You said that COMPUTER EXPLORERS curriculum can affect the world. Would you explain that, please?
The light bulb that flashed in my brain during the Keynote presentation was so vivid that I felt like a cartoon character! When Rischard asked, “Why are students studying the League of Nations today instead of the impact of the Gulf oil spill?”, I realized that I could be part of the solution!
COMPUTER EXPLORERS teaches applications through project-based learning to thousands of students each week. They learn the tools of PowerPoint, for example by creating a sample project facilitated by the technology teacher; when they finish the sample project, they use their new skills to create an independent presentation about what they are studying in their classrooms. Simple. Straight-forward. Accomplishes technology and educational goals at the same time. Reinforces core curriculum so students perform better on tests. Kids love it. Teachers are delighted. Parents are pleased. Administrators are happy. All good…
The light bulb: I made up the rules, and I can change them!!
We are missing an incredible opportunity! The curriculum developers or I choose the content of the sample project. That topic might be simple machines, the solar system, ancient Greece, math probabilities … all good topics, to be sure! But we can instead introduce the students to global issues and inspire some critical thinking! (And lest you think I’m going overboard, students will continue to use their classroom content during their independent project.)
CE curriculum writers, beware! This power is going to my head! As we begin writing our new sample projects for Office 2010, Google Docs, wikis and blogs, I expect you to be well-informed on fisheries depletion, deforestation, natural disaster prevention, and intellectual property rights. I will miss the Greeks gods and the Mayans, but we will leave them to the classroom teachers.
COMPUTER EXPLORERS CAN affect the world … and we WILL make a difference!
Cyndee Perkins
Director, Curriculum and Program Development
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Wow - you are fired up, Cyndee. Good for you. I am sure we will have a lot of discussions on how we will make this happen. I know our amazing group of curriculum writers is up to the challenge!