Listed below are some examples of technology tools and resources that both teachers and students use to enhance teaching and learning. For ease of use these tools are organized as follows:
BLOGS
California Schools, teachers, and students actively employ Web 2.0 tools. Some teachers share lesson plans and photos through the file depository; others have developed informational podcasts that parents can subscribe to. The district even provides students with their own password protected online community and blog.
Delaware: Albanese’s 8th grade ELA Blog
Missouri: An 8th grade American History classroom at South Valley Jr. High School in Liberty, Mo. incorporates book blogs, podcasts, video production, wikis, studycasts, online simulations, online applications and other Web 2.0 tools.
Teaching Tips: Using Online Journals and Blogs These websites are about using weblogs in the classroom. There are websites where teachers and students can sign up for their own blogs for free. There are also several articles that explain how teachers are using blogs in the classroom. Teachers should be especially cautious about giving out these links as students can access other blogs.
Tennessee: Some teachers began using blogs this year to post homework assignments. This gives parents and students an opportunity to double-check daily classroom assignments. Parents can verify whether their children have home work and what the homework assignment is. It also helps with students that are out of school for illnesses, or homebound students can stay up-to-date. In one Tennessee high school, the ninth grade journalism students use a blog to publish high school news daily, whereas in the past when they were publishing a printed hard copy, they only had the budget to publish once or twice per school year. Now the journalism class is able to do more journalism with modern tools of the trade.
Back to Top ^
DIGITAL PORTFOLIOS
New Hampshire: In July 2005, the state of New Hampshire adopted new ICT Literacy Standards which tie core content areas to ICT literacy instruction and require the assessment of students' ICT competency using a digital portfolio approach. Several efforts have been underway to help teachers implement this change. These have included a series of digital portfolio teacher training sessions across the state, the development of an online course as part of the state's OPEN NH online professional development initiative and ICT summer institutes.
Back to Top ^
INTERACTIVE WHITE BOARDS
Connecticut: Hall Memorial is a rural school in Willington, CT that put an interactive SMART Board in every classroom. As a result, teachers’ enthusiasm increased, there were fewer disciplinary issues, and students were more engaged. Based upon a student survey, students reported that they felt more engaged and excited about learning, they were more likely to want to go to the interactive white board and they found lessons easier to understand. Hall Memorial has been successful in integrating technology into the curriculum (PDF File)
Florida: Alachua County Public Schools were one of 7 districts to receive an award in Florida’s 2007-08 NCLB: Title II-D EETT competitive grant process. The primary focus of Alachua’s EETT grant is building the Digital Learning Community within the school district through extensive use of technology as an instructional tool. Three Communities of Practice targeted by the grant received hardware and software designed to stimulate project-based-learning in the curriculum. Additionally, three technology coaches work with teachers within these communities to provide comprehensive and ongoing training and support throughout the academic year. Laptops and interactive whiteboards are critical elements to the implementation of the grant.
Missouri: Jennings School District (2005) (PDF File)
New Jersey: Gloucester City Public Schools added SMART Board™ interactive whiteboards and Notebook™ software to Gloucester City's classrooms. The district’s math facilitator created math lessons and posted the lessons on the district's server, ensuring that all teachers could access the files from their computers and deliver them to their students using their interactive whiteboards. Math scores in the district's middle school have also improved by 16 percentage points. (PDF File)
Virginia: Fairfax County Case Study (2006), Smart Technologies (PDF file)
Back to Top ^
LAPTOPS
California: Harvest Park Middle School in Pleasanton Unified School District created a laptop immersion program in 2001, representing 25% of the total enrollment in grades 6, 7, and 8. The district conducted a rigorous study on the impact of one-to-one learning on student achievement. The study compared the students with laptops to another matched group in the same school. Analyses indicate that students who participated in the immersion program earned significantly overall higher grades and test scores for a variety of subjects, including math and writing.
Florida: Florida’s 2006-07 Leveraging Laptops program, funded through the NCLB: Title II-D EETT competitive grant process, highlighted 11 districts with different interdisciplinary models for providing laptop access to students. Research from the projects showed an overall increase in student engagement and higher-order thinking skills, and a decrease in the amount of drill and practice and direct instruction from teachers. The Leveraging Laptops website provides more information on the districts and their project design, as well as resources and research reports.
