Magner Touts Librarians
RSSBy Lauren Barack -- School Library Journal, 04/01/2006
Despite cuts being made to education technology budgets, the Department of Education's new ed-tech chief says the Internet will play an even larger role in education going forward—with media specialists at the forefront.
“Accessing course work online is a trend that will continue,” says Tim Magner, the new director of the Office of Educational Technology (OET). “And the media specialists' involvement in teaching search and online skills and interacting with students is only increasing.”
Magner replaces Susan Patrick, who left OET last year to head the North American Counsel for Online Learning. He was previously director of the same department.
Magner assumes the helm after the federal ed-tech budget was slashed from $691 million in 2004 to $275 million for 2006. Still, Magner believes that schools are only starting to fully integrate technology into their curriculum and that media specialists are going to be critical to their success, from the digitization of library materials to being more involved in a classroom setting. “We see schools where students have one-to-one access to technology or handhelds, but there's still a need to understand how to use them,” he says.
