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| Textbooks may be going the way of eight-track tapes Digital education content is making it both possible and necessary to reinvent schools, said a panel of education leaders and technology experts at a forum hosted by Cable in the Classroom (CIC) and the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN). "Wiring schools is the beginning of the story, " said Douglas Levin, director of education policy for Cable in the Classroom. "But the content is also a vital piece of the puzzle -- in many ways the most meaningful piece." "Quality content is the key to whether students succeed or fail in the learning enterprise, and digital content is a rich, deep well, " said Helen Soule, Ph.D., executive director of Cable in the Classroom. "If we think about the resources that are out there, and if we think of how we could -- and should -- transform schools, we have an opportunity to create the kind of classrooms that will help children take their place in the highly competitive global marketplace that awaits them." The forum drew school district administrators, representatives of teacher unions, virtual education providers, cable programmers, teachers, and education organization leaders. The discussion explored how digital content and technology can enhance and expand learning, and what these developments mean for the way we prepare teachers, involve parents, and design classrooms for a new digital education environment. Among the highlights emerging from their conversation: * Parents, school board members, other education leaders, and teachers are going to need professional development to catch up with the new ways children are learning. * School buildings, administrative work, and classrooms would look completely different if we designed them around what digital content and technology make possible. * The textbook selection process isn't ready to cope with electronic media. In many states outdated regulations and policies make adopting electronic or multimedia materials difficult, so they often don't get approved for use in schools. * Many students assume that digital content is all free and all true. It's vital to teach information literacy to help them evaluate, interpret, and ethically use what they find online. * Electronic gaming offers enormous possibilities for learning, as a totally engaging medium demanding rapid decision-making, short-and long-term thinking, and the willingness to fail repeatedly before succeeding. "One of the difficulties of digital content is knowing its strengths and weaknesses and how to use it best, " said Frank Gallagher, assistant director of education, Cable in the Classroom. "Different kids learn best in so many different ways, some of them from textbooks, some from lectures, some online. Teachers want to do anything they can to help kids learn." "One obstacle is how to get digital content into the daily repertoire of teachers, matching the technology with a piece of instruction, " said Dale Fulton, senior vice president for curriculum, Discovery Education. write your comments about the article :: © 2005 Networking News :: home page |