News

Join Thor Prichard and Steven Burt at the National Education Computing Conference (NECC) June 30th through July 2nd in San Antonio, Texas. Find us contributing to the discussion at many of the Web 2.0 related sessions and the discussion on Twitter.

]Several of our staff will be attending sessions and sharing ideas with colleagues at WebVisions. The annual event, taking place later this week over at the Oregon Convention Center, explores the future of design, content creation, user experience and business strategy to uncover the trends and agents of change that force everyone to rethink their assumptions about the Web.

Come meet us at the next meeting of the NW Education Cluster, April 17th.  At the meeting will be a presentation from Accelerate Oregon, a group that's trying to leverage public and private commitment to Oregon's K12 education system to improve teaching and learning through the integration of technology.  For more information about the meeting, contact us. 

After much effort working to identify a potential content management system to power their Web site, Bellingham Public Schools selected Clarity Innovations to contribute the expertise necessary to catalyze action.  We were asked to perform an independent assessment of the requirements for their Web presence, evaluate potential candidate solutions and provide a concrete roadmap for implementation. Much of the work has lead to a better understanding of the role strategy plays in determining how best to achieve desired results.  And the answer wasn't one solution for all needs. Contact us to learn more.

In case you haven't noticed recently, we've been expanding our team of hybrid expertise in education and technology.  This is due in part to expanded engagements and services in the field of education content development.  For example, we're developing new curriculum for helping educators make effective use of laptops now increasingly being deployed through 1:1 initiatives.  We're also working on materials for a client to help leaders in education champion professional development in technology integration.  It's going to be a busy spring here at Clarity Innovations.

In the summer of 2006, Colt Gill became the first Oregon school superintendent to author a blog as a means to share thoughts about the Bethel School District with its community and start a conversation about current events in the district. The Bethel Blog, hosted by Clarity's TeacherHosting.com, became the backdrop for a conversation about how promising Web technologies could help Bethel School District achieve immediate and future priorities.  Starting in January 2008, Clarity Innovations was asked to help bring a comprehensive Web strategy into focus and undertake the initial work of reinventing their Web site into an entirely new Web platform.  This new Web services platform (to be launched to the public later this year) will give the Bethel School District and its community the flexibility necessary to achieve its strategic objectives.

New research from Tom Layton, Online Learning Evangelist for Clarity Innovations, suggests three important goals for preparing students to live and learn in a digital world, along with eight recommendations for reaching those goals. To learn more about his work, contact us.

On the docket next is the scarcely available XO laptops. These laptops are being distributed to children around the world with the intent of providing them with new opportunities to explore, experiment and express themselves. (Image courtesy of One Laptop per Child.) Layton plans to test the device's abilities to overcome one or more of the seven problems that currently inhibit efforts to provide the kind of education students need to learn in today's digital world. To learn more about the seven challenges, contact us.