Community Connections
South Carolina Technology Plan Goal:
The South Carolina Department of Education (SCDE), school districts and individual schools will increase student achievement through the use of technology, including assistive technology, by maximizing community involvement and community partnerships.
Partnership Efforts to Support the Goal:
The K–12 School Technology Initiative partners have used funding to provide services that allow districts to meet state and federal legislative mandates addressed under the Community Connections area. Programs support legislation from the Education and Economic Development Act (EEDA), provision of Web-based information for parents and guardians, providing data to community leaders along with tools for data analysis, and using virtual learning to positively impact all learners in South Carolina.
South Carolina Educational Television (ETV) has engaged in many educational partnerships in order to provide resources and learning not only to the students, but to their communities as well. Many of these community programs are listed below.
Ready To Vote – Ready to Vote is an ongoing campaign designed to encourage first time voters in high school and college to participate in general elections. The Ready To Vote Pod Squad visits high schools in order to educate students about the importance of voting and holds first time voter registration drives. The Ready to Vote Web site includes video, photo and news on candidates.
Knowitall Healthy! – Knowitall Healthy! was created to provide resources to support the objectives of the Student Health and Fitness Act of 2005, which established physical education, school health services and nutritional standards for schools. Three agencies, the South Carolina Department Education, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control and ETV, have developed an on-going comprehensive campaign for public awareness and new research that illustrates the significant relationship between academic achievement and physical fitness.
The need for increased health and fitness levels in the state is evidenced by the fact that the Palmetto State ranks tenth in the United States in the number of overweight and obese people, while the number of overweight children in the state has tripled since the 1960’s. To further illustrate the need for better health, South Carolina ranks first nationally in the number of strokes, third in heart disease and tenth in diabetes. In addition, for the first time in over a hundred years, the current generation will have a shorter life span than the previous generation due to a sedentary lifestyle.
To help combat this crisis, ETV has made considerable efforts to draw attention to the need for healthier living by creating a Web site, providing professional development for educators, creating public service announcements featuring Smart Cat, providing online workshops and offering a weeklong series of programs and events in the fall of 2008 centered around the theme “Caution, Is Living in South Carolina Dangerous To Your Health?”
Career Aisle – Career Aisle is a new career development Web site created to support the EEDA by providing resources for guidance professionals, parents and students in grades K-12 in the development of successful career strategies for students. The site features virtual job shadowing and video links to numerous online resources as well as areas for elementary, middle, high school, parents and professional guidance staff which make searching easy. In addition, videos are being produced in each of the 12 geographic regions in partnership with the Regional Education Centers to highlight careers in local communities.
The South Carolina State Library has also developed a number of educational initiatives that have proven to be beneficial for the K-12 students of the Palmetto State. Communities throughout South Carolina have access to educational information designed to support schools, students and learning through the South Carolina State Library’s Digital Information for South Carolina Users (DISCUS) initiative. This initiative, made possible by a combination of K–12 School Technology Initiative and State Library funds, provides all South Carolinians with access to an electronic library of essential information sources.
Read the 2008 Progress Report of the South Carolina K-12 Technology Initiative. (You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the report. If you do not have it, click here to download it for free.)
