The following projects were awarded grants of $10,000 each through the Qwest Foundation/Nebraska Department of Education Technology Innovation Grants for 2008-2009.
Students’ brains process information differently in the digital age. This stimulus is aided by the use of technology. The same technology teachers are sometimes reluctant to incorporate, however students crave opportunities to access and think within the digital world. Digital thinking requires opportunities to communicate with others through an electronic format. This demands a high level of clarity and comprehension provided by reading and writing proficiency.
Literacy Full Circuit is designed to increase 4th and 5th grade reading and writing skills through the assistance of technology by incorporating the use of handheld student response assessment devices and iLife. The assessment devices will provide immediate feedback on student reading comprehension levels. The feedback would engage student reflection on incorrect answers preparing them to think comparatively and evaluate possible answers.
The relevance of writing would be brought to students through iLife applications. Students would create and produce a series of public service announcements, bring continual instruction and practice of persuasive writing. This activity specifically targets persuasion through word choice, voice, and the use of effective sentences. It also creates a natural environment for editing and revising with a visual result.
Essentially, Literacy Full Circuit places students in the driver’s seat. Allowing them to increase their reading and writing skills and giving them the opportunity to digitally increase aptitude in academic technology, intrinsically motivating them to be self-directed global communicators.
The goal of this project is to improve student achievement by following the research-based educational model for learning and assessment as identified in the Policymakers’ Guide to 21st Century Skills.
This will be accomplished by having students engage in a service learning project. Students will create a documentary using iMovie of their development and implementation of a service learning project on a given community issue of their choosing. Students will apply the elements of the Stanford Decision Making Method to develop and implement their project. There are six elements to this process: frame, values, alternatives, information, sound reasoning, and commitment to follow through. While learning how to use this method, students will be simulating the decision-making process used in the business world. These activities support the life and career skills identified in the 21st Century Skills white paper. Students also will have the opportunity to practice all other skills identified in this paper. Students will not be able to complete this decision-making process without utilizing knowledge gained in their core classes, particularly reading standard 8.1.2 and 8.3.2. By identifying community issues and creating a plan to improve or eliminate the issue, students will be engaged in all the 21st century skills; and life and career skills. The Stanford Decision Making Method is critical thinking and problem solving. Developing a plan will require creativity and innovation on the part of the student. Furthermore, students will not be able to create a plan and implement it without collaboration from state or local agencies. The final requirement for students will be the dissemination of information with the production of their documentary. This meets State Board Goal #6: Improve teaching and learning by promoting and supporting appropriate uses of technology. Our focus is to have students fully engaged in the learning process by giving them responsibilities in their communities. Students will want to learn, will direct their learning, and will be excited to share what they have accomplished. This may sound like fiction, but in reality it can be a reality.
Creating Techno Savvy Mathematicians!
Plattsmouth teachers have a vision! They see techno savvy mathematicians applying what they know in all subject areas and within the community. In order to make the vision a reality, they want to start at the beginning and use a portable computer lab to help elementary students solve complex problems across many disciplines. For many students, the careers they will follow and the technology they will use have not yet been developed. However, the need for mathematical understand will be constant. The Plattsmouth Community School District (PCSD) is committed to working in partnership with educators, parents and the local community to ensure academic achievement, responsible behavior, and civic engagement for its students while preparing them for success in the 21st Century. Making math relevant is a perfect way to do this.
Data analysis shows that PCSD elementary school students are unable to meet the NDE technology essentials and, as a group, are at or below the 44th percentile in mathematics on the SAT 10 with significant differences in scores between subgroups. Thus, through the NCA process and curriculum work, Prek-12 mathematics and technology teachers set goals for improving student learning in these areas. The PCSD is working towards these goals systemically. Weak links in this system are the limited access to technology and integration related professional development available to elementary teachers. Funds for this grant are needed to help teachers use technology to develop techno savvy mathematicians at the elementary level.
The goals of this project are to have students in elementary school 1) meet the district and the NDE Technology Essentials and 2) improve their mathematical conceptual understanding and fluency. The following objectives meet these goals:
Through this project, community members, teachers, students, and parents will be involved in helping students become comfortable with technology essentials, mathematically competent, and aware of the role math plays in their world. SAT 10, STARS, and teacher-constructed assessments will be used to evaluate growth in these areas. Knowing the critical need for students to be technologically literate, have a strong foundation in mathematics, and be aware of the career world around them, the district has a vision for student achievement and a systemic plan for reaching its goals. Imagine, computer wielding mathematicians exploring their community and world . . . PCSD teachers want to make this a reality!
