Take a look at it and share your comments.

1abiz, you nail the pedagogy well enough for me to have little to add in that respect. Very well-articulated.

I’ll add a couple tidbits:

1. I’d throw iWork in there too. It’s cheap, and Keynote is so much better and easier than Powerpoint.

2. If budget is an issue, new Macbook users often decide after about 3 months that they want to uninstall Windows, so the cost for the Windows OS was a waste. Same with MS Office, when you can use NeoOffice for free, w/same compatibility.

3. Pedagogy: be prepared to offer how to assess digital problem-based learning for skeptics. It’s not easy.

4. Pedagogy 2: crucial to make teachers see this is not stuff to do ON TOP OF what they do - more work - but INSTEAD OF some older approaches.

5. Pedagogy 3: don’t guarantee instant success. Students are as afraid of technology for learning - of free inquiry and self-direction, generally - as teachers. Lots of de-programming required there too. Months and months, if not more, to teach students to become learners.

Good luck! Hope they realize how sharp your vision is.

In the Cayman Islands we are currently building three 21st Century Secondary Campuses, (we’re not calling them schools) and a new primary campus. None of these sites contain ‘classrooms in the traditional sense but a series of flxible learning spaces. The equipping of these spaces is a current topic - your post is very timely.

This work accompanies a complete and radical overhaul of the entire educatin system in the country. (Ministry blog: http://buildingcaymansfuture.blogspot.com)

The key issue though is the preparation of staff, who already largely lag behind students in their technology awareness and therefore often prevent students from working in the way that they can do most effectively. Staff want them to work how the teacher wants to work - often not the same as students at all!

Good luck with getting this under way.

Gareth
http://garethlong.blogspot.com

You’re lucky your administration is actually interested in this subject. To have the chance to “pilot” a program like you describe in your post is an amazing opportunity. I agree with your statement:

“The new classroom infuses technology into the daily performance of classroom life.”

Too often technology in school is approached as something you do every once in a while. The unfortunate reality for many teachers, myself included, is we lack real access to computers. I can tell you that in my class we search the school weekly for any and all available computers. We literally fan out across the school if we have to! I’m jealous of teachers that don’t have to go to such extremes to get their students access to computers. What a luxury it is to have enough available computers on a daily basis to truly “infuse technology into the daily performance.”

One thing I thought about when I was reading your post was rolling lap-top carts. These carts come with 20+ lap-tops, with wireless Internet capability. They also come with one printer that everyone can print to. I had the chance to use a lap-top cart for 2 years at another district, and I think they are great. So maybe that’s one option to look into. They also don’t take up as much room, and can be locked and stored away if needed. Lastly, the carts easily roll so they can be shared between teachers.

This also stood out in your post:
“The 21st century school must recreate each classroom into a computer lab, a recording studio, a photo processing center, a communication hub, a connected writing community, a virtual library.”
With Web2.0, most of these activities you describe can be done using free, web-based sites. Here is an excellent list of classroom web2.0 tools created by Wendy Drexler, an elementary school teacher in Florida:
http://teachweb2.wikispaces.com/

The main ingredient as far as I can tell are COMPUTERS! To have a wired, 21st century classroom you need to supply teachers with adequate daily access to computers. Here a few pieces of equipment I find valuable in my classroom. And they are cheap. I know, because I bought them with my own money:
Flip Video Camera (around $130) records web-streaming quality video. Has built-in USB port. Super easy to use.
http://www.theflip.com/

Blue Snowball Mic ($99) Excellent low budget mic. Works great. It also looks cool.
http://tinyurl.com/274exg

LCD Projector I bought my own. Hopefully, your school will hook you up. I couldn’t function without mine. However, most teachers still do. Absolutely essential piece of equipment!

At least one high-quality digital camera. Ideally, you could have access to at least 2. However, the more the merrier!

Essential web2.0 tools: Google docs, Google Page Creator, Edublogs, Tumblr (have you seen this new blog tool?), animoto, voicethread, gmail, flickr, wikispaces- prefer over pbwiki, many more but these come to mind immediately.

If your school uses PC’s, you should try and get at least one mac in your room. Ideally, you could get your hands on 5 iBooks for higher-end multi-media projects. We have one mac in my room that I bought myself on Craigslist. But again, I don’t really like spending my own money. Hopefully, you won’t have to.

Well, hope some of this helps.

“The 21st century classroom must be a place to network, to create, to publish, to share.” RIGHT ON!

George