Memo to Jeff Hastie: Electronic Text Books and Web-Base Calendars for Schools

Written By: Robert Cox

Jeff Hastie ran for school board with a boatload of promises making better use of technology to educate and to communicate with parents and the public. Here are a couple items to get the discussion rolling:

BBC: California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has unveiled a plan to save money by phasing out school textbooks in favour of internet aids

Gov Schwarzenegger believes internet activities such as Facebook, Twitter and downloading to iPods show that young people are the first to adopt new online technologies, and so the internet is also the best way to learn in classrooms.

From the beginning of the next school year in August, maths and science students in California’s high schools will have access to online texts that have passed an academic standards review.

The governor says digital textbooks can be updated easily – so learning keeps pace with progress.

TechCrunch: Isn’t It Time Your Kid’s School Used A Web-Based Calendar?

…schools can publish their basic annual Internet school calendar at no cost. These calendars can also be synced up to calendar and scheduling programs used by consumers, including the Cozi’s Family Calendar, Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, and Apple’s iCal, giving parents automatic access to updates in a school’s calendar when schedules change.

In the meantime we will settle for the District publishing the board resolutions at the same time they are distributed to board members so that we can also see what our little band of thieves is trying to sneak past the public. That is free and something that can be done immediately — if they have the will.