By Keith Lang
Director of Technology
Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation

As I walk through the hallways and take in the view of the classrooms of the schools here at Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation, there are several things that I do not see.

I do not see classrooms that resemble the classrooms in which I grew up or even began my teaching career. Long gone are the classrooms with the desks all in neat little rows. Some classrooms don’t even have desks!

Where is the overhead projector and the film strip projector? What about the classroom set of encyclopedias? Even the traditional chalk board is missing.  Instead I see classroom that are filled with media rich technologies. The chalk board has been replaced with a white board or interactive white board which doubles as a projection screen.

There are video projectors mounted in the ceilings that are connected to DVD/VCR players and to computers in the classrooms. Teachers have document cameras that allow the teachers to display just about anything to the white board. Students are using PC’s, laptops and tablets located in the classrooms and in labs. And to top it all off, all these devices are in some way connected to the Internet.

So the question at hand is, and I have heard this question several times this past year, “What are our kids going to do with all this technology?“ 

As you walk around the schools, you will see kids using applications that allow for enrichment and remediation of basic skills. You might see kids working together to create a presentation or a video on a particular topic. You will probably see kids participating in online discussions through a blog, Facebook, Twitter, or other social media. 

They will be using the whiteboard, posting to MyBigCampus or Edmodo, creating music, making Prezis, creating webpages, writing research papers not to mention taking all the different state and local assessments. These are what you will probably see. 

However, the technology is not the learning outcome teachers are looking to achieve. The technology is simply tools for something more … finding answers (to their questions), collaborating with others, raising awareness, changing minds and making a difference.     

The game of basketball looks very different today than when it was invented by James Naismith. Similar to the sports world, our education landscape is continually changing, so it makes sense that our teaching strategies continue to adapt. Technology has been a major revolution in the classroom. The technology has allowed the learning experience to grow beyond the traditional four walls of the classroom and the resources within. 

Students are able to visit places and talk with people from all over the world from within the safety of their classroom. By effectively using the technology, students have access to more resources, articles, publications, images, still and video, allowing them to make more informed opinions/decisions and participate in discussions bringing a global perspective. 

During the fall I had the chance to work with a team of dedicated teachers, administrators and parents that were working to write a strategic plan for the Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation. From the work of this passionate group of people came a Vision Statement, “Tippecanoe Valley School Corporation does whatever it takes to equip all students to be outstanding – today, tomorrow, and beyond.”  Because of this vision, we invest in the technology as a tool to help prepare our students, K-12, to be outstanding in today’s global presence.