 forum.necc07
Please edit and contribute to this dialogue! It is in rough draft form, as composed in "free form" during the discussion. Feel free to break it into easy to navigate pages with themes. Please contribute your name, email address, and background where appropriate. Facilitator: Robert McLaughlin ISTE, SIGDE chair Format: Roundtable discussion with guiding questions Scribed by Karen Heaphy, Technology Coordinator, Franklin Township School (heaphyk@warrennet.org) Goals: identify priorities & how do we address it… What do you most hope to accomplish by being here? How do we make sure that we address those priorities over time. Attendees opening comments: Sheila Cartwright: Atlanta Georgia John Hope Elementary School Role: Media Specialist Problem: teachers aren’t using the computers and students aren’t prepared for 21st century learning skills. How do we effectively computers into the classroom for learning? Demographics: Title I school: 97% free & reduced lunch Wrote the Laura Bush grant Problem stems from administration Transient administrators; lack of consistency How do we reach the leadership and filter it down to the immediate principals and school wide modeling. Teh-yuan Wan: NY State State perspective: digital equity in terms of access to content Discussion about access to Internet, quality of content We need to look at NY state is a local decision state: we need to look at how decisions are made; if there is a strong leader there is quality content but if there is not, then the students miss out. Trying to create digital content with access from teachers, available for all teachers Focus on the interest of the students Make sure that experienced teachers will have access to quality content Another issue: during Clinton administration – we made some inroads, but now we have further divided the field; there is less concentrated funding now and a lot of schools that are on the margin are left behind. A lot of schools are punished for being successful or a little bit successful. If you are not on the radar screen then there is no change and increase in technology integration. How can we address this from a policy and funding situation? How do we level the playing field? How do we have a coherent systematic approach? How do we make resources available and help others to take advantage of it. There is a tendency of having technology decisions made by IT specialists rather than curriculum specialists or education technology specialists; technology was first introduced to address IT needs (data collection, communication) versus education. How do we integrate educational technology with information technology? Need clear vision and requirements We don’t want to micromanage but we need to have clear expectations The lack of vision of what promising schools should be like. If a school was going fine without technology, what incentive do they have to move forward – if they don’t have the vision Sun Feng University of Alabama of Birmingham Angry with faculty Designed a wonderful workshop; has it available for faculty Everybody signs up, only 2 or 3 people show up! When the people who show up, it is the secretaries for the lunch! Free Resources Possibilities for giving to students about how to purchase hardware at reasonable budget Vivian Johnson Faculty member at Graduate School of Education Hamlin University (doctorate from university of Oregon) Moving faculty into integrating technology by modeling it Minneapolis – large English as a second language population – use of technology to support ESL in its infancy How do we provide the access to the assistive technology for kids who really need it? Digital divide on Native American Reservations as well Wants to spend last 10-15 years on digital equity Frequently the curriculum people want to do things that are in direct contradiction with the IT guys who want to keep the machines stable. The idea of one platform versus the other Money to support new ideas We don’t see the curriculum people working with the IT people. (Henry Becker studies – looked for a number of years at technology useage) You can always find the exception but what are you doing with it? Drill & Test Direct instruction Suburban kids – are doing construction Low income kids: consumers; electronic worksheets – plug & chug; customers Travis Taylor Little Rock Arkansas Technology integration specialist, support for the whole district Come up with classes – emerging technologies, professional development, contemporary instruction How do we get administrators on board? Administration is getting a free pass School district – unique position – getting ready to hit the 50th year of the integration of Central High School Political issues – Teachers – trying to keep the teachers on the front line of integrating the technology; easy to get lost in the technology Busy versus effective Challenge: get the teachers’ on board; When the district does refreshes – offer the technology for purchase BUT need some kind of partnering for BROADBAND access; particularly successful with Hispanic families.
Bonnie Brace (Sutton?)
