Press

If you are a member of the media and wish to speak with someone from the National Center for Technology Innovation (NCTI), please contact Cynthia Overton at coverton@air.org or (202) 403-5058.

Press Releases

TechMatrix Adds Science Category and Expands the Free Educational and Assistive Technology Information It Offers to Help All Students (October 4, 2010)
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Tech in the Works 2010 Competition Makes 4 Awards to Promote Collaborative Research on Innovative Technologies for Students with Disabilities (May 11, 2010)
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Funds Available for Tech in the Works 2010 Competition- Promotes Collaborative Research Focusing on Innovative Technologies for Students with Disabilities (January 7, 2010)
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Press Archives

In the News

GWU Launches Online Prep School (The Washington Post; January 2011) The George Washington University Online High School, a private college-preparatory high school that will operate entirely online, is competing with brick-and-mortar prep schools and with a small but growing community of experimental online schools attached to major universities. Tracy Gray, director of NCTI, comments on the determining factors of online schools’ success.

Tools for Schools (eSchool News; December 2010) The TechMatrix, a website that provides free information about educational and assistive technology products for students with disabilities, as well as English language learners, is featured as a “Tool for Schools” to advance learning opportunities for students with disabilities through assistive technology innovation.  The TechMatrix website was also selected as the eSN “Site of the Week“.

E-Book Readers Bomb on College Campuses (Bloomberg Businessweek; June 2010) Amazon’s Kindle and higher education were supposed to be a perfect match. But students say they’re unimpressed. Tracy Gray, director of NCTI, addresses the device’s inaccessibility to the blind and the visually impaired, due to a complicated menu navigation screen that makes it hard to access the read-aloud feature, and the need for Amazon to address these accessibility concerns before the Kindle will be embraced by most of the higher education community.

Challenging Programs Prepare Students For 21st Century Workplace (San Diego Business Journal; March 2010) High schools are changing the way they teach, knowing their “digital native” students have unprecedented access to Internet use and have acquired a host of related skills. Tracy Gray, director of NCTI, speaks on the vital use of innovative technologies and online learning to transform education, increase access to quality education for all students, and help U.S. students maintain competitiveness in a global economy. 

Study Questions Learning-Style Research (eSchool News; Jan 2010) Scientists have yet to prove that students learn better when taught according to their preferred modality, a new study suggests. Tracy Gray, director of NCTI, suggests the answer to effective teaching and learning can be found more in universal design principles than in learning-style assessment.

A Wide Open World (Global Finance; Jan 2010) As new technologies help individuals gain greater access to information and data, how they use it will change the corporate and financial worlds forever. To stay ahead of the pack, firms must change the way they operate, or lose out. Heidi Silver-Pacuila, deputy director of NCTI, comments on issues of security and privacy in managing digital identities.