2019 is Closer Than it Seems!

I found this quote in a presentation by Chris Lehman to the Federal Communications Commmission:

"Clayton Christensen, in his book Disrupting Class, makes the claim that by 2019, 50% of all high school classes will be taught either fully online or in a "blended" fashion, with between 30% and 80% of the interaction happening online. There's no question that as we become a more and more wired society -- and as schools increase their bandwidth -- there is no technological reason this cannot happen, but what will those classes look like? How will they be taught? Who will teach them?"

There is both a video feed and his notes for his presentation on this site. Chris Lehman-FCC presentation
I like his message because it gets to the intent of our moving to Iowa Care Curriculum and 21st Century Skills. We are not trying to implement more technology in schools so we can deliver content more efficiently, we are working with technology to change the teacher's role. Instead of being the "sage on the stage", we need teachers to become innovators and inquisitive, so they can not only lead the class in learning, but learn with them and be "a guide by their side.".

One of my hopes for Lynnville-Sully is to eventually be able to adopt 1 to 1 computing for our secondary students. Financially it can happen, we spend close to $80,000 a year on technology purchases. 300 netbooks at $500 each is $150,000. If they last 3 years thats only $50,000 per year. Educationally what would be different in our classrooms if you were teaching to 21st Century skills and everybody had a computer with them all day and night? $50,000 per year is a lot of money to spend if it only results in electronic worksheets. I want to hear some ideas in the comments here.

If you want to know what 1 to 1 computing looks like, here is a blog specific to that effort.