Information Technology
. Budget belt-tightening threatens to send school librarians the way of the card catalog.
. Lancaster, Pa superintendent eliminated 15 librarians to save full day kindergarten classes. Salem-Keizer district in Oregon, all 48 elementary- and middle-school librarians would lose their jobs under a recent budget proposal. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s proposed budget calls for laying off 53 of 365 licensed librarians who remain.
. Many New York school officials said they had to eliminate librarians, having already reduced administrative staff, frozen wages and shed extra-curricular activities.
. As more classrooms are equipped with laptops, tables or e-readers, Polakow-Suransky noted, students can often do research from their desks that previously might have required a library visit.
. Source : Librarians next in school cuts. By Fernanda Santos, The New York Times Published in The Enquirer 7/17/11 A17
. Ten to 20 years from now Information Technology will drastically transform K-12 education as we know it today. There will be a lot fewer adults involved in the education of the kids. See comments by Stanford fellow.
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. Are hardbound textbooks going the way of slide rules and typewriters in schools? Educatoin Secretary Arne Duncan last week challenged schools and companies to get digital textbooks in student’s hands within five (5) years.. Apple announced it would start to sell electronic versions of a few standard highschool books for use on its iPad tablet.
. Digital books are viewed as a way to provide interactive learning, potentially save money and get updated materal faster to students
. Digital learning environmnets have been embraced in Florida, Idaho, Utah, and California, as well as schools in Joplin, Mo.
. Source: Feds urge school districts to embrace digital textbooks By Kimberly Hefling Associated Press. The Enquirer 2/5/12 A4.
Technology-rich learning in a global universe (Technology path)
With the pending retirement of Dr. Knudson, superintendent of Indian Hill Schools, and the recruiting of her replacement, the stars have aligned themselves for a paradigm shift in student learning.
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Under Dr. Knudson’s leadership a solid foundation has been built for transitioning from teacher-centric classrooms toward student-centered, digitally-enriched learning.
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Our schools are networked and linked electronically. Parents, students, teachers, and staff email seamlessly 24/7. The infrastructure is in place, its use is welcomed by all.
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Dr. Knudson, her Director of Technology Arline Pique, Assistant Superintendent Dr. Ault, and a growing core of forward-looking teachers, have brought us to this threshold.
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Now we can discern the path ahead.
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Learning, of course, is the core mission of a school. Laptop and tablet computers are in use at Indian Hill in an increasing number of settings to engage students, deliver content, provide remediation and advanced instruction, and liberate teachers to function as mentors and gurus.
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There’s even talk of the “flipped classroom,” in which lessons in digital form are studied at home, and then discussed and reinforced in school the next day.
These are glimpses into a digital future that enormously expands what students learn, and how they achieve mastery. The emerging technologies self-adapt themselves to individual student needs in ways unimaginable barely a decade ago.
What’s changed? Why now?
• Newspapers, magazines and textbooks are giving way to words and images on computer screens, ebook readers, and mobile devices.
• Top-down communication channels (think broadcast TV) are flattening out into peer-to-peer networks (think Skype and you-are-there iPhone images of tyrants butchering citizens).
• College-level courses at MIT and many other universities are available to all, 24/7, over the Internet.
• Oral arguments before the five justices of the Ohio Supreme Court in Columbus can be viewed anywhere, anytime.
• China’s Temple of Heaven in Beijing? A couple of keystrokes, and it’s on your monitor.
• Need to practice French? A few swipes of your tablet screen and you’re laughing at a Paris sitcom or reflecting on Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People at the Louvre.
When I was growing up in NYC in the 1930s, my world was 10 blocks long and five blocks wide. Everything west of the Hudson River was Mystery. Somewhere to the east was Europe, whatever that was.
Now, 80 years later, I roam the globe from my desk. Next door is an effervescent Italian couple from Rome. My younger son taught English in Kyoto. My older son co-founded a software startup in Hong Kong. A grandson speaks fluent Mandarin. Two other grandsons feel at home in Edinburgh, Amsterdam and Cologne. My younger granddaughter was smitten with Berlin.
What will their world be like when they’re my age?
What about their grandchildren?
Our challenge is to imagine the digital world that’s racing toward us. We must prepare our daughters and sons to embrace it intelligently and creatively.
This extraordinary expansion of the universe is why our new superintendent must have the vision, the mindset, and the skillset to develop a technology-rich learning environment that empowers students to thrive in the gigabyte future that beckons them.
Source: Technology path by Fred Sanborn Indian Hill resident NSL 2/29/12 A2