LISD Ed Tech Connection

It was announced at the 2008 National Educational Computing Conference in San Antonio last week that Apple will now offer K-12 institutions the ability to distribute audio and video content through iTunes U. Eight states, including Michigan, will serve as pilot content providers. Michigan Department of Education’s corner of iTunes U is called MI Learning. (Search for MI Learning in iTunes.) At the time of this post, MDE has uploaded about 100 free pieces of educational media for public consumption from 5 main providers of content. MDE plans for offer stipends to local educators to develop content. The focus will be on Michigan history although other content areas are welcome.

In an interview, Michigan Department of Education’s Director of Educational Technology and Data Coordination, Bruce Umpstead said these rich media assets for teachers, students and parents, “make education more relevant to where the students are at today.”

According to Director Umpstead, iTunes is blocked by most school districts due to the possibility of questionable content and downloading large amounts of data not related to curriculum that have the ability to clog schools’ networks.  So, why go through iTunes to distribute media? Director Umpstead citied these reasons:
•    To get educational media into the hands of students, engage them as lifelong, 24 hour learners, outside of classrooms
•    For parents to understand that the hardware their children use (computers, mp3 players, etc.) can be used as learning tools to access relevant educational content. When parents start to ask districts about using these technologies, districts start to listen.
•    For teachers to post media
•    Apple (iTunes) has a big share in the distribution of digital media

Unfortunately, at this time a glance at the 100 or so pieces of media on MI Learning shows that many of items are not geared toward students. Only about 30% focus on curriculum (Marketing).

Michigan Department of Education has partnered with MACUL on the project. Judy Paxton is the part time coordinator. She can be contacted at jpaxton@macul.org

Related links:
Listen to the Inside Michigan Education interview with Bruce Umpstead
Related article in the THE Journal (note: site supported by many ads)