Dr. Winstead said. The mission has built strong
support among district employees and local stakeholders alike.
“We have a culture of adaptation and innovation and
risk-taking,” Dr. Winstead said. “Once we could show
that this would better prepare kids for college and
career, that it would help teachers do better work,
that’s all it took. We just had to articulate that.”
A district-wide survey of teachers found that 99
percent of teachers say they’re willing to make the
digital leap, provided they have support. And in the
community, the Blount Partnership Chamber of
Commerce is working with MCS and offices that only
use their networks during business hours to provide
a network of free wireless Internet hotspots. Organizers aim for every child to have a free hotspot within a
block from home.
The magnitude of change promised by iReach can
be witnessed in Mr. Hicks’s classroom. Mr. Hicks
has worked with colleague Rob Kuban to create
an online framework of content – a sort of digital
workbook – that kids can access anytime, anywhere.
The new Tennessee state standards for eighth-grade
social studies are broken up by unit, and for each
unit, the teachers have created lessons. Students
work at their own pace. Supplemental resources are
provided for those who understand quickly and need
enrichment, like more primary sources to read and
videos to view. More materials are added constantly.
“The least amount of technology that kids
encounter in their days is in school,” Dr.
Mike Winstead said. “Instead of making
them conform to our world, let’s change
the classroom to conform to theirs.”
The online system provides immediate feedback on
assessments, and Mr. Hicks is able to measure comprehension of specific standards. With more complete data to analyze, Mr. Hicks can verify that more
students are mastering standards than in previous
years. For those who need extra help, Mr. Hicks can
locate specific weaknesses quickly.
“Students already live in such a digital world,” Mr.
Hicks said. “They’re a lot less bored, a lot more
engaged, because they love working through the
bugs of technology. They love the interactive and
the entertaining value of it. That’s when I realized
we were really onto something, when I saw the kids
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