Education Author and Thinker Ian Jukes
Keynotes National Network of Digital Schools Client Conference
FARMINGTON, Pa/PRNewswire/ -- Author and thinker Ian Jukes
told educators at a National Network of Digital Schools conference they
and their schools are at risk if they hold onto outdated ideas and
methods of teaching when knowledge technology is changing at an
exponential rate.
Jukes keynoted the first-ever nationwide conference of the National
Network of Digital Schools (NNDS), an educational management foundation
and provider of premier online curricula. Educators whose schools use
the NNDS Lincoln Interactive and Little Lincoln online curriculum were
invited to the "Linking Leaders in Online Education Conference" held
April 28-30 at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in the scenic mountains of
southwestern Pennsylvania.
His audience of 100 educators came from traditional, private, charter
and online schools from Pennsylvania to Kansas. Jukes told them
educational institutions are not adapting quickly enough as exponential
changes in microchip and Internet technology alter not only how students
learn but how they think.
The primary purpose of the conference was for client educators and
NNDS staff to get to know each other and share information, said Jane
Price, president of the NNDS-affiliated Avanti Management Group.
"NNDS serves K-12 schools of all types, all sizes, and in all stages
of their journey toward creating effective online programs," said Price.
"This is the first time we've brought them together. It has been a very
exciting three days."
Some attending schools have had cyber programs for years, she said,
while others are just starting. They range greatly in size and mission,
from a public school district in Ohio with 15,000 students to a
faith-based private foundation in Missouri with 45 students scattered
across the globe.
NNDS clients represented at the conference included the 9,000-student
Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School. PA Cyber CEO and founder Dr. Nick
Trombetta, sitting on a panel discussion, said competition has forced
traditional public schools to try starting their own cyber programs.
Superintendents who previously fought cyber education are either
changing their minds or are being replaced by administrators who
recognize the necessity and value of expanding curriculum and improving
services to families by adding online programs, Dr. Trombetta said.
Panel member Dr. William Harbron, superintendent of Northern Ozaukee
School District in Wisconsin, said, "Teachers have been gatekeepers of
information. They're beginning to see themselves as facilitators of
information."
Jukes said humans are inherently visual learners and students are
"wired for multimedia," yet instruction is text-based and testing
methods emphasize recall instead of problem solving and critical
thinking. "We are doing a terrific job of educating kids for the year
1950," Jukes said, referring to the federal testing law as "No Child
Left Untested."
A dedicated, passionate teacher remains the single most important
factor in public education, Jakes told conferees, but teachers and
schools as a whole have resisted changing their basic assumptions and
methods.
About Ian Jukes
Ian Jukes has been a teacher, administrator, writer, consultant,
university instructor and speaker. He is director of an international
consulting group that provides leadership and program development in the
areas of assessment and evaluation, strategic alignment, curriculum
design and publication, professional development, planning, change
management, hardware and software acquisition, information services,
customized research, media services, and online training. Over the past
10 years, Ian Jukes has worked with clients in more than 40 countries
and made more than 8,000 presentations, typically speaking to between
300,000 and 350,000 people a year.
Jukes has written twelve books, nine educational series and has had
more than 100 articles published in various journals. Jukes publishes an
on-line electronic newsletter, the Committed Sardine Blog, which is
electronically distributed to almost 90,000 people in 60-plus countries.
About NNDS, Lincoln Interactive and Little Lincoln
The National Network of Digital Schools is a nonprofit management
foundation started in 2005 to provide premium online K-12 curricular,
teaching and educational management services to schools everywhere. Its
premier Lincoln Interactive curriculum consists of more than 250
exciting, standards-based courses for grades 5-12, while the newly
created Little Lincoln curriculum for grades K-4 utilizes cutting-edge
video and interactive games that keep students engaged while teaching
them to state academic standards in reading, writing, math and science.
NNDS provides services to 200 schools in 12 states and three countries.
Contact Communications Coordinator Fred Miller, office 724.643.1180,
ext. 1377, or cell 724.777.5918
Source: National Network of Digital Schools
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