Rockville Centre schools plan to pilot Earth Science e-portal

The future of South Side lies in “The Portal.”

Or so believes Chris Pellettieri. The assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction for the Rockville Centre school district, Pellettieri is spearheading a new approach to learning, one that fuses 21st century technology with the hallmarks of traditional education.

Sitting at his desk in the Administration Building with clear views of South Side High School from his window, Pellettieri described his vision for the future of learning.

“Students arrive on their first day of class and instead of receiving a textbook, they are given a user name and password,” Pellettieri began. “What will students find upon entering “The Portal”? An interactive, digital content forum on multiple levels for multiple intelligences, in the form of podcasts, streaming videos, images, primary sources, key word searches for vital vocabulary and text in the form of online books and articles, maps, graphs — web 2.0 technologies.”

Essentially, “The Portal” would serve as a one-stop, centralized resource for specific subjects, to be used in conjunction with lessons taught by teachers of those classes. Students would utilize the controlled site to access vetted source material for research projects, post comments on topic-specific discussion

boards, and more.

Pellettieri’s vision is in the process of being realized. The Rockville Centre school district has teamed up with educational giant Gale Cengage, spending a one-shot fee of $3,000 to create a portal tailored for its eighth grade Earth Science Regents curriculum. If all goes according to schedule, the district’s portal — the first one developed by Gale for a Long Island school — should be up and running this September.

School Superintendent Dr. William Johnson expressed his excitement about “The Portal” at the July 6 school board meeting.

“We don’t believe it’s a panacea, but it’s incumbent on us to explore e-textbooks,” Johnson said. “If not a model, [“The Portal”] is very, very similar to what kids will be using in the future.”

The superintendent and Pellettieri both agree that “The Portal” will not replace textbooks all together — at least not initially.