What's Policy Got To Do With It?

My years in the classroom have shown and brain research has validated that the best learning happens when someone experiences a phenomenon rather than reading about it in a textbook or listening to a lecture--no matter the age of the learner.  If we are serious about transforming schools to teach digital learners, then it follows that teachers must also transform how they communicate and collaborate in order to experience learning in the digital age.  But what about the policy makers, the elected men and women who craft laws that impact how we educate our school children and fund our schools?  How do they experience this phenomenon called digital learning so that they can make good decisions--whether it is building new schools or establishing accountability criteria?

I am happy to say that is happening in our state--in a small but important way.  A couple of weeks ago, I used Hahlo's Near Me feature to check out who in my area uses Twitter--because after all, you are no one if you are not on Twitter.  Imagine my surprise when I discovered that my local legislative representative, Nathan Ballentine, is on Twitter! I immediately directed a tweet to him, checked out his blog, and made a comment to this post.   He replied back to me and checked out MY blog.  A connection was made--one that probably would not have happened were it not for the technology.  I appreciate his willingness to learn to use new social networking tools (He also has a Facebook page.) and even better--be excited about it!   As a member on the Education and Public Works Committee of the SC Legislature he can speak to the issue of social networking--its benefits and challenges--from first hand experience and bring reasoned debate to discussions.

Another group of policy makers that also needs to get on board with experiencing new communication and collaboration technologies are school boards.  Scott McLeod's post about a school board in another state being willing to use new technologies to do their work has me wondering about the school boards in SC that use laptops and other paperless environments.  I know of one--Greenville County Schools--the largest in the state.  Are there any others? Is there is a correlation between school boards that are willing to use the technology themselves and their vision of technology use  in the classroom?  How do we begin to bridge the gaps?  What can all us of learn from each other about how we can make revolutionary improvements in education?  What does policy have to do with it?