By Michael Milone

The work of the teachers, tech specialists, and administrators profiled here represents the best of what can be done with technology and a dedicated educator.

National Winner

Rosemary Shaw

Computer and Web Design Teacher
Millennium Middle School
Sanford, Fla.

Like many technology teachers, Rosemary Shaw's career began by accident. She was hired as a math teacher, but when her principal asked if she knew anything about computers, she answered, "Just a little." That was enough knowledge for her to be recruited to design the school's Web page and to move on quickly to teaching students how to do it.

From this serendipitous beginning, Shaw blossomed into an award-winning teacher whose students have earned international recognition for their efforts from such notable programs as International Schools CyberFair and ThinkQuest. What makes these accomplishments even more impressive is that more than half the student population at Millennium qualifies for free or reduced-price lunch, many come from families where English is not the primary language, and some of them have developmental disabilities that have prevented them from succeeding in the past.

Shaw sees technology as a force that levels the playing field for learners who are challenged by their life circumstances. In her words, "There is something about a computer that is equalizing." In the beginning, she discovered her students learned technology more quickly than she did, but their products, though clever, had less substance than she thought they should. It was at that point she had a revelation: "I changed the way I was thinking, and instead of teaching Web design, I began to teach research."

From that point, Shaw moved from having students create stand-alone Web pages to doing substantive research projects that culminated with the development of an online site to showcase their findings. In no time, both the design and content of the pages improved. She and her students became the principal architects of the school Web site, and the quality of their work attracted the attention of the county's board of education. The board spread the word that Shaw and her students would be available for community-oriented projects, and soon they had three major clients: the Seminole County Student Museum, the Friends of the Seminole County Environmental Studies Center, and the Seminole County Youth Commission.

One of the most innovative projects in which Shaw's students are involved is Backstage at Millennium. This online venture pairs Millennium students with county elementary students in an effort to improve their math skills and ease fears about moving up to middle school. A new initiative Shaw is spearheading, Listening to the Walls Talk, links Millennium students with students from as far away as Switzerland, Poland, and Uzbekistan to record the history of houses and neighborhoods around the world. It's a huge undertaking, but given their track record, Rosemary Shaw and her students will undoubtedly succeed.

Kelvin Y.S. Chun

Technology Resource Teacher
Nu`uanu Elementary School
Honolulu, Hawaii

It is sometimes true that the most influential people have a relatively low profile. Nowhere is this more evident than in the case of Kelvin Chun, whose influence permeates daily life at Nu`uanu Elementary School. He jokes that his profile is so low that many people ignore the "l" in his name and refer to him as "Kevin."

At Nu`uanu, an ethnically diverse school where the majority of students are Asian or Pacific Islander, the digital divide is not an issue during the school day. Under Chun's guidance, every child in the school-even at the kindergarten level-uses the latest multimedia, telecommunications, and video technologies for research projects and presentations. In addition, every student maintains a personalized electronic portfolio, which captures achievement and growth throughout their elementary career.

Team planning can be directly tied to the success of technology integration into the curriculum at Nu`uanu, and Chun has played a pivotal role in making that happen. As the technology resource teacher, he works with staff throughout the school year during free time such as recess or lunch and also on scheduled professional development days. In addition to helping teachers make full use of the technology that's available, a mission of these strategy sessions is to link the curriculum to technology standards.

Since coming to Nu`uanu in 1998, Chun has developed a number of innovative programs. This year's cool project is Malama I Ka Wai A Me Ke Kai (Care for the Water and the Sea), which combines both hands-on and technology components to give students an opportunity to learn about the fragile environmental conditions in Hawaii. The field-based work will give students firsthand knowledge of freshwater resources and the plants and animals they support. While learning about this critical resource, the students will be shooting video documentaries with digital camcorders, creating multimedia presentations using HyperStudio, and sharing their knowledge on the school's Web page.

Chun's philosophy is simple. "As a teacher, I firmly believe that the future lies in multimedia literacy," he says. "This new literacy dominates our lives today and will dominate the careers of tomorrow. My mission is to stimulate my students' learning experiences using this technology and to prepare them for the 21st century."

Timothy Jenney

Superintendent
Virginia Beach City Public Schools
Virginia Beach, Va.

