-based website building service Weebly recently debuted a new teaching tool to help fill that gap. Established in 2006 and named to Time’s best website list in 2007, Weebly currently serves over 2 million users. Weebly for Education is the company’s version designed especially with students and teachers in mind.

The genius and beauty of Weebly is its simplicity. By providing a user-friendly website builder that utilizes a basic drag and drop interface, Weebly’s creators are helping to remove the barriers to all that technology offers. Cost is not an obstacle for Weebly users either since the basic service is free.

The school version enables entire classrooms to operate under a teacher account, with individual student passwords and user names and the option of limited or open access for privacy protection. A single basic teacher account can accommodate up to 4 classes of 40 students each at no charge. Premium subscriptions are available for a nominal additional charge (approximately $30 annually). This Weebly Pro upgrade includes customizable features, greater file upload capacity, and the ability to embed documents.

Beyond affordability and ease of use, Weebly offers a multitude of professional looking free layouts and integrated tools for adding text, photos, and files. The education version includes an assignment feature that facilitates online homework submission. Students benefit from a platform for sharing content and a tool for creating unique portfolios. Besides posting lessons, teachers can add event calendars and newsletters, keeping busy parents informed of day-to-day school activities with the convenience of an online format.

Since Weebly’s school tool requires a minimal investment of time and money, there is no real risk in giving it a try. Ostensibly anyone with the most basic computer skills could have their own site up and running within an hour. Weebly tutorials available online provide step-by-step instructions if needed. An added incentive for adopting a web tool like Weebly is that it is in line with Green school initiatives to eliminate paper waste. At the same time it serves as a safe means to establish an online classroom presence at all grade and skill levels.

New entrepreneurial efforts are answering this need and seizing an opportunity to fill this educational gap with the latest in technology. They aim to provide educational solutions via technological avenues, offering software to supplement brick and mortar school instruction and even operating schools online. Technology offers the hope of bridging skill gaps by customizing instruction to target specific academic needs. And it helps fill the gap in science and math at the teaching level since instructors often lack experiential background in these subjects.

A major force in this new wave of online instruction is Ron Packard, CEO of K12. Inspired by his own futile search for a complete online course to help a daughter struggling with math, Packard devised a business model for a full-fledged web-based school. K12 now provides over 20,000 hours of instructional content covering the full K-12 progression (see story in Forbes). Operating its own web-based school as well as furnishing support to other online schools, K12 serves 70,000 pupils and generates $400 million in revenue.

While K12’s students aren’t a representative sample of the public school population, they all have needs which public schools failed to satisfy. They are students with exceptional talents as well as exceptional needs. Online schools cater to scholar athletes and others who find conventional school schedules conflict with extracurricular passions. In some cases, parents turn to online instruction because they see their own values in conflict with those represented by public school instruction.

Apex Learning is another entrant in this growing field. In operation since 1997, Apex Learning targets poor academic performers who are at risk of becoming part of a growing statistic, the million annual high school drop-outs. In addition to distance instruction courses, Apex Learning markets its programs to public schools, enabling more individualized, computer-focused learning in a regular classroom setting.

Making inroads into the achievement gap, Revolution Prep offers software that helps pinpoint and address concept/skill deficiencies. Its program has been adopted by Los Angeles schools to help struggling high school students pass mandated exit tests.

Confronting the challenges and limitations in our present public school system, technology is helping transform the role of teacher from lecturer to facilitator, and easing the workload on instructors at the same time. Technology provides a workable means of identifying and serving the unique academic needs of diverse students, while freeing teachers from some of the burden of devising and implementing lesson plans, and even filling the gap in subject expertise.

The idea of standardized online curriculum in public schools may strike some as revolutionary. But as weaknesses in the well-intentioned educational policies of the past grow more apparent, the concept seems tailor-made for the future of digital technologies in schools.

The iTunes University homepage is accessed from the iTunes software. The iTunesU icon will appear in the left hand column of the software and include a number list of downloaded materials. When this icon is clicked the main iTunes University page is brought up containing featured courses and educational institutions that rotate in the top bar. Noteworthy contributions are also featured in the lower half of the screen. An iTunes U Quick Links section breaks down the “university” into four links: Universities & Colleges, Beyond Campus, K-12, and iTunes U Power Search.

The K-12 section of the site contains contributions from several state educational systems as well as selections targeted specifically towards educators. Eager teachers and schools that already have started an online library of video content can also apply to have their content features in iTunes U where it can be accessed by students and schools all over the world.

