Richland School District Two in South Carolina
Technology for Transforming Teaching, Learning and School Operations • February 26-28, 2007
Richland School District Two is one of the fastest growing school districts in South Carolina serving 23,000 students in suburban Columbia, the state capital. Since 1996, the combined superintendent's and school board's vision of high quality technology in every aspect of the educational process has dramatically evolved into an integrated teaching and learning environment that has transformed education for the 21st century.
This comprehensive visit will showcase how the district has infused technologies into all its classrooms and how technology leverages information as a key resource in data-driven teaching practices. For increasing efficiency and effectiveness, we'll show you newly developed administrative applications. For the tech-savvy visitor, the district will give you a behind-the-scenes look at a high-performance, high reliability enterprise infrastructure. The IT staff will offer you candid tips and techniques for managing Wi-Fi networking, IP Telephony, biometric ID systems, streaming video and a variety of applications and practices that are transparent to teachers, yet highly powerful for the tech-savvy school district.
In these classrooms you'll see technology integrated with each subject area along with differentiated instruction for reaching every student. You'll see magnet programs based on Mel Levine's work with "different learning style" students as well as single gender education settings. The visit will also take you to a cutting-edge "CNN-style" convergence media program and the district will feature one-to-one computing and show how podcasting puts an effective new twist on extending learning beyond the classroom walls. Teachers will show interactive whiteboards delivering fundamental changes to the instructional process and will show how wireless student response systems fully integrate with instruction and engage students.
Want to work smarter? Computerized adaptive testing, user-friendly student databases, and technology-supported benchmark testing enhance data-driven decision making. The school data coaches make "know your data" a reality for teachers and administrators. The district will show you how to make it happen — and pull it all together.
While emphasizing instructional technologies, this rapidly growing district has turned to technology for supporting administrative functions in finance, human resources, community relations, planning, and board operations. To help manage growth, innovative technologies have streamlined operations and saved untold hours by leveraging data and information. And leading by example, the school board has gone paperless using Electronic School Board software. Richland School District Two is transforming education for the 21st century.
This is a great professional development opportunity, and Technology Leadership Network members receive a discount on registration. To receive complete information as it becomes available, simply submit the Information Request Form and select "Site Visits Information."