Indiana: Tech-Know-Build provides wireless laptop computers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to over 3,000 students at select high schools and middle schools. The project focuses on problem-based learning with a strong professional development component for teachers and administrators. The professional development component is provided jointly by Indiana University (Indianapolis), Purdue University, and the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration (CILC). Some of the goals of this program are to develop a high-tech workforce, increase student achievement and improve student-parent relationship.
New Hampshire: In 2004, New Hampshire implemented the Technology Promoting Student Excellence (TPSE) program, a 1:1 laptop initiative in several struggling middle schools. TPSE provides one-to-one wireless laptops to students in the neediest schools in New Hampshire. Initially, six schools participated in the program. TPSE provides wireless access in the classrooms, laptops for teachers, digital cameras, printers, video cameras, and a video conferencing camera. The program also requires teacher training. Boston College’s Technology and Assessment Study Collaborative conducted a one-year external evaluation to assess the initial effects of the program on instructional practices and the dynamics of the classroom. The evaluation showed that teachers’ believed that the TPSE had a significant impact on student motivation, student engagement, and students’ ability to work independently and in groups. For example, based upon teachers’ beliefs, student motivation increased 94% for traditional students and 81% for at risk/low achieving students and high achieving students. Based upon teachers’ beliefs, student engagement for at risk/low achieving students increased 97%.
New Hampshire: Profile School District: Mobile Laptop Cart Deployment - Deployment of a mobile wireless 16-unit laptop cart to be used throughout the school.
North Carolina: In North Carolina, several high poverty elementary and middle schools implemented the IMPACT systemic reform program. The model involves using technology in the teaching of core curricular areas to improve student achievement, utilizing technology coaches and school library media specialists for on-going professional development, as well as learning 21st century skills. In a four year study, students in the high need schools with the IMPACT program have demonstrated that they are 33% more likely to improve one full grade level each year than the control/comparison schools. Student achievement is consistently higher in the IMPACT schools, and teacher retention is 65% higher with this program. College-going rates in Greene County High School, with a modified IMPACT model, increased from 26 to 84% in five years.
Maine: Maine Learning Technology Initiative (MLTI) provides laptops to seventh and eighth grade students and teachers. MLTI provides schools and teachers with technical assistance and professional development for integrating technology into the curriculum and instruction. An examination of scores from the writing proficiency portion of the Maine Educational Assessment (MEA) from the years prior to the implementation of the MLTI to the most recent available data shows a marked increase in student writing scores. Prior to MLTI (2000), 29.1% of 8th grade students met the State's writing proficiency standard. In 2005, after the 4 full years of implementation of the MLTI, 41.4% of 8th graders met the State's writing proficiency standard. (pg 7 Silvernail & Gritter). A deeper look at the data showed that among students that did not use technology in the writing process, only 21% met the writing proficiency standard as compared to 43.7% of 8th grade students who did use technology in the writing process. For a copy of the research, please visit http://www.usm.maine.edu/cepare/.
Michigan: In 2004, Michigan implemented the Freedom to Learn (FTL) program, a one-to-one laptop initiative. Thus far, Michigan has provided over 12,000 students with wireless laptops in order to create a high-tech learning environment. Eighty-seven percent of the FTL students reported that they are more engaged and 79% reported that they were learning more. In 2006, FTL students outperformed non-FTL students in state standardized tests.
New Mexico: Governor Richardson proposed a Laptop Learning Initiative based on the premise that technology and innovation play key roles in New Mexico's economic future and in enhancing learning opportunities for students and teachers. One of the strategies proposed by the Governor is not only to prepare youth to be viable contributors to the state's economy but also to advance the ideals of substantive educational reform through a statewide program that provides seventh grade student and their teachers with laptop computers.
