Public education is at a crossroads. The growing importance of interactive digital media is occurring all around us, whether we admit it or not.

Consider the case of the superintendent’s angry wife. Earlier this year, a student disagreed with a superintendent’s decision to have school after a snowstorm. This student called the superintendent’s house to disagree with the decision, leaving a message with his name and phone number.

The superintendent was already at work, but his wife called back and left an angry message for the student. The student digitized the message and posted it on YouTube. The next thing you know, it was a story on CNN.

Embrace New Technologies

This example proves the world is a different place today. Acknowledging the world is a changing place, the Partnership for 21st Century Skills not only has cited the pivotal role technology should play in school today, the group’s report further states that students need to master critical skills beyond their core subjects or they will be woefully underprepared to work in today’s world.

So now that we’ve outlined why change is necessary, here’s how to accomplish it. Media is changing, from the aforementioned YouTube to cell phones and MP3 players that can become quick projectors, casting their images onto a wall. Streaming-video sites are becoming more popular in schools, putting collected clips at a teacher’s fingertips.

Combine all this with the growing world of simulations, and you have a powerful tool that can merge up-to-date information about almost any subject with geographical data. Think teaching about Lewis and Clark’s journey across the continent is boring for students? Layer the explorers’ trails over Google Earth, call up the duo’s journals and suddenly students feel like they are looking over the explorers’ shoulders rather than dusting off a history book to learn.

The quality of this imagery continues to improve. This type of work wasn’t possible five years ago; today, for example, aerial maps of Switzerland’s terrain are all high-resolution, with detail so clear you can see tracks in the snow where skiers have recently passed.

The addition of data is the third ingredient in this mix. By taking something as simple as temperatures for a year and mixing it with a simulation, you can show exactly how it correlates with your area’s changing seasons. Data visualized is powerful.

Next, you can break the project out of your classroom’s four walls by using any of the many Web 2.0 technologies your students are probably already familiar with. These range from blogs and wikis to social networks, online photo albums and video-sharing sites.

Throw in two-way videoconferencing and all of a sudden your students are sharing information with the likes of NASA scientists and students from South Africa. Combine these seemingly unrelated areas and your district will be creating its own 21st-century classrooms.