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© SMART Technologies Inc. 2006. SMART Board, smarttech and the SMART logo are trademarks of SMART Technologies Inc. All other third-party product and company names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Celebrate World Teachers’ Day by entering SMART’s Worldwide Video Contest.Dazzle us with a video that spotlights how SMART products are improving teaching and learning in your school and you could win:

• An all-inclusive trip to London, UK, for the BETT 2007 conference• One of five SMART Board™ interactive whiteboards • One of seventy-five iPod shuffles

Deadline for entries is November 5, 2006.

Enter now at www.smarttech.com/wtd.

World Teachers’ Day ‘06

interactive educator

C O N T E N TS VOL. 2 NO. 2 AUTUMN 2006

featuresBuilding Online Learning Communities 22What are online learning communities, and how can they motivate students to learn? Find out what they are, how they work and who’s finding success with them.by Diane Curtis

To Blog or Not to Blog? You Decide 28Do blogs and podcasts benefit learning? Wesley A. Fryer outlines the pros and cons of these tools and provides tons of resources tohelp you decide if they belong in your classrooms. by Wesley A. Fryer

Tap into Your School’s Technology Mentors 34Administrators from school districts around the United States explain how they areimproving staff technology skills and promoting effective technology use through technology mentoring. by Jacob Milner

22

28

up frontLetter from the Editor 5

Contributors 5

News & Trends 7

34

4 | i.e. magazine | Autumn 2006

C O N T E N TS VOL. 2 NO. 2 AUTUMN 2006

interactive educatorPUBLISHER

SMART Technologies Inc.

EDITORIAL

Managing EditorWendy McMahon

Assistant EditorEmma Howarth

Consulting EditorDavid Lapides

Publishing AdvisorRobert Morrow

Art DirectorChris Hopson

CONTRIBUTORSDeena Cox Matt Miller Diane Curtis Jacob MilnerCara Erenben Wendy McMahonWesley A. Fryer Susan D. PatrickNancy Knowlton Kathy SchrockMichelle Lomberg

EDITORIAL AND ADVERTISING OFFICES

i.e. magazineSMART Technologies Inc.1207 – 11 Avenue SW, Suite 300Calgary, AB T3C 0M5 [email protected]

SUBSCRIPTIONSFor a free one-year subscription, or for queriesregarding district subscriptions, please [email protected].

i.e. magazine (ISSN 1715-0205) is publishedquarterly by SMART Technologies Inc., 1207 –11 Avenue SW, Suite 300, Calgary, AB, T3C0M5, CANADA. The magazine is available forfree in Canada and the United States on alimited basis. Permission to reprint materials inany form requires express permission of thepublisher. Article submissions or pitches arewelcomed and should be e-mailed to the managing editor at [email protected] articles become the property of thepublisher and cannot be returned.

Printed in the United States.

© 2006 SMART Technologies Inc.All rights reserved.

education.smarttech.com

departmentsResearch Matters 10

E-Readersby Kathy Schrock

Buying Smart 12Sorting out the Specs

by Michelle Lomberg

PD Profile 14PD Hiring Guide

by Cara Erenben

Smart Practices 16Tracking TAKS Scores

by Wendy McMahon

Nancy’s Notebook 18Flexible, Appropriate and Fun

by Nancy Knowlton

Guest Column 20New Learning Models

by Susan D. Patrick

columnsPoint of View 38

Tech Trends 40

Product Watch 42

Digital Reviews 43

Web Resources 44

Education by the Numbers 46

10

46

Autumn 2006 | i.e. magazine | 5

As the new school year starts,school hallways and districtmeeting rooms will be abuzz

with talk of the latest technologytrends. But the work involved intracking and finding the substancebehind these new trends is timeconsuming – so in this issue we’vedone some of the legwork for you.

We talked to educators and expertswho use emerging technologies suchas Moodle, e-books, podcasts andblogs every day, and we interviewedthought leaders in trends such asonline learning communities andtechnology mentoring programs.

You’ll hear from Diane Curtis whodefines and discusses online learningcommunities and describes howschools are using online tools to moti-vate students and encourage self-directed learning. She also providestips from experts on starting your ownonline learning community (BuildingOnline Learning Communities p. 22).

Wesley A. Fryer gives a frankinsight into the pros and cons of using blogs and podcasts andincludes information and resourcesto help you decide if podcasting andblogging are learning tools you want

to put into action. (To Blog or Not toBlog? You Decide p. 28).

You’ll also find out how e-bookscan help reluctant readers succeed (E-Readers p. 10), what Moodle is andhow Middlesex County Public SchoolDistrict in Virginia uses it extensivelyto improve student learning (Do youMoodle? p. 40).

Here at SMART we talk to educa-tors at every level to find out whatthey need from technology and whatinformation they need to make sounddecisions on implementing technol-ogy successfully. While many of youwant to be in-the-know when it comesto the latest technology news, youdon’t just want headlines, you wantpractical suggestions. How does thisnews affect education? What aresome concrete examples of how it canbe put to good use? Where can youlearn more?

So we haven’t just given youexpert opinions on these new toolsand trends; we’ve included advice,real-world examples and anecdotesfrom people actually putting them towork in districts, schools and class-rooms on a daily basis. And we’vetopped it all off with plenty ofresources to help you learn more oreven start using some of these newtechnologies right away.

Whether you read the many arti-cles inside to keep up with the latesttrends, to help form your technologyplans for the year or to find examplesyou can follow, you’re sure to findthem useful – and save yourselfsome time.

Sincerely,Wendy McMahonManaging Editor

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Diane Curtis is a veteranjournalist and educationwriter based in Mill Valley,California. She has writ-ten for The George LucasEducational Foundationfocusing on technology in schools, andhas worked for the San FranciscoChronicle, the Sacramento Bee, the SanJose Mercury, the Associated Press andUnited Press International, where she wasa White House correspondent. She haswon numerous awards, including Best inthe West for editorial writing.

Wesley A. Fryer is an educator, author, digitalstoryteller, technology inte-gration pioneer, husbandand father. He is a nationaland international presenterand speaker and addresses a range oftopics related to education, technologyintegration, distance learning and 21st-century literacy.

Susan D. Patrick is thePresident and CEO of theNorth American Councilfor Online Learning. She isthe former Director of the Office of EducationalTechnology, U.S. Department of Educationand published the National EducationTechnology Plan to Congress.

Matt Miller is seniorWeb editor for ChapmanUniversity in SouthernCalifornia and eNewslettereditor for a K–12 ed-techmagazine. He has beeninvolved in print and online publishing formore than 10 years. He is currentlypursuing a master's in education fromChapman, where he earned his BA injournalism.

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

FREE subscription! education.smarttech.com/subscribe

HALL MEMORIAL SCHOOL BET ITS BLUE CHIP GRANT ON THIS OUTCOME

The purchase? SMART Board™ interactive whiteboards for every classroom.

© 2006 SMART Technologies Inc. All rights reserved. SMART Board and the SMART Board logo are trademarks of SMART Technologies Inc.

Hall Memorial middle school in Willington, CT, was built in 1922 and, until three years ago, seemed more about the past than the future. But Principal David Harding believes technology is the new literacy, so he took a chance and used blue chip grant money to purchase SMART Board interactive whiteboards for every classroom.

The result? Students are more engaged in learning. It's easier to attract new teachers. Veteran teachers with little computer experience have become experts. Teachers are training other teachers. And word of their success is spreading. They've entertained a dozen school districts from across the U.S., and even one from China, that want to see what they're doing.

College ahead

See a short video about the Hall Memorial experience at www.smarttech.com/Hall3

Call 1.888.42.SMART (427-6278)


NEWS & TRENDS

Senate panel rejects “netneutrality” rules – On June 28,Internet users trying to prohibit tele-phone and cable companies fromproviding better service and betterprices to preferred customers lost alarge part of their battle.

Not only did the Senate Com-merce, Science, and TransportationCommittee approve a bill intended tolet phone companies and othertelecommunications providers bettercompete in video markets currentlymonopolized by cable companies,but the committee also rejected an amendment to the bill. SenatorsOlympia Snowe, R-Maine, and ByronDorgan, D-N.D., proposed to prohibitphone and cable companies fromlimiting access to their high-speedInternet networks based on sitecontent or financial arrangements.The vote was 11–11, and ties defeatproposed amendments.

However, the bill faces an uncer-tain future in the full Senate becauseof the controversy over “net neutral-ity” – how to ensure that consumersand Internet content providerscontinue having open and nondis-criminatory access to the Internet.

Supporters of the amendment tothe bill argued that service providerscould give preferential treatment tobusiness partners or use pricing andaccess limits to discriminate betweenwebsites and other Internet users.Phone companies have talked aboutcreating a “two-tiered” system in whichusers of their networks – includingschools and other website operators –desiring faster service for the deliveryof broadband or voice-over-IP applica-tions would have to pay more. Thosewho couldn’t pay would be relegated tothe Internet “slow lane.”

“What’s at stake is the Internet inthe 21st century,” said Snowe, theonly Republican to vote for theamendment. “This is the preserva-tion of digital democracy.” The chiefgoal of the wide-ranging bill is to

make it easier for phone companiesand others to enter video marketsnow dominated by cable and satellitecompanies, in part by replacing thelocal video franchising system now inplace with a national system.

Senate Commerce, Science, andTransportation Committeehttp://commerce.senate.gov/public

Software AccreditationProgram – SMART TechnologiesInc. announces the launch of theSMART Software AccreditationProgram. The program aims to identifycontent and software based on its levelof compatibility with and customiza-tion for SMART Board interactivewhiteboards and Sympodium interac-tive pen displays. Accreditation willenable customers to confidentlypurchase software and content fromthird-party developers to complementSMART’s interactive whiteboards andinteractive pen displays. SMART isworking with software and contentcompanies to ensure their offeringsmeet customer expectations for com-patibility. The program will accreditcontent and software according to athree-tiered logo framework, andcompanies in the program will beauthorized to use one of these logos ontheir software or content packages.

Software developers and contentproviders are creating a wide range ofresources specifically for integrationwith SMART products. The SMART

Software Accreditation Program hasthree accreditation levels designatedas Ready, Enabled and Select.Additionally, a number of thecontent developers will providesamples of their materials (eitherMacromedia Flash files or images) forinclusion in the Gallery in Notebooksoftware, the whiteboarding applica-tion in SMART Board software.

“The SMART Software AccreditationProgram will direct customers toadditional resources, curriculum-based programs and digital contentso they can get the most fromSMART’s collaborative learningproducts.” says Nancy Knowlton,SMART’s president and co-CEO.

All software titles accredited bySMART can be purchased directly from vendors. An online listing of all accredited titles will be available fromSMART in September, 2006. For more information regarding theSoftware Accreditation Program e-mail [email protected].

Good news for Linuxusers in court battle – A U.S.magistrate has struck down many ofthe SCO Group Inc.’s claims againstIBM Corp., saying SCO failed to show its intellectual property wasmisappropriated when Big Bluedonated software code to the freelydistributed Linux operating system.

Magistrate Brooke Wells dismissed182 of SCO’s 294 claims, dealing amajor setback to SCO’s $5 billionlawsuit. That’s good news for schoolsand other users of Linux software,which face the possibility of having topay licensing fees to SCO if a decisionultimately favors the Utah company.

The suit, filed in 2003, accusedIBM of donating SCO’s Unix code toLinux software developers, but Wellsruled SCO had produced virtually noproof of the allegation.

She said SCO had “willfully failed tocomply” with court orders to show IBMwhich, of millions of lines of code in



Linux were supposedly misappropri-ated. SCO argued that was IBM’s job.

Wells dismissed SCO’s argumentsthat only IBM engineers could verifythat IBM gave away proprietary soft-ware code to Linux, the work of thou-sands of developers around the world.

“SCO’s arguments are akin to SCOtelling IBM, ‘Sorry, we are not going totell you what you did wrong because youalready know,’” the magistrate wrote.

SCO acknowledged on June 30that the ruling was a setback, butspokesman Blake Stowell said thecompany would continue to press itscase. He said the magistrate dis-missed general claims but keptseveral major ones that assert lines ofUnix code were dumped into Linux.

IBM Corp.http://www.ibm.com

The SCO Group Inc.http://www.sco.com

$790M in grants target“high-need” subjects

Beginning July 1, U.S. students willhave $790 million in new incentives tokeep up their grades and study “high-demand” subjects, such as math,science, engineering, technology andcertain foreign languages. To help keepU.S. students on par with studentsacross the world when it comes to theirperformance and interest in thesefields, the U.S. Department ofEducation (ED) is launching two newstudent grant programs.

ED’s Academic CompetitivenessGrants and its Science andMathematics Access to Retain Talent,or SMART, Grants aim to encouragestudents to take more challengingcourses in high school and to pursuecollege majors, such as science andtechnology, that are in high demandin the global economy.

The student grants are part of thegovernment’s push to make Americansmore competitive economically. In the

coming academic year, $790 million isearmarked for college students whostudy relevant subjects, show financialneed and maintain good grades.During a conference call with reporterson June 29, Terri Shaw, the chief oper-ating officer for ED’s Office of FederalStudent Aid, said $4.5 billion is beingmade available for the program overthe next five years.

“For America to remain a worldleader in innovation, our children ...must have math, science and criticallanguage skills,” Shaw said.

Eligible subjects include computerscience, engineering, life and physicalsciences, technology, mathematics,and languages such as Arabic, Chineseand Urdu, which is spoken in Pakistan.

Officials hope the grants will attractstudents to fields they might not haveconsidered before – and give highschool students an additional incen-tive to study challenging subjects.

Students who are in their first orsecond year of a two-year or four-yeardegree program are eligible forAcademic Competitiveness Grants.Students who are in their third or fourthyear of a four-year degree program areeligible for SMART Grants.