If Timothy Jenney looks familiar to readers of Technology & Learning, it's because he was featured on the cover of our June 2002 Guide for School Technology Leaders. Given the widespread technology accomplishments he's achieved in his district, we're happy to recognize him in a more formal way as the national winner in the administrator category.

In just a few years, Jenney accomplished an extraordinary feat: he transformed Virginia Beach City Public Schools into one of the most technologically advanced facilities in the nation. He did this in the face of budgetary problems, legal and political issues, and a certain level of local skepticism regarding his use of business models to solve education challenges.

The changes that Jenney has initiated have two clear purposes: first, to provide teachers with the technology, training, and support they need to do their job, and second, to ensure that the technology directly contributes to student achievement. Every innovation the district undertakes has to relate in a clear and understandable way to these purposes.

Teachers and other staff are given a range of opportunities to maintain their technology skills. For example, Technology Standards for Instructional Personnel provides face-to-face classes for staff as well as self-training modules on the district intranet. So far over 4,000 teachers, guidance counselors, and administrators have passed online tech skills tests through TSIP. The payoff for the district's investment in this area is a highly professional staff well prepared to help students meet the community's expectations.

Other technology innovations Jenney has promoted are so simple you wonder why you didn't think of them. The district Web site, for example, has a Scholarship Central feature that helps parents and students track down college scholarships. The School Locator feature provides new residents with information about the schools serving their neighborhood.

A statement by Jenney from the Web site of The Broad Center for Superintendents, a national nonprofit organization whose mission is to support outstanding leaders to become urban school superintendents, summarizes his perspective: "I believe it is possible to create a renaissance of learning and to rally community support for one of the largest sources of human potential for our future that exists anywhere. In this country, we cannot afford to write off 57 percent of the nation's future workforce. The quality of all of our lives depends on the success or failure of public education with all of our children."

Susan Ronga and Jane Janovsky

Business Technology Teacher/Graphic Arts Teacher
Silk City Academy
Paterson Public Schools
Paterson, N.J.

The joint entry submitted by Susan Ronga and Jane Janovsky was so compelling that we are changing a long-standing rule that team teachers cannot share an award. Their entry, along with some other fine team teacher entries, convinced us to add an official "team teacher" category to next year's program.

That being said, Ronga and Janovsky have developed an enterprise called Urban Designs, a school-based business in which students design and sell T-shirts. Started as a cooperative venture between Ronga's business class and Janovsky's graphic arts class, the project grew into an officially listed course.

The high-risk, inner-city students at Silk City Academy use a broad range of technology and business skills in the course, drawing on the content of other classes whenever necessary. After September 11th, they put their desktop publishing skills to work creating American Spirit buttons, hoping to support community members living close to the World Trade Center. The buttons sold out in two days, and the profits gave the students a chance to expand into other areas. They baked cookies for Halloween and sold them in packages of their own design. With each holiday, they expanded their business, and their focus now includes a variety of items, from greeting cards to temporary tattoos.

In addition to Urban Designs, students have an opportunity to develop their own business concept. They establish a business plan; learn how to keep accurate financial records in Excel; create advertising pieces and other promotional materials using Quark XPress, Photoshop, and Illustrator; and even build a professional-looking Web site around their idea that incorporates advanced techniques in animation and graphics.

The program does more than just give students a taste of business. It helps them develop greater independence and self-confidence. According to Janovsky and Ronga, students who have gone through the program are more likely to seek creative solutions to everyday problems and have become a positive influence on their peers in school and the community at large.

The following words from Stephen Valentine's entry describe his current situation: "As I write this, I am sitting in front of a new laptop at a new school." It's not often that a techie like Valentine makes a move from a high-tech environment to one that is in the early stages of technology development, but that's exactly what he did.

The Montclair Kimberley Academy, where Valentine recently took a position in the English department, is an independent day school with a long tradition of excellence. The school is making a commitment to technology, and Valentine's move there indicates this new direction. Among other goals, Valentine hopes to ease the difficulty that surrounds communication between techies and teachers. "Since I speak both languages (teacher and tech)," he says, "I hope to serve as a formal and informal go-between for teachers and tech teams."

As co-author with Gray Smith of Writing in a Wired World: Improving Student Writing Using the Computer, soon to be published by Teacher Created Materials, Valentine knows how important it is to be practical when working with teachers and technology. The book is based on his experiences at the Pine Crest School in Florida and is full of useful advice. For example, he describes in detail how to build writing portfolios, including everything from creating the folder itself to saving a first draft, e-mailing the draft as an attachment, and going through the peer editing process.

