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[|Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?]

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What Matters Most?

Below is a synopsis of my vision for the district instructional technology. Please react in the discussion area where I have it posted as well.

My Eductaional Technology Message: My message centers on student engagement and teacher relevance. It simply makes sense. If students are engaged, by definition, they devote time and energy to the task. The complaints of our students revolve around incompetence of teachers when discussing technology use. [|The Pew Internet in American Life research] clearly indicates that although most students respect their teachers, most find those same teachers woefully lacking in technology skills. Although my own research is far from definitive, there is a suggestion that teacher relevance could be waning with students. What disturbs me about that is the fact that developing minds need expert guidance. If students start turning to the first hit in Google for their answers, I believe our world is in trouble.

PASS is our curriculum. Since we measure PASS, PASS is what gets done. Right or wrong, I work to accomplish the PASS goals and incorporate information skills. Technology is the perfect vehicle for that. The brain science has taught the emotional relevance is the key factor for any information to actually get to the brain. Boredom is a learning killer as surely as an out-of-control classroom is on the other end of the spectrum. Technology can help classroom teachers elicit a level of engagement that makes it possible for students to attend to the information being presented.

One great example of integration is the Intel Teach to the Future initiative. The pedagogical approaches and the product driven nature of the program make it a perfect match for any teacher attempting to integrate technology and still teach to the standards. The teachers leave with a standards based unit of instruction that uses technology to engage the student with not only the skill addressed, but the over-arching concepts the Intel curriculum calls “The essential question.”

The final piece of the puzzle in my mind is a Learning Management System (LMS). This technology piece marries the curriculum to the technology. Anything less is destined to become add-on or tertiary to the teachers.

An LMS allows an organization to manage the learning as the name implies.

Learning Management Systems allow the district to: • Set expectations • Build in differentiation • Build in best practices o instructional o remedial o enrichment • Link the standards to unit plans with resources and activities • Link to student assessment resources like Edusoft. • Provide student feedback • Maintain teacher and student portfolios