District Administration - January 2011 - (Page 21)

choice options in academies, in schools of choice, in specialized programs that provide a best fit to their individual needs. Is providing technology for learning a major initiative for Miami-Dade at this time? How big a difference do you see it making with the achievement gap? Carvalho: Some folks look at technology in our industry of public education, as an add-on or as a supplement to what happens in the classroom. I don’t. I actually see technology as an environment. And the reason why I say that is, I’m a father of a 19-year-old daughter who has allowed me to see the impact that technology has had on the digital natives of today. We older folks approach it, first and foremost, as entertainment, or via a utilitarian perspective that helps us do our job better. They don’t. They live it. This is their environment. So we as educators should leverage their existence in this communication environment that is technology rich. We should leverage that to benefit public education. How have you leveraged technology in Miami-Dade? Carvalho: We talk about differentiated Carvalho interacts with students at the Primary Learning Center (grades pre-K1). He is principal of the school as well as of the iPreparatory Academy, both located in the new downtown school he opened this year in district headquarters after cutting district administration by 52 percent. This sounds like something to watch for in the future. Carvalho: No. It’s in operation right now. instruction in a classroom environment— meeting each child based on his or her own proficiency level. Technology can actually do that and individualize it outside of the classroom, anytime, anywhere. Just imagine this environment. A virtual environment where the child walks into the classroom and automatically, wirelessly, the work that the child has performed at home, in a 24/7, anytime, anywhere approach, uploads automatically to the teacher’s computer. And automatically, it provides an assessment that updates itself daily, not quarterly, to the teacher, and automatically spits out an email to the parent providing feedback on academics, on behavior, on the effort on the part of the child, forcing the parent, and incentivizing the parent, to open up this e-mail and connect directly to the progress of their child. www.DistrictAdministration.com We call it “Links to Learning.” It is a compilation of independently running software titles and companies that agreed to collaborate in putting together a platform that, from the user’s perspective, is seamless, providing 24/7 anytime, anywhere expanding of learning opportunities. With what resources were you able to do this, and how has it changed the way learning looks? Carvalho: Everybody talks about the fact that our school calendar is based on the agrarian system. If we believe it to be arcane and archaic, why don’t we do something about it? We spend so much time talking about these things that often we convince ourselves we actually did something about it. So I don’t have time to wait for one individual entity to come up with a solution. I wanted something to be put together quickly. Why? Because we lose children as a function of our treating time and space as immutable factors in education—time and space meaning Carnegie Units, minutes in attendance in a school, bell to bell, in a school building in a classroom. So this was the solution for me to break away and expand the school day in a dramatic way without investing any additional dollars. Time and space are variables in our system. The last bell no longer signifies an end to the learning part of the day. It can be expanded to wherever students go, anytime. Is that a pilot program in the school district now? Carvalho: I don’t believe in pilot pro- grams [laughs]. I really don’t. You know, I believe if it’s good for a kid, it’s good for every kid. January 2011 21 http://www.DistrictAdministration.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - January 2011

District Administration - January 2011
Contents
From the Editor
Letters
News Update
Administrator Profile
District Profile
Conversations
Crisis Response
Going Mobile
Online Edge
Professional Opinion
K12 Guide to Audio/Visual Solutions
Product Focus
What’s the Value in Value-Added?
The Politicization of Bullying
Holding On to Parent Voices
Tough New Issues Refocus Health Education
New Products
Books

District Administration - January 2011