Learning 2.0: Think Tank Considers Technology's Changing Landscape

The classrooms of will be getting a digital makeover during the first months of the new school year.

Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent to equip Birmingham classrooms this fall with new interactive whiteboards and video projectors as well as learner response systems—all of which is intended to promote greater interactivity in the classroom.

However, this isn’t the end of innovation for Birmingham Public Schools: the district will continue to explore a variety of ways of enhance 21st century teaching and learning, beginning with a technology think tank.

Birmingham’s think tank is made up of around 20 administrators and teachers and was formed last year in order to examine what direction the district should be heading with technology in the next five years.

Already, the group has recommended the district go wireless, purchase interactive whiteboards and video projectors as well as learner-response systems — all of which will be, or are already, installed in classrooms this fall. However, Birmingham’s executive director of technology Joe Hoffman said the think tank is already looking beyond this year.

“The think tank is looking out in the future — for future investments,” Hoffman said.

Change will be gradual, Hoffman admitted, with each teacher given time and training sessions in which to adapt to the technology. However Hoffman is optimistic teachers will eventually move from merely using the interactive whiteboards and such as another teaching device, to rethinking how lessons are taught using technology as their guide.

“Having these tools really changes the complexion of the classroom,” Hoffman said. “We have a duty and a commitment to provide as many tools as we can for our teachers … The more ways you can bring ideas into the classroom — whether it be sound, visual or text — the likelier it is that (students) are going to understand.”

What could appear next in Birmingham classrooms? Hoffman said the think tank is currently looking into using iPads, with a few devices floating around the district this year as test cases.

Whatever happens, though, Hoffman said the ultimate goal is to continue challenging students and encouraging them to find new ways to learn in our ever-changing world.

“Imagine if everything kids learned in the classroom was just in print. How well do you think they would do if you tok away the TV, music, computer and limited the way the brain works?” Hoffman said. “It’s a very interactive world that our kids live in and our students are using to interacting with information in lots of different ways. The more they interact, the more it activates their thinking.”

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