Who knows the information? Who has time? How do we show examples? How do we show were the resources are? Music & math are linked; can we create community entry-level projects Afterschool models at GLEF Provide models for collaboration ViK Sutton Free lance journalist – based in Washington, DC Pew Foundation 3:4 can access the Internet – US divide People that lack the access tend to be from minorities – racial, gender Internationally – much bigger divide 1:6 – Developing in countries – MUCH worse for access Latin America – 1 person in 17 has access Africa 1:40 has digital access Digital access = access to the Internet Tremendous amount of work in order to address this cannot separate Internet access from purchasing power Vicki Grant Lead Coach with LA unified school district 7 & 8th grade math & science teachers – integrate math and science into school Through EETT grant Providing professional support Some of her most pressing digital divide related concerns:
Karen Heaphy Franklin Township School http://www.franklinschool.org Technology Coordinator Assistive Technology
Dr. Sylvia Rousseau – comment by Vivian Constraints: gender, race, economics, class Equity http://tcla.gseis.ucla.edu/reportcard/latest/2/rousseau.html If you don’t get teachers to redefine those constructs – they will just use the technology to reinforce it. The constructs of poor students of color – they are being inundated with technology to be consumers. They are not experiencing the power of being creators of content. Question to table: Sheila Cartwright (technology inventory) How valid are these statistics? Do we count broken computers to report to the state? Fixed asset inventory – you validate what they have; which is not what is in the classroom? Bonnie – we don’t have broadband access the same way other countries do. The technology is being used for the purposes of test taking, not for creativity. SHEEP are no better than the SHEPHARD: Linda Patz Baton Rouge, LA Am I prepared to teach students what they need to succeed in college? Conceptual Framework for our discussion: Lead off with thoughts of the nature of the problem: Shedding light on issues: Horizon Research out of Chapel Hill, NC Several 1000s classrooms, random selection – asked the questions “is technology being used?” In 3% of high schools – had technology in use in a walk through. 97% had NO technology in use. National Center for Culturally Responsive Educational Systems (http://www.nccrest.org/) Has done research & action on disproportionality of minority children in special education The obvious – if you are a child of color you are dramatically more likely to be in special ed than a caucasion If you are an African American child in the city of Chicago, you are 25x more likely to be in special education than a Caucasian child. (B.M.) Explanation of disproportional data in Geographic Information System software – presented data in City of Chicago – the most disproportionate schools for African American students were in Latino neighborhoods and vice versa for Latino students in African American neighborhoods… Bonnie Brace - comment - teachers are also most likely (white, caucasian, family) to be in the areas of greatest need with the least amount of training (study Bob M. gender equity & race equity - children of color are more likely to be exposed to using technology for vocational skills or simple skills rather than higher learning thinking skills. Bob M. - Hopkins (JHU), qualitative study - gender equity Question: How important do you think it is that boys and girls have equal time on the computers? (Very important) BUT found that in actuality - boys have 2x as much time as the girls on the computer! Teh-yuan Huan - Michael Fullan perspective - really focus on the whole population and have a clear vision for where we need to go. The issue of the technology is coherence and making the connection for all of the initiatives; a unifed front with a high level vision. A CHILD is a CHILD. Augostine Pierre works in Brooklyn teaches computers 7-12 grade most presses concern - lack of support, lack of funds for minority Bob M. - giving equitable access to learning opportunities - high quality digital academic content High Skills & High level of experience Our high schools almost always assign our least experienced (least senior math faculty)teachers to teach our most important courses: Algebra I and Geometry - strongest predicators of academic success. SO we are not aligning our experts with our needs. http://horizon.unc.edu/ We need to look at learning opportunities & learning climate Two organizations: Search Institute (Minneapolis, MN) http://www.search-institute.org/ University of Maine: National Center of Student Aspirations http://www.maine.gov/education/communities/case_studies.html Both organizations are coming out of resilient child data research - Development assets: access to adults, mentors, involvement in music, extracurriculars Framework: Work of National Center for Student Aspirations - strong positive correlation between high aspirations for success and actual success. Identified 8 aspects of learning climate that are