Academic Competitiveness andSMART Grantshttp://www.ed.gov/about/inits/ed/competitiveness/ac-smart2.html

Letter from Secretary Spellingsoutlining the new grantshttp://www.ed.gov/policy/highered/guid/secletter/060502.html

Mississippi proposes self-paced, online curriculumMississippi Superintendent ofEducation Hank Bounds has unveileda new $20 million proposal designedto offer seven possible career paths tohigh school students, as well as onlinecourses that would help prepare themfor college and the workforce.

The plan is called RedesigningEducation for the 21st Century

Workforce in Mississippi. Boundssaid the plan is a “vision for the futureof Mississippi’s middle and highschools.”

The state schools chief wants highschool students to select classes relatedto their desired career field, much likein college, and the state will offer onlinecourses to students who want to gradu-ate early or to those who are behind.

The goals, Bound said, are toprepare students for the workforcemore effectively and to lower the state’sdropout rate. About 35–40 percent ofhigh school students in Mississippi failto graduate, he said.

“They’re all going into the work-force,” Bounds said. “It’s our job tomake sure they capture the [required]skills.”

Bounds said the default curriculumin the state has rightly been a collegepreparatory curriculum for middleand high school students.

“But we should have a fallback net,”he said. “As a high school principal [for12 years], I would see many studentswho did not go through appropriatetransitional activities in ninth grade.They would fail two or three courses,get behind, and feel like they were intoo deep a hole to get out.”

Bounds said he hopes the pro-posed program will help students likethese recognize they have a widerarray of options beyond droppingout of school. The program willpermit students to take self-pacedonline courses and also receivesupport through on-site instructors.

Bounds believes that if studentscan go at their own pace and completea course in 60 days instead of 180,they should be able to. “For some, itmay take longer.” He said the 21st-century learning skills and technol-ogy development that make up thecurriculum would seem more relevantto today’s students, who often arefrustrated with subject matter theyperceive as out of step with thecurrent work world.

NEWS & TRENDS

Kids learn better when learning is interactive

Kids explore their world by touch. With a SMART

BoardTM interactive whiteboard in the classroom, they can

explore the world of learning the same way. A SMART

Board's bright, touch-sensitive screen invites students to

interact, which motivates them to learn and helps them

retain material. The result is improved classroom outcomes.

Easy for teachers to use, SMART Board interactive

whiteboards are also designed with kids in mind.

Toolbars can be moved to the bottom of the screen,

so smaller children and children with special needs can

be accommodated. Every day, in more than 250,000

classrooms around the globe, teachers use SMART Board

interactive whiteboards to help kids touch their world.

www.smarttech.com


W ith the U.S. federal govern-ment’s fiscal year 2007budget showing an increase

in funding that is dedicated to improv-ing reading skills, educators faced withtrying to capture the attention of reluc-tant readers may want to considercombining research-proven learningpractices with electronic books, or e-books, as a solution.

Reluctant readers aren’t studentswho just don’t want to read, they arestudents who have trouble readingfor a variety of reasons. Perhaps astudent has a visual handicap thatprecludes the use of the small-textpaperback. Maybe a student needsaccess to definitions when readingand does not want to appear differentfrom the rest of the students becausehe or she has to use a dictionary.

Possibly a student is simply not profi-cient in the reading strategies neededto read a certain genre of book.

However, e-books have featuresthat make reading more engaging andinstructionally relevant – they alsoprovide the format of text and readingguidance reluctant readers require toimprove literacy skills.

Wikipedia defines an e-book as anelectronic or digital version of a book.The term can refer to either an individ-ual work in a digital format or a hard-ware device. Teachers can also find e-book software that makes it possibleto read an e-book on their computer.

Some e-books are tied to specificelectronic book devices like the SonyReader, which can read a proprietarybook format or PDF files, view JPEGs,hold up to 80 titles, play MP3s and has a battery that can last for about7,500 page turns. Other e-book readersare software and run on handhelds,computers or even smartphones. Theseinclude, among others, MicrosoftReader and Palm eReader. E-bookreaders allow the user to change thesize of the font or the orientation ofthe page, change the color of the fontor background, search the book bykeyword, have access to a full elec-tronic dictionary, insert electronicbookmarks and even create electronic“sticky” notes within the text of the e-book.

In his recent book entitled TheDigital Reader: Using E-books in K–12Education, Dr. Terry Cavanaugh, a visit-ing professor at the University of NorthFlorida, offers advice and resources forteachers who want to use e-books toencourage the reluctant reader.

The book includes an overview of

the research of Elizabeth Lowe, whichstates that using large-print materials“resulted in significant sustainedimprovement in word recognition andaccuracy, comprehension and fluency.”

Cavanaugh’s book also presentsJanice West-Christy’s useful list of fivestrategies for high school teachers touse to support reluctant readers. West-Christy is the English DepartmentChair from Louisa County High Schoolin Louisa, Virginia. The strategiesinclude offering a wide range of read-ing materials, incorporating large-printmaterials, engaging multiple modali-ties, teaching important vocabularyand using pre-reading techniques.

Cavanaugh builds on the list andadds the following suggestions forusing e-books to help incorporate thesestrategies into the classroom. I’ve alsoadded some of my suggestions.

Offer a wide range of reading materialsThere are many e-books available to usewith e-book devices and e-book soft-ware. Two large e-book distributors arePowells.com and eReader.com. In addi-tion, there are many public domaintitles available in plain text format thatcan be used with e-book software, orwith any word processing program.You can find many of these on theProject Bartleby website.

An e-book reader or computer canbe loaded up with titles of all typesand offer a broad selection of readingmaterials for the reluctant reader.

Use pre-reading techniquesCavanaugh suggests that teacherscould pre-populate student e-bookswith leading questions or explanatory

E-ReadersCan electronic books help reluctant readers?

RESEARCH MATTERSby Kathy Schrock


information using the built-in note-taking function to help students bothbefore and while reading a book.

Incorporate large-print materialsThe wonder of technology is the abil-ity to meet the needs of all learners,and making the font size larger is easilydone with an e-book. This ability tochange the font size also alleviates the stigma of the reluctant readerhaving a different version of the bookfrom everyone else in the class.

Engage multiple modalitiesCavanaugh explains some e-bookdevices include a read-aloud featurewith simultaneous highlighting of textto help the reluctant reader. In addi-tion, the assistive technology toolsbuilt into many computer operatingsystems and third-party products alsoallow any text on the computer or onthe Internet to be read aloud.

Teach important vocabularyCavanaugh discusses the interactive

dictionaries that come with many e-book readers and e-book software,which allow the reader to click on aword and immediately go to the defi-nition. A lot of e-book devices andsoftware packages also have a featurethat permits the teacher to create an e-book for the student. Teachers canalso create a study guide with vocabu-lary and other important information,and load it on the student’s e-book toteach important words.

The use of electronic books andthe myriad features available, can beof help to all students. The ability toaccess reference material while theyare reading, highlight text with avirtual highlighter for note-takingand studying, and create a side notewithin the e-book to come back tolater, are all key factors that enhancestudent’s reading ability.

Convincing adults, who have notgrown up with technology, to use ane-book for reading will not be easy.However, our students have grown upwith technology all around them,

are comfortable trying new thingsand embrace new technologies. Iencourage you to install some of theno-cost software-based e-book read-ers on some school computers andstart the process to use the technol-ogy to reach the reluctant reader.

Kathleen Schrock is the Administrator for

Technology for the Nauset Public Schools in

Orleans, Maine. She created and maintains

Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators —

http://discoveryschool.com/schrockguide/

— and can be reached at kathy@kathy-

schrock.net.

Recommended websites

Sony Readerhttp://products.sel.sony.com/pa/prs/index.html

Microsoft Readerwww.microsoft.com/reader

Powell’s e-bookstorehttp://powells.com/ebookstore/ebooks.html

eReader.comhttp://ereader.com

Project Bartlebywww.bartleby.com

Thomson Gale www.galegroup.com

Recommended reading

Allington, R. (2005) What really matters for struggling readers: Designing research-based programs

Cavanaugh, T.W. (2006) The Digital Reader: Using E-books in K–12 Education


E-book features, such as adjustable font sizes and interactive dictionaries, can helpmake reading more engaging for reluctant readers.

It’s enough to make your head spin –roughly a dozen manufacturers andhalf a dozen different technologies.

Pixels and points per inch. XGA andSXGA. The amount of informationdecision makers face when choosinginteractive whiteboards can indeed bedizzying. But don’t let the vast array ofspecifications mislead you. Relying onnumerical specifications, such as track-ing speed and resolution, as primaryfactors in your purchasing decisionmight not be as important as you think.And bigger numbers don’t alwaysmean a better choice.

Resolution – what do the numbers mean?When evaluating interactive white-boards, it’s easy to assume that thehigher the resolution, the better thetechnology, right? Not necessarily.There are actually three kinds of reso-lution in an interactive whiteboardsetup that you should consider:projector resolution, computer resolu-tion and touch resolution.

Projector resolution refers to thenumber of pixels a digital projector candisplay on a screen. Most of today’sprojectors have XGA resolution, whichis represented as 1024 x768, or 1024pixels across and 768 pixels down, for atotal of 786,432 pixels. An SXGAprojector has a higher resolution at1280 x 1024 or 1.31 million pixels. Thehigher the resolution of the projector,the sharper the projected image.

An important thing to note,however, is that a projector’s resolutionis directly affected by the resolution ofthe computer to which it is connected.If your computer’s resolution is lowerthan the projector’s resolution, the

projector will display the lower resolu-tion. If the computer is set to a higherresolution than the projector is capableof processing, the projector will stilldisplay the lower resolution. For example, if you set your computerresolution to 1400 x 1050, and yourprojector’s resolution is 1024 x768, theprojected image will be 1024 x768.

Touch resolution refers to thenumber of contact points that theinteractive whiteboard screen canregister. An interactive whiteboardwith a touch resolution of 4096x4096,has over 16 million points that canreceive finger or pen input.

A key point to remember is that aninteractive whiteboard is an inputdevice and a projection surface, not amonitor; it displays what is projectedonto it. So, if the touch resolution ofyour interactive whiteboard is 16million pixels (4096x4096), and yourprojector resolution is 1.31 millionpixels (1280 x1024), your interactivewhiteboard is capable of handling 15million more pieces of informationthan a typical projector can deliver.

What does all this mean? It meansthat accuracy and touch precisionaren’t influenced by the resolution ofthe interactive whiteboard – as longas your interactive whiteboard’stouch resolution is greater than theprojector’s resolution. Interactivewhiteboards that have a resolution of15 to 20 times greater than standardprojectors will meet your needs todayand in the future.

The truth about tacking speedDoes handwriting on the interactivewhiteboard appear smooth or jagged?This is a key consideration for many


BUYING SMARTby Michelle Lomberg

Sorting out the SpecsHow to find an interactive whiteboard with the right qualities

Tips to remember when consideringthe resolution and tracking speed ofan interactive whiteboard:

Resolution •When considering resolution, makesure you are clear what kind of reso-lution you mean: touch resolution,projector resolution or computerresolution

•Computer and projector resolutionare most important in your interac-tive whiteboard setup – thesefactors will affect accuracy andtouch precision

•Make sure your computer cansupport your projector’s resolutionand that the computer resolution isset to the same resolution as theprojector. This will optimize theprojector’s output.

Tracking speed •Make sure your computer processoris fast enough to support the inter-active whiteboard’s tracking speed

• Using an interactive whiteboardfirst hand is the best way to testtracking speed

The Basics

I


purchasers. Writing that appearsjagged could be the result of the inad-equate tracking speed of lower qualityinteractive whiteboards, but mostlikely it is because your computer’sprocessor is too slow.

However, if the issue is the interac-tive whiteboard, here’s what you needto know about tracking speed.Tracking speed is the speed at whichthe interactive whiteboard registerspen or touch input and relays thatinformation to the computer. Trackingspeed is measured in points persecond, which is the number ofcontact points reported to the com-puter by the whiteboard in one second.

While low tracking speed can resultin jagged letters with poorly definedcurves, if the tracking speed is toohigh, the abundance of points reportedcan overload slower computers withtoo much data, which also results inirregular writing.

Research by Microsoft Corporationsuggests that the best tracking speed for writing is at least 100 points per second. Becta, the BritishEducational Communications andTechnology Agency, a key supporterof the UK government in its education-technology initiatives, recommends atracking speed of 200 points persecond, which allows writing anddrawing to appear on an interactivewhiteboard as it is written, with nodelay and without appearing pixelated.

How can you tell if an interactivewhiteboard has the tracking speed youneed? The best way to find out is to useit, and first-hand experience can play a

big part in the whole selection process. Clarke County School District in

Clarke County, Georgia, relies onhands-on trials and demos to testtracking speed and more. “We willrun pilot projects to learn all thepitfalls, then set specifications forwhat we are needing. We will thentypically organize a product shoot-out as part of a bidding process to determine the best solution,” says Paul Sims, Clarke County’sExecutive Director of Technology andContinuous Improvement.

If the resolution of your interactivewhiteboard shouldn’t be a concern,and problems with tracking speed aremore likely to be a result of yourcomputer’s processing speed, whatcriteria should you look for whenchoosing an interactive whiteboard for your classroom? Amy Gates,Supervisor of Instructional Technologyfor Lee’s Summit R7 School District inMissouri, says it depends on yourinstructional goals.

“An interactive whiteboard is muchmore than a place to project materialfrom your computer,” says Gates. “Itcan be a learning center, a place forenrichment of lessons or remediationto students who are struggling. Theboard should be a tool in the class-room to differentiate learning for all,and this means that it is not just a toolfor the teacher.”

Gates says the best way to choosethe right interactive whiteboard setupfor your school is to consider the needsof your teachers and learners as well assubject matter. But most important,she believes, is to get some hands-onexperience with the technology. Youcan also review our top 10 list ofimportant things to look for whenconsidering an interactive whiteboard.

Sifting through the specificationscan be intimidating, but knowing whatyou want from an interactive white-board, and understanding which

elements are governed by the interac-tive whiteboard and which are influ-enced by outside factors will help youfind the right interactive whiteboardfor your classrooms.

