Ramblings of a “Digital Immigrant” Board Member

Let’s face it: Most of us on the Northfield School Board are immigrants to this land, yet our students are digital natives.

The signs of our status are multitude:
* We are drowning every week in a load of paper, posted through snail mail.
* We print out and edit things on paper. Heck, we even print out important emails just for the sake of having a copy.
* We think of encyclopedias as a static bound series of books, filling a single library shelf, with “yearbooks” to fill in the gap since publishing.
* We consider textbooks an important part of the capital budget.

I worry a lot about how much we might miss the mark on many things technological, just because we are adapting to a whole new language, the digital language the natives speak. I suspect we will, in the next generation, need to redefine how we look at classrooms, buildings and materials.

If you are up to reading a whack on the side of the head article, try “Ths Future of Schooling: Educating America in 2014.” You’ll find it at http://www.mcrel.org/5052IR_Future of Schooling.pdf (Note that you’ll have to ask for this by title)

After you explore those scenarios, let’s talk. I’m worried about a lot of things that are on the horizon. The paper above concentrates on projecting what will happen between now and 2014. Some things are obvious. Some are not. Below I list just some of my worries.

Period 3 Seniors, Thanks!

You are the best! Thank you for being so involved in the discussion today. It was a literal breath of fresh air to see your total engagement on the issue of school funding, and to know that you understood the policy issues those of us on the Northfield Board of Education face in the near future.

* You’re to be commended for seeing the school funding issue as your own.

* You offered critical insights about how important it will be to craft the message for the public, and how we will have to really be “out there” in the community garnering support for a levy referendum vote.

* You quickly grasped the various funding categories, the part played by the State, the Feds and the local levy… and you got right down to the business of debating the issues surrounding those various streams.

* You got it…. that in order to just keep the level of programming we have now we’ll have to go for a levy vote this fall. Without that, we can look forward to further pain through budget cutting.

* Best of all, you encourage me to continue fighting for a comprehensive curriculum and fine programs.