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shift from the “computer class” mindset to an “integrated” technology program

very similar problems, very similar history

very similar ideas

by Grace Rubenstein AUDIO SLIDE SHOW: Lawrence Township Narrated by Grace Rubenstein It is one thing to create change inside a classroom -- the best teachers, masters of their one-room domains, break from tradition and foster innovative learning environments all the time. A harder task, which a growing number of schools are proving can be done, is to convert an entire school to embrace new practices that fulfill the changing educational demands of our age. Then comes the next -- and the messiest -- frontier, the entity most resistant to cohesive change: the school district. Five years ago, administrators in the Metropolitan School District of Lawrence Township, in the northeast corner of Indianapolis, tackled this challenge. With a $5.9 million grant from the Lilly Endowment, a local philanthropic organization, they set out to transform the prevailing vision of what preK-12 education is for -- as one district official put it, "to meet the needs of the kids' future, and not the teachers' past." They decided that they needed to teach a modern set of skills in a student-centered way. Critical thinking, self-direction, and cultural competency, along with fluency in technology, information resources, and visual and graphic presentations. These were the elements of digital age literacy the district believed its students would need in the twenty-first century. Educating students for the new era demanded not only new content, they believed, but also new teaching methods. Teachers needed to recast themselves as facilitators, and to demand that students take more ownership of their learning. Into Focus Visit classrooms in Lawrence Township -- at least those where the change has caught on -- and you'll see kids inventing their own projects, using computers in daily work, involving themselves in community initiatives, and inquiring on their own about continued . . . 1234567next ›last » This article was also published in Edutopia Magazine, June 2007

my nine year old daughter

It was hard to keep away my oldest daughter, who is 12, so we could finish.

It was hard to keep away my oldest daughter, who is 12, so we could finish.   Taylor told her teacher what she did and asked if I could bring in my Lap Top to show her. She asked if I would show the whole class as well.

Hence, a new divide is opening up, one centred on the quality of use. The UKCGO survey finds that middle class children, children with internet access at home, children with broadband access and children whose parents use the internet more often are more likely to be daily users and so to experience the internet as a rich, if risky, medium than are less privileged children.

Summary This nationwide survey of 1,500 children aged 9-19 and their parents is part of a research project carried out by UK Children Go Online (UKCGO). Between January and March 2004, researchers conducted in-home, face-to-face interviews, lasting some 40 minutes, of 1,511 children and 906 parents across the United Kingdom.

Currently, 74% have internet access via a computer, games console or digital television