Tech and Teaching

Forbes on a successful school and teacher training program in Chicago:

The one-on-one computing program at Carter G. Woodson Middle School, a two-year-old public charter affiliated with the University of Chicago, puts a 13-inch Apple ( AAPL - news - people ) MacBook in the hands of every one of its 350 students to use in class and at home. A new Stanford University study shows that these Chicago students, 99% of them black, outpace their peers at a Silicon Valley middle school in most realms of computer literacy, including blogging, computer programming and digital filmmaking. Woodson's kids do a decent job navigating the old world, too. In math 78% of eighth graders met or exceeded state standards, compared with a normal rate of 71%; readers beat their peers 73% to 68%.

"Being literate is no longer just knowing how to read and write," says Jared Washington, Woodson's director. In May eighth graders virtually dissected a frog and crayfish on their screens before doing it for real. In a digital media class sixth graders form record companies--recording, marketing and planning the enterprise on their Apples. Seventh graders produce ten-minute digital documentaries in lieu of written history reports. More than 40% of students take afterschool programs for robotics, music composition and game design. Parents pay $300 a year to help with computers and two full-time technicians. The school gets four applicants for every spot; a lottery decides the winners.

Helping administer the tech savvy are a handful of teachers minted at the University of Chicago's Urban Teacher Education Program, a five-year-old course.

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Tech and Teaching

Christopher Steiner, 05.20.10, 06:00 PM EDT
Forbes Magazine dated June 07, 2010

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0607/education-carter-woodson-chicago-apple-tech-teaching.html