An America’s Promise Alliance report, funded by Cable Impacts, reveals five lessons for all those investing in digital learning.
Portions of this blog were adapted from a blog originally posted by America’s Promise
“We’re here because our superintendent said we’re going one-to-one with tablets next year,” the technology director of a Midwestern school district told me during a tour of technology-savvy Miami-Dade Public Schools.
Why the switch?
“Because a neighboring district just got tablets,” Bob said, “and, by golly, our district was not going to be outdone by them.”
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard stories like Bob’s. Technology initiatives created to keep up with the Joneses, to buy the latest and greatest silver bullet, or to make a statement.
In contrast, Miami-Dade had received the prestigious 2012 Broad Prize for Urban Education for its work improving student achievement and is a model of a thoughtful and effective technology initiative. That’s why I and a group of school and technology leaders were visiting. We wanted to see what they had done and gather information we could use in our own work.
How does a school district leverage its investments in broadband and digital learning to improve student outcomes? What separates the success stories from the still too common failures? What lessons can we learn from each?
“Across America schools are in the midst of a technology transformation, with significant upgrades to their internet connections and school networks”
These questions are important for schools, communities and to us at Cable Impacts. As the cable industry’s foundation dedicated to social responsibility, we spend a lot of time exploring how broadband and digital content can advance education. As the nation’s largest provider of high-speed broadband connections, cable is the internet service provider to many schools and districts, and cable programmers are creating a rich collection of exciting, interactive, digital content for education. For the past three decades, the cable industry has had a significant commitment to education, providing advanced technology, media, content, and teaching materials to schools. From the start, we’ve been exploring how these tools can best be used for teaching and learning.
That’s why we were delighted to fund Wired for Learning: K-12 Students in the Digital Classroom, released today in Washington, DC. In this report, America’s Promise Alliance explores digital learning as a strategy for improving student success. Looking in depth at five school districts, the report finds common elements that contain valuable guidance for any school district or community investing in digital learning.
Great timing! Across America schools are in the midst of a technology transformation, with significant upgrades to their internet connections and school networks, major changes in the devices students are using, and new, digital content, online assessments and administrative tools. Aided by the Federal Communications Commission’s recent enhancements to the e-Rate program, the Obama administration’s ConnectED initiative and various state and philanthropic funding, this transformation has the potential to change the way teachers teach, students learn, and schools operate.
But there won’t be the kind of deep and fundamental changes to education that justify this scale of investment without a compelling vision, clear goals, systematic planning and the leadership to bring that vision of digital learning to reality.
The five districts studied in Wired for Learning are diverse—large and small, urban and rural, low and high poverty—as are the kinds of technology initiatives each undertook. What they share is a systematic approach that starts with learning goals and then asks how technology can be used to support them.
Part of the promise of digital learning is the ability to personalize the learning experience for every student, making it more relevant and deeply engaging. In these five case studies, students are invested in their own learning, collaborating with others, working on projects with real-world connections, and able to choose from several options to show what they have mastered. They receive constructive feedback, scaffolded support and directional guidance from their teachers.
At Cable Impacts we have seen amazing examples of digital learning, and we’ve seen cases where the power of technology was not used to its full potential. This report shows that “keeping up with the Joneses” should never be an acceptable justification investing in school technology. Instead, it shows that the right tools, at the right time, used in the right way can make all the difference in student learning. That’s worth the money. That’s the kind of promise we want to keep to our children.