Michelle Lomberg is a writer and editor

with a background in education publish-

ing. She has written and edited numerous

education titles, including a library series

and distance education courses.


12

3

4

56

789

10

Top 10 Criteria for Choosing anInteractive WhiteboardA top 10 list can be a helpfulevaluation tool when deciding tobuy an interactive whiteboard.Here’s what Sims, Gates andother educators say are the mostimportant factors they look for ininteractive whiteboards:

Ease of use

Content that is relevant,dynamic, searchable andshareable

Compatibility with existing software

Frequent free softwareupdates

Durability

Support, including technicalsupport, warranties and free training

Easy installation

Easy maintenance

Tactile interface

Expandability

An excellent source of informationabout interactive whiteboards is the Becta website www.becta.org.

Tracking speed is the speed

at which the interactive

whiteboard registers pen or

touch input and relays that

information to the computer.


Hiring an outside company todesign, offer and even run astate or school-district profes-

sional development program oftenresults in greater cost savings andbetter content, but experts cautionschool leaders to hire carefully.

“Who initiates the conversation is really key to using an outsideprovider,” says Stephanie Hirsh,deputy executive director of theNational Staff Development Council.

Companies that cold-call a schoolsystem might sell to a problem thedistrict doesn’t have, she explains.However, if school officials identifythe knowledge and skills they are lack-ing based on standardized test scores,or other indicators, they stand a betterchance of finding a company that isaligned with the district’s goals.

Hirsch recommends looking at a

company’s proven track record andareas they focus on to determine ifthey have the expertise to do the job.“You’ve got make sure a match reallyexists,” says Hirsh. Checking out acompany’s references is a good way tostart. Often companies that claim tohave a research-based program willhave hired an independent researchgroup to conduct a study on theprogram’s effectiveness.

North Dakota is an example of astate whose small schools are locatedfar apart, making face-to-face profes-sional development difficult andcostly. As a solution, the state’s educa-tion department subscribed to AtomicLearning’s Web-based program toprovide technology training to itsteachers and students.

Atomic Learning’s program consistsof Web-based tutorials on computer-

related topics, including using interac-tive whiteboards, word processing,spreadsheets and design software.

“It allows our teachers to get some‘just in time’ professional developmenton specific skills that they get hung upon,” says Dan Pullen, director of theNorth Dakota Educational TechnologyCouncil. The self-directed tutorials are accessible via the Web, meaningteachers can access them when theyneed them, at anytime from anywhere,whether at school or at home.

The breadth of the content andexpertise offered by an outsideprovider often surpasses that in theschool system. In this case, AtomicLearning’s training content is gearedspecifically to using a wide variety oftechnology products in the classroom– more content than the North Dakotaeducation department has the timeand budget to create itself.

“I think there would be no otherway to provide the amount of K–12[tutorials] Atomic Learning provides,”says Jody French, director of EduTech,which provides North Dakota’s K–12educational technology services.

The state also purchased access toAtomic Learning’s tutorial publishingsystem, which allowed state leaders to make custom training videos about its PowerSchool student infor-mation system. In addition toAtomic Learning’s content, teacherscan access approximately 50 how-tovideos prepared by staff members atthe state education department. Thevideos, which feature amateur videoand voice recordings made by thestaff, cover topics such as how to enterdata into the student informationsystem and how to generate reports.

PD Hiring GuideTips for hiring external professional development providers

PD PROFILEby Cara Erenben

Knowing what to look for when hiring external professional development providerswill help you get the most for your money.

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Pullen feels that using AtomicLearning eliminates the need for someface-to-face technology training andrequires less staff time to prepare train-ing sessions. He also sees another bene-fit: “Budgets are tight and budgets aregetting tighter.” Compared to the tradi-tional way of offering professionaldevelopment Atomic Learning is veryinexpensive, he explains. The subscrip-tion fee is based on the number ofteachers and students statewide.

Having access to an anytime,anywhere professional developmentresource provides teachers with train-ing as soon as they need it. The servicelets teachers independently answerwhat would otherwise be help-deskquestions. Before, they would havehad to seek out a technology specialiston staff to solve their problem.

An always-available professionaldevelopment program comes with achallenge, too: out of sight, out ofmind. French says keeping the staffaware that the service is available is abig issue. Administrators remindteachers that the resource is availableas often as they can at staff meetings,professional development workshops,and in e-mails and newsletters.

“You have to change people’s

habits. This is an online resource,”explains Pullen. “People are used tohaving someone come in and do asession.” With this service, teachershave to actively go out and seek thetraining they need.

Planning and goal setting is animportant process when hiring anoutside provider to fulfill a schoolsystem’s professional developmentneeds. Hirsh says school leadersshould first identify their needs andthen create a detailed, long-lastingplan to meet those needs.

Hirsh and other staff at theNational Staff Development Councilsay the most desirable model ofprofessional development is embed-ded daily team learning. “We cansuccessfully change teachers’ practicesif we rely on the training, coachingand follow-up model,” explains Hirsh.

An outside provider should focuson strategies that improve perform-ance on a daily basis and be willing tobuild a great partnership with theschool district and stick around forthe long haul.

By choosing a professional devel-opment company with an estab-lished track record, school leaderscan be confident that they will get

the same results in their schooldistrict as other districts have had,says Hirsh. An outside company canalso offer deep content knowledge,the latest research-based techniques,and expertise.

If you’re interested in learning moreabout hiring a professional develop-ment company, PBS TeacherLine,FutureKids Inc., Apple Computer Inc.,and the Association for Supervisionand Curriculum Development, alongwith Atomic Learning are well-knownorganizations that offer commerciallyavailable professional developmentprograms.

Cara Erenben is an Ontario-based freelance

reporter. Previously, she was a full-time

school technology reporter for eSchool Newsin Bethesda, Maryland.

Recommended websites

National Staff Development Councilwww.nsdc.org

North Dakota’s EduTechwww.edutech.nodak.edu

Atomic Learningwww.atomiclearning.com


Planning and goal setting is an important process whenhiring an outside provider to fulfill a school system’sprofessional development needs. Stephanie Hirsh, deputyexecutive director of the National Staff DevelopmentCouncil, recommends that school leaders ask the follow-ing questions before deciding on a provider:

• Has the district used its data to identify the areasin which teachers need improvement?

• Does the company’s area of focus, research andtrack record match the district’s needs?

• Can the company with pre-packaged content tailorits program to meet the district’s needs?

• What resources and time will the program require?

• Does the company or district have dedicated staffto offer ongoing support?

• How will school leaders, such as principals andteacher leaders, be involved?

• How is the material the company is teaching goingto be maintained over time within the school system?

• How will the program coexist with professionaldevelopment programs already in place?

• How will new hires be incorporated into the program?• How will the professional development program be

evaluated?• Does the company accommodate teachers’ different

learning styles?

Ask Before You HireRESOURCES


A t Kress Elementary School, asmall school in the Texaspanhandle, a veteran teacher

has found that adding a SMART Boardinteractive whiteboard to her classroomhas helped improve student scores onthe Texas Assessment of Knowledgeand Skills (TAKS) examinations, whichassess math and reading competencies.

Lori Reed has been teaching thirdgraders for more than 17 years, andduring that time she’s always beenopen to finding new ways to help herstudents be successful learners. Justtwo years ago, Lori learned that aschool in a neighboring county had aSMART Board interactive whiteboard,so she decided to visit the school tolearn more about the technology.

“Well, I was so sold on the possibili-ties of it as a great teaching tool that I

went back to my technology coordina-tor and said, ‘Oh please, will you buyme one of these?’”

“Most kids at our school are readingbelow grade level by the time they getto third grade. So I saw this was a wayto reach those kids,” explains Reed.

With the help of a grant from theSMARTer Kids Foundation of Canadaand Leah Zeigler, the technology coordi-nator for Kress Independent SchoolDistrict, Reed had an interactive white-board in her classroom a few monthslater. “And,” she enthuses “I’ve neverlooked back.”

Reed started using her new interac-tive whiteboard right away. She read themanual and tried something new everyday. Step by step, she and her studentslearned how to hyperlink to websitesfor extra practice or real-world exam-

ples, and how to add streaming videoclips to lessons. Over the past two years,Reed also created over 300 science,math and reading lesson activities usingSMART’s Notebook software.

“I did spend quite a bit of time on itto start with, but when the kids were soengaged and so enthusiastic about thelearning it was not a waste of time.And it really encouraged me to go outand get new technology skills so I coulduse the SMART Board,” she explains.

And it seems Reed’s hard work ispaying off.

After the 2006 TAKS results weremade public, she decided to comparethe scores of her six students to theeight students in the school’s otherthird-grade class that doesn’t have aSMART Board interactive whiteboard.“Since the classrooms are so similar,and we do teach the same lessons onthe same days, I was just curious, formyself, to see,” she explains.

First, she reviewed the data for theTAKS test as far back as two yearsbefore she got her interactive white-board.

“The results were good and the classscores between mine and the otherclassroom were pretty evenly matched.No students really excelled, maybe afew every year, but very few,” says Reed.

She then looked at the results forthe 2005–2006 school year. At the firstmath benchmark test of the year, 67percent of the students in the SMARTBoard interactive whiteboard class-room passed compared to 14 percentin the traditional classroom.

Although at the end of the year allstudents in both classes passed themath test, 50 percent of the students in Reed’s class earned commended

Tracking TAKS Scores Increased scores attributed to interactive technology

SMART PRACTICESby Wendy McMahon

Teacher Lori Reed, says using the SMART Board interactive whiteboard has helpedimprove her students reading and math skills.

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performance. “To me, this data showsthat the early gains helped morestudents achieve excellence than thosein the traditional classroom. Theystarted out ahead and they were aheadat the end,” remarks Reed.

Results for the reading test weresimilar. After the first bench mark test,71 percent of the students in Reed’sclass passed and 43 percent of the tradi-tional classroom passed, and at the endof the year, all students in both classespassed, but more of Reed’s studentswent further, with 50 percent of themearning commended performance.

Reed feels her students are succeed-ing because they are more engagednow that she is teaching visual, interac-tive lessons on the SMART Boardinteractive whiteboard.

“Because of the visual nature ofmath, they really need to see it tounderstand it. Most people are visuallearners, whether it’s an algorithm or afraction, making arrays or drawingpictures to match a word problem. Tobe able to make that information inter-active and then let the students inter-act with it creates much longer lastinglearning,” says Reed.

When it comes to reading, she saysher students do everything from read-ing from the interactive whiteboard

and taking online assessments tocompleting matching activities. “Theythink they’re playing at the SMARTBoard when they’re really reading.They will try to read anything off thatSMART Board.”

Zeigler agrees with Reed’s theory onthe student’s TAKS success. “I thinkbecause it does hook them in, visually,verbally and kinesthetically that theyremember what they’ve learned andhave better retention.”

Zeigler says other teachers havetaken notice of the success Reed andher students are having, and she’sreceived requests for SMART Boardinteractive whiteboards from threemore teachers.

She says that may not sound like alot, but when you consider that thereare only a total of about 25 teachers in

the district, it’s a significant number. Craig Setliff, principal of Kress

Elementary School, says he’s pleasedwith results coming from Reed’s class.

“It has been exciting to see theenergy that this technology creates inher teaching and in the student’s learn-ing,” says Setliff. “From presenting theobjective to teaching the objective, …the SMART Board does it all in a waythat reaches the visual and tactilelearner. This greatly increases theretention of newly acquired knowl-edge, which in turn gives students thesuccess and confidence that every prin-cipal loves to see.”

Reed is encouraged by these resultsand feels she’s just giving her studentsthe skills they need to be successful inthe future. “I’m 53, nearing retirementand have chosen to embrace technol-ogy integration for the sake of the chil-dren. They’re the digital natives, I’mthe immigrant. It’s only right to teachthem what they’ll need to know inschool and beyond.”

Wendy McMahon is the managing editor of

i.e. magazine. Based in Calgary, Alberta, she

has written a variety of articles about

education technology, including many case

studies about the successful use of technology

in schools.


“To me, this data shows that

the early gains helped more

students achieve excellence

than those in the traditional

classroom. They started out

ahead and they were ahead

at the end.”

After getting an interactive whiteboard, teacher LoriReed decided to compare the TAKS tests results for herthird-grade class with the other third-grade class in herschool for the two years prior to getting her new tech-nology. She found the results were good, and the classscores for her students and the other classroom wereevenly matched with few students excelling.

But, when Reed reviewed the 2005–2006 TAKSresults for both classes, here’s what she found:

• In the first math benchmark test of the year, 67percent of the students in the SMART Board

interactive whiteboard classroom passed comparedto 14 percent in the traditional classroom

• At the end of the year, all students in both classespassed the math test, but 50 percent of the studentsin Reed’s class earned commended performance

• After the first reading benchmark test, 71 percentof the students in Reed’s class passed and 43percent of the traditional classroom passed

• At the end of the year, all students in both classespassed the reading test, but more of Reed’sstudents went further, with 50 percent of themearning commended performance

Reading the ResultsRESOURCES


Different grade levels demanddifferent teaching strategies,and so, too, do special needs

students. This is true in both the tech-nology-free and technology-enabledclassroom. It is especially importantto acknowledge this truth beforegoing down a technology path.Thinking through the appropriateuse before implementation is theonly way to go.

Focusing students’ energyIn an elementary or primary class-room there’s a certain buzz – 20 or so

little bodies bursting with energy,barely able to stay in their seats or sitstill. Children with unbounded energy,an excitement for life and generallysunny dispositions greet their teachersevery day. Putting all of that energy towork on the task at hand and channel-ing it to focus on learning are theteacher’s job.

