The Media Spot

I recently began consulting with Australian and United States Services in Education (AUSSIE), a professional development company renowned for their math and literacy consulting in over 650 schools in New York, Australia and New Zealand. My first assignment, at The Anderson School (PS 334) in Manhattan, is to establish a technology plan, and configure and roll-out a content management system for their school community powered by eChalk.

PS 334, a magnet school for the "gifted and talented", and one of the top-performing K-8 schools in the city, recently received a large city council grant to purchase school technology and realized they were in need of a framework for incorporating it into their daily practice. We'll be helping them create a framework for teachers to drive instruction in the classroom and integrate technology-based projects across the curriculum, and establishing and supporting best practices for student technology use through a pilot group of middle school teachers, students and parents.

I will also be helping them develop an eChalk-powered public and community website to be used for class management, including assignment and grade posting, school announcements, and online communication. The eChalk software will allow students, teachers and 334's active parent body to engage in discussions in a private and closely-monitored environment, and PS 334 tech team members to manage their content through "push-button publishing". Our goal is to work out the kinks through the pilot group by the spring, and start rolling out this tool school wide by the end of the year.

I have worked with AUSSIE consultants at other schools TMS has been involved with over the years, and have always been impressed by their work. I'm proud to be working with them, and expect the relationship to greatly inform my understanding of the integration of media education into literacy curricula.