Increasing Meadows Elementary School Student Reading Achievement With Interactive Technologies
This project, when funded, will increase Meadows’ student reading achievement of the NDE comprehensive Reading Standards One and Two through the use of Classroom Performance Systems (CPS) chalkboards and the eInstruction interactive response systems (IRS). Formative assessments will be administered with these tools and the reporting system will calculate item and student analysis to pinpoint the needs of students. Black and William’s (1998) studies show that formative assessment is critical to effective teaching. In these same studies where formative assessment innovations were used, all of the studies show that strength the practice of formative assessment produces significant and often substantial learning gains. Boyd (1973), Guthrie (1971), Kulhavy (1977), and Kulik and Kulik (1988) found that frequent questions, repetitive questions, immediate feedback, and corrective feedback all contributed significantly to student learning. Teachers will follow this research-based format as they use these innovative tools. The goal is to attain growth each testing period. Teachers will also use these interactive devices to promote the 21st Century interdisciplinary skills of communication and collaboration with students to build their competencies by sharing ideas with others and working with them to reach a consensus, as described in the examples that follow.
If we could transport ourselves to a Meadows’ classroom a few months from now, we would see these goals being met. Reading Standard One state, “Students will learn and apply reading skills and strategies to construct meaning, knowledge of print, phonological awareness, word analysis, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.” One activity that would have students meeting this goal is to use their “clickers” to select the definitions for vocabulary words. If the students made an incorrect choice, the word and its meaning would be discussed at that point. Teachers can immediately modify instruction so that students are retaining the correct information. The teachers could also switch to the report mode at the end of the lesson, and could print out a list of students and the words they did not know. Additional teaching, and more importantly, learning of the vocabulary that would be needed, could be made available to the students. Another demonstration of meeting Reading Standard 2 and 21st Century Skills would be having students tell how a character in a reading selection is like them. Students could use the CPS Chalkboards to list attributes on a Venn Diagram to show both similarities and differences. This work would be published in “real time” by being projected onto a classroom screen. Students would explain their answers and a dialogue would take place, adding further responses to the chart. Increasing the Meadows’ reading achievement scores can happen, with both of these tools.
The building budget does not have the funding for these innovative tools. We are still replacing Apple 5200 and 5600 models with the new iMacs, and purchasing new computers for the teachers. We are in the second year of the cycle that will take three years to complete. Without this grant, the interactive response system project will not be possible until the 2010-2011 school year. By then it is entirely conceivable that the technology monies could be cut from the building fund.
Expression Through Music is a project designed to bring new and innovative ideas to the music classroom, and relate music to the student’s diverse lives using technological tools. This project will reach grades six through twelve in four different settings.
The proposal will provide a music technology lab for the music room at Wood River Rural Middle/High School. The music technology lab will provide five music-making stations with the classroom, each equipped with a laptop, a midi keyboard, two Logitech headsets, iLife, Music Ace and Music Ace 2 programs. These stations will be used for a wide variety of projects in the music classroom while enhancing student achievement with the opportunity to learn not only about music, but also life lessons about time management, organization, teamwork, and responsibility.
The seventh grade music appreciation class is composed of ten students that rotate every nine weeks. During the nine week course, the students explore several different avenues of music. Two of those will include composition (Garage Band), and music videos (iMovie). In the course of the composition unit the students will be using Garage Band, the midi keyboards, and the Logitech headsets to write their own songs. The final unit during the nine weeks is the music video unit. Through the use of the digital video camera, iMovie, the laptops, and their headsets, students will create their own music video by using their interpretation of what the finished product should look like.
From the first day of sixth grade choir, music theory is introduced; with the addition of the music technology lab, students will be able to receive one-on-one theory training. Over 40 sixth graders will have the opportunity to use the Music Ace program in which they will begin to learn the names of the notes and their duration, the names of the lines and spaces, and also the difference in clef signs. As the students progress from sixth grade choir to th seventh and eighth grade choir, they will move on to Music Ace 2. Having these programs will provide over 50 seventh and eighth grade students the chance to improve their musical skills. These stations will allow each student to work at his or her own pace, improving the quality of students’ musical ability and therefore the quality of all the choirs.
Ninth through twelfth grade students involved in high school choir (usually around 60 members) will also have the opportunity to use these music technology stations. The high school students will be able to write their own bass, drum and guitar parts to the concert pieces they are preparing for performances using the laptops, midi keyboards and the keyboard books.