LearnKey Blog

STEM Projects Factor Into Race to the Top Winners

I read an article today by Erick W. Robelen called “Race to Top Winners Embed STEM Projects in Plans” in Education Week and also looked up some information about this program on the U.S. Department of Education website ed.gov, here are some of the things I found very interesting.

Many educators are waiting to hear wether  a third phase in the federal Race to the Top competition will be approved for an additional $1.35 billion, over $4 billion in federal funding has already been awarded to 11 states and the District of Columbia. 

Phase 2 winners were announced recently and this phase of the competition was pretty tough with many states scoring within a few points of each other. One of the distinguishing factors was the presence of STEM Projects embedded throughout states plans for reform. STEM- science, technology, engineering, and mathematics – education was a priority factor  when making the decisions of which states would be awarded the funds. There was a total of 500 points possible for applications and STEM plans could earn states 15 points if they addressed all three of the following areas throughout their applications;

  • Offer a rigorous course of study in the STEM fields;
  • Cooperate with industry experts, research centers, community partners, and others to “prepare and assist teachers in integrating STEM content across grades and disciplines, in promoting effective and relevant instruction, and in offering applied learning opportunities for students”; and
  • Prepare more students for advanced study and careers in STEM, including by addressing the needs of traditionally underrepresented groups in those fields.

The states all came up with different ideas on how to incorporate STEM education into their schools and according to the U.S. Department of Education website ed.gov they plan on bringing all of the states together to implement reforms. To read all of the states applications, Peer Reviewers Comments, and scores visit the U.S. Department of Education website.

To read Erik W. Robelen’s full article in Education Week click here.

Top 10 Best IT Certifications – 2010

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If you are an IT Professional and currently employed or looking for employment within a small or midsize organization these top 10 certifications are the highest in demand, according to TechRepublic. These certifications hold the greatest potential for technology support professionals, administrators, and managers. Although for those of you entering this field for the first time you should consider any of the CompTIA certifications. Erik Eckel says it best, these are manufacturer-independent certifications that demonstrate mastery of fundamentals across a range of topics, how can you possibly go wrong with this?

The following list of top certifications (and their explanations) comes from an article on TechRepublic. You can read the full article here.

Continue reading “Top 10 Best IT Certifications – 2010”

Welcome Back to School!

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It’s that time of year again, school has started and around the country students and teachers are heading back to the classroom. At LearnKey we do a lot of work with school districts all over the country and thought educators might enjoy some blogs written for them. If you’re not a teacher don’t worry you can still read them too!

If your district does not use LearnKey training products here are some of the great benefits we have to offer. 

Our solution is a comprehensive, self-paced, anytime, anywhere training program that helps you:

  • Get students industry certified
  • Aggressively meet Perkins Grant standards
  • Save time and energize lesson plans

If your school district does use LearnKey training, but you are not sure where to start…

Contact us now to: (your district or school has already purchased!)

  1. Get your user name and password
  2. Import your new students
  3. Manage your account

 Call 1.800.865.0165 and get connected!

*We also have a Free Certification Poster to acknowledge student certifications achieved in your classroom. Reply here with the mailing address and school district you work for to receive your poster.

Strata Fundamentals of IT Technology

The LearnKey production team is hard at work this week and Ammon Wiese is in front of the camera for this course. I asked Ammon if he could share with us how the week has been going so far and what we have to look forward to in the Strata Fundamentals of IT Technology course. Here’s what Ammon had to say…

“Hey LearnKey fans I thought that I would give you an update on how things are going in the studio this week. I am filming CompTIA’s newest certificate exam, Strata Fundamentals of IT Technology. Even though this should be considered an entry-level exam or certificate, you will find that CompTIA has really put together an exam that should be used as a pre-requisite to completing the A+ certification. This course is going to be great we’ve gathered segments from a number of our most popular instructors and along with me, they will teach you everything that you will need to know in order to take the Strata test and pass it with confidence. There is a lot of information to cover and the director is screaming at me to stay focused so I’d better get back on task. See you through the lens 🙂 and I hope you like the course!”

Keep an eye out later this year on learnkey.com for this course to be released. Or to receive new course updates, Like us on Facebook, Follow us on Twitter, or sign up for email updates.

Thursday Trivia – 9/2/10

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It’s that time again – our Thursday’s Tricky Trivia, where we challenge you with random LearnKey-related trivia questions in exchange for correct answers and awesome swag! Good luck!

The Question:

What tool must be used to modify the properties of a table in Adobe InDesign?

The Prize:

A 1gb Flash Drive

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Trivia Contest Rules:

Answer the question correctly in the comments to be eligible to win*. Once you’ve submitted the answer in your comment, we’ll have a drawing and randomly pick a winner. The winner, who will be contacted via email* by a LearnKey staff member, will be posted next Thursday, along with a new trivia question for the week.

Contest run time: Thursday Sept 2nd – Wednesday Sept 8th

Winner posted: Thursday August 26th

*Contest is open to North American residents only (Sorry, if international shipping rates weren’t so outrageously high we could include more people)

*In order to receive prize notification, you must provide a valid email address with your comment*

Outlook 2010- Michael Meskers

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Are you ready for Outlook 2010? 

Expert Michael Meskers was here last week filming LearnKey’s Outlook 2010 training. The training showcases some of the great new features the latest version of Outlook has to offer like the ability to manage multiple email accounts,  organize your emails  with conversation threads, and stay connected to your social networks . 

Microsoft enhanced the functionality, simplified things, and provided us with more ways to customize Outlook, which in turn allows us to be a lot more efficient.

Be looking for the release of our new Outlook 2010 training! It’s going to be great!