Moving at the Speed of Creativity

These are my notes from Illinois Senator Deanna Demuzio’s presentation, “Engaging all Stakeholders” at the One to One Institute’s conference on November 9, 2009 conference in Chicago, Illinois. MY THOUGHTS ARE IN ALL CAPS. I am recording this session and hope to share it as a podcast later.

History of the Illinois technology immersion bill
- was to allow 7 school districts in the state of Illinois to put laptops into their classrooms
- my late husband had been a champion of this bill
- that started my journey with 1:1 learning and advocacy
- you had to be technology/IT ready
- many of the schools were not ready

Calhoun County Elementary is one of the schools I’ll talk about today
- Calhoun County on the Illinois/Missouri and Mississippi River boundary, about 5000 people in the country
- you have to take a ferry to get there, there is 1 bridge
- they were IT ready
- when computers arrived, it took 8-9 months to go through RFP process

Also in the room, Donna who works on strategic initiatives with Apple computer and worked with
- Springfield went with Apple
- our school in Calhoun County went with Gateway
- we had 140 students getting laptops in this program, the vast majority of families did not have computers in the home with high speed access
- they have had a difficult time with what has happened with Gateway computer
- during this time, their scores, ACT, state scores, have increased and blossomed
- kids took the computers home, shared this with their parents
- over last 3-4 years, we have had significant results in terms of parent involvement
- combination of sharing everything you have with the community

In Springfield they have about 1400 computers, scores have gone up
- State Board for Illinois really touts Springfield schools, what they are doing and have succeeded in doing
- World War II exhibit

As legislators in the general assembly, we are going to have to take stock as we look at our schools, looking at controversy in student books
- is a task force out there led by Senator Garrett
- looking at textbooks generally
- digital connectivity and content is now available

Comment from Donna: Senator Demuzio has a perspective on what digital content can mean for kids

Calhoun County schools are struggling now, not because of content– but because of hardware / software issues they have
- when you walk into the classroom and kids are so excited to show you what they can produce on their machines

Illinois legislature reforms
- we all have laptops on our desks, following our bills on the Senate floor and elsewhere
- we know as adults how important access to digital content is

Now discussing financial / fiscal challenges for schools, especially in small, rural schools with limited IT resources
- dollars are not there for Calhoun County schools to maintain their 1:1 program
- we are looking at “Race to the Top” dollars to fund these initiatives

Now comment from Kathy Barnhart, who is with Illinois State Board of Education
- talking about mobile devices like iPhone / Blackberry being the next generation 1:1
- mobile devices are the future

Now comments again from Senator Deanna Demuzio
- in the legislature, we are going to have to educated about these devices and tools

I was told I am one of the few Senators who is texting
- many of our legislators are probably not as up to speed as we should be with technologies (and often with other things!)
- we need to be educated into what the schools are asking for, our students, our parents

Now Donna talking about iTouch applications accessible for visually impaired students

From Senator Deanna Demuzio:
- as we look at a global world and get our students ready for a global market, the computer is a big part of that answer

Question:
- first thing they are going to tell you is, “We don’t have any money”
- we are behind the 8 ball on this, we should have done this a long time ago
- when you look at the dollars we spend on education and we’ve spent on other things, if we don’t spend the money on education

In Ohio, student fees range at some schools fro $30 at elementary to a couple hundred dollars for high schools (those are student fees)

Now discussing textbook costs, and how to use those funds for digital content

another participant: going with open content sources, and coordinating that at the state level

IT WOULD BE GREAT TO SEE STATES ENABLING STUDENTS AND TEACHERS TO PUBLISH AND SHARE CURRICULUM MATERIALS WITH OPEN LICENSING

TWO KEY QUESTIONS:
1- ARE YOU CHANGING THE BELL SCHEDULE AT YOUR HIGH SCHOOLS?
2- ARE YOU CHANGING THE FOUNDATIONAL MEASURE OF HIGH SCHOOL COMPETENCY FROM THE CARNEGIE UNIT

Race to the Top is just 10 of 50 states

From Senator Demuzio:
Next year ARRA is gone, we will go back to regular funding schedules for schools

many of our rural schools have out of date textbooks, schools can’t afford to replace them

Schools need to invite legislators to come into the classroom
- we have a “Principal for a Day” program with the Illinois administrator program
- I do that in elementary schools, doing the announcements, cafeteria duty, putting kids on the bus at the end of the day
- at the end of the day when doing this, you really have an idea if that school is clicking, things are working
- make sure legislators see what your computers look like, show them your library

Have students send notes to their legislators
- asking them to keep computers up to date
- asking them to come visit them at school

THIS IS ALL ABOUT MAKING A CASE FOR MORE DOLLARS FOR EDUCATIONAL SPENDING. I’M INTERESTED IN WHAT CAN HELP EDUCATE AND OPEN LEGISLATOR’S IDEAS

Senator Demuzio has asked different groups of kids to present in front of the state board

Kathy Barnhart’s comment:
If you can get with a Senator to Skype to a school, you will open a new communication channel

Senator Demuzio: Students in a classroom used computers to create a photo book for her about a visit she made to their school, they signed the book and wrote personal notes

I JUST ASKED ABOUT RURAL BROADBAND INITIATIVES IN ILLINOIS

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This entry was posted on Monday, November 9th, 2009 at 2:18 pm and is filed under 1:1, apple, leadership, politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.