From the beginning, a primaryschool teacher is faced with the mostbasic of behavioral challenges –getting the children to concentrate.But if we add a SMART Board inter-active whiteboard to a primary or

elementary classroom, we find thatyounger children are particularlykeen to participate. They love to bechosen to go to the interactive white-board to show what they know orperform a task. Teachers often tell usabout children who are explodingwith eagerness to participate in classwhen there’s a SMART Board interac-tive whiteboard in the room.

Rewarding strategiesTeachers have also told us about theirstrategies for using the interactivewhiteboard to gain cooperation andattention in class. One child or a groupof children can be responsible for theinteractive whiteboard, getting it upand running and shutting it down eachday. If things are put away properly orif everyone pays attention, a nicereward might be 20 minutes ofJeopardy or Speller, played on the inter-active whiteboard – two fun games thatcan test students’ knowledge. Thesesimple things put fun into the learningexperience and meet the needs of bothelementary teachers and students.

Early experiencesTeachers in primary and elementaryschools saw an immediate applica-tion for the SMART Board interactivewhiteboard when it was introducedin the early nineties. They had longbeen asking students to come to thefront of the classroom to solve aproblem on a chalkboard or white-board. So, for teachers wishing tobring the added dimension of tech-nology to everyday teaching andlearning, the interactive whiteboardwas a comfortable extension of atried-and-true teaching strategy.

Flexible, Appropriate and FunTechnology can meet the needs of a variety of students

NANCY’S NOTEBOOKby Nancy Knowlton

No matter which grade level students are in or what needs they have, educators say theSMART Board interactive whiteboard meets the learning needs of all their students.

D


These teachers very quickly becamea devoted customer group. They couldsee the power of the SMART Boardinteractive whiteboard to engage andmotivate students, and they coulddevelop their skill set quickly with adedicated interactive whiteboard intheir classroom.

Secondary applicationsWhile many people immediately seethe application of an interactivewhiteboard in a primary or elemen-tary classroom, some wonder how itcan be applied in the upper grades.

Just as teaching strategies differ, sotoo must teachers’ use of technologytools like interactive whiteboards. TheSMART Board interactive whiteboardhas been developed to be a flexible,adaptable tool – one that does whatteachers and students want in a classroom, regardless of grade level orneeds.

Middle and high school teacherscan make experiments come alivethrough simulation in science class-rooms. With simulation software oradditional devices connected to acomputer, such as a meter, probe,document camera or digital micro-scope, experiments can become moreengaging and interactive.

The sophisticated, yet easy-to-use,tools within SMART Board softwareare particularly suited to middle,junior high or high school students ina classroom or lab where all studentshave computers.

Using LinQ software, students innetworked schools can share theirdesktop material on the interactivewhiteboard and then either stayseated for a quick show and tell or goto the interactive whiteboard to do apresentation.

Using tools such as Recorder,students no longer have to furiouslycopy math proofs from the interactivewhiteboard during class. The teacher’s

voice and everything that happens atthe interactive whiteboard can becaptured and shared after class on theschool’s website. Students can focuson what the teacher is saying anddoing, knowing that everything willbe available online after class. Inaddition, students won’t make anycopying errors. Some educators tell usthat math scores have shot up 10 to 15percent in classrooms with SMARTBoard interactive whiteboards wherestudents can review their teacher’snotes at a later date.

Meeting special needsBeyond the normal attention chal-lenges in primary or elementary andsecondary classrooms, many teachersare also working to meet the require-

ments of students with special needs,and we have seen through the yearsthat the SMART Board interactivewhiteboard is the perfect tool to do this.

•Children can use their fingers tocontrol or write on the interactivewhiteboard – they don’t have tomanipulate a special tool. Thissimple feature of the product hasbeen cited many times over as oneof the key aspects to its suitabilityfor special needs students

•Teachers can move the menu inNotebook software from the top ofthe page to the bottom to alloweven the shortest of students toaccess menu commands

•Special needs students sometimesdon’t have the fine motor skillsrequired to operate a mouse. Witha SMART Board interactive white-board they simply touch the appli-cation they want to open.

•A teacher can sign to deaf childrenwhile simultaneously working onthe interactive whiteboard – theydon’t have to constantly retrieve aspecial tool that could distractfrom the flow of the classThe options for teaching to all types

of students are endless, and every dayteachers tell us about new teachingapplications they have found for theSMART Board interactive whiteboard.

But one thing is always the same –the power to engage and the power toinspire are where they have alwaysbeen – with the teacher.

Nancy Knowlton is the President and co-

CEO of SMART Technologies Inc., the

company whose name has become synony-

mous with interactive whiteboards. Ms.

Knowlton is one of the world’s leading

experts on technology integration, and she

travels extensively speaking with educators

on this topic. Here, in “Nancy’s Notebook,”

she transcribes her notes on the subjects she

hears about most in her travels.


“The SMART Board

interactive whiteboard has

been developed to be a

flexible, adaptable tool –

one that does what teachers

and students want in a

classroom, regardless of

grade level or needs.”


Every student should have access to the best education available, regardless of family

income, background or geography.Unfortunately, while some studentswill have access to a great education intheir neighborhood schools – this is notuniversally true. In fact, 40 percent ofhigh schools in the United States don’teven offer a college preparatorycurriculum. To make matters worse,the schools without broader courseofferings or dual credit courses tend tobe in rural, low-income areas – areaswhere children need access to excellenteducation the most, some would argue.

But, developing and offering high-quality online learning could makethe same level of education availableto all students.

Online learning provides newopportunities for high school reformand school redesign. Schools thatdon’t offer college preparatory curric-ula can access virtual schools andonline courses to bolster their offer-ings. Small, rural schools can main-tain the benefits of their size but offermore choices, including advanced

courses, remedial courses, foreignlanguages and specialized literatureand arts courses.

Nations around the world arealready investing heavily in digitalcontent and instruction.

On a U.S. delegation visit to Mexicoin 2004, I learned that the MexicanMinistry of Education digitized theirentire K–12 curriculum. All K–12lessons and content tied to academicstandards are available in schools,community technology centers andlibraries – through the Internet, CDsand 16 satellite channels of educa-tional broadcasting.

At a fraction of the cost of produc-ing, printing, transporting and deliv-ering print materials, Mexico isproviding the texts, illustrations,streaming video and multimediainstructional materials in formats thatare more accessible for their K–12students. With a digital curriculum,the Mexican government is seeding thefoundation for the future of e-learningand preparing students for a techno-logically rich, global workforce.

In the United States we need to dothe same, because integrating technol-ogy into old teaching models isn’t theanswer. We need to call for transforma-tion, not integration. Our schoolsrequire systemic redesign, instead ofcontinued incremental changes orlayering technology on old models.Our classrooms and schools mustreflect the mobile, wireless, collabora-tive and digital learning environmentsthat surround us. School learning envi-ronments too often look the same asthey did in the 1950s. But demands ofthe workplace and higher educationlearning environments have changed.

Transformation means that everydollar invested in education shouldsupport digital learning environ-ments. These environments shouldinclude tools such as digital content,digital instruction and new models ofdigitized assessment that focus onimproving student learning, studentgrowth and realizing the full potentialof every student.

While our current education modelbroadly calls for accountabilitythrough annual testing – a once-a-yearmeasure is an antiquated model ofaccountability in the 21st century.There are new models and better ways.

New online learning models andvirtual schools are data-rich, and theyenable measurement and formativeassessments of student progress inreal time, even in traditional schools.Teachers, students and parents canreceive instant feedback on theirchild’s online learning. Virtual schoolscan have data systems that alertparents when students miss classes or automatically send an e-mail toparents when a student receives a lowgrade on a quiz, test or assignment.

I think of online learning as chang-ing our traditional school buildingsinto bionic schools by plugging inofferings from virtual schools. And,there are plenty of offerings to choosefrom – there are state virtual schools,district virtual schools, cyber charterschools, for-profit providers, nonprofitproviders, and colleges and universitiesoffering online courses for students.

Implementing new educationmodels also means rethinking instruc-tion, training and curricula for a digi-tal age. Online learning by nature istransforming curricula and instruc-

GUEST COLUMNby Susan D. Patrick

New Learning ModelsTransforming curriculum and instruction in a digital age

Susan D. Patrick

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tion. In order to provide a high-qualityonline course, most teachers need10–20 hours of intensive onlineinstruction and collaboration-richprofessional development courses. All content and curricula must bereconsidered and redesigned to beeffective in a digital format. Methodsof supporting student and teacherinteractivity, assignments, pacing,

problem solving and feedback mustbe developed. I would posit that fewtraining or professional developmentopportunities require such commit-ment and so many factors to beconsidered simultaneously.

This is why training and support ofteachers and students in virtual schoolsand blended environments is critical.You cannot magically drop the highestquality teacher into an online coursewith a computer and expect them to bea successful online teacher. Teachersneed to learn new approaches in onlinedelivery of courses – and intensivetraining and support is the key.

Teachers who have this advancedtraining can then bring these 21st-

century skills, along with onlineinteractive resources and dynamiccontent, to brick-and-mortar class-rooms. Then teachers can begin toconnect to students in their world –the online world. Student learningand engagement are key – and high-quality online learning environmentsare resulting in unscripted studentresponses, such as “different,” “ener-

gizing,” “exciting” and “challenging,”when asked about their experiences.

If we provide our teachers with theskills to teach online and use technol-ogy ubiquitously, learning environ-ments will become mobile, interac-tive and effective whether they areface-to-face or at a distance. Teachersspend time in pre-service prepara-tion, in-service professional develop-ment and training – why not trainappropriately for a digital age and adigital generation?

This is the beginning of transfor-mation. Making the very best educa-tion available to every student,regardless of their economic statusand neighborhood is transforma-

tional. Teaching courses any time,any place, by any path, or at any pacewith self-direction also borders onthe revolutionary.

Online learning is growing rapidly.In 2000, there were 40,000–50,000online enrollments in K–12 education.In 2002–2003, the U.S. Department ofEducation reported 328,000 enroll-ments in distance education in K–12schools (National Center for EducationStatistics 2005). And, in 2005, the PeakGroup estimated 500,000 enrollmentsin K–12 online learning.

Recent studies, including NorthCentral Regional Education Labo-ratory’s (NCREL) Synthesis of NewResearch on K–12 Online Learning,note that online learning is “equal orbetter” than face-to-face courseswhen looking at student achieve-ment. If we can reach so many morestudents with highly qualified teach-ers, rigorous advanced courses,foreign languages, virtual laborato-ries and offer so many more choices,then we should get beyond whetheror not we should consider onlinelearning – and just “do it.”

A recent report from the GatesFoundation, Silent Epidemic, pointedout that the majority of high schooldropouts left their schools becausethey felt they “weren’t being chal-lenged enough” even though they hadthe grades to finish. We’ve seen thatstudents think online learning is“challenging,” “different” and “ener-gizing” – surely this is a green lightfor getting this type of learning intoour schools.

The choices and opportunitiesprovided by offering virtual schools andblended models are creating tremen-dous opportunities. A revolution isbeginning. Our student’s can’t wait.

Susan D. Patrick is the President and CEO

of the North American Council for Online

Learning.


Offering online learning can bring the same level of education to all students.

by Diane Curtis

Ask three teachers what constitutes an online learning community, and

you’re likely to get three different examples. One teacher might point to a

brainstorming e-mail exchange between two students. Another may recall

a weeklong project that culminated in a 10-person podcast. A third will mention a

global warming blog. There are common features that link these examples, such as

student collaboration, an audience beyond the teacher, lack of dependence on time

and space, and feedback. But just like the technology behind it, the definition of an

online learning community is in flux. However, pioneering educators, like those we’re

about to hear from, help refine the meaning as they create new online communities.


oonnlliinneeLearning

Building

CommunitiesA worldwide audience may be the motivation students need to succeed


O N L I N E LE A R N I N G C O M M U N I T I E S

Today’s technology, tomorrow’s workforceDavid Warlick, a well-known education author, speakerand consultant, says there are two types of online learningcommunities: personal learning networks, such as blogsand podcasts; or the more structured distance learningand online learning courses that use tools like Blackboardand Moodle e-learning systems. However, Warlick saysboth types of online learning communities have acommon theme: “Learning is taking place throughconversation and not delivery.”

Warlick believes the kind of learning that comes withthe Internet, podcasts and blogs, makes sense in an erawhen students will likely have 10 or more jobs during theirworking lives and will need to know how to teach them-selves new skills and concepts. They won’t be learningthose skills and concepts by sitting in a classroom; they’llbe learning them through conversations and connectingdigitally with others through blogs and podcasts, or what-ever tools become the technological favorites of theirparticular eras.

New generations will also need to know how to siftthrough an ever-expanding amount of information anddistinguish between what is true or false, and useful or not.As Warlick explains, “Industrial-age literacy was readingthe piece of paper in front of you. That information todayis on a computer screen. But it’s not enough to read it. Youhave to have the skills to organize that information.”

Encouraging self-directed learningBob Sprankle, a teacher for 10 years, was named a 2005Edublog Award winner and one of two TechnologyEducators of the Year for 2005–2006 by the Association ofComputer Technology Educators of Maine. He religiouslyscours the Internet for new ideas on how he can use technol-ogy to create his ideal learning setting – one where the learn-ing is directed mostly by the children themselves. He shareshis findings with other teachers in his blog, Bit by Bit.

During Sprankle’s early teaching years, he usedcomputers to e-mail parents or showcase student work ona website. Over time, he introduced e-Pals and a class-room chat room. Now his students make podcasts aboutthe books they read, the field trips they take and thepresentations they make to teachers and administrators.They also create blogs of poems, art, essays and weeklyjournals.

They’re inviting the whole world to view, listen andcomment – and their efforts aren’t going unnoticed.

“I love your first vodcast on podcasts,” Paula Thomasfrom Brisbane, Australia, wrote about a video podcast thestudents made. “It’s a brilliant idea.”

“We listened into your podcast as college seniors, andwe are impressed,” wrote communications students fromFitchburg, Massachusetts. “Great work and great stuff byeveryone.”

This kind of feedback is getting students excited aboutlearning.

