Digital Curriculum and The Last Mile

I have finished writing a new article for the TechEdge (the journal of the Texas Computer Education Association) this evening. It should be slated for print publication in the Spring 2006 issue just before the February TCEA conference. The article is entitled “Digital Curriculum and The Last Mile: Providing Curricular Flexibility and Limitless Bandwidth,” and is probably the most strident and politically-direct article I have ever written. Here is an excerpt:

In our environment of prophesied educational transformation thanks to the influence of new computer technologies, and a business environment clearly changed thanks to technology’s disruptive powers, what are teachers, educational leaders, and policymakers to do? The simultaneously simple and difficult answer to this question is “change.” Defining the type and scope of that change is challenging, however. The policy framework in which educational organizations must operate plays a pivotal role, and two key changes are now overdue. Laws and regulations must change to permit school districts to purchase digital curriculum instead of only analog / paper-based textbooks, and telecommunication companies must be forced to provide fiber-optic Internet connections to every public school district in the states of our nation.

The full-text of this article is now online for you to read. Please share this with others! 🙂

I will be podcasting about this topic soon. If you are a Texas voter, be sure not to overlook the link at the bottom of the article to find out how to contact your local representatives. It is time to take action on these issues!