predictive of high aspirations and therefore their achievement Thinking about Education Climate is very practical. We cannot afford to neglect learning climate. The 8 learning conditions include: sense of belonging (is this my school? Do I have a sense of ownership?); who is my hero (somebody in my life that I want to be like); strong correlation between how teachers assess their sense of belonging and where students feel they belong (ownership - encouraged to take risks); Russ Quaglia: http://www.qisa.org/ Quaglia Institute for Student Aspirations http://www.endicott.edu/globalinstitute/viewoped.php?oped=ImpactingStudentAspirations:EightConditionsThatMakeaDifference (B.M.)Suggestion: create your own survey for student aspirations, then find out what is really going on regarding student aspirations. Framework to get teachers involved: 1. Ask students to assess their own learning conditions in the school. 2. Ask the students what they are going to do to change the conditions & improve them. Scribing resumed by Vicki Grant What can we do to bring about change 1. Good learning climate for educators-model those things you want to see - should feel its okay to say I don't know how to serve a particular population (can we say we are not being effective) We need to be able to improve on that in order to change. -we need to make it saw "How great we are". Provides an opportunity for others to ask us for help. Suggestion: empower each other by working with making teachers comfortable with usage through personal usage. 2. We need to make it comfortable for non-tech teachers to feel comfortable in saying "I don't understand...but let me tell you what I'd like technology to help we with." We need more conversations at every level that address learning opportunties, learning evironments and learning results. Forget the conversation of technology terminology and start to address how to work with it in the area of content. http://digitalequity.edreform.net/ The Five Dimensions of Digital EquityThese dimensions have been chosen as fundamental categories by educators and professionals working in the field. If you are just beginning to learn about this field then these categories should help you address your basic needs.
http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/ushistory/results/ best results when children are involved in actively researching the history they are learning about. 2 additions from the group of the dimensions of digital equity 6. learning climate that supports non-tech owning and leading the planning of the the technology plan for the school- 7. school leadership that supports the other dimensions Resources Hardware: 1. M2M - $350 laptop , linux based, 2. $100 laptop project to benefit international schools 3. discounts on equipment for all http://digitalequity.org/ froogle.google.com for price comparison http://ecost.com/ http://www.micta.org/ http://pcsforschools.org/ computer refurbishments for families 4. Wimax- towers that provide wireless access to cities Software: 1. When the Best is Free - David Thornburg http://tcpd.org/ 2. http://vlibrary.org/vlibrary/index.jsp $7.00 per year access to various resources on-line Deep Web Content Provider - resources that are usually behind specified log-ins or fees, larger content than Google. http://nsdl.org/ National Science Digital Library Culturally Responsive Content http://www.edutopia.org/ http://digitalequity.edreform.net/portal/digitalequity/equitydimensionrelevant Add your own resource to http://digitalequity.edreform.net/ Click on contribute, register, login, my collection, contribute (again) to publish, publish (review suggested resources, edit catalog information), More resources: http://edreform.net/ http://applications.edreform.net/ http://www.dignubia.org/ Exploring the Science Archaeology http://www.math-videos-online.com - Free Math Videos Online Professional Development http://www.edutopia.org/video use videos to show instead of just tell http://caret.iste.org/ reviews/studies of technology and learning http://www.nici-mc2.org/de_toolkit/pages/toolkit.htm http://nsdl.org/ National Science Digital Library - ask an expert & professional development resource http://www.loc.gov/index.html Library of Congress http://nsdc.org/connect/projects/resultsbased.cfm Continuing Research in Elementary, Middle, and High School Literacy Programs and staff development After School Resources http://www.kineticcity.com/ science experiments, activities and games http://www.windows.ucar.edu/ astronomy, etc. http://www.shodor.org/interactivate/ creation, collection, evaluation and dissemenation of interactive Java-based courseware for exploration of math and science. http://bugscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/ a resource to classrooms so that they may remotely operate a scanning electron microscope to image "bugs" at high magnification Best way to convey information for the SIGDE and others: Develop a wikispace or webpage to disseminate information available speakers learning organizations that have outreach (include contact info) Most current research on subject available for comment |