“Podcasting is the funnest part of the day,” says Emily B.,one of Sprankle’s students “We’re reading to the worldand it helps us express ourselves. It’s really helped us stepup in our learning.”

Sprankle says now he can step to the side and free thestudents to direct their own learning. He may ask studentsto read a particular sentence or paragraph again to prodthem to think critically about something they wrote, butoften classmates will already have picked up on weaknesses

Online learning communities can help students learn how to sort through an ever-expanding amount if information todetermine what is useful and accurate.


in their peers’ work and, through e-mails or blogs, discussedhow to improve it. It’s a quick, efficient way of getting feed-back from many students. “They’re very supportive, realgentle,” Sprankle says about the peer critics.

Worldwide exposure motivates studentsWarlick says when students know they have an audience,they’re going to put in more effort. Research showsstudents think problems through more carefully, polishmore richly and are more careful about punctuation andspelling. When students write a paper, hand it to theteacher and then get it handed back to them, they call it“playing school,” Warlick says. “When they’re writing ablog, they’re communicating.”

Sprankle agrees, calling his students’ work “product witha purpose.” He says the difference between producing some-thing that their parents may or may not tack on the refriger-ator versus producing something that can be accessedaround the globe is very motivating. “They’ve just become soempowered,” Sprankle says. “It constantly blows me away.”

Gordon Brune, a fifth-grade teacher at MamaroneckAvenue School in Mamaroneck, New York, who uses blogsto showcase student work, feels the same way. “My studentsno longer see themselves writing for a teacher or a bulletinboard but for a real audience. Many times, my studentshave excitedly and incredulously stated things like, ‘Man,people all the way from China are reading my stuff!’ Somestudents’ writing has become stronger,” he says.

Beyond bloggingLynne Sueoka has another version of an online learningcommunity. Sueoka is a staff developer at Honolulu’sMoanalua High School and a teacher in the school’sMeneMAC program – a school-within-a-school programfocused on integrating subjects and illustrating yearlythemes through a variety of media, including video, audioand Web production.

Staff working on the MeneMAC program decided to addan online component to deepen the sense of communityand nurture supportive relationships among the students,teachers and parents. The primary computer tools Sueokaand her colleagues use to create that sense of community area website that houses the students’ digital portfolios, e-mail,listservs and Web videoconferencing software.

Sueoka uses different tools than Sprankle and Brune in

her online learning community, but her philosophy andgoals are similar – create students capable of initiatingand directing their own learning, and share knowledge ina way that enriches and deepens what they learn.

Sueoka says e-mail, for example, allows students towrite precisely and get their message across while main-taining their own voices. With an online conversation,unlike a classroom conversation, the students have achance to edit themselves, to find just the right words forwhat they’re trying to convey, while maintaining a conver-sational style. Listservs give them room to expand thegroup of people who can give them feedback, offersuggestions or just provide moral support.

MeneMac teachers also created a space on the websitefor parents to comment on student portfolios and did fourcollaborative Web videoconferencing projects with a sisterschool in Molokai, Hawaii, and a class of students whospeak English as a second language at a Japanese university.

Sueoka knows there is faster, better, cheaper technologyout there – and there always will be. “But,” she explains, “weset up a whole infrastructure and it works well for us.” Thatdoesn’t mean she isn’t trying new things. She and her prin-cipal, Darrell Galera, are studying podcasting and startingto use Blackboard’s online discussion forum feature.


Bob Sprankle says adding podcasts and blogs to his curriculum has helped him create an environment wherestudents direct their own learning.

You can set up a blog in a matter of minutes – seconds, even.From there, the networking starts. If you build it, they will come.“ “

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O N L I N E LE A R N I N G C O M M U N I T I E S

Tips from the expertsIf teachers or administrators are interested in joining theonline learning revolution, Sprankle recommends theystart with a blog because it’s so easy. “You can set up a blogin a matter of minutes – seconds, even,” he says. “Fromthere, the networking starts. If you build it, they willcome.” And once a teacher connects with even oneteacher-oriented blog, “you’ll find everybody else.”

Brune likes the fact that blog programs, especiallythose from advocates who are educators as well, likeDavid Warlick and James Farmer, are easier to masterthan webpage software. “The technology behind [blogs]isn’t hard,” he says. “If you’ve ever shopped and filled outa form [online], that’s essentially it.” Before he startedusing blogs, he was using FrontPage Web design software,but was looking for something that would be easier toexplain to other teachers. He found what he wanted in theblog programs of Warlick and Farmer.

When teachers at Moanalua want to get their feet wetin an online learning community, Sueoka suggests theystart with a forum on Blackboard, which is secure. A socialstudies teacher did just that last year when he decided acurrent events online forum would be more dynamic andinteresting than just cutting out newspaper articles andbringing them to class for discussion. The in-class blogwas a success, and now the teacher is studying other formsof online communication for his class.

Galera is always open to teachers’ ideas that incorporatetechnology into the curriculum, but both he and Sueokaemphasize that content always comes first. And Galera’smain advice about creating an online learning community is that “teachers first need to build a learning communitywithin their classrooms.” In high school, especially, studentsin one class may not even know each other. Galera encour-ages his teachers to use the kinds of strategies that are moreoften used in the elementary grades – Moanalua groupsstudents into tribes – to establish a sense of camaraderieand cohesion among students. Then, says Galera, the classmay be ready to move to an online environment “with theskills to communicate effectively and naturally.”

Sprankle, Brune, Sueoka and Galera are just a few of theteachers and administrators across the country who havesuccessfully built online learning communities. All agree thatthe effort has been worthwhile in terms of student engage-ment and a deeper learning that incorporates more criticalthinking. But they also realize that commitment to onlinelearning requires flexibility and the recognition that the onlything certain in an online learning community is change.

In Warlick’s words, “It’s an amazing time. It’s kind of likethe World Wide Web is being reinvented.” And educatorslike those mentioned above are laying the groundwork.

There are a host of online resources for educatorsinterested in starting – or enhancing – an onlinelearning community.

MeneMac View the portfolios of students in the MeneMacprogram at Moanalua High School atwww.mohs.k12.hi.us/media-central/index2.html.

Bob Sprankle’s Room 208Maine teacher Bob Sprankle showcases his student’spodcasts and blogs and also offers a blog with tipsfor teachers at www.bobsprankle.com.

edublogs.orghttp://edublogs.org provides free, fully functional blogs hosted on their dedicated server. Edublogs is the brainchild of James Farmer, a Melbourne-based education designer and social software consultant whoalso has a personal blog at http://incsub.org/blog.

Weblogg-edWill Richardson, author, speaker and supervisor ofinstructional technology at Hunterdon CentralRegional High School in New Jersey, publishes awebsite and blog at www.weblogg-ed.com. Heshares his thinking about using blogs and providesinformation and discussions on wikis, RSS, audiocastsand other technology products for K–12 educators.

Gordon BruneView the class blogs of New York teacher GordonBrune at http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=251.

Start Your Online Learning Community Now

A F t E r S C H O O L S C E N E . C O MAFTERSCHOOL PROGRAMS ARE A WAY BETTER PLACE


Blogor Not to

You Decide

Wesley Fryer knows education technology,

especially blogs and podcasts. His blog,

www.speedofcreativity.org, was voted Best Learning

Theory Blog for 2006 by eSchool News and Discovery

Education. In this article, he outlines the pros and cons

of using blogs and podcasts in the classroom and

provides a wealth of examples to help you decide if

these tools will work for you and your students. For

those interested in using these new teaching and

learning tools, he includes tips on how to get started.

?Blog

To

Wesley A. Fryer gives a frank insight into blogs and podcasts in the classroom

by Wesley A. Fryer


B LO G S A N D P O D CASTS

The terms blogging and podcasting have changed rela-tively quickly from mysterious terms to mainstream ideasin our technology-infused society. However, many class-room teachers and school administrators remain wary andunconvinced of the educational value of blogs andpodcasts. Attitudes toward these tools take many forms,but the following are some of the most common:

Time “I don’t have time to allow students to createpodcasts or moderate blogs and comments. I’m alreadyoverloaded with work!”

Yawn “These are just the latest fads in technology; likeother trends they will come and go. Why should I getexcited about them?”

Security alert “Students and teachers publishing ideasand exchanging messages on the Internet worry me. I’drather not jump on the blogging and podcasting band-wagon until they make it safer. I’ll just see what happens.”

Have you heard teachers or administrators in yourschool district respond to the idea of students blogging orpodcasting with any of these statements? Have youresponded like this yourself? The idea of letting studentsand teachers engage in content publishing in school cancertainly be nontraditional and controversial, but let’sexplore the potential pros and cons of both blogging andpodcasting in the classroom before you write these tech-nologies off as scary, time consuming fads.

What are the pros?

They’re safeOne of the first fears many administrators, teachers andparents have about classroom blogging and podcasting isstudent safety. No educator wants to endanger students, andmainstream media reports about child predators frequentingsocial networking sites like MySpace are common, sadly.However, teachers can set up classroom blogs so that onlystudents’ first names are used, and blog visitors cannot virtuallyreach out and touch the student (by e-mail, instant message orother method) except by contacting the teacher first. Similarly,teachers can moderate comments posted to classroom blogs toensure inappropriate or offensive content is not published.Podcasting can also be done safely, especially when audiopodcasts, which do not include photos or videos of students,are used. Student privacy can be respected, but students canstill publish their ideas and share their perspectives with amuch wider audience than in a traditional classroom.

Low cost, high viabilityBoth blogging and podcasting are extremely inexpensiveand viable instructional activities in the classroom. Youjust need a computer connected to the Internet and amicrophone. If your computers don’t have built-in micro-phones, you can buy them from Wal-Mart for $7. Manyschools also have microphones available to borrow fromthe computer lab. Blogging software tools and Webresources are available for free, as are tools for podcasting.Money doesn’t have to be an issue when it comes to thesenew learning tools.

Connects parents with schoolsTeachers and school administrators are always looking fornew ways to connect parents to the school so they can findout about what their children are doing and learning in theclassroom. Blogs and podcasts offer outstanding opportu-nities for parents and other community members to have avirtual window into the school, its activities and the bene-fits of studying there.

Supports content creation Students actually learn more when they construct theirown knowledge and create products that reflect theirunderstanding of ideas, processes and relationships. Inaddition to this, teachers know repetition can be a goodthing when it comes to student learning and retention.When students create a knowledge product like a podcast,chances are extremely high that they and others will listento it repeatedly. Students are likely to invite others tolisten to their podcast and may even plead with theirteachers to play their podcast again for the entire class!

Blogging and podcasting can be safe, fun and low-cost learningtools that help students construct their own knowledge.


Contrast these scenarios with a typical student essaywhere it can be like pulling teeth to get students to re-readtheir final draft after an assignment has been submitted,and often other students or parents are not very inter-ested in reading it either.

They’re funResearch such as The Broadening Studies at the Universityof Michigan indicate that laughter (a type of “positiveemotion”) can “broaden the scopes of attention, cogni-tion and action, widening the array of percepts, thoughtsand action presently in mind.” In other words, laughingand having fun seem to make people learn better.Blogging and podcasting can be fun and extremely engag-ing activities for students, and this not only keepsstudents motivated (which directly assists achievement)but also helps classroom activities become lifelong learning opportunities.

What are the cons?

Zero-sum schedulesThe reality of school schedules is that they are zero-sum.Adding a new activity necessarily requires losing time forother activities. Some administrators and teachers maycringe at losing time for test preparation to blogging andpodcasting. And there is no getting around the fact thatthese activities do take extra time. After recording podcasts,the teacher and students must edit the podcast together,preview it, ensure it is ready for publication and thenupload the file to a Web server to share it with the world.Blogging is much faster than publishing a traditionalwebpage, but it still takes time away from other classroominstructional and administrative tasks. However, manyteachers successfully using blogging and podcasting in theclassroom contend the extra time is worth it in rewardssuch as student intrinsic motivation and learning.

New IT demandsBlogging, and particularly podcasting, can present newdemands for district IT staff, available server resourcesand available Internet bandwidth. If large numbers ofpeople subscribe and regularly download published

school podcasts, even if file sizes are minimized, that IPtraffic can substantially increase loads on district fileservers. Additional bandwidth and dedicated podcastingservers may be required to support large-scale districtpodcasting initiatives and share the digital content withinterested people.

Requires administrator supportPerhaps more of a challenge than a con, classroom bloggingand podcasting definitely require administrators to supportusing this technology. Teachers should not assume thatschool district administration support will be automatic andforthcoming. Administrators will need to be fully aware ofthe instructional payoffs and technical requirements of theseactivities. They may need to learn how blogging and podcast-ing can be leveraged to help students become better writers,oral communicators and digital citizens. Some Texas teach-ers have had to make presentations to local school boardsexplaining how a classroom blog can be safely and efficientlymaintained, before they were given permission to use a class-room blog as an instructional tool. Teachers must beprepared to make their case persuasively for the use of blogsand podcasts in the classroom because many administratorsmay have negative perceptions of these activities, which areshaped in part by media coverage of MySpace and otherunmoderated social networking environments.

Disruptive technology may be opposedBoth blogging and podcasting represent potentially disrup-tive technologies in schools because they challenge traditionalnotions of content and curriculum control. In traditionaleducation settings, learning is seen as an act of transmission;content is transmitted from the mouth of the teacher and thepage of the textbook into the mind of the learner. With blog-ging and podcasting, students are generally approachingtraditional problems by refashioning and synthesizing theminto new forms. This can involve thinking at higher levels ofBloom’s taxonomy, and this type of critical thinking is oftennot encouraged in classrooms where the focus is on memoriz-ing and regurgitating content on cue. Blogging and podcast-ing are often perceived by administrators as controversial usesof technology. Advocacy for these tools in the classroom mayinvite opposition from school leaders.


Laughing and having fun seem to make people learn better.Blogging and podcasting can be fun and extremely

engaging activities for students.