Pennsylvania: Classrooms for the Future is about creating environments for deeper cognitive development through inquiry, real and relevant project-based learning, and differentiated instruction. In a Classroom for the Future, teachers are facilitators, guides, and co-investigators; students are producers, apprentices, and co-explorers. Classrooms for the Future are 21st century instructional settings using 21st century techniques to enable 21st century children to succeed. To support this reform, Classrooms for the Future is designed to ensure there are laptops in public high school english, math, science and social studies classrooms across Pennsylvania. A robust companion professional development program guarantees that high school teachers are prepared to integrate these and other technologies into their instructional practices.
Texas: The Technology Immersion Pilot (TIP), a one to one program implemented in middle schools, demonstrated that discipline referrals went down by over ½ with the changes in teaching and learning; while in one school, 6th grade standardized math scores increased by 5%, 7th grade by 42%, and 8th grade by 24%. A recent article in The Journal succinctly highlights the results in two districts. The evaluation site is: http://www.etxtip.info/.
Virginia: Henrico County Public Schools Technology and Learning Initiative provides 28,000 laptop computers to secondary school students and teachers. Henrico County established wireless network in the schools, invested in new hardware and software, and provided professional development to teachers. The goals of this project include closing the digital divide, preparing students for the 21st century, improving teaching and learning, and improving academic achievement. Also, Henry County Schools One-to-One Initiative provides several classroom sets of laptops for each of the district’s schools. This allows ubiquitous computing for every student in the district at some point during their education. In addition, teachers can check out laptop carts to use in the classroom. Students are provided network accounts which they can access from home. Students train parents to use the laptops and the technology is available to the community in the evenings. The goals of this project include closing the digital divide, preparing students for the 21st century, meeting the needs and maximizing the benefits of multiple learning styles, and enabling collaborative instruction using digital tools.
Back to Top ^
PHONES and CHATS
North Carolina: Project K-nect program in Jacksonville, NC. Over 100 Smartphones were distributed to 9th grade Algebra I students in Onslow, Durham, and Winston-Salem/Forsyth Schools to measure their achievement in using these tools for advanced purposes. The highlight of the program lies in the ability of each phone to act as a resource to students, allowing them to connect to other students, their teachers, and participants with the program, including Shawn Gross of Digital Millennial Consulting and the Math Forum at Drexel University in Philadelphia. Tools available to the student include a closed instant messaging system, allowing them contact with only those involving with the program, a series of problem sets created by the Math Forum, and blogs, allowing the students to post questions and provide support for other students.
North Dakota: Kulm High School in North Dakota has implemented handheld computers and software. This allows teachers to interact with every student in the room at the same time, by creating a “chat room” like environment within the actual classroom. Teachers and students interact via the handhelds throughout the school day. Teachers are able to push out assignments and collect assignments electronically. The administration reports that discipline is better; grades are higher (fewer deficiencies were issued); and students are retaining what is taught, according to the scores on the state assessment and online assessments that are conducted twice during the year.
Back to Top ^
PODCASTING
California: Schools, teachers, and students actively employ Web 2.0 tools. Some teachers share lesson plans and photos through the file depository; others have developed informational podcasts that parents can subscribe to. The district even provides students with their own password protected online community and blog.
Delaware: Cape Henlopen School District Podcasts by students:
4th Grade - High Tech Treasure Hunt/ Field Trip - Geocaching
5th Grade - Rock Our World International Collaboration
1st Grade Writing -
Kindergarten Podcasts - Reading for Fluency, Writing, Illustrating
Newest Teacher Podcast - In progress and will eventually add the students! Intent is to get this one formally onto iTunes.
Florida: Students at Blue Angels Elementary School in Escambia County are engaged in creating podcasts to review and present their understanding of Science vocabulary words. Escambia County Public Schools were one of 11 districts to receive an award in Florida’s 2006-07 NCLB: Title II-D EETT competitive grant process. The Laptops for Literacy Grant has provided students the tools for daily interaction with technology to enhance learning across the curriculum. Using laptop computers, tool-based software, digital recording devices and the internet, lessons are provided that support student understanding of science vocabulary through real world interactions.
Missouri: An 8th grade American History classroom at South Valley Jr. High School in Liberty, Mo. incorporates book blogs, podcasts, video production, wikis, studycasts, online simulations, online applications and other Web 2.0 tools. Also,this Week in Rockwood Technology (TWIRT) is a weekly podcasting show that highlights the technology used in Rockwood School District, Tech Tidbits and special guests.
