From kjevans@igc.apc.org Tue Mar 14 05:12:35 1995
Date: Mon, 13 Mar 1995 10:09:56 -0800
From: Ken Evans <kjevans@igc.apc.org>
To: dsevic1@peg.apc.org
Subject: Msg to Minister of Ed
Cc: bcoppinger@peg.apc.org, dwbragg@igc.apc.orgTo: The Honourable Mr. Don Hayward
From: Ken Evans and Daryl BraggDear Minster of Education,
The Mid-Continent Center is pleased to have the opportunity for involvement in the proposed student forum examining issues related to telecommunications in schools.
The Mid-Continent Center, located in Minnesota, supports classroom teachers (and their projects) in Minnesota, Indiana, Michigan, Kentucky, and Illinois. Our Center Mission includes:
a) support for individuals and districts via staff-development experiences,
b) software, hardware & networking support,
c) project development (partner-bases, theme-based and the proposed gopher-based),
d) supporting the 'Change' and 'classroom transformation' movements through the power of communications & global consciousness, and,
e) analyzing the impact of Internet growth in the K-12 instructional environment.
Since 1991, we have been assisting the IEARN family in attempting to reach it's goal of assisting youth to make a meaningful difference to the health and welfare of the planet. Indicators of positive change (as a result of classroom telecommunications) include:
a) improvement of writing and communications skills among students involved in IEARN projects],
b) the development of a 'global consciousness' in terms of social, environmental, political and ethical issues,
c) the development of international student work groups; working together on moderated projects,
d) the gradual transformation from passive to active learners,
e) increased technical skills among students and their instructors,
f) the ability to publish and illustrate finished projects, and,
g) the development of a greater concern for others, and also the impact of personal decisions (on others).
Reflecting on the upcoming student forum on issues related to telecommunications in schools, we'd like to suggest the following as possible areas of discussions or concern:
- Connectivity: getting the computer hardware, software and communications capabilities in place to participate in global projects via IEARN;
- Pedagogical change: What changes need to occur at the instructional level for classroom telecommunications to have the greatest possible impact;
- Staff-Development: How to provide the necessary staff-development experiences to move from the pilot stage to full implementation in a school or district;
- Restructuring (or Updating) State, Regional and/or District level curricula to include telecommunications;
- Transformation Costs: How to finance proposed changes in instructional practices;
- Language Barriers;
- Impact of Internet Growth at K-12 level; Increased home computing with lowered costs of home computers; the growth of commercial (for profit) commercial networks; i.e., Prodigy, CompuServ, etc; the obvious (but slow) trend from text-based projects to multi-media based projects - World Wide Web Pages; and,
- the impact of the linking of state, province and national educational networks.
It is with great pleasure that the family of IEARN Centers have watched and shared the successes of the Australian IEARN Center. Bill Coppinger and his associates have worked tirelessly for the expansion of classroom telecommunications in Australia (and globally). We look forward with great anticipation the 1995 International IEARN Conference in Melbourne, with it's focus on empowering learners and educators via classroom telecommunications.
Very sincerely,
Ken Evans & Daryl Bragg; Co-Coordinators,
Mid-Continent Center (USA)