Help wanted – Building a new secondary school
I received this message recently from a school administrator:
Our district is looking at building a new high school or middle school in the near future. I would appreciate your opinion on what technology should be in place in order to create classrooms suitable for teaching 21st century skills. For example, I am thinking that each classroom should have a LCD projector mounted on the ceiling, screen or white board, some kind of document camera like an “elmo,” a way to bring the Internet onto a screen so that students can use it like a mimio, and a laptop with docking station for teachers and students to use. The building should be wireless, and … here’s where I am running out of ideas! What are your suggestions? We have a limited budget but I believe that if we are going to build a new building, it should be capable of supporting 21st century learning immediately instead of treating technology as an “add-on.”
I would appreciate learning your thoughts about what a high school should have and a middle school, and if possible resources I could review or contact to determine costs.
What do you think? In addition to the necessary instructional changes, if you were building / designing a new secondary school to support powerful 21st century learning, what would you be sure to include on the technology, facilities, and infrastructure fronts?