The opportunities for a real virtual classroom are game-changing when coupled with the power of the iTunes distribution. Any content contributed will be archived for use in subsequent school years making this service a valid consideration when planning to incorporate more technology into school. A one time investment of time can provide years of learning supplementation, especially in courses such as math where information remains relatively static. Tools like iTunes University allow teachers to create content that can be shared with students all over the world. This allows students the opportunity to tap the collective knowledge of a vast number of teachers, which was not possible for students just a few years ago. Students who live in areas with limited teaching resources now have the opportunity access to great teaching for free.

Past the secondary school level on iTunes U is the rich library of content from colleges and universities. These videos and podcasts can be utilized by high school teachers in a number of ways. Videos that cover an element of a current classroom project can be incorporated into lesson plans and viewed during class or assigned as extra credit. Students who need to do research for a paper or school fair can also access the library and view videos from prestigious universities like Yale for a multimedia source on an assigned topic.

This post has been republished from the Intand blog.

Laboratory modules include a bacterial identification lab, a cardiology lab, a neurophysiology lab and a virtual ELISA (Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay) using human antibodies to diagnose disease. Each module starts with a laboratory intro that provides a detailed overview of the experiment topic.

Using the laboratory notebook and following instructions, students are lead step-by-step through the process of conducting an experiment by clicking on online laboratory equipment. Detailed links and explanations throughout the lab, allow students to understand both the how and why of each step. A glossary section allows students to learn and understand important terms.

Teachers and schools can also order free DVD copies of the site’s videos, animation and lecture podcasts on a wide range of biology topics, including the science of fat, stem cell development and regeneration, and genes and gender.

However, the savvy school librarian or teacher can help offset the price of the readers by mining the rich library of free materials that are available for download to the new generation of digital readers. Many of the classic books that are required reading for elementary, junior high, and high school students have public domain versions available for ready download into the e-Reader of choice, and they can be downloaded 100% free of charge.

Free eBooks for the Amazon.com Kindle e-Reader

A quick navigation to the Kindle store section of Amazon allows for an option to view all available Kindle titles. When this option is selected, a drop down menu is available that allows the eBooks to be sorted from price lowest to high which ends up revealing page after page of $0.00 books. Of particular interest to school librarians and teachers will be the reference selections, test prep books, and biography/memoirs of notable persons throughout history.

Free Books for the Sony Daily Edition e-Reader

The Sony Daily Edition e-Reader truly provides a large portion of the world of literature to school students. The public domain books that are available through Google Books can be downloaded to a PC desktop and then placed into Daily Edition. All of these books are free and invaluable. A quick browse through Google Books will bring up familiar favorites and obscure manuscripts that have been archived from university libraries. For students in high school who need multiple source materials for research papers, the Sony Daily Edition e-Reader can be a valuable and near instantaneous method of acquiring facts.

Free Books for the Barnes & Noble Nook e-Reader

Nook has only recently experienced its debut on the consumer market, but it has already made a splash. Along with Nook, Barnes & Noble created a desktop download e-Reader for storage of eBooks and allows “loaning” of books and files to friends through both this download and portable devices which can equate to easy sharing among students. Currently Barnes & Noble offers several free eBooks, including a reference dictionary and classics that are usually required reading in high school. More are sure to come as the device makes a larger impact on the e-Reader market.

All three of the current major e-Readers: Kindle, Sony, and Nook have a variety of free eBooks available for download. Many of these free eBooks are materials any school library can benefit from, and utilizing public domain no-cost versions of classics instead of paying for a contemporary download helps compensate for the price of the actual e-Reader.

This post has been republished from the Intand blog.
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jblyberg/ / CC BY 2.0

Math.com features several different calculators easily accessible on their web-site. The basic calculator features easy commands like addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division while the scientific version can handle exponents, sin, cos, and tan problems. The sites square root tool allows for the easy input of any number into the site provided entry box to have the square root immediately presented. A circle problem solver provides either the area, diameter, or circumference based on the information available. Prime number, quadratic equation, percent, probability, and savings calculators are also present on the site.

In addition to these calculators, Math.com also provides an extensive amount of math problem tutorials to help students learn concepts step by step. Numerous volume and area formulas are provided with diagrams illustrating the various parts of a shape, such as cones, pyramids, and cylinders. With so many areas to explore, Math.com is a one-stop site for elementary school students who need help with their math homework, and it contains the larger portion of information needed for high school math courses.