New Jersey
- Union City: Grace Poli, Media Specialist at the José Martà Middle School has won numerous awards for her "Pod People" using iPods to teach English to special needs and bilingual students. She uses music stored on Ipods to teach and practice reading, writing and listening skills. Grace uses song lyrics to teach grammar, music, ethics; audiobooks for reading comprehension and the Ipod recorder for honing diction and speaking skills. The students use Apple’s Garageband to create instructional podcasts to review for the eighth grade proficiency assessment.
- East Orange School District: Dionne Warwick Institute, NJ “Educational Rap Podcasts”— Fourth and fifth grade students at Dionne Warwick Institute wrote educational raps about civil rights leaders for a Black history project as well as Math strategies to help lower grades grasp math concepts. Students then recorded their own voices, added sound effects and created and published their podcasts. For the students who participated in these projects, Math grades have increased by an average of 9.6 points and Social Studies grades increased by 9.4 points.
- Upper Saddle River School District – Reynolds School, NJ"Poetry Podcast"— Second grade students create a class podcast of their poetry reading. Using the Reading and Writing Workshop model as its backbone, the second graders read and write poetry for a unit lasting four to six weeks. To celebrate, each child selects one original poem to edit, revise, and publish for the Poetry Podcast. Since implementing the program in 2005, student Vocabulary scores have increased by 9.3% and Reading Comprehension scores have increased by 3.2%.
- Montclair Public Schools – Glenfield Middle School, NJ "Digital Authoring" – Students from grades six through eight produce educational or creative podcasts as part of their instructional activities. Teachers have noted a significant increase in student engagement, retention and knowledge transfer. A math class noted an average 12 point increase in students’ test scores in the retention of perfect squares after completing a digital project on the subject.
Ohio:
Podcasts in English Language Arts Classroom: Three Multimodal Technology Integration Models
Virginia: Students at Jamestown Elementary School in Arlington, Virginia are heavily engaged in learning through the use of technology in the form of podcasts. Students at all grade levels create podcasts in different academic content areas covering topics such as mathematics story problems, school current events, silly sentences, classroom core values and mission statements, and responses to books read.
Back to Top ^
STUDENT RESPONSE SYSTEMS (CLICKERS)
Since 2005, more than two dozen middle schools in the Los Angeles school district have used clickers in classrooms. Clickers have also been used in school districts in Dallas, Atlanta, New York City, and St. Paul. In the last five years, one manufacturer supplied more than 750,000 clickers to schools nationwide. Teachers are using the clickers to administer pop quizzes and promote a more interactive teaching approach. One teacher reported that he could check on the progress of all students and not just the students who raised their hands. One student reported that he likes competition and that he thinks it motivates students. Another student reported that the clickers improved class participation. Some school districts have used the clickers at community meetings to get immediate reactions from parents. (Hu 2008).
Back to Top ^
VIDEOS
Alaska: The BSSD IditaProject is free, flexible mushing theme coverage for your classroom that gets richer each year! Schools and teachers can choose to view all broadcasts live or by archived video stream, participate in online curriculum activities for students or view the broadcasts only.
Arizona: A consortium of small rural districts utilizes two-way interactive television to bring the outside world into their classrooms. These districts are geographically isolated and use videoconferencing to access hard to obtain educational resources such as virtual field trips and dual enrollment classes.
Florida: Broward County Public Schools were one of 7 districts to receive an award in Florida’s 2007-08 NCLB: Title II-D EETT competitive grant process. Students in Broward County participated in a project called “Transforming Learning Environments Through Global Initiatives and Digital Education for Students and Teachers (GLIDES).” GLIDES students created videos to demonstrate their knowledge and to share their presentations and posted them to the web.
Maine: High school journalism students worked with students in Alabama to create a news magazine television show to highlight the features of each of their regions. Students worked together via videoconferencing, which helped them build media literacy skills, communication, and collaboration skills, and innovation skills.
