Speak Up 2013 is just around the corner...

Happy September to all our followers and supporters! In this newsletter, you will find important information regarding... The launch of Speak Up 2013 Promotional materials for Speak Up 2013 Details regarding our "Celebration of 10 Years of Student Voices About Digital Learning" Cocktail Reception in Washington, D.C. Schoolwires online event: Symposium on Parent Engagement coming in October Your thoughts regarding the recent FCC's proposed changes Happy Reading! Be sure to let us know what you think by following us on Twitter, Facebook, and ourBlog! -The Project Tomorrow team SPEAK UP 2013 opens on October 2nd! Last year over 466,000 students, parents and educators representing over 8,020 schools nationwide participated in Speak Up-- Now's your chance to get involved! Be a part of the conversation and share your ideas about how to leverage technology in schools to promote better learning. Register your school or district to participate today! Join with educators from across the country that use the Speak Up Surveys to identify how their students, teachers, administrators and parents want to use technology for learning, communications and collaboration. Get a jump start on Speak Up participation by registering as the primary contact for your school or district today! As the primary contact for your district, school or organization you will be in charge of the promotion and encouragement of the survey at your selected organizational level. In return, you will receive free, online access to your aggregated results with state and national comparisons in February 2014. WHAT Speak Up includes:  Surveys for: K-12 students, teachers, librarian media specialists, parents, school site and district administrators, technology leaders and NEW this year business partners and community members.  Survey topics include: learning and teaching with technology, science instruction and STEM career exploration, professional development, online assessment, digital citizenship and emerging technology topics such as mobile devices & BYOD, online learning, social media and digital content.  New questions this year on education technology funding, common core standards, blended learning, flipped classroom models and online reading comprehension. WHY participate?  There is no fee to participate, or limit on the number of respondents. All information is 100% confidential. The surveys take less than 20 minutes to complete  Each participating institution receives a free online report in February 2014 aggregating all local data with national data to use for comparative benchmarking and local advocacy.  NEW THIS YEAR! Community members and business partners survey.  NEW THIS YEAR! Educators and parents will not be required to enter a survey password. *Students will still need a survey password to take the survey.  Use your local Speak Up data to: advocate for policies, programs & funding, as input into local plans, support grant proposals, engage your community, and learn about the ideas of your students, staff and parents.  Lend your voice to national advocacy efforts and help improve educational opportunities for ALL kids! Register today and spread the word. Be sure to Speak Up on October 2nd! Our Speak Up Promotional Materials are here to help you! To see a full list of our helpful and handy flyers and guides, visit our site here. A Celebration of 10 Years of Student Voices about Digital Learning Speak Up 2003 – 2013 Hosted by Haworth, Inc. At their offices 575 7th Street NW, Suite 200 Washington DC 20004 In the past 10 years, our nation’s classrooms have been irrevocably changed by the inclusion of digital learning tools and resources such as e-textbooks, online classes, tablet computers, educational games and social media. At the emotional center of this digital conversion of our K-12 classrooms and schools has been the aspirations and ideas of our K-12 learners whose desires for a more social-based, un-tethered and digitally rich educational experience has changed forever the way we think about teaching and learning. With the first Speak Up online survey in 2003, Project Tomorrow created a new national movement to recognize the value of K-12 student voices within education. Since then, over 2.5 million K-12 students (and over 500,000 teachers, administrators and parents) have shared their authentic, unfiltered views on the use of digital tools and resources through the annual Speak Up surveys, creating the largest collection of K-12 education stakeholder data. Over the past 10 years, the Speak Up data findings have been used regularly by federal, state and local policymakers to inform programs, plans and policies with a common goal in mind – improving educational opportunities for all students. From the halls of Congress to school board meeting rooms all across the country, the Speak Up National Research Project has provided the catalyst for listening to the ideas of our nation’s most important clients of education, the students. Please join Julie Evans, CEO of Project Tomorrow and the Project Tomorrow Board of Directors to celebrate this 10 year legacy of impact and to applaud the partners and investors who have made Speak Up not only a national research asset, but an important strategic tool for schools and districts nationwide. Your participation in this invitation only celebration would be most appreciated. If you will be in or around the DC area and would like to attend, please respond to Jenny Hostert at jhostert@tomorrow.org or 949-609-4660 x17 by Friday, September 13. Schoolwires online event: Symposium on Parent Engagement Tuesday, October 22, 11:00 am – 4:00 pm CT. To register, click here. Parents – and especially the new digital parents – are driving change in K-12 school districts across the country, raising the bar on effective use of technology in the classroom, mobile access to school and district websites, and effective use of social media and real-time communication tools. It’s never been more clear that to achieve your education goals, you need to engage parents as partners and advocates. Join us for this important symposium to explore findings of critical research on digital parents and family engagement, and how they impact student success. You’ll also hear from other K-12 districts about their efforts to engage families and achieve greater alignment among administrators, teachers and parents to establish educational goals and improve student achievement levels. Project Tomorrow's CEO, Julie Evans, will host a session titled, "Connecting with the New Digital Parents." The session will review extensive research around the “New Digital Parent” and find out how this emerging cadre of parents is influencing school-to-home communications, effective use of technology in the classroom, and family outreach in K-12 communities. Learn about key characteristics of the “New Digital Parents” and how to connect with them. We hope to see you there! The Federal Communications Commission's Proposed Changes to the E-Rate Program On July 23, 2013, the FCC released the E-rate Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) which is designed to collect input from stakeholders on a broad range of issues. The FCC is specifically seeking feedback on how to ensure that schools and libraries have access to 21st Century connectivity to support digital learning, on how to maximize the cost-effectiveness of E-rate funds and how to streamline the application process. This NPRM is a very long document and there are lots of proposed rule changes for E-rate funding. Here is a link to the actual NPRM. The deadline for stakeholder feedback or comments is September 16. We recommend that all of our Speak Up friends take a look at this document as the proposed changes may impact your schools and districts and how you are currently using your E-rate funding. If you decide to file a statement or comment with the FCC and would like to use Speak Up data to support your comment, please let us know. We are currently considering our own filing as well. ISTE is providing a form on their website to help facilitate comments from school and district leaders. Check it out here. We are interested in your thoughts also. One of the proposed rule changes includes eliminating the ability for districts to use e-rate funds for website hosting services and email services. The new rules would also not cover mobile devices or off campus 3G/4G connectivity. What do you think about these changes? How would that impact your district? If you are able to see the comment box below, please share your thoughts. If you are unable to see the comment box below, please share them with us on a special location on our website here. Thanks for reading!     ©2013 Project Tomorrow | 15707 Rockfield Blvd. Suite 250 | Irvine CA | 92618

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