** Click here to visit the Official iZone web site **
The NYC Department of Education is launching Phase 2 of its NYC21C initiative this year (recently renamed iZone), which is committed to exploring and implementing sustainable methods of teaching, learning, and organizing schools that take advantage of 21st century skills and technologies. Below are some media clips related to the initiative.
News Clip about iSchool, a Phase 1 NYC21C new school:
Julian Cohen, of New School Development, on NYC21C:
On a recent visit to the NYCiSchool, one group of students gathered around a computer to edit a video for a humanitarian campaign and another created a “Call to Action” website for Zimbabwean refugees. Down the hall, one teacher drilled a student on amino acids for the upcoming Regents exam and another stood before a classroom of students, delivering a trigonometry lesson.
The iSchool, a new high school in SoHo that incorporates technology into everyday learning, encourages students to take an active role in their own education and go beyond what they find in a textbook. For example, students take a self-paced online course to prepare for the Global History Regents Exam and also study the subject in depth with their peers and teachers. Often, students connect digitally with students, authors, or newsmakers in other parts of the world to add context to what they are studying.Some people think of technology as a way of turning teaching and learning into a mechanical process. But the team at the iSchool and others who are using technology in innovative ways show us that technology isn’t about turning schooling into widget making. In fact, it’s exactly the opposite. It’s about rethinking the way teachers teach and children learn. Schools like the iSchool are creating a new model that allows students to pace and challenge themselves and allows teachers to spend more time focused on providing individual students with what they need to succeed.
Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein today launched the NYC21C initiative, a research and development project aimed at innovating secondary school practices to better prepare students for college and careers in the 21st century global economy. The announcement was made at the NYC iSchool, a new small selective high school in SoHo whose success at incorporating technology into everyday learning will serve as a model for the development of other schools in the NYC21C initiative. The NYC iSchool is equipped with video conferencing so that students can learn from college professors, authors, top scientists, and business leaders around the globe. A virtual desktop program designed for the school enables students to access their work on any computer, and online coursework complements classroom learning. Students at the NYC iSchool have already used the technology to learn about neuroscience from Nobel Laureates at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, about the earth’s atmosphere and global climate change from a NASA scientist, to connect with peers in the Gulf Coast and share perspectives about 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, and to access online Advanced Placement and college-preparatory courses that might not otherwise be available to them. The NYC iSchool is supported by a $1 million founding gift from Mortimer B. Zuckerman. Cisco, the world’s leading networking company, is collaborating with the NYC iSchool to provide hands-on expertise and to advise educators as they develop technology-based teaching methods that can be replicated in classrooms everywhere.
