From the State Board of Education

by Elizabeth W. Bauer, Chair, Embracing the Information Age Task Force, Michigan State Board of Education

The transforming power of the information age holds great promise for improving the academic achievement of Michigan’s students. The State Board of Education Task Force on Embracing the Information Age reported its findings and recommendations in November 2001. The Task Force recommendations centered on:

• Educator preparation and development.
• Academic standards, benchmarks, and asses sments.
• Distance learning.
• Collaborative partnerships to share best practices and resources.

These recommendations have guided changes throughout the education system from personnel preparation to assessment of student outcomes.

The new 7th Standard for Entry-Level Teachers incorporates the 2000 International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) standards modified in light of the needs of Michigan’s educators and expanded to include administrators. Collaborative efforts among academic institutions, businesses, and non-profit organizations are ensuring all educators will have access to information-age tools and instruction.

Increasingly, technology is being used to assess students’ talents and abilities. It permits educators to customize instruction for individual students in order to purposefully engage them in meaningful learning activities. Assistive technology devices and services level the “learning field” for students with challenges imposed by language and/or disability. Technology improves instruction that enables students to reach state and local benchmarks, and it helps us measure the effectiveness of that instruction.

Professional development programs for administrators, such as the Gates Foundation-funded LEADing the Future program, provide hardware, software, and instruction to encourage the use of data-driven decision making at building and district levels.

School improvement planning is assisted by the Web-based MI-Plan, which provides every school in Michigan with a common well-articulated school improvement framework.

New partnerships with traditional and non-traditional stakeholders have given students, teachers, and administrators access to technology to assist them in transcending the “four walls” of school buildings and districts. The Michigan Virtual High School has made advanced placement courses available to students statewide. Other students have used virtual classes in the summer to gain credits needed for graduation. The forces of global economics and international integration are changing the world we live in. These forces require us to work together in new and collaborative ways. Technology will be central to this work. Closer to home, the requirements of No Child Left Behind, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and Education YES! call for a technologically literate society. We must integrate technology into instruction to enhance student learning and, in this case, we are all students.

Governor Jennifer Granholm, members of the Michigan Legislature, Interim Superintendent Hughes, and the members of the State Board of Education agree that for our society to prosper in the future, everyone must have the skills and knowledge to embrace the information age with confidence. We must be able to understand and appreciate technology as a force for change and challenge its potential—even as we use it to challenge our own.  

The Michigan State Board of Education Report of the Task Force on Embracing the Information Age can be accessed at www.michigan.gov/mde. Click on State Board of Education.

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