WTHR |Daniels, Ohio group boost high-tech schools
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Students at the schools are issued laptops.
Columbus already has a high-tech school up and running.
Chad Wick, Knowledge Works FoundationKevin Rader/Eyewitness News
Indianapolis - Stimulus money coming to Indiana could help fund new technology high schools across the state.
Designed to help the next generation of Indiana workers find good jobs, the state is currently home to six new high-tech schools like Columbus Signature Academy. The school has 96 freshman students and will admit a second freshman class of 110 in the fall.
The academy is high tech, every student has their own laptop computer. It's a collaborative project solving model where all the student work is stored in digital portfolios.
Monday, the Knowledge Works Foundation donated $10 million to Indiana's New Tech efforts to build capacity for web-based portals.
"Indiana is going to be on the forefront of supplying the nation with a lot of these projects and this knowledge," said Chad Wick with the foundation.
"I would like to see us become the state of new tech education. Math- and science-based, technology-based, collaborative project-based. A new way to learn and a new emphasis on the skills that are most relevant to our economic future," said Governor Mitch Daniels.
Daniels is hoping to bring four more New Technology schools on line this fall because, he says, it can be installed quickly, affordably and with impressive results.
"One thing our students will say is we don't have to ask why. We understand why we have to understand skills and concepts in order to do this project properly. That is the big difference you will see," said Bill Jensen of Bartholomew Schools.
Governor Daniels is hoping to build on programs like the one in Columbus, using federal stimulus money in the area of education innovation.
"If we can find an effective way and I think we can to make a leap forward, not simply growing rapidly, but leap forward and become the state of new tech schools and education, the first one in America. I cannot think of a better aspiration," said Daniels.
Staff training will be another big part of this project to help create New Tech high schools meeting of the minds.
Bloomington, Elnora, Rochester and Columbus all have New Tech schools and Decatur Township and IPS offer the program as well.
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