TRANSFORMING CLASSROOMS WITH HELP FROM TECHNOLOGY

Technology has tremendous potential to transform teaching and learning, although our nation's classrooms will not change for the better simply by infusing technology into them. Teacher buy-in, effective professional development, and a vision for the ways in which curriculum and instruction need to evolve in order to educate students for a rapidly changing world are all essential to such a transformation.

Some guidelines for incorporating technology into the curriculum:

• Technology should support student activities that would otherwise be difficult or impossible;
• Technology should be equitable and address all learning styles;
• Curriculum should be developed with the vast new set of digital content in mind.

Digital content packages can:

• Address individual learning styles;
• Be flexible;
• Be quickly adjusted to fit ability levels;
• Be translated into different languages;
• Be reformatted for presentation and dissemination in various ways;
• Include graphic, video, virtual reality, animations, simulations, audio, music, interactive and gaming elements;
• Engage students through a rich and varied array of intelligences.

With effective professional development, teachers should feel well prepared and equipped to inspire such learning activities as:

• Planned and spontaneous research;
• Evaluating the reliability of various online sources;
• Taking notes quickly and efficiently;
• Peer mentoring using multimedia presentations;
• Publishing for a genuine audience;
• Writing and editing using a variety of tools;
• Collaborating locally and globally.

Sample District Implementation: Carmel Middle School in Colorado Springs, Colorado

During the 2008-2009 school year, Carmel Middle School in Colorado Springs implemented its 21s Century Curriculum Program. Offered to 200 sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth grade students throughout the Harrison School District, this program's goals are to support: critical thinking and reasoning; information literacy; economics and globalization; constructing knowledge through technology experiences in the "global" classroom; math and science reasoning; foreign language learning; and the exploration of 21st-century arts. Central to the implementation are laptop computers, field trips, hands-on projects and a commitment by students and families to attend after-school and weekend education events. Click here for more information.

Sample State Initiative: California's Free Digital Textbook Initiative

In May 2009, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger highlighted his digital textbooks initiative at a local high school. This "first-in-the-nation" initiative was introduced as a way to provide schools and students a new way to access textbooks that are less expensive, easier and lighter. The first phase, which took place in the summer of 2009, involved the review of free digital high school math and science content by a state panel that made recommendations to schools. Additional content will be solicited and evaluated in the years to come with plans to create a statewide Web site highlighting available digital textbooks. According to the governor's office, this initiative has the potential to save California's schools millions of dollars. For more information, visit http://gov.ca.gov/index.php?/fact-sheet/12455/ or http://www.clrn.org/fdti/FDTI_Report.pdf