“ “


B LO G S A N D P O D CASTS

Tips for success with blogs and podcasts

Learn from teacher expertsClassroom teachers and campus administrators wanting toexplore the potential benefits of using blogs and podcastswith students should begin by listening to a wide variety ofeducational podcasts and reading a variety of educationalblogs. Teachers with different competency levels in usingthese tools successfully are the best source of practicalinformation and techniques.

Create a storyboard and scriptEducators should get their students to create storyboardsand write scripts for each segment of a podcast. Podcastingand blogging can be elements of the publishing process inthe classroom. Rather than only assessing the final product,teachers can and should assess students’ completion ofintermediary rough drafts, storyboards and outlines ofpodcasts as they move through stages of planning, produc-tion and editing.

Encourage personal connectionsThe ability to express ideas and share perceptions is criti-cally important in literacy development. Done safely, class-room blogging and podcasting can provide an environmentthat can powerfully motivate students to communicateideas with high levels of quality and craftsmanship.Blogging and podcasting are most powerful when they areused in ways students perceive to be personally meaningful

and relevant. Teachers should encourage students to makepersonal connections with studied topics and to synthesizeideas by engaging in higher order thinking. For example,students can interview others during podcasts and tacklereal problems within their community that likely do nothave clear solutions.

Get everyone involvedAvoid the tendency to reserve activities like blogging andpodcasting for the gifted and talented kids. All studentsshould be able to experience the opportunity to publishtheir ideas for a wider audience using these methods. Everychild has perceptions worth sharing and a voice worthlistening to. Teachers should use blogs and podcasts asloudspeakers to help students find their own voices andtalk about topics they care about and value.

Use an interactive whiteboardWhen creating podcasts together as a class or in smallgroups, teachers can use an interactive whiteboard to facil-itate the creative process. The larger image provided by theinteractive whiteboard permits larger numbers of studentsto see and participate in the decision-making processesinvolved in creating a podcast. The tactile nature of aninteractive whiteboard invites active participation bystudents in podcast production and is ideally suited tocooperative activities like this.

Don’t wait until after the testBecause podcasting and blogging can engage students inthe process of acquiring authentic literacy skills, teachersshould introduce students to these activities from day oneof the semester. In many schools, where accountabilitypressures for state-mandated test performances are high,teachers can sometimes postpone projects and hands-onlearning experiences that don’t seem to readily and directlysupport didactic test preparation. This can lead to boredstudents, who are disengaged from the educational experi-ence and result in discipline problems the teacher has todeal with.

Blogging and podcasting are potentially valuable in bothintrinsic and instrumental ways. Students learn better andretain information and skills longer when they are activelyengaged in the learning process and self-motivated.Blogging and podcasting can support both of these learn-ing conditions in the classroom.

Why focus on content transmission in the classroomwhen we can help students become content creators as wellas consumers. Blogging and podcasting can be powerfulallies supporting this educational goal at all levels.

Through blogging and podcasting projects, students can learnhow to present their ideas and find their voices.

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Classroom Blogs and Podcasts

Blogs to watch• Scribe Post Hall of Fame

(Daniel McIntyre Collegiate Institute)http://thescribepost.pbwiki.com/HallOfFame

• Room 613 Student Blogs(Horace W. Porter School)http://hetherington.learnerblogs.org

• Applied Science Research(Newton High School) http://appliedscienceresearch.blogspot.com

• Room Twelve Student Blogs (Arbor Heights Elementary) http://roomtwelve.com

Tune in to these podcasts • Radio WillowWeb

www.mpsomaha.org/willow/radio

• Mabry Middle Schoolhttp://mabryonline.org/podcasts

• Long Elementary Podcasts http://long.dearbornschools.org/podcast/Long%20Elementary/HOME.html

• Our City Podcasthttp://www.learninginhand.com/OurCity

Best blogging tools• Class Blogmeister David Warlick’s free class-

room blog tool facilitates teacher moderation ofstudent posted contenthttp://classblogmeister.com

• ePals SchoolBlog A robust and safe commercialsolution free of advertising, designed for literacydevelopment http://schoolblog.epals.com

• Wordpress A free, open-source blogging softwareprogram that can be downloaded and used by individual teachers or entire school districtshttp://wordpress.org

• Learnerblogs An Australian-based Web serviceoffering free Wordpress-based blogs for studentshttp://learnerblogs.org

• Blogger One of the most popular and powerfulfree blogging platforms http://blogger.com

• HaloScan Free Web commenting and trackbackservices for any blog or website – permits teachermoderation www.haloscan.com

Top podcasting tools and resources• Podcast for free A great website with links and

tutorials to everything you need to create podcastswith just a computer and microphone www.castwiki.com/index.php/Podcast_for_free

• FeedBurner A free service (also availablecommercially) to monitor podcast or blogsubscribers – great for monitoring podcast impactwww.feedburner.com

• GarageBand and iWeb Included with the iLifesoftware package on Macintosh computers, thesesoftware programs offer powerful ways to createaudio podcasts, enhanced podcasts (with photos)and video podcasts www.apple.com/ilife

• ACID XPress Free audio editing software fromSony, similar to GarageBand but for Windows-based computers www.sonymediasoftware.com/download/step2.asp?DID=551

• Audacity A free, cross-platform audio editing software program ideal for podcastinghttp://audacity.sourceforge.net

• ccMixter A community music site offering downloadable music that can be legally remixedand used in podcasts http://ccmixter.org


T E C H N O LO GY M E N TO R S

Mentorship is an opportunity to collaborate and work together to maximize studentengagement and thinking.

“ “

Autumn 2006 | i.e. magazine | 35FREE subscription! education.smarttech.com/subscribe

It’s a hot and sunny day in Bartow, Florida, and in the back cornerof a small room at Bartow Middle School, the lesson begins. Ateacher, standing patiently at the front of the room, begins

demonstrating how to use Microsoft PowerPoint, walking studentsstep by step through the process of creating, cascading and collaps-ing slides into a complete presentation. Students, sitting at desks inrows, follow eagerly on laptops of their own, clicking and clackingon touch pads, learning all the while.

The scene is technology education at its finest – a true exchangeof knowledge about how a particular software application canmaximize efficiency and productivity. This, however, is no ordinaryclass. One student is 54. Another just became a grandmother. A third plans to retire at the end of the current school year. All ofthem, including the instructor, are teachers at Bartow MiddleSchool, part of Polk County School District. On this day, they areparticipating in the district’s technology mentorship program.

Increasingly, K–12 districts across the United States are turningto mentoring programs as a way to turn inexperienced teachers on to technology. Through these programs, educators interestedin technology learn from their peers about the latest innovationsin IT, and they learn how to restructure teaching strategies andcurricula around technology. What’s more, these programsinspire teachers to embrace technology like never before.

We talked to three teachers at Bartow Middle School,Manheim Township School District and Lower Merion Schoolabout their experience of creating and implementing thesementoring programs. In this article, they provide an overview ofthese programs and share their knowledge about technologymentoring for those who want to follow in their footsteps.

by Jacob Milner

MENTORS

School’s Technology

Tap into Your

School districts around the country are finding the best way to teach technology is by example

I


T E C H N O LO GY M E N TO R S

How mentoring programs workWhile there is no standard mentorship program for schools to follow, most districts follow a similar structure. At the heart of every mentorship program is a pool of mentors, orpeer coaches. These people are educators who generally havebeen recognized by their colleagues as strong leaders and havehad success in integrating technology into their classrooms.As Kay Teehan, media specialist and director of technologymentorship for the Polk County School District, explains it,mentors are the “technology thought leaders” of the entiredistrict, the educators who demonstrate knowledge broadenough to share with others and the passion to do so.

Enrollment as a mentor is completely voluntary. Oncethey sign up, mentors endure a rigorous training program,provided by the school’s technology staff, to make sure theyare up to speed on all the latest and greatest technologyproducts the district wishes to implement. Next, mentorsrecruit students, or protégés, to participate in the program.Jill Greiner, assistant director of technology for the Manheim Township School District, in Lancaster,Pennsylvania, says these are the teachers who have thedesire to work with technology but not the skills.

“Just because someone doesn’t know that much aboutcomputers doesn’t mean that person isn’t entitled to theopportunity to try things out,” says Greiner, who overseesher district’s technology mentoring program. “That’s whatour program is all about – giving that equal opportunitywhen and where teachers need it most.”

Depending on the district, each mentor selects two to fiveprotégés. The protégés then formalize the arrangement bysigning contracts for one year. During that time, protégés andmentors are expected to meet a certain number of timeseach month. Some organizations, such as Bartow MiddleSchool, allow the meetings to occur during school time andwill bring in substitute teachers. Other districts requirementors and protégés to meet outside of school, eitherbefore classes in the morning or after classes are done.

At the end of the year, mentors administer a skills assess-ment test to protégés to determine exactly how much they’velearned. The test isn’t something protégés can fail; instead, it is designed to determine what types of skills they’ve learnedand what types of skills they still lack. At Lower MerionSchool, in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, for instance, mentorsadminister the Levels of Technology Implementation (LoTi)

questionnaire, created by technology specialist Dr.Christopher Moersch. The questionnaire, which has beentested for validity and reliability by Temple University, meas-ures authentic classroom technology use and is used in 10states and thousands of school systems worldwide.

“The test is purely an assessment,” explains Bill Dolton,educational technology facilitator at the Lower MerionSchool District. “We use it for the sole purpose of establish-ing where our teachers may have gaps in knowledge so wecan bridge them.”

Scheduling and incentives But, these types of professional development programs don’thappen overnight and they don’t come without challenges.

Mentorship is a year-long commitment, something thatmany teachers find difficult. Participation requires creativescheduling since teachers and their mentors are very busy.Most teachers feel that professional development is a goodthing – time well invested in their collective future. However,when an extracurricular development program stretches overmore than one or two classes, quite simply, life gets in the way,and teachers have to drop out. In addition, teachers’ schedulesare full to begin with, and many mentors and their protégésjust can’t find time to get together before or after school.

To solve this problem, many districts have adoptedincentive programs to compensate protégés for theirefforts. At Lower Merion School, protégés get three fulldays of release pay or 12 hours of after-school time at over-

time rates. At Manheim Township School, protégés getpaid overtime pay for every hour they spend learningoutside of the ordinary work day. And at Bartow MiddleSchool, Teehan says they receive a laptop computer or LCDprojector, along with a boatload of software programs touse with their new technology.

“We made sure our [protégés] had all the tools,” saysTeehan, noting that in many cases, some also received digi-tal cameras and scanners. “If we want them to be success-ful, we need to make sure we give them the tools that canshow them the way to success.”

Mentors are compensated for their efforts as well. AtBartow Middle School, these thought leaders receive thevery same laptops that protégés get. At Manheim TownshipSchool, mentors receive laptop computers as well as over-time pay. Finally, at Lower Merion School, where a pre-

If we want them to be successful, we need to make sure we give them the tools that can show them the way to success.“ “


existing program has resulted in laptop computers for 95percent of the staff, mentors receive a cash stipend ofUS$2,500 – $1,250 midway through the year, and theremainder when the year is over.

However, even if a district is willing to pay for substitutes in order to allow mentors and protégés to meet during theday, there may not be enough substitutes available, creating aconundrum in which schools must choose between support-ing mentorship and supporting education as a whole.

But schools and districts aren’t letting issues like these getin their way, even if they don’t have a solution yet, they knowthey’ll deal with it to keep their mentoring programs going.

“I’m guessing our program will double every year untilwe say it’s impossible to find enough subs,” explainsTeehan. “At that point, I’m not sure what we’ll do, but Iknow we’ll come up with something.”

Getting buy-inOf course, buy-in from the administrative level is necessaryfor technology mentorship programs, as well. Here, the issue isn’t as much about remuneration as it is return oninvestment. District leaders want to know the money theyallocate to substitute teachers or overtime benefits studentsand teachers. According to Greiner, the best way to demon-strate the value of these expenditures is to present adminis-trators with a clear overview of how many protégés partici-pate each year and the total percentage of teachers trainedsince the program’s inception.

“District wide, there aren’t that many of our K–12 teach-ers who haven’t done the program,” says Greiner. “Thosekinds of statistics help our administrators see that themoney they spend on our mentorship program is moneywell spent.”

For districts that don’t have statistics and are thinking ofstarting a mentorship program, Dolton adds that administra-tors should communicate with mentorship directors at other schools and ask them for specifics on their experiences.This type of powwow can be eye-opening, he says. It can alsohelp eager districts get real-world information to build a casefor mentorship programs of their own.

Keep learning Educators agree that perhaps the biggest challenge to engi-neering successful mentorship programs is keeping thingscurrent. As technology changes, technology mentorship mustevolve to focus on the latest innovations. At ManheimTownship, this means monthly mentor meetings to makesure every mentor is up to speed on what’s new. At LowerMerion, it means updating the program every year, accordingto feedback from outgoing protégés.

Dolton, says his district encourages mentors andprotégés to stay in touch and continue to meet regularlyonce their formal tutelage has ended. It is, he says, the veryleast the district can do to keep up its commitment toprofessional development.

Even when a school’s entire teaching staff is trained,technology mentoring shouldn’t end. Mentorship advo-cates say it’s important for teachers to go through theprogram regularly, every five years to stay current.Otherwise, it can be tempting for teachers to build lessonplans around a curriculum and use them for years.

At Manheim Township, where the technology mentorprogram began in 2003, 85 percent of the district’s 105teachers at the K–5 grade level have completed theprogram. Greiner estimates all of the elementary schoolteachers will be trained by the end of next year.

Greiner sees this trend as a blessing but notes thatgraduation from a technology mentor program doesn’tmean the learning has ended.

“We don’t look at it from the standpoint that you’re everdone,” says Dolton. “Mentorship is an opportunity to collab-orate and work together to maximize student engagementand thinking. Why would you ever want to finish that?”