Missouri: Liberty Public Schools have their own cable TV Channel dedicated solely for district use. In conjunction with the City of Liberty and Time Warner Cable, KLPS-TV telecasts throughout the entire Liberty School District. The station is the past recipient of the Pacemaker Award, as Nation's Top Student Telecast, has been honored with the State's Highest Award for Student Television, and voted America's #1 High School Football Telecast for 2006-07. Residents can view the KLPS Telecasts Online via archived video or live stream. Programming features an informational scroll which shows important upcoming events, job opportunities, Liberty weather, and other news regarding the School District, as well.
New Jersey: “Cyberbridges”—Diocese of Metuchen, Edison District – Bishop George Ahr High School, NJ High school students participate in a journey of discovery leading to cultural understanding and global youth leadership between US secondary students and youth in selected countries throughout the world. Students work towards a shared vision of social justice and peace in a global solidarity, project based learning opportunity as they engage in dialogue, information sharing, and collaborative web-based activities.
North Carolina: Lenoir County Summer Camp the official tourism site for the state of North Carolina requested students in summer camp to create a PhotoStory video about a place in the state. These videos will be shown in the classroom to other students to learn about the cool places that North Carolina has to offer.
Tennessee: In another district in Tennessee, 6th grade social studies classes are involved in desktop video conferencing with students across the US and in other countries. These students communicate with their video epals and exchange language lessons, lessons on culture, and geography
Washington: Fifth and sixth grade math students at Lincoln Elementary use video and graphics tablets to demonstrate their thinking and problem-solving process and share with others. Their movies are posted to the web, and archived for other students and future class lessons.
Back to Top ^
VIRTUAL RESEARCH TOOLS
Missouri Library Skills: Wikipedia in Student Research These websites are about information literacy, with particular emphasis on Wikipedia and its role in student research. There are interactive tutorials, articles, and ideas for class activities.
Library Skills: Searching the Internet These sites focus on library skills of how to conduct Internet search effectively and how to evaluate the quality of websites. Learn about various search strategies such Boolean and keyword search. There are resources, guidelines, tutorials, and criteria on searching the Internet and website evaluation. Includes a lesson plan, a checklist, and a quiz. There are also links to eThemes Resources on Information Searching Strategies, Reference Resources Online, and Internet Safety.
Teaching Tips: Virtual Reality Simulation These sites include theories and research of virtual reality simulations. Included are sample projects of VR applied in education. Teachers can use these sample sites for enhancing students' learning in English, biology, ocean science, and more.
eThemes is a service of the eMINTS National Center. eThemes resources are created and maintained by University of Missouri-Columbia College of Education staff and graduate students from the School of Information Science and Learning Technologies.
Back to Top ^
WIKIS
Alaska: The Bering Strait School District in Alaska is a leader in using Web 2.0 technology, especially wikis to engage teachers and administrators in developing learning opportunities for their students.
Delaware: Bliptop - 8th grade ELA Wiki
Missouri: An 8th grade American History classroom at South Valley Jr. High School in Liberty, Mo. incorporates book blogs, podcasts, video production, wikis, studycasts, online simulations, online applications and other Web 2.0 tools.
Teaching Tips: Wikis in the Classroom These sites focus on using Wikis in classroom. There are resources for teachers about Wikis, free websites to sign up for free Wiki spaces, Wiki tutorials, classroom ideas, and examples of actual Wikis in classrooms. There are links to eThemes Resources on Wikipedia in Student Research and Teaching Tips: Using Online Journals and Blogs.
New Jersey: Perth Amboy Public Schools – Perth Amboy High School, NJ "Raritan Watershed"—Students collect and conduct tests on water samples. They compile data electronically and exchange information with other schools online. Results are discussed on Wikis, and multimedia presentations are prepared to illustrate results and conclusions. Before this program was implemented, none of the students received a score of three or higher on the AP Environmental Science exam. After implementation, 30-40% of the students have received a score of three or better.
Washington: Students learn problem-solving skills from each other, versus simply memorizing answers. Information is shared through the school’s interactive wiki. Students interact with each other to solve problems collaboratively, but they are also interacting with students around the world, including students in Kenya, Ecuador and Indonesia.
Back to Top ^
