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>> Kids today have an almost scary ability
to understand and use technology.
Tweeting, texting, blogging, skyping, gaming;
whenever they have a chance, they're riding the leading edge
of 21st Century technology, but what does it feel like to most
of these kids when they get to school?
The 19th Century.
>> There was a report done where a student is quoted as saying
when I go to school I have to power down.
>> School especially in middle school was always a prison.
>> It was boring.
>> The students that we're teaching today are
digital natives.
They have never not had the Internet.
>> Computers have always fit in their backpacks;
cell phones have always existed in the time span
of these children's lives.
So, to expect that we would continue
to do school the same way that we've done school
for the last 100, 150 years doesn't seem
as though it is very relevant to the person
who we're trying to serve.
>> So what does it take to reach these digital natives?
To engage them?
To create a learning environment
that reflects the world they live in and the one they'll work
in and most importantly give them the 21st Century skills
that will put America at the head
of the class in math and science.
The answers to these questions can be found right here in Texas
where a handful of schools are among the nation's leaders
in digital learning.
We talked to educators at seven school districts,
large and small, urban and rural.
They all had one thing in common; a commitment to power
on their school districts
and the results have often been electrifying.
>> It has transformed the classrooms in the way
that teachers teach and the students learn.
>> Number one students were more engaged.
They became more independent in their learning
and over time we saw increases in math scores and other areas.
>> Obviously the first thing you see is our TAG scores, you know,
our kids are achieving.
>> We've seen a big increase
in our commendable performance on the TAG test.
>> Students who have never passed the state assessment
or were always you might say in the wrong place
at the wrong time, they're coming to school.
They're engaged.
They're passing the state assessment,
they're passing their classes.
>> They spend more time, they want to be
in there during lunch, during afternoons, they want to come
in during other periods when they're not doing anything.
When they're extending their own learning and expanding
on their own learning, to me that's success
and you will reflect it in your TAG scores.
>> But improved TAG scores are just one benefit
of technology integration.
Perhaps even more significant is the way technology transforms
the classroom and empowers students.
>> The most transformative thing that I've seen
with the technology, with project-based learning all
of it is just simply the way that it empowers the students;
the responsibility that they take for learning.
>> No longer is the student just this recipient of information
and the teacher just the dispenser of information,
but now the student is someone who has the ability to construct
and create information.
>> It's making the students strive
for more and more excellence.
>> You want to do projects and you get more active
in your projects and you want to make it the best it can be.
>> It pushes you.
It makes you want to work harder because you know
that you have the opportunity to make something great.
>> And what does it do for teachers?
>> It was like taking the cover off of a book.
We were no longer bound by that perimeter anymore.
The creativity that I felt
in my classroom could finally kind of find itself.
>> The interactive white board, the assessment tool,
the software and the laptop allowed me
to do the things I had always envisioned as a teacher
in my classroom and when you had struggling and gifted learners
in your room and every learner was running to get
into the classroom every day, my attendance was up
and my discipline was down.
What greater gift to have as a teacher
than to have those two things come together?
>> I cannot imagine teaching without all this.
>> A classroom teacher that's been teaching longer
than I have stood up in front of the board members and said it's
like starting all over.
I'm excited to go to work, I love what I do
and the children are excited to come to my class.
You can't ask for anything better than that.
>> Quite honestly I have to tell you every day that I walk
into a classroom and see the magic that teachers are creating
with technology and see the power of the products
that students are creating, you just know we're
on the right path and we're going to continue to get there.
>> Rather than asking them to power down and to shut off,
we're finally, finally meeting students where they are.
>> So how are they doing it?
How are these districts engaging students with technology,
raising academic performance and increasing the satisfaction
and rewards of teaching?
>> If you got into the professor to truly reach students,
to truly make a difference, to truly affect the future,
then give them skills that they're going to need to succeed
in the world that's coming, you know,
don't get them prepared for the 20th Century.
That's over and done with; get them ready for tomorrow.
>> To learn how you can get your students ready for tomorrow go
to powerontexas.com and join the digital learning revolution.
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