One of Valentine's recent projects is creating a Web site for his English I students, who are collecting oral histories from members of the local community. These oral histories, in addition to improving students' technology and writing skills, will help them understand history from the viewpoint of "real" people. Students will tape their subjects, transcribe the tapes, and create interactive texts that Valentine hopes will both inform and inspire readers. If Valentine is right, it is through conversations like these that today's students will shape the future.

The Finalists - Technology Specialists

Linda Lyster

Technology Facilitator
English Estates Elementary School
Fern Park, Fla.

If you ask Linda Lyster to name the aspect of her work that is her greatest source of pride, she doesn't hesitate to answer: the collaborative model. "The media specialist and I meet with teams of teachers to develop cross-curricular technology projects," she says. "It has been truly rewarding to design activities that entice teachers to learn more about integrating particular software."

In an area with a diverse and mobile population, English Estates Elementary offers its staff a full spectrum of challenges. According to Lyster, one way to meet these challenges successfully is "to engage learners by seamlessly integrating technology into the classroom."

Lyster began by gathering information from teachers about their needs and their current technology abilities. She then petitioned for a flexible schedule that would allow her to meet with teachers at their convenience to plan and implement staff development. In addition, she reconfigured the school's software offerings to better complement cross-curricular instructional methods as opposed to taking a drill-and-practice, skills-based approach.

Another innovation of Lyster's are "techsperts," a core group of teachers she's trained to motivate and mentor other staff members in using technology. Training of both "techsperts" and other staff takes place during planning days before the start of the school year, a dozen or so technology integration workshops during the school year, and a summer computer institute. Throughout, the emphasis is on the ways various hardware and software can be integrated with content-area instruction. This approach gives teachers the opportunity to specialize in a specific area and then share their expertise with colleagues who face the same challenges. It also underlines Lyster's belief that technology is not an end in itself, but a practical means by which teachers can inspire students to greater achievement.

Area Technology Teacher
Kanawha County Schools
Charleston, W.Va.

When John Richmond travels to Japan as part of the Fulbright Memorial Teacher Program in 2003, there won't be much envy in his district. His colleagues are sure that whatever he learns there, he'll share with them. That's the kind of guy he is.

Consider the training materials he's developed. If teachers in the district-or any teacher in the country, for that matter-want to download materials on topics such as how to teach a beginning PowerPoint class, all they have to do is visit his page on the district Web site.

To say that Richmond likes to keep busy is an understatement. He has participated in Phase 9, a statewide collection of online curricular units (phase9.org), the National Gallery of Art's Technology Initiative 2002, and a local project, ICOMPUTE (Integrating Curriculum Objectives to Maximize Performance Using Technology Education). In addition, he's found time to host a seminar at a weekend technology conference, help with a summer computer camp at a local elementary school, and train teachers statewide through the School Technology Plan Training Seminars.

As the technology teacher in the St. Alban's area of the district, Richmond has a full plate of responsibilities. His duties include installing and troubleshooting networked software, scheduling and configuring computer labs, teaching Web page design, and conducting in-service training.

Richmond's attitude toward technology and his role as a facilitator and teacher are both positive and contagious. He likes what he does, whether it's helping a fifth-grader develop an interactive slide show or training teachers to write effective school technology plans.

He believes that by "embracing new technologies that have a positive impact on student learning," he is serving as a role model for using technology effectively to improve instruction, motivate student learning, and approach challenges by thinking "outside the box."

The Finalists - Administrators

Teresa San Martin

Director of Instructional Technology
Maize Public Schools
Maize, Kan.

Like other technology administrators, Teresa San Martin has more than enough to keep her busy. In addition to being the chief architect of the district's technology plan, she is responsible for staff development and training, as well as determining appropriate software applications for each curricular area. Her goal is to provide "the framework for integration of technologies into the curriculum, encouraging innovation and project-based learning."

Being open to experiment herself, San Martin has encouraged her teachers to innovate through technology whenever possible, whether through robotics projects or electronic portfolios. She also recognizes the importance of accountability and has spearheaded initiatives involving online testing (a state initiative), using data analysis for school improvement, and the use of standards and rubrics for assessment.

