1A MAIN 8-12-2012 F

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SPORTS, PAGE 1C

ST. PAUL
AUGUST 12, 2012
A NEWSPAPER

Romney picks Ryan and shakes up race

PIONEER PRESS: JEAN PIERI

Neha Kanneganti, a second-grader at Edinas Cornelia Elementary, practices making change using an interactive white board with her teacher, Katie Thorp, last week. The Edina districts plan is a model for St. Paul.

Schools see a tech revolution. Will students see results?

Districts envision changes to personalize learning in and outside the classroom
By Mila Koumpilova
mkoumpilova@pioneerpress.com St. Paul schools Superintendent Valeria Silva has glimpsed the future of education: a reimagined school district where students can learn 24/7 and set their own pace in the classroom. She is asking taxpayers this fall to chip in an extra $9 million a year for St. Pauls schools. It will pay for a technology-powered overhaul that she says will revolutionize learning. Already, sweeping changes are unfolding across the metro area, in the classrooms of tech-savvy teachers and in districts rolling out multimillion-dollar initiatives. Educators are setting aside time for students to work on online projects, creating video lesson repositories and mapping out each students progress with digital tools. Classroom technology skeptics argue that there is little hard evidence that technology investments pay off in achievement gains to justify the often-hefty price tags. St. Paul has spent more than $5.5 million on Apple devices alone in the past couple of years. Advocates counter that technology lets educators engage students on their own digital turf and tailor instruction to diverse learning styles even in a 30-pupil classroom. Technology has changed everything, said Steve Buettner, Edinas director of media and technology. We cant ignore it because we dont yet have concrete data on a link between technology and grades. St. Paul officials say the district has been setting the stage for the technology plan rollout for more than a year. It has beefed up its schools capacity to support wireless devices. It has loosened a oncerestrictive policy on using personal devices at school. It is seeking bids from companies to create a personalized learning platform
TECHNOLOGY IN SCHOOLS, 10A >

ASSOCIATED PRESS: MARY ALTAFFER

Mitt Romney, right, and Paul Ryan wave to the crowd in Norfolk, Va., on Saturday after the presumptive Republican presidential nominee announced he had chosen Ryan, a Wisconsin congressman, as his vice presidential running mate.

Analysis: VP pick is a favorite Passed over again, Pawlenty of right, a favorite target of left pledges to support ticket
By Bill Salisbury By Dan Balz
Washington Post Cautious Mitt Romney rolled the dice Saturday, Aug. 11, with the selection of Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan as his vice-presidential running mate. Ryan will energize a conservative base that has been slow to warm to Romney, but Democrats were elated by the choice as well. There was no one on Romneys short list of contenders they wanted to run against more than the chairman of the House Budget Committee. The selection of Ryan, the architect of a sweeping and controversial budget blueprint, signals that Romney may now believe that relying on the economys weakness alone will not be enough to defeat President Barack Obama, particularly with new polls showing the president leading after months in which he and Romney were in a statistical dead heat. Ryans addition to the ticket shows that Romney is prepared to run a more robust campaign with a sharper message built around tax and spending cuts, deficit reduction and entitlement reform. That is exactly what a growing chorus of Republicans, nervous about the direction of the Romney campaign, has been urging. A Romney-Ryan ticket will help to clarify the choices for voters in November. Rarely have the two
ANALYSIS, 4A >

bsalisbury@pioneerpress.com Tim Pawlenty has been jilted again. Mitt Romney passed over the former Minnesota governor on Saturday, Aug. 11, to choose Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin as his running mate. Tim Pawlenty Pawlenty, who reportedly was on Rom- said he did neys short list for vice president, praised not expect to the choice. be Romneys I am excited about a Romney-Ryan ticket choice. and look forward to doing all I can to help them win this election, he said in a prepared statement. While campaigning for Romney in New Hampshire, Pawlenty told NBC News he was not disappointed by the announcement because he didnt expect to be the vice-presidential candidate. This is the second time in four years that he has come up short in the veepstakes. In 2008, John McCain had reportedly all but settled on Pawlenty as his running mate until he changed his mind and picked Sarah Palin, a candidate with
PAWLENTY, 4A >

Page 4A: Republicans celebrate pick, while Democrats criticize policies.

BRINGING UP BISON
A project of the Minnesota Zoo and the DNR aims to purify the bloodline of the mighty beasts that once teetered on the edge of extinction.
ing season. New moms camouflage their calves while their yearlings nap in the tall, windblown Inches from a human observer, grass. The prairie looks untouched bison graze the prairie as their with its native Minnesota cactustails whip at flies. A bull sticks close to a cow, es, bedrock and wallows of dirt. claiming her for the coming breed- Some of the dusty mud depres-

By Maricella Miranda

mmiranda@pioneerpress.com

sions are thousands of years in the making. This is life on the prairie, home to Minnesotas only public bison herd. Nearly 100 bison roam a fenced
PRESERVING THE BISON, 8A >

PIONEER PRESS: JOHN DOMAN

A bison watches from amid prairie grasses at Blue Mounds State Park in Luverne, Minn. See video at TwinCities.com.

TwinCities.com

The latest film reviews and trailers: TwinCities.com/movies

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