Go Digital

 Go Digital

Edwards, M., Wirt, T., & Smith, S. (2012, October). Go Digital. Learning & Leading, 12–15. Retrieved from http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/20120910#pg16

In the article "Go Digital" the authors write about how Mooresville Graded School District need to find a way to integrate technology in a community that has a divide of technology due to economic reasons. The article by Mark Edwards, Scott Smith, and Todd Wirt explains how the School District wants to become more technological driven in the classroom but the issue is that many of the students do not have the financial backing for the technology that is required for the change. The school district decided that because many of the families in the school districts could not afford
this that they would provide laptops for the students for the whole school year and allow them to take home. Essentially it is there own computer. By having the school move into the technology age it made the students interested in school and it had a improvement in their education. Test scores have increased and drop out rates decreased since this had been implemented. It was about more than five thousand laptops that were lent out and also the program did not just stopped there they allowed for students to work at the help desk to gain more technology and use it as an elective. The purpose of the article and the point that the authors are depicting is that in a school with low economic students, low test, and high drop out rate that one change in teaching could turn students education for the better. Even though it was a lot to provide for these students the return that they get from the students is a positive one and have motivated students. They let the technology playing fielded for their students to level out. The Digital Conversion program extended the education of the students and allow them to expand their education horizon.

By reading this article I was trying to imagine a way I can use this in the future but I realized that I needed to use this information not in the classroom but with the actual school because the article dealt more with how the school integrated the Digital Conversion program to help students be up to par with technology; so if I taught at a school that needed to improve there students I would purpose a similar program that the Mooresville Graded School District did.

By actually stepping into one of these classrooms one can see and experience the effectiveness of what the program has brought to the students of MGSD. This was also seen by the superintendent by how the students would be in such rush to class and also they would cut some of there recesses time to continue with technological education that they are receiving. This was something never seen to the faculty before and the staff even thought something wrong was happening because they had never seen the students be so eager to participate in the new methods of teaching due to technology.

In accordance with NETS-S this article fits within two categories, the first is 1) Creativity and Innovation. What the Digital Conversion Program does is that it generates new ideas and processes for students that have never been able to do with out the technology provide for them.They can create work that expresses the usage of this new program and allows them to explore more complex systems of work. It also can fit within 2) Communication and Collaboration because by having new technology provides an opportunity to connect and collaborate with their fellow peers through programs such as pwoerpoint, blogs, social networks, etc... Not only that but they can also gain more information and share their own ideas with everyone they choose.