Of all San Martin's activities, however, it is the Computers@Home project that's generating the most excitement. Through the project, she is working toward ensuring that every student in the district has access to a computer and the Internet at home by the 2004-05 school year. From her point of view, this is essential for students to have equitable opportunities to use the computer as an effective learning tool.

As unattainable as the project sounds, it is much more than a pipe dream, and San Martin has already written a grant to initiate the project. Some second grade students are serving as a pilot group, along with a teacher selected for her exemplary use of technology. The pilot study is allowing San Martin and her colleagues to consider all the "what-ifs" of the full implementation, factors such as parent training, tech support, staff development, and funding. "We've already learned an awful lot about what to expect, but the most important new awareness is that we can't anticipate everything," she says. With buy-in from everyone involved, San Martin is confident that the project will succeed and contribute to the district's goals of equity and excellence.

Jim Osterberger

Director of Educational Planning & Technology
Archdiocese of Dubuque
Dubuque, Iowa

The "train the trainers" model has received a lot of press lately, but it's old hat for Jim Osterberger. He started a Technology Trainers Program during the 1992-93 school year in the Archdiocese of Dubuque. Today, more than 90 graduates of the training are working in the district. That's not the only bit of history in his resume. His effort to network the schools in the archdiocese in 1989 was recognized by both state and national groups. He built upon this foundation and, through a national technology grant, expanded the network to include other education agencies in the area and a local college.

With a technology history this impressive, it's no surprise that Osterberger's pushing the envelope with respect to new technologies. In collaboration with Clarke College and Keystone Area Education Agency, he recently received a grant from the Palm Education Pioneer program (see "Palm Pioneer" at left).

Another recent initiative in which Osterberger had a leading role was the integration of the ISTE National Educational Technology Standards into the teaching and learning process. You might say the program was a success: more than 90 percent of the students in grades three through 12 who took an annual technology performance assessment scored at the mastery/proficient level.

In the midst of his other activities, Osterberger found time to coauthor the Chief Administrators of Catholic Education Technology Planning Guide. The guide is intended to help diocesan leaders make the best use of the technology that is available to them. A PDF version can be downloaded.

We should probably add here that Jim Osterberger didn't enter the Ed Tech Leaders of the Year program himself. His superintendent nominated him, qualifying the entry with the statement: "Jim would not say he would stand out in a crowd were you to ask him. In fact, he would be surprised at his nomination."

Semifinalists

Technology & Learning would also like to recognize the following outstanding semifinalists.

Martha Bogart & Ruth Litman-Block
Distance Learning Coordinator/Virtual Learning Center Director
Cooperating School Districts of Greater St. Louis
St. Louis, Mo.

Laura Brown
English Teacher
Adlai E. Stevenson High School
Lincolnshire, Ill.

Barbara Hall & Alexis Szutz
Technology Teachers
Chattahoochee High School
Alpharetta, Ga.

Matthew Hillmann
Technology Director
Madelia Public Schools
Madelia, Minn.

Tony Infantino
English Teacher
Durant Road Middle School
Raleigh, N.C.

Adina Marcus
Distant Learning Coordinator
East Brunswick Public Schools
East Brunswick, N.J.

Cindy Nordstrom
Fifth Grade Teacher
Oak Ridge Elementary School
Eagan, Minn.

Karl Schaefer
Lower School Computer Teacher
Durham Academy
Durham, N.C.

Nancy Smith
Gifted and Talented Teacher
Montrose County School District
Montrose, Colo.

Stephen Smith
Principal
Towns County Middle School
Hiawassee, Ga.

Mike Toschi
Director of Technology Services
Southgate Community School District
Southgate, Mich.

T&L's Leader of the Year Program

Are You Making a Difference?

Tell us how you lead by using technology in education. Enter yourself — or a colleague — in T&L's 2005 Leader of the Year Program.

You inspire, encourage, empower and give wings to others' dreams. Now it's your turn. Technology & Learning's 2005 Leader of the Year Program is once again honoring K-12 administrators, technology coordinators, and teachers who use technology in innovative ways to help teachers teach and help students learn.

We invite you to share your teaching, training, and managing success stories with our judges. Four finalists will win prizes, gain national recognition and be profiled in T&L's 2005 Awards Issue.

Deadline: The deadline has passed.