Educators at Bartow Middle School, Manheim TownshipSchool District and Lower Merion School know there are chal-lenges that come along with technology mentorshipprograms but they also understand that this is a great way tobring technology to teaching and learning at their schools.

As Teehan explains, “Whether you’re helping someonefigure out how to put a digital movie together or how touse [software], if you don’t know that much about tech-nology, you need to learn it, and there’s no better personto learn it from than someone you see every single day.”

Check out this sample peer coaching program

Many schools that have implementedtechnology mentorship programs have

mirrored them after the free PeerCoaching model from Microsoft.

For more information on Microsoft’speer coaching model, visit

http://pc.innovativeteachers.com.

A s the new senior director for PBS TeacherLine (a nonprofitprovider of standards-based online professional developmentcourses for pre-K–12 teachers and school districts across the

United States), Melinda George has made it her goal to spread the wordabout the professional development options available to educators.

George acquired her impressive background in education technologyfrom years of dedicated work as a fourth- and fifth-grade teacher in theDistrict of Columbia, before becoming the director of the education divi-sion of the Software Information Industry Association (SIIA) and eventu-ally taking over as executive director of the State Educational TechnologyDirectors Association (SETDA). In her new role at TeacherLine, George willfocus on online professional development and its impact on teaching andlearning, which is the topic we discussed with her.


Q:WWhhaatt aarree tthhee bbeenneeffiittss ooff oonnlliinneepprrooffeessssiioonnaall ddeevveellooppmmeenntt??

A: Online professional develop-ment is taking off because teach-ers are realizing that it gives them[several] big opportunities – first,it provides an array of coursesthat lets educators individualizeprofessional development to theneeds of their classrooms, schoolsand districts. Second, it providesaccess for teachers in rural orremote areas to be able to takecourses they otherwise might nothave exposure to. Third, onlinecourses are available anytime.We have found that one of thebusiest times for teachers loggingon to TeacherLine is between11:00 p.m. and midnight, whichspeaks to the fact that in thesefacilitated environments, teach-ers can log on whenever it’sconvenient for them to do theirprofessional development.

Q:HHooww ffaarr ooffff aarree wwee ffrroomm aallllpprrooffeessssiioonnaall ddeevveellooppmmeennttbbeeiinngg ddeelliivveerreedd oonnlliinnee??

A: We’re still a ways off, but there’s agrowing move toward it. Un-fortunately, a lot of teachers stillhaven’t experienced an onlinecourse, which is why we’re work-ing to familiarize educators[with] what taking online coursesactually means as well as showtheir benefits. Increasingly, there’salso a spreading by word ofmouth among teachers. It isinteresting that an online envi-ronment can be national, and yetthe spread of information about[that environment] often happensat the local level.

Q:AArree tthheerree cceerrttaaiinn ssuubbjjeeccttss oorraarreeaass tthhaatt aarree mmoosstt ppooppuullaarraammoonngg pprrooffeessssiioonnaall ddeevveellooppmmeenntt ccoouurrsseess??

A: It really spans all content areas.Certainly, TeacherLine places abig emphasis on math courses,and that’s continuing to grow asthe Bush administration andCongress are supporting newmath and science initiatives. Oneof the things we believe ouronline courses do is help mathe-maticians who have never taughtand who haven’t been trained inpedagogical methods bridge thatgap by giving them some of thetools and resources necessary tobe teachers as well as experts inthe field of mathematics.

Q:HHooww iimmppoorrttaanntt iiss iitt ttoo ooffffeerrpprrooffeessssiioonnaall ddeevveellooppmmeennttccoouurrsseess oonn tteecchhnnoollooggyy??

A: We can’t be talking about 21st-century education without tech-nology. As we look at studies ofstudents in this generation andwhat they think of their teaching

E-Learning for TeachersMelinda George lauds online professional development

POINT OF VIEWby Matthew Miller

Melinda George

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experience, we’re struck by theirfeeling that technology needs to bepart of a classroom experience.Therefore, it’s critical for all teach-ers to have the ability to bringtechnology into the classroom in order to integrate it into their curriculum and lesson plans.That’s why there has been anemphasis at TeacherLine todevelop courses that help teach-ers. Some of the fears that teachershave about using technology in theclassroom are allayed if they’regiven some ideas and solutions tohelp them utilize it effectively.

Q:HHooww hhaass pprrooffeessssiioonnaall ddeevveellooppmmeenntt hheellppeedd mmeeeettssttaattee aanndd ffeeddeerraall mmaannddaatteess??

A: States and districts are seeingonline professional developmentas a way to meet the mandates ofNo Child Left Behind and thestate requirements for highlyqualified teachers. In the lastcouple of months, we’ve had twobig statewide initiatives.

The Nevada Department of Education’s Commission onEducational Technology awardedUS$250,000 to two of its largestschool districts – Clark Countyand Washoe County – to work in conjunction with local PBSstations to provide [online] coursesto its teachers who needed tomeet their highly qualified teacherstatus. So now we’ve broughttogether a collaborative work-group of educators from the statedepartment, educators from thedistricts and individuals fromlocal public broadcasting stationsin Nevada to inform teachersabout this opportunity and tohelp get them engaged in thisonline professional developmentcommunity.

The other place where we’ve seena great statewide initiative is inArkansas. Last year, the ArkansasGeneral Assembly passed legisla-tion requiring all of its teachersto take an online professionaldevelopment course. TeacherLinequalified as the vendor to providethose courses in conjunctionwith Arkansas’ public broadcast-ing station AETN. So we are nowworking with the people inArkansas to figure out how togear up to support 4,000 educa-tors taking TeacherLine coursesover the next year, and probablyup to 30,000 educators over thenext six years.

Q:WWhhaatt aarree tthhee mmoosstt iimmppoorrttaannttffaaccttoorrss ttoo ccoonnssiiddeerr wwhheenncchhoooossiinngg aa pprrooffeessssiioonnaallddeevveellooppmmeenntt pprroovviiddeerr??

A: It is critical that you do a needsassessment at the school or districtlevel to ensure that the profes-sional development you eventu-ally sign up for will meet yourneeds. First, you want to find aprovider that has the breadth andwidth of courses to meet teachers’needs. Second is a question ofaccess: You must make sure youhave someone who can deliver onthose needs, and depending onwhere the school or the district islocated, that can be a real issue.

Q:AArree tthheerree aannyy mmiissccoonncceepp--ttiioonnss rreeggaarrddiinngg oonnlliinneepprrooffeessssiioonnaall ddeevveellooppmmeenntt??

A: It’s interesting because we’re notseeing trends that say only youngerteachers are taking online profes-sional development courses – infact, it’s just the opposite, [and this]may have to do with the profes-sional learning communities. In

many ways, any teacher who hasn’thad the opportunity to experiencean online professional develop-ment course may have some hesita-tion. But what we’re finding is thatas teachers become involved withonline courses, they realize thepracticalities, the learning and theaccess that they’re able to gainthrough them. It’s really a questionof getting teachers to try it once.

Q:WWhhaatt ttrreennddss ddoo yyoouu sseeee ffoorrtthhee nneexxtt sscchhooooll yyeeaarr,, aannddggooiinngg iinnttoo 22000077 ffoorr pprrooffeessssiioonnaall ddeevveellooppmmeenntt??

A: It’s only going to get hotter.We’re coming up on the No ChildLeft Behind deadline for meetingthose highly qualified teacherrequirements, so we’re going tosee a lot of educators wonderinghow to help meet those needs. Soprofessional development willcontinue to grow, and onlineprofessional development isprogressively becoming the wayto deliver professional develop-ment because of the quantity, thequality and the access that we’reable to help afford.

Melinda’s recommended professional development links

PBS TeacherLinehttp://teacherline.pbs.org/teacherline

National Staff Development Councilwww.nsdc.org

Matt Miller is senior Web editor for

Chapman University in Southern California.

He has been involved in print and online

publishing for more than 10 years. He is

currently pursuing a master's in education

from Chapman, where he earned his BA

in journalism.



First MUDs. Then MOOs. NowMoodle? The community-basedplatforms in cyberspace seem to

evolve faster than you can say Multi-User Domain, MUD Object Orientedor Modular Object-Oriented DynamicLearning Environment. Just keepingup with this myriad of ever-catchyInternet acronyms can be timeconsuming, if not a little tedious. Inthe case of Moodle, however, figuringout the playful abbreviation posesmore of a challenge than actually usingthe open-source course management,e-learning software to which it refers.

On the most basic level, Moodle is afree software package that teachers canuse to create or tailor their own onlinecourses. Teachers using Moodle haveaccess to a variety of features and activ-ities – such as wikis, testing capabilitiesand discussion forums – and byadding these various elements, theyare able to build online courses thatprecisely suit their needs.

With more than four million usersaccessing nearly 400,000 coursesworldwide as of April 2006,Moodle’s exponential growth overthe past five years is obvious and canbe attributed to its intuitive, flexible,modular format. Moodle is free touse and easily modified, making it anattractive e-learning alternative torigid retail systems such as WebCTand Blackboard. Moodle’s open-

source design also means teacherswho aren’t comfortable creating anonline course can simply log on tothe system and download an entirecourse or activities and features thatanother teacher has posted throughMoodle Exchange.

Educators creating courses inMoodle will typically include a list ofcourse participants, a syllabus, a calen-dar charting assignment dates anddeadlines, and message forums in

their virtual classrooms. Moodlepromotes a collaborative, student-centered approach to learning, and it’sprecisely this underlying constructivistpedagogical philosophy that haseducators marveling over Moodle.

Middlesex County Public SchoolDistrict in Virginia is one of manydistricts in the United States that isusing Moodle extensively in its curric-ula. Introduced to the district byMiddlesex technology director Mark

Burnet in September 2004, Moodlewas implemented because its open-source, modular format makes it easilycustomizable, and the simple interfacemeans students and teachers alikehave very few navigation problems.

In addition to Moodle’s team ofdedicated programmers, users aroundthe world contribute to the creation ofMoodle modules and activities. On theMoodle.org website, teachers can pickand choose from a plethora of quizzes,surveys, polls and peer assessmentactivities to add to their particularMoodle course modules. They can alsoadd various plug-ins for colors, fonts,layouts and languages to modify thelook and feel of a course. When theonline course is ready, students simplyuse an ID and password to gain accessto the materials.

To ensure the district-wide imple-mentation in Middlesex County was asseamless as possible and fulfilled thefull potential of Moodle’s student-centered approach to learning, Burnetand his team developed staff andstudent training courses on Moodle.Burnet, who was named TechnologyAdministrator of the Year by a localtelevision station, says adequate train-ing and hands-on experimentation isessential to the successful adoption ofMoodle in any school or district.

“I’ve talked at a couple of confer-ences, and I tell [administrators] to try

Do You Moodle?

TECH TRENDSby Deena Cox

“Moodle: [[unknown origin]] the process of lazily meandering through

something, doing things as it occurs to you to do them, an enjoyable tinkering

that often leads to insight and creativity. As such, it applies both to the way

the Moodle system was developed and to the way a student or teacher might

approach studying or teaching an online course. Anyone who uses Moodle is

a Moodler” (source: moodle.org).

“I tell [administrators] to

try it and experiment with it

and to not be afraid to allow

teachers to play with it a

little bit. Give them the

freedom and see where

they will go with it.”

F


it and experiment with it and to not beafraid to allow teachers to play with it alittle bit. Give them the freedom andsee where they will go with it. I thinkthat is the first step,” he says. “It is asolid system. One of the things that[administrators] often fear is that whensomething is free, they think it is onlyworth what you pay for it. [Moodle] isone case where, even if I had to pay forit, it would be worth having.”

Mary Swihart, a Middlesex Countybiology teacher, agrees.

In 2005, her 26th year of teaching,Swihart was honored with a technologyintegration award from the then stategovernor, Mark Warner, in recognitionof her enthusiastic use and champi-oning of Moodle within the MiddlesexCountry Public School District.

Swihart says Moodle gives her thefreedom to tailor the online compo-nent of her biology class to suit thecourse syllabus. It also allows herstudents full access to their courses in a hybrid learning environment –where course work is divided betweenin-class and online from home.

To encourage her students to guidetheir own learning, Swihart postsPowerPoint files of her in-class presen-tations, biology-related animations,quizzes and discussion questions inher course module.

Swihart also uses Moodle to conductpre-tests and post-tests to help betterassess her students understanding ofthe course work. Moodle automaticallyevaluates which questions students areanswering correctly or incorrectly,allowing the teacher to develop futurelessons and quizzes around the results.

In addition to the pre- and post-test functions, Swihart finds theMoodle forums add significant valueto her class.

“When you have a discussion question – a controversial discussionquestion, for instance – and you throwit out to your students [in class], you

may get a fourth of them responding,well, maybe not even that many,” shesays. “The rest will sit back and justlisten, and they won’t take part. It canbe very hard to draw them out, but Ican put that question into a Moodleforum where they are required torespond and they respond. I can alsoset it up where they have to respond toeach other, so that way, I can get a lotmore thought and participation in adiscussion than I can in the classroom.”

It is this type of endorsement thatMoodle creator Martin Dougiamashoped for when he created the coursemanagement software as part of hisPh.D. dissertation: The use of OpenSource software to support a socialconstructionist epistemology of teach-ing and learning within Internet-basedcommunities of reflective inquiry.

“Moodle is very much against justpublishing information and requiringa quiz at the end – which is what we calldump and pump,” says Dougiamas, anative of Australia. “Moodle has anumber of activities where studentshave to do things. These can be

complex, like … wikis for example –individual wikis or group wikis – whichare getting people to collaborativelywrite something. We are always look-ing for opportunities for students tocreate something for others to see.”

Like Dougiamas, Swihart is excitedby the possibilities Moodle is bringingto her teaching and her students’ learn-ing, so much so that across her schooldistrict and in conference presenta-tions, she actively encourages othereducators to give Moodle a try.

