vol. 3 no. 2 spring 2007 choose the...

interactive educator

Vol. 3 No. 2 Spring 2007

Small District,Big State Support

YouTube.com andUthTV.com – a positive take

on video-sharing websites

Tech Trends –YouTube.com and

UthTV.com – a positive takeon video-sharing websites

Testing the TCO ToolBuying Smart –

Testing the TCO Tool

A publication of SMART Technologies Inc. • Technology for inspired learning.TM

Choosethe RightTechnologyTop districts share tactics forchoosing the best for your school

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interactive educator

C O N T E N TS VOL. 3 NO. 2 SPRING 2007

featuresChoose the Right Technology 22District technology administrators share their methods for selecting and buying the right tools for their schools.

by Diane Curtis

Small District, Big State Support 28What happens when a school district and a state work together to bring technology to rural students? The results are considerable technology benefits for everyone involved.

by Heather Ellwood

Must-Have Technology 34Every district has certain technologies they just wouldn’t do without. We talked to top technology administrators to find out which technologies are their favorites and why.

by Charlene O’Hanlon

22

28

up frontLetter from the Editor 5

Contributors 5

News & Trends 7

Letters to the Editor 7

34

46

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interactive educatorPUBLISHER

SMART Technologies Inc.

EDITORIAL

Managing EditorWendy McMahon

Assistant EditorEmma Howarth

Consulting EditorCarly Robertson

Production EditorEmma Howarth

Art DirectorChris Hopson

CONTRIBUTORSJane Chamberlin Grove Wendy McMahonDiane Curtis Charlene O’HanlonