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March 22, 2005 - Vol. 6, No. 12
TechLearning News
- Teachers are turning to a variety of technology tools to enhance student engagement and promote learning.
- A Philadelphia teen has launched an online e-zine to provide a way for public and private school students to connect.
- Though distance learning can open the world to small, rural schools, starting and sustaining a program poses many challenges.
- State funding is helping the Cumberland (RI) School District's implementation of a new student information system.
Technology Brings Curriculum To Life
Teachers know that if you get students engaged, whether it's with "Moby Dick" or the mystery of DNA, the learning that takes place is likely to be more lasting. Those same teachers are turning to a variety of technology tools to enhance that engagement. Detroit-area students reading "To Kill a Mockingbird" are using digital cameras and editing tools to make their own movies that illustrate their views of the quest for justice as it relates to the book and everyday life. Students find themselves re-reading passages to be sure their movies really relate to ideas in the book. In math class, students are using software that enhances their handheld calculators. Teachers are able to beam information directly to the students' calculators and collect responses from the students. Teachers say that the anonymity of the system helps to encourage usually shy students to participate, while the interactivity keeps everyone engaged. More students are able to answer questions or solve problems on a regular basis. And distance learning labs allow students to interact with authors or subject-area-experts, watch scientists conduct experiments, or visit far-flung sites. Teachers believe these experiences are most effective when they are interactive, allowing students to hone their communication skills and sharpen their problem solving abilities.
Source: The Detroit News
E-Zine Helps Bridge Gaps
Transferring from a Philadelphia public school to a private school in the suburbs, Dan Lieberman found that the two school worlds had few interactions. To provide teens throughout the metro region with a way to connect, Lieberman conceived of a publication called "Teen Zone." It took him 2ý years of hard work and reaching out to other teens before the idea became a reality and teenzoneonline.com debuted on the Internet. Lieberman originally intended Teen Zone to be a print publication, but production problems and costs motivated the move to the e-zine format. The e-zine is written, produced and designed by students from public and private high schools across the Philadelphia metro region, focusing on both the students' different experiences and common interests and perspectives. In the first issue, the students tackled sleep deprivation, juvenile crime and life inside Philadelphia's public high schools. Teen Zone held its first organizational gathering recently, marking the first face-to-face meeting for those who had submitted articles via e-mail. Lieberman plan to update the site regularly and to produce a fresh issue every two weeks and encourages the other teens involved to look for news stories about things happening in their schools and in the community.
Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer
VHS Helps Small Schools Get Onboard
Over the last seven years, Virtual High Schools has developed a distance learning model that works. Schools become members of the VHS Cooperative. Member schools select one or more faculty members to teach over the Internet. In exchange for each teacher released by the school to teach a VHS NetCourse the school is able to register 25 students per semester in VHS's full catalog of NetCourses. Teachers must participate in and successfully graduate from VHS online professional development in order to teach a VHS course. But even this cooperative model is problematic for small schools. They often find it difficult to free a teacher for one class period a day to participate in the program. And in small rural schools, like those scattered across Maine, there are often just a few students in each school interested in a particular course. To address the problem, VHS is partnering with the Maine Department of Education to create a new model. The partners will fund the project with a three-year federal grant of $30,000 per year, matched by VHS. They plan to recruit teachers, including retired and part-time teachers, to create a statewide pool of trained people who can teach online courses. For every online teacher, 20 students in Maine will get free access to online courses. The only stipulation is that students qualify for free or reduced lunch prices or are enrolled in a school where 40% of students qualify.
Source: Portland Press Herald
RI Supports Student Management System Deployment
When the Cumberland (RI) School District developed its new technology plan last spring, a review of all district technology that dealt with student information made it clear that a new system was needed. In early February, the School Committee approved the implementation of a new system, with a start-up cost of $118,800. The new, Web-based system will allow the collection and management of student data such as attendance, health and medical information, student biographies, special education, contact information and discipline. It will help track students' academic progress and state assessment scores. It will also allow parents to access their child's homework assignments, grades, academic progress and attendance records. Cumberland County is one of 20 districts across the state that will be implementing School MAX, motivated in part by increased accountability demands from the state Department of Education and federal guidelines of No Child Left Behind. The Rhode Island Network manages the statewide system for Educational Technology (RINET); a nonprofit technology based organization. To support the statewide implementation, the Rhode Island Department of Education provided a $1.3 million grant to give school districts seed money to fund the start up. School districts will contract for the new system directly with RINET, which will provide the training and future support services. Once in place, the yearly cost to maintain the system is $8 per pupil and is determined according to the Oct. 1 student enrollment.
Source: Woonsocket Call
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