Mathway.com is another great math site currently available for education use. Instead of providing calculations with a traditional calculator in a virtual format, Mathway allows students to input a math problem into a search box and it provides the answer. You can also view the steps to solve the problem by paying for a premium membership. Mathway can help students in math classes from the basics to calculus, and teachers can access Mathway Classroom Edition BETA. The Mathway classroom edition will allow any educator to set-up an account to manage virtual help for their students when class is not in session.

PC calculators and web-based applications tailored to math teachers and students have come a long way in the past several years and manage to rival the best lower level scientific calculator which equates to a great savings for the budgets of both parents and classrooms if they are utilized in place of a physical calculator. When coupled with the detailed problem solving breakdowns also present online, any student can stay caught up or get ahead in math class with the world wide web.

This post has been republished from the Intand blog.
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nicnolan/ / CC BY-ND 2.0

In many cases, one of the primary complaints of parents, teachers, and librarians not in favor of the Kindle being implemented in school libraries is that it is a somewhat expensive device with an average price tag of approximately $260-$470 depending on the model purchased. While this may seem like an inordinately huge price tag for an educational library to pay for a new piece of equipment, it is important to consider other variables.

One new hardcover book, in particular a non-fiction title, is usually going to cost a school library $20-$30 if a standard hardcover is purchased. Should a library edition of available titles be purchased, the cost increases. Almost all new books and bestsellers cost only $9.99 on the kindle, which equates to a $10 to $20 savings per book. A school library that purchases 20 books in a month will instantly pocket the cost of a Kindle unit in savings and will only have to purchase the book once to have it instantly available in the library’s kindle account.

An added bonus that comes with switching over to a Kindle based library is that it does not have to be limited purely to the number of handheld devices owned by the school or school system. Kindle now has a reader for PCs and a Kindle reader application for iPhones and the iPod Touch. Each of these applications allows a Kindle owner the ability to read a book in their Kindle account when they do not have access to their Kindle unit.

Any notes or highlighted sections will automatically synchronize and be visible on the PC and/or iPhone screen. This option could be particularly useful in literature classes where book selections are read both independently and in the classroom. A student who takes notes on a school library provided Kindle device during class can access those same notes at home on their PC in preparation for a test. Future upgrades to the Kindle and iPhone readers aim to allow the addition of notes to the PC and iPhone books as well.

As Kindle technology continues to develop, it will surely offer many more features targeted towards school and public libraries. Whether it is a full or partial implementation, e-readers should have a place in any technologically advanced educational system and the individual school libraries within them.

Image by http://www.flickr.com/photos/jcwestbrook/ / CC BY-ND 2.0

This article has been republished from the Intand blog.

When it comes to education, Wikipedia.org can be an invaluable tool for a student. While many teachers and schools do not accept Wikipedia as a valid source for school papers or reports due to its editable nature, many Wikipedia pages contain an extensive source or footnotes section of their own which contains links to the URLs where the initial reporting or information can be found. A student doing a research paper on the President or a movie star can use the Wikipedia page as a starting point to fan out to other resources that are easily attributed and 100% school approved.

Wiki technology can also be found at Wetpaint.com which is a website that allows anyone to create their own editable wikis around a topic. Wetpaint provides a domain and the tools needed to have the equivalent of a virtual bulletin board for a classroom. Since these wikis can be adjusted to a private setting that allows access by invitation only, they are a safe way for students to mingle and discuss class relevant topics when away from school.

Pictures and files can be uploaded to Wetpaint, and videos from YouTube can be embedded within a page, making the wikis created on Wetpaint.com perfect for classes that require a lot of visuals such as art, history, and science! The Wetpaint site is also a very good venue for classes with numerous examples of printouts or take home materials such as vocabulary lists or worksheets. These materials can be uploaded to the class site, and then accessed by the student from home.

For schools that have the required servers for operating MediaWiki, an even more advanced option for content creation exists. MediaWiki is a free software application that allows users to create a full Wiki that will greatly resemble Wikipedia.org and the MediaWiki site in terms of appearance and user driven editing. Secondary schools with more advanced computer courses could even consider a collaborative venture on a MediaWiki to be a group or class wide project during a term. A school with a rich history and several different departments may also wish to create a school specific Wiki.

As the demands of providing a well-rounded education increase, so will the capabilities and reach of Wikis. Considering the lack of cost involved in accessing these materials coupled with the benefits they provide to educators and students, Wiki technology can be a perfect fit for many classrooms.