Nordy's Page

As a co-chair of the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) Technology & Development Committee, I had the pleasure to participate in today's webcast on Digital Rights Management (DRM). During the webcast, we heard insights from district, state, and vendor panelists.

Originally, in the problem statement for the committee's focus on DRM, we discussed the music industry's issues with DRM as a metaphor for the strong market trends motivating educational content publishers to sel… Continue

Last week I wrote about the locus of accountability and wondered whether a focus of 21C and Social Networking could move that locus toward the student, away from the “system”. Today, I read a great post on EdWeek’s Leader Talk blog. The post was titled “Creativity Index” Legislation. Here is an excerpt from that… Continue

NCLB, with its lofty and noble goals, created a movement of accountability that has shifted the locus of accountability away from individual student performance toward institutional system compliance. We are measuring the school/district performance on "standardized" tests. The goal is to identify issues with the schools, but it delays accountability and shifts the focus away from the students.

The stated aim of NCLB is to ensure that every child reaches his/her fullest potential. Evaluating th… Continue

Ashwin Rao (netTrekker Software Development Project Manager) and I just returned from a great trip to Chennai, India. Our hosts in Chennai, Aspire Systems, have been working with us on some next generation architecture and code development for netTrekker. It was my first trip to India - the culture, the people, the food - I soaked it all in during our four day visit.

Business Class or Coach
Well, we flew through Newark to New Delhi before headin… Continue