PS 5 Students in the Bronx Document the Impact of the XO

Check out the students at PS 5 in the Port Morris section of the Bronx and their amazing documentary about the history and impact of Nicholas Negroponte’s ground breaking XO pilot project in their school. The video speaks for itself.. I don’t want to give anything away.

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Laptops just got affordable and purchasable for NYC schools.

The Dell 9 Inch Mini

Let’s face it. Budgets are tight. But New York City is now offering a Dell Mini laptops for $375 on the FAMIS purchasing system. That means for the price of a cart, you can now outfit 100 kids with a laptop. We are on our way to ubiquitous access in schools. If you can afford the cost of refreshing one grade level a year… you are a one to one school.

If you still can’t afford it, how can you get your parents involved?

Many parents are willing to pay for their students to get access to technology in school, especially if they can bring them home. It’s worth asking.

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Next Generation Learning Environments

Teaching Matters presents Next Generation Learning Environments at Largest Teacher Conference in NY.

On March 24-25, Thirteen/WNET and WLIW21 are hosting the largest teacher conference to be held in New York City this year. The first-ever event is loaded with top speakers, small hands-on sessions, and some wonderful celebrity talent — Tom Brokaw, Gwen Ifill, Frank McCourt, Richard Dreyfuss, along with the student stars from the hit movie “Mad Hot Ballroom” and the teacher and students from Los Angeles featured in the POV program “The Hobart Shakespeareans.”

Teaching Matters will be presenting a session at 9:00 Friday, March 24. The session is titled: Voices and Choices – Next Generation Learning Environments to Promote Civic Engagement. These multi-media instructional units support engaged classroom learning by combining inquiry-based study with new media, animation, and online discussion and collaboration tools. All session participants will be provided a classroom password for one full year to Election Connection (grade 7) and Democracy in Ancient Greece (Grade 6). Session is 90 minutes.

The Celebration is designed for K-12 educators in the Tri-State area, but there are already registrations from 33 different states. And if you check out the website at www.thirteencelebration.org, you’ll see why this is getting such national attention. Online registration ends March 17th!

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Is Technology Helping or Hurting Democracy?

George Stephanopoulos, ABC Chief Political Analyst and Anchor of This Week spoke to this issue at Teaching Matters’ 10th Anniversary Celebration. Mr. Stephanopoulos shared his thoughts with 160 public leaders and educators on how the Internet is impacting traditional news media and the implications for 21st century democratic participation. Teaching Matters supports the idea that young people need new skills to interpret the abundant, unmediated messages they receive and that classrooms are the place to begin.

Chancellor Joel I. Klein was in attendance and took the opportunity to thank Teaching Matters for their outstanding service to New York City public schools. He also represented Mayor Bloomberg when he presented Elizabeth Rohatyn, Chairman of Teaching Matters’ board, with a proclamation declaring September 20th, 2005 as “Teaching Matters Day.”

The organization has worked for the last ten years in New York City public schools helping to integrate technology into teaching and learning. Election Connection, a Teaching Matters program, was featured at the celebration, showcasing how students took advantage of technology to inform their opinions and the opinions of others on important public issues.

Teaching Matters has grown dramatically over the last decade. Since 1995 they have expanded from a staff of 10 to a staff of 40, allowing them to prepare and mentor over 8,000 teachers and principals. Teaching Matters has helped launch two high-tech laboratory schools in the Bronx. Currently, the organization is working with the NYC Department of Education to develop curricular programs in Social Studies and Balanced Literacy.

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