Project RED To Tackle the Impact of Technology on Education
The Project RED coalition has launched a new initiative this week, one aimed at change the way the United States "looks at technology as part of teaching and learning." The announcement came at the National Education Computing Conference (NECC) being held this week in Washington, DC.
Several reports are expected to be produced by Project RED ("Revolutionizing EDucation") throughout the 2009-2010 school year. The first report, "America's Digital Schools 2009: An In-depth Look at Technology-Transformed Schools," will research about 3,000 "technology-rich" schools (schools in which at least 95 percent of students have a computing device with Internet access) to develop a model for other schools to use to help them transform learning through technology.
"This project is an effort to put technology on a more stable basis within the challenging environment of education funding ," said Tom Greaves, lead author of this project and CEO of education technology consultancy The Greaves Group, in a statement released this week. "We all have anecdotal stories about how technology works and saves money while improving teaching and learning. But we need a full-bore national study to investigate cost-savings and revenue enhancement at the state level."
The project will also explore the cost savings realized by schools using technology in education.
Said Jeanne Hayes, co-author of the project and president of ed tech consultancy the Hayes Connection: "States know that high-school students frequently enter college with inadequate skills and that much money is spent on remedial courses. That additional cost is one that frustrates state legislators who feel they are paying for educating the same students multiple times. One of the bright spots in technology's investment pay-off has been the ability to reduce costs while improving both learning and attendance through online credit recovery courses."
Project RED was created by Hayes and Greaves; Leslie Wilson, president, and Michael Gielniak, projects and development manager, the One-to-One Institute; and Ric Peterson, president and CEO, Peterson Public Sector Consulting.
Further information about the coalition and the initiative can be found here.