In my previous entry, I introduced Digital Promise - my Princeton Project 55 organization. Our mission is to “to support a comprehensive research and development program to harness the increasing capacity of advanced information and digital technologies to improve all levels of learning and education, formal and informal, in order to provide Americans with the knowledge and skills needed to compete in the global economy.” Here’s another way to think about our mission: ultimately, we would like to help facilitate and develop new breakthroughs in education technology. Digital Promise’s mission – innovation in education technology and education-at-large – is an important one. The world is becoming more and more innovative everyday day and American public schools must keep pace.
How is the world becoming increasingly innovative? Here are some questions to ask yourself: When was the last time you brought an actual CD as supposed to downloading an album on Amazon or iTunes? How many Apple (iPhones, iPads, or iPods) products do you own? And finally, do you read your news in a print format or digital format such as on your computer, mobile device, or Kindle? It may be difficult to imagine, but technology is now more integrated into our lives than it was five years ago, but unfortunately education is not keeping pace. There are many reasons why schools are lagging in regards to adopting the latest technology, but one of the big reasons is that often times it takes school districts years to evaluate what really works. By the time many districts are able to assess a particular innovation that application or device is outdated.
Digital Promise, and in particular Digital Promise’s League of Innovative Schools, is working to help our public schools rapidly “demonstrate, evaluate, and scale” innovative technologies so that students are able to utilize them now instead of five years down the line. To this end, many of our League member school districts and local education agencies are active participants in our two working groups: The Procurement Working Group and Research Working Group. Furthermore, we are fortunate to have dynamic research partners at BYU, Harvard, the University of Chicago, and the University of Washington – we collaborate with researchers at each of these institutions to collect data and analyze results from “demonstration sites” ( an initial implementation of a particular application or device) among our League member districts. At the moment, we have three active demonstrations sites including an entire school district in Michigan that will introduce iPads into all of their kindergarten classes beginning in the fall.
Next fall, all of the incoming kindergarten students attending Utica Community Schools – the second largest school district in Michigan – will be using iPads in their class. Sounds amazing doesn’t it? But then again, why not? If we’re using the most sophisticated technology to entertain, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be using it to educate as well.
Next Time: Making the Transition to Educating in the Digital Age!
How is the world becoming increasingly innovative? Here are some questions to ask yourself: When was the last time you brought an actual CD as supposed to downloading an album on Amazon or iTunes? How many Apple (iPhones, iPads, or iPods) products do you own? And finally, do you read your news in a print format or digital format such as on your computer, mobile device, or Kindle? It may be difficult to imagine, but technology is now more integrated into our lives than it was five years ago, but unfortunately education is not keeping pace. There are many reasons why schools are lagging in regards to adopting the latest technology, but one of the big reasons is that often times it takes school districts years to evaluate what really works. By the time many districts are able to assess a particular innovation that application or device is outdated.
Digital Promise, and in particular Digital Promise’s League of Innovative Schools, is working to help our public schools rapidly “demonstrate, evaluate, and scale” innovative technologies so that students are able to utilize them now instead of five years down the line. To this end, many of our League member school districts and local education agencies are active participants in our two working groups: The Procurement Working Group and Research Working Group. Furthermore, we are fortunate to have dynamic research partners at BYU, Harvard, the University of Chicago, and the University of Washington – we collaborate with researchers at each of these institutions to collect data and analyze results from “demonstration sites” ( an initial implementation of a particular application or device) among our League member districts. At the moment, we have three active demonstrations sites including an entire school district in Michigan that will introduce iPads into all of their kindergarten classes beginning in the fall.
Next fall, all of the incoming kindergarten students attending Utica Community Schools – the second largest school district in Michigan – will be using iPads in their class. Sounds amazing doesn’t it? But then again, why not? If we’re using the most sophisticated technology to entertain, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be using it to educate as well.
Next Time: Making the Transition to Educating in the Digital Age!
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