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Gary Page

Gary Page is an Information Technology Consultant the with the California Department of Education. He is also the publisher of Ed Synergy, a blog that exists to provide information and support to classroom teachers and administrators in California who teach primarily in subjects related to information technology and computer science.

  • www.techwire.net
    The curriculum was developed in collaboration with California teachers through the work of the Integrated Computing and STEM Education (C-STEM Center) at UC Davis. It is now available nationwide.
  • Professional development will be offered this summer at two California community colleges to better prepare teachers who are interested in the networking pathway.
  • This week President Obama launched a new computer science initiative called Computer Science for All to give all students across the country the chance to learn computer science in school.
  • The Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) has announced it will hold its annual conference next year on July 10-12 in San Diego. The CSTA Annual Conference provides professional development opportunities for K–12 computer science and information technology teachers who need practical, relevant information to help them prepare their students for the future.
  • Google is supporting computer science instruction through its Computer Science (CS) First initiative.
  • The Capital Region Academies for the Next Economy (CRANE) has partnered with the creators of the Exploring Computer Science course to offer the 2015 Exploring Computer Science Northern California Summer Institute from June 8 to June 12.
  • More than a thousand students self-organized into working teams to develop ideas that would bring value to technology users or solve problems.
  • This year the HP Roseville and Palo Alto sites will participate.
  • Adobe has committed more than $300 million in software and professional development services, working in collaboration with the White House’s ConnectED initiative.
  • Legislation being introduced in Sacramento could significantly boost the number of computer science courses offered in California. There is a growing concern that California students don’t have the computer science skills necessary to thrive in the modern workforce.
  • More than 700 students from over 50 high schools participated in a 24-hour hackathon held this weekend in San Jose, California. Another 300 high school students participated remotely. The event, named "HSHacks," was conceived organized and funded by high school students through sponsorships and through the generosity of eBay who provided the event venue free of cost at its San Jose headquarters. Hackathons typically include less than 150 students.
  • "We know that the nation that goes all-in on innovation today will own the global economy tomorrow. This is an edge America cannot surrender. " – President Barack Obama, State of the Union, 2014
  • The first of three Pathways to Prosperity Institutes (Institute) that was launched on Monday in Sacramento under the auspices of the California Department of Education (CDE), the California Community Colleges, the California Workforce Investment Board and the Pathways to Prosperity Network. These organizations showed strong united leadership to promote effective Career Technical Education.
  • This is to share with you a great example of a successful business/school partnership around game design. Zynga is located in San Francisco and recently met with teachers at Balboa High School’s Academy of Information Technology to plan, design and pitch a new game. The below video is inspiring!
  • President Obama has announced Youth CareerConnect, a competitive grant program administered by the Department of Labor (DOL) in collaboration with the Department of Education (ED). The grant program seeks to bring to scale models for high school transformation that emphasize public-private partnerships. Inspired loosely by IBM’s P-TECH model, Youth CareerConnect has already been compared to the Administration’s Race to the Top program and seems to be a pilot of the Administration’s Perkins Blueprint. According to DOL’s application information, successful applicants will incorporate six core elements:
  • Hadi Partovi, the founder of Code.org, just announced the Hour of Code: a movement to recruit 10 million students of all ages to try computer science for one hour. Your school can be part of history by participating in the largest initiative of its kind, ever.
  • California State Budget Act includes an allotment of $250 million for a K-14 California Career Pathways Program. In adopting this new initiative, State leaders are calling for business and schools to engage in partnerships in developing and supporting locally defined career pathway programs which will strengthen preparation of our students for the highly skilled, technically demanding jobs of the 21st century.
  • Educators who wonder how their instruction is essential to California’s future should take a look at a report just issued by McKinsey Global Institute entitled: Disruptive technologies: Advances that will transform life, business, and the global economy.
  • The Carnegie Mellon University’s hacking team announced it is designing and hosting picoCTF, an online nationwide high school computer security competition. From April 26th 2013 to May 6th 2013, picoCTF ( http://picoctf.com ) will invite high school students to learn and practice authentic hacking techniques in the context of a story-driven game created by Team Osiris from Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Technology Center.
  • Two of California’s greatest strengths: our diversity and our capacity for innovation will continue to grow a strong economy. California has excellent schools, universities and global technology leaders such as Cisco, Adobe, Apple, Facebook, Google and Oracle. The California
  • The Mid-Pacific ICT (MPICT) Center announced this week that it is conducting a study of California ICT* Workforce demand on behalf of a coalition of government, industry and education stakeholders.
  • As new technologies emerge, older technologies become useless and others less in demand.
  • Today is Ada Lovelace Day – Ada Lovelace is recognized as the first computer programmer and is the first Code Hero mentor in the just released Code Hero game. Code Hero is a game that teaches the player how to make games.
  • Over this past summer, 25 students from the Information Technology Academies (ITA) of West Contra County Unified School District (WCCUSD) enjoyed paid internships with a number of Bay-area employers. Students who participated in the paid work-based learning had wonderful experiences and now better understand how technologies are used to support organizational objectives.
  • The California Department of Education (CDE) is pleased to announce the release, for public review, of the newly revised draft Career Technical Education (CTE) Model Curriculum Standards. Education Code Section 51226 provides legal authority to develop the CTE standards and framework. This legislation requires the development and adoption of CTE standards that incorporate the integration of career technical and academic education no later than June 1, 2005. The CTE Model Curriculum Standards were adopted by the State Board of Education (SBE) on May 11, 2005. The standards, written for grades seven through twelve, specify learning goals in 58 career pathways organized around 15 industry sectors. Building on the previous CTE Standards, the revised draft standards were created with input from more than 300 representatives from business, industry, labor, postsecondary, and secondary education and reviewed by others in the education community. The draft standards are written to demand high quality coursework for students to complete on their way to a future career and are aligned with the Common Core State Standards in English-Language Arts and mathematics. They are also a component of Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson’s Career Readiness Initiative. The standards are rigorous, evidence-based, relevant and reasonable in scope. They offer clear guidelines for course content development and expectations for student achievement.
  • Over 165 teachers went to work for eight weeks over the summer for industry and research lab partners through paid fellowships. The summer work helps teachers develop current, real-world experiences in business and research labs, so they can bring relevance into classroom teaching and student learning experiences.
  • The Economic & Workforce Development Sector Profile for the Information and Communication Technologies Sector reported there were 68,000 online job postings in California for ICT occupations in the last four months.
  • Over the past several years an exciting new initiative has been taking place to launch employer-education partnerships to, in part, align education to advance regional economic objectives through a focus on regional industry sectors.
  • California Department of Education (CDE) staff presented top computer security awards to students today at Mission San Jose High School, on behalf of the U.S. Cyber Challenge. The U.S. Cyber Challenge is a national online contest for high school students that feature a series of quizzes in the most important foundational fields of cyber security: networking, operating systems, and system administration. Students from this school took 8 of the top 25 positions in the competition that includes more than 2,000 high school students from 32 states and 3 U.S. Territories.
  • The California Computing Education Advocacy Network (CCEAN) released a report today entitled In Need of Repair: The State of K-12 Computer Science Education in California as an initial response to a "call-for-action" by the Computer Science Teachers Association. CCEAN consists of computer science education leaders from the K-12, community college and university level including teachers, administrators, professors and researchers, along with California educational policy staff, including from the California Department of Education. CCEAN is working to address the need for educational policy changes and educational reform regarding computer science education in California.