INTRODUCTION
“Technology ignites opportunities for learning, engages today’s students as active learners and participants in decision-making on their own educational futures and prepares our nation for the demands of a global society in the 21st century.”
Toward A New Golden Age In American Education: How the Internet, the Law, and Today’s Students are Revolutionizing Expectation, National Education Technology Plan 2004, U.S. Department of Education, <http://www.nationaledtechplan.org/default.asp>“The challenge facing America’s schools is the empowerment of all children to function effectively in their future, a future marked increasingly with change, information growth, and evolving technologies. Technology is a powerful tool with enormous potential for paving high-speed highways, [moving them] from outdated educational systems to systems capable of providing learning opportunities for all, to better serve the needs of 21st century work communications, learning, and life.”
National Educational Technology Standards for Students, Connecting Curriculum and Technology, International Society for Technology in Education, 2000.“Information literacy--the ability to find and use information-is the keystone of lifelong learning. Creating a foundation for lifelong learning is at the heart of the school library media program. Just as the school library media center has moved far beyond a room with books to become an active, technology-rich learning environment with an array of information resources, the school library media specialist today focuses on the process of learning rather than dissemination of information. The library media program combines effective learning and teaching strategies and activities with information access skills. Information availability will undoubtedly continue to mushroom into the next century, which will make a strong school library media program even more essential to help its users acquire the skills they will need to harness and use information for a productive and fulfilling life.”
Information Power: Building Partnerships for Learning, American Library Association, Chicago, 1998.Through the State Board of Education’s Strategic Plan for Excellent Schools, every child has the opportunity to achieve at his or her highest potential in the fast-paced, ever-changing environment of the 21st century. The rapid advance of technology requires that all educators continually upgrade their skills, knowledge bases, and perspectives.
Media and technology programs are an integral part of education. Collaboration is the key. Teachers and media and technology personnel collaborate to create a 21st century learning environment in which student learning is the focus. Students simultaneously collaborate with each other and their teachers to learn how to solve problems, complete real world tasks, and take charge of their own progress. The added value of this collaborative, media and technology-enhanced environment is thoughtful planning, differentiated instruction, and smaller class size.
IMPACT: Guidelines for North Carolina Media and Technology Programs, released in 2000, provided guidelines for school library media coordinators and technology facilitators in North Carolina. The 2005 revision of the document updates information in the original, continues to reflect national, state, and professional standards, and adds a step-by-step guide to becoming an IMPACT school. It also provides recommendations for programs, personnel, budgets, policies, resources, and facilities that will guide media and technology programs as they support a resource-rich, technology-rich learning environment.
IMPACT will help meet the information and technology challenge facing North Carolina schools in the new millennium. As a result, media and technology programs will:
