The Lemon Grove School District of California has seen tremendous benefits from their home-grown "Class Web Framework." The collection of electronic resources for students, teachers and parents went live this year. Multimedia materials can enhance lessons or be used at home, and teachers at different schools can share resources.

The project won an award from San Diego's Classroom of the Future Foundation. The group strives "to advance public education throughout San Diego County by inspiring business leaders and educators to enhance learning technologies and innovative practices that can measurably improve academic achievement."

Bruce Braciszewski, the foundation's executive director, noted the rise in English proficiency with the Lemon Grove resources. The district has also seen a shift from teacher-centered teaching to student-centered learning. The award also prompted news coverage of this and another schools' efforts to shift the learning process for the 21^st century. Writes Alan Schnepf for the San Diego Tribune,

The district's middle school students have an "e-Pad" computer tablet that allows them to access the system at school or at home. Furthermore, the district provides high-speed Internet access at the homes of middle school students who do not already have it. The students' social studies and science textbooks also are contained on a chip in the e-Pad.

The Foundation also recognized the Santeen district for work on information literacy skills garnered through professional development at the Corinne A. Seeds University Elementary School at University of California Los Angeles. Ernie Nevares, the Santee district's director of instructional technology, credits the program with a new approach to learning. Instead of being passive recipients, writes Schnepf, "students will develop and organize questions they have about a particular topic, seek answers to those questions and then present those answers in a 21st century fashion, such as a multimedia presentation."

The Foundation also awarded scholarships to nine East County students who will major in science or math.

Sources: The San Diego Union Tribune, 2 school districts honored for use of technology in classroom; Classroom of the Future Foundation