Digital Literacy Day Highlights Technology in the Classroom

APS introduces Discovery Education this year and the next.

Interactive whiteboards enhance opportunties for student learning.

September 18, 2012

Technology and the Internet continue to open new doors to the student educational experience. With the addition of new devices introduced to the classroom, students today learn in a whole new way. 

“I think it’s fair to say that technology isn’t the wave of the future; it’s the wave of the present,” APS Superintendent Winston Brooks said. “The jobs of the future will likely be technology-based, so we need to do all we can to prepare students by giving them as much exposure to it as we can.” 

Brooks is scheduled to participate in Digital Literacy Day on Wednesday, Sept. 19, along with members of the Albuquerque Hispano Chamber of Commerce and officials from Comcast. The cable and Internet provider sponsors the Internet Essentials program, in which low-income students and their families can purchase computers and Internet service at a special rate. 

In order to provide better access to technology, and especially because many students have no computer at home, APS continues to add programs to its classrooms. Most now have Promethean whiteboards that engage students interactively in their lessons. Most schools have computers in classrooms or in labs that are open during lunch hour or after school. 

New this year, APS has contracted with Discovery Education to take science, social studies and health education into the 21^st century by replacing traditional textbooks with “techbooks,” interactive tools that address Common Core State Standards, ignite student curiosity and enhance learning. 

Science in kindergarten through high school, social studies in middle school and health at all levels will be taught beginning this school year using digital and non-digital activities. Discovery Education is expected to expand to high school social studies next year.