“I think it is probably the best thing[teachers] can do for their students.Moodle gives them so much moreaccess, and because it’s free, I don’t seewhy most schools aren’t using it,” sheadds. “For me, it is just phenomenal. Ithas allowed me to do so many morethings with my students because I putthe more time-consuming activitiesonline and the students access thoseactivities there, so it gives me more timeteach in the labs and other lessons.”

Related websitewww.moodle.org

Mary Swihart's students use Moodle for the online component of their biology class.

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PRODUCT WATCHby Deena Cox

A s the technological maturityof classrooms continues togrow, the array of peripherals

filling schools across the country doestoo. VCRs, DVD players, documentcameras, projectors, interactive white-boards and audio systems are fastbecoming the preferred elements of anin-class technology suite, in additionto the standard PCs and laptops.Having access to all of this equipmentis appealing to both students andteachers, but wrestling with scatteredcontrols and connectors is oftencumbersome and can eventuallyprevent the full utilization of class-room technology products.

Schools and technology manufac-turers are quickly realizing that inte-grated technology systems – thatteachers can get up and running withthe click of a single button – are thekey to ensuring technology tools areeasy to use and don’t end up sitting ina closet gathering dust.

To get an integrated system, schoolscan turn to an audiovisual dealer ortheir IT specialists for installation andintegration services. And now, theycan also look to manufacturers, such asSMART Technologies Inc., who aretrying to save schools time and moneyby offering off-the-shelf integratedtechnology systems. SMART’s offering– the SMART Board 600i interactivewhiteboard system – is a wall-mountedUnifi short-throw projector with abuilt-in audio system and a SMARTBoard interactive whiteboard inte-grated into one complete unit.

According to Stephen Tate, aninstructional technology resourceteacher at Spotsylvania High School inSpotsylvania, Virginia, integrated

systems are not just a cost-effectiveway of combining and managingclassroom technology products. Thesesystems address his school’s need toaccommodate a new generation ofdigital natives, while taking intoaccount the technological learningcurve its teachers face.

“Properly used, [an integratedsystem] can improve student learn-ing,” says Tate. “It allows for a blend oftraditional and contemporary teach-ing strategies that allow ‘old school’instructors to meet the needs of a newgeneration of students through [a]dynamic presentation … that speakstheir language while at the same timeproviding an outlet for cutting-edgeeducators to hone their skills.”

Tate says interactive whiteboardsystems – such as the 600i – that offerquick, easy access to a complete rangeof education technology productsenhance lesson delivery and studentlearning.

“We have observed that this tech-nology leads to increased student

motivation and engaged active learn-ing,” explains Tate. “It provides aseamless way to display instructionalmaterials across a variety of presenta-tion media – audio, still video, stream-ing video and data projection ... [all in]one centralized instruction station.”

With a streamlined system, teach-ers no longer waste time on setup andconnections. Once installed, the wall-mounted projector and interactivewhiteboard are always aligned andready to use, and the integratedstereo audio system is always on andavailable. All of the cables areconcealed behind the SMART Boardinteractive whiteboard, eliminatingtripping hazards, and because every-thing is permanently installed andsecured with a locking mount, theft isless of an issue.

The control panel provides audioand video connections for a computer,a DVD or VCR player, and a documentcamera or other video source. It alsoprovides a USB port where teacherscan simply plug in a USB key and savetheir work – without a PC.

“The SMART Board 600i interac-tive whiteboard system is one moreSMART product specifically designedto give educators the freedom to focuson teaching instead of managing tech-nology,” explains SMART productmanager James Rempel. “The 600iinstalls quickly, reduces implementa-tion time, and, once installed, becomesan embedded education technologysystem that doesn’t disrupt the focus ofstudents when switching from onemultimedia source to another.”

As Rempel explains, integratedsystems such as the 600i let teachersdo what they do best – teach.

Pooling Your Resources Using integrated systems to improve learning

Using integrated technology systems,teachers can easily get up and runningwith the click of a single button.


Be a news houndGet a weekly online newspaper thatwill excite and encourage beginnerreaders or readers with special needswhen you subscribe to News-2-You.Issues of this online newspaper arepublished every Thursday through-out the school year and sent to you inPDF format. Each issue focuses onone topic that is currently in thenews. The topic is presented in aneasy-to-read, symbol-based formatwhere each line is a simple sentenceillustrated with Symbolstix (simpleline-drawn pictures).

Each issue also includes 16–30pages of related content, such ascurrent events information, activitypages, puzzles, a word of the week,jokes, recipes and more. All content

is designed for students who needconcise, visual concepts to under-stand new information.

Subscriptions are valid for one fullyear, based on the date of purchase.Subscriptions are license-based andrange from US$82 for one user to$2,200 for 100 users. Additionalworksheets, games, storybooks andcartoons related to the weekly topicare also available for a fee.Go to www.news-2-you.com.

Get free contentMarcoPolo provides Web-basedcontent aligned to state educationstandards and professional develop-ment free of charge to K–12 teach-ers. The MarcoPolo site is a gatewayto seven discipline-specific sites,with resources created and suppliedby the nation’s leading educationorganizations, including the John F.Kennedy Center for the PerformingArts, the National Council ofTeachers of Mathematics, theInternational Reading Association,the National Council of Teachers of

English and the American Associationfor the Advancement of Science.Teachers will find lesson plans,images, videos, interactive content,downloadable worksheets, links topanel-reviewed websites and addi-tional resources.

Topics covered include the arts,economics, humanities, mathemat-ics, reading and language arts, geog-raphy, and science. MacroPolo,which was launched by MCI in 1997,is a partnership of leading educationorganizations and the VerizonFoundation. Nationwide, more than225,000 educators have participatedin training to use MarcoPolo as acurriculum tool. Go to www.marcopolo-education.org.

Spark student interest in math andscience careers when you useSolidWorks Education Edition soft-ware on your interactive white-board. SolidWorks, a three-dimen-sional mechanical design softwareused by institutions worldwide,introduces students to the mathand science fundamentals behindengineering, medicine research andother technical fields. In 3-D,students and teachers can buildvirtual models of anything toexamine structure, form and move-ment. Using SolidWorks, geometryteachers can transform static black-board drawings into dynamic 3-Dimages that clearly show relation-ships in space. Statistics teacherscan export graphs in MicrosoftExcel software to SolidWorks to

provide graphical representation ofstatistical trends.

The SolidWorks EducationEdition 2005–2006 combines thelatest in 3-D CAD software,COSMOS Design Analysis softwareand comprehensive courseware. Itcomes with complete courseware andcurriculua in electronic and printedformats. SolidWorks EducationEdition costs US$100 per user. Go to www.solidworks.com.

Create 3-D models

Tools for SchoolsDigital resources for the interactive classroom

DIGITAL REVIEWSby Cara Erenben


Science

Center for EducationalResources (CERES) Projecthttp://btc.montana.edu/ceresExplore the universe with online and interactivescience education materials that have beendeveloped by educators from across thenation. Using resources, data and images fromNASA, these lesson materials include real-timesatellite locators, data from the Hubble SpaceTelescope and virtual missions to Jupiter. Allmaterials are closely aligned with NationalScience Education Standards. Elementary/Secondary

Nobelprize.org http://nobelprize.org/games_simulations.htmlLearn about the contributions of Nobel Prizewinners through games and simulations basedon their Prize-winning achievements. Thiscomprehensive, thought-provoking collection of interactive resources focuses on key NobelPrize categories, including physics, chemistry,physiology, medicine, literature, peace andeconomics. Elementary/Secondary

World Wildlife Fundhttp://worldwildlife.orgLearn about the delicate biological balance ofthe world through the World Wildlife Fund’sinteractive maps, photographs, quizzes andgames. These activities encourage a deeperunderstanding of conservation and extinctionissues, biodiversity, global warming, deforesta-tion, illegal wildlife trafficking and poaching. Elementary/Secondary

Reading and language arts

BEEwebhttp://edutech.cs.brandeis.edu Become part of the buzz surrounding this onlineeducation community where students fromacross the United States are encouraged tobecome each other’s teachers. All BEEwebgames – SpellBEE, PatternBEE, GeograBEE

and MoneyBEE – are two-player games inwhich students log on and test each other’sknowledge of geography, math, spelling andproblem solving in a series of virtual challenges.Elementary

Sadlier-Oxford Phonics Interactivewww.sadlier-oxford.com/phonics/control_page/front2.htmExplore phonetics with this extensive educationresource site that uses word-match games,memory cards and a host of in-depth activities toteach students about letters, sounds and words. Elementary

Quiz Hubhttp://quizhub.comYou don’t have to be a subscriber to check outthe selection of free, cross-curricular, thinkinggames, quizzes and logic puzzles on this fee-based, question-and-answer site. Fromgeography to grammar, Quiz Hub provideslinks to interactive websites that cover a widerange of interests, including art, crosswordpuzzles and math.Elementary/Secondary

Math

Math Playgroundwww.mathplayground.comTry out this award-winning collection of mathgames that include flashcards, memory gamesand word problems. This expansive siteincludes Macromedia Flash-based interactivitiesthat keep students engaged while they practicetheir math skills. Elementary

Math Slicewww.mathslice.comMake math class more exciting with an interactive game of Math Jeopardy or MathMillionaire. These games are complemented bya wide selection of online multiple choice activ-ities that test class knowledge of math conceptsfrom basic counting to algebra and statistics. Elementary/Secondary

Amusement Park Physics www.learner.org/exhibits/parkphysics/coasterPhysics is fun on this site where visitors builda conceptual roller coaster using conceptsthat are used to design real coasters. Studentsdetermine the height and shape of hills andloops, and their exit paths. Once completed,designs are subject to a safety inspectionbased on the laws of physics. Elementary

Cross-Curricular

National Geographic Eye in the Skywww.nationalgeographic.com/eye/index.htmlLearn about the history and relationshipbetween Earth and mankind from a satellite’sview. This interactive resource offers lessonson nature’s fury, human impact on, and exploration of, the planet in a polished blend of text, video and still photos that is comprehensive, informative and engaging. Elementary/Secondary

Digital History Interactive Timelinewww.digitalhistory.uh.edu/timeline/timelineO.cfmExplore U.S. history with this easy-to-use,uncluttered resource. Slide a bar along a timeline beginning in 1580 and watch historyunfold to the present day on an interactivemap. As time progresses, historical points of interest appear on the map as icons, which can be clicked on to link to moredetailed information. Elementary/Secondary

Online LibraryWeb resources for the interactive educator

WEB RESOURCES

Correction noticeIn the spring 2006 issue of i.e. magazine we listed the incorrect link for ScholasticReady-to-Go Resources. The correct link ishttp://teacher.scholastic.com/lessonplans/index.asp.


All you have to do is tell us

about the biggest technology-

related challenge your school

or district faces for the

upcoming school year.

Send your response

with your name and

contact information to

[email protected] by

October 30, 2006. Please

include information about your

school, the technology challenge

your school faces and ideas for

how you might overcome this

challenge.


Win an AirLiner wireless slate!

™

Five lucky winners will receive theirvery own AirLiner wireless slate.In 250 words or less, describe the technology

challenge, how it affects your teaching and what

would change if it were resolved.

Send a description of your technology

challenge to [email protected] by

October 30, 2006. One entry per person please.

About AirLiner wireless slateInteract wirelessly with your SMART Board

interactive whiteboard or Sympodium interactive

pen display from 52 feet (16 m) away. The

battery-free tethered pen lets you or your

students control any software application, write

notes and highlight information in digital ink.

For more information, visit

www.smarttech.com/airliner.

Congratulations to lastissue’s contest winners. Eachwinner will receive an AirLinerwireless slate for sharing their

technology success stories.

Linda Bechtol (Brookline Regional Catholic)

Angie Vandewarker (Carson City-Crystal Area Schools)

Daniel Daneker(Conestoga Valley Middle School)

Karl Ochsner (Pope John XXIII Catholic School)

Deb Ray (Lexington Local Schools)


EDUCATION BY THE NUMBERSby Deena Cox

90Percentage of

children between the ages of

5 and 17 who use computers: 90

Percentage of children between

the ages of 5 and 17 who havecreated their own

webpages: 24

Number of statesthat had established

virtual schools in2004–2005: 22

Percentage of teens who do

school-relatedresearch

online: 94

“Educational Technology Fact Sheet” by the U.S. Department of Education. “Toward A New Golden Age in American Education – How the Internet, the Law and Today’s Students Are Revolutionizing Expectations” by the U.S. Department of Education.

42Percentage of high-poverty school districts that have

students enrolled in distance education courses: 42

16 36Number of stateswhere at least one

cyber charter schoolwas operating in2004–2005: 16

Percentage of school districts

that have studentsenrolled in

distance educationcourses: 36

Tight budgets and a confusing array of options can make choosing the right mix of technologies for the classroom time consuming

and stressful. i.e. magazine is here to help by providing reliable information on a range of issues – from assessment and funding through

to implementation, support and training. And it does so with understandable articles from credible experts and leading thinkers in the field.

SUBSCRIBE to i.e. magazine TODAY. It’s FREE and it’s EASY.

Subscribe online at www.smarttech.com/1ie1 or mail the form below to i.e. Subscriptions1207 – 11 Ave. SW, Suite 300Calgary, AB T3C 0M5CANADA

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As educators like you work to integrate technology, digital content and

pedagogy, schools are recognizing the value of SMART Board interactive whiteboards in the

classroom. Students can use them to grow ideas through brainstorming, researching and

collaborating on projects. You can use them to grow the skills and knowledge you need to

encourage inquiry-based learning with digital content.

But growth doesn’t have to come with steep learning curves. If you can use a computer,

you can use a SMART Board interactive whiteboard.

Get the world’s leading interactive whiteboard. It’s good to grow.

© 2005 SMART Technologies Inc. All rights reserved. SMART Board and the SMART logo are trademarks of SMART Technologies Inc. The SMARTer Kids logotype is a trademark of the SMARTer Kids Foundation of Canada.

Grants are availablethrough the

TM

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The new SMART Board™ 600 series interactive whiteboard

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