CoSN Invites 13 Districts To Develop Digital Media Best Practices

The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), a professional association for educators, district officials and technology professionals, has selected 13 school districts to take part in an effort to develop digital media best practices in K-12 education to encourage innovation.

The selection follows a nationwide search begun in September as part of CoSN's Participatory Learning in Schools: Leadership and Policy initiative for districts that show leadership in the use of social media, usage of student mobile devices, and Web 2.0 technologies.

With 48 applications received, districts were judged on 10 criteria and their commitment to working with other schools.

The districts selected include:

Calcasieu Parish Public Schools in Louisiana;
Pennsylvania's Centennial School District and State College Area School District;
Chicago Public Schools in Illinois;
Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia;
Minnesota's ISD 199, Inner Grove Heights Community Schools and Stillwater Area Public Schools;
Katy Independent School District and Manor Independent School District in Texas;
Mooresville Graded School District In North Carolina;
Wisconsin's Oconomowoc School District;
Springfield Public Schools in Massachusetts;
Alabama's Trussville City Schools; and
Indiana's Westfield Washington Schools.

"These 13 districts are taking significant steps to advance the use of digital media to reimagine education, and are uncovering how these technologies can help to re-envision K-12 teaching and learning," said James Bosco, principal investigator for CoSN’s Participatory Learning in Schools: Leadership & Policyinitiative. "In classrooms across the country, there are excellent things happening with digital media here and there. However, the critical problem we face is 'going to scale.' Each of the districts selected has demonstrated a commitment to making best practice use of digital media standard practice throughout the district."