Features
The Content
11/4/2011 By:
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Ben Grey,
Chief Information Officer,
Oak Lawn-Hometown
District 123
Oak Lawn, IL
|
 |
Dr. Art Fessler, Superintendent,
Oak Lawn- Hometown
District 123
Oak Lawn, IL
|
Dr. Kevin Anderson,
Superintendent of Schools,
Elmwood Park CUSD 401 Elmwood Park, IL |
The printed textbook is a dying breed. Not much will be
gained by replacing it with a digital clone. Online resources
offer enormous opportunities for districts that now need to
transition from a static single source of knowledge to dynamic
repositories of powerful learning objects created and selected
by the teachers and students who will use them.
[The scenario]
On the first day of school, Ms. Mahdavi asks her ninth graders to open the curriculum
for her science course. The learners touch the screens of their mobile devices, clicking
through the school’s Web site into their teacher’s curriculum space, eager to access the
articles, videos, interactive simulations, student projects, and recommendation-driven
learning tools that will help them master skills. Some of the learners immediately start
working on their digital profiles, setting up space for their portfolios and peer evaluation
of their ongoing work. Before they get very far, Ms. Mahdavi says, “Eyes up” and
strategizes with them about finding collaboration partners both local and global, and
reviews the school’s copyright policies before class members begin adding content to
the growing archive housed within the curriculum space.
[Executive Summary]
In several of the districts and states
that participated in the digital-content
working group, a collaborative effort to
create digital alternatives to textbooks is
under way. These efforts go far beyond
simply converting from paper to screen.
With digitized curriculum, content
can now come from many sources. For
example, in Georgia’s Forsyth County
Schools, educators have been compiling
an extensive collection of standardsaligned
“learning objects” ranging from
their own most successful lesson plans to
videos, articles, simulations, and engaging
interactive content from subscription
services. A textbook publisher is now
on board, unbundling its content to
serve as additional learning objects in
Forsyth’s individualized system. A similar
effort is under way in the Burlington
Public Schools in Massachusetts, where
educators are collaborating in the
creation of e-pubs that will run on the
iPads used in the district’s new one-toone
program.
 |
Debbie Rice, Director of Technology,
Auburn City Schools, AL
Cristen Herring, Assistant Superintendent,
Auburn City Schools, Auburn, AL
David Warlick |
Not only does the shift to digital
content give teachers a new say in
what and how to teach, it also opens
opportunities for students to lead the way.
In New Hampshire, where a statewide
conversation about digital content and
other technology trends is taking place,
education leaders take very seriously the
research indicating that students want to be able to use their own mobile
devices at school, access online content previously blocked by filters, and
conduct real research as part of their learning. That’s what’s happening
in the New Canaan Schools in Connecticut, where student-centered
learning involving social media plays a key role in the curriculum. During
the recent “Arab Spring” uprisings, for example, high school students
followed Twitter postings from individual countries and reported on
the latest developments, thus creating a dynamic living textbook about
current events.
As members of the working group shared examples of local and regional
initiatives focused on digital content, they acknowledged the challenges
they have had to address. A thorough understanding of copyright issues,
from fair use to creative commons licensing, is essential to the success of
such endeavors. So is the willingness to work collaboratively, rather than
competitively, with peers in other classrooms, districts, and states. In the
end, however, all were in agreement that this is the direction in which we
must move to prepare our students for the future.
What
They
Said
“We want to see a return on learning.
That is the most satisfying part. We
partnered with a publisher, but we
also wish to see how much content
we can create on our own. We want to
‘un-chunk’ the content and deliver it in
more relevant ways. In the digital realm,
it’s all about sharing. Power shared is
power multiplied.”
—Bailey Mitchell, chief technology
& information officer, Forsyth
County Schools, GA
“We want to sponsor sharing in our
district. Some school districts are very
reluctant to share content and ideas.
We need to stop being competitive and
proprietary, but there’s a lot of history
that makes it hard to do. It’s a new skill
we need to learn; it involves changing
how we’ve thought for a long time.”
— Eric Conti , superintendent of
schools, Burlington Public Schools, MA
“We are already in the 21st century. We
know that we want to create a digital
learning environment, but what should
it look like? It’s not just about PD or data
or which devices to use for one-to-one. If
we ask the important questions and look
as far ahead as possible, maybe we’ll get
halfway there.”
— Cathy Higgins, state educational
technology director, Concord, NH
“We tell our teachers, ‘We didn’t bring
you here to teach but instead to create
learning.’ Learning does not happen to
you but rather inside you.”
—Ken Wallace, superintendent
of schools, Maine Township
High School District, IL
Working
Group
Take-Aways
What do
students
want?
Online textbooks should
include the ability to:
• download to my
personal device
• make highlights or notes
• print
• search
• use animations and simulations
• use a calculator and dictionary
• access useful web links
• take tests and quizes on my own
* SOURCE: Cathy Higgins, State Educational Technology
Director, NH
Find more take-aways from the School CIO
summit in the program vault under schoolcio.com
(click on “Events”).
[Participants]
Nancy Caramanico
Instructional technology specialist
Media, PA
Eric Conti
Superintendent of schools
Burlington Public Schools, MA
Cathy Higgins
State educational technology director
Concord, NH
Patrick Larkin
Principal
Burlington Public Schools, MA
Robert Miller
Director of information and communication technologies
New Canaan Public Schools, CT
Bailey Mitchell
Chief technology & information officer
Forsyth County Schools, GA
Henry Thiele
Chief technology officer
Maine Township High School District, IL
Ken Wallace
Superintendent of schools
Maine Township High School District, IL
David Warlick
Keynoter, author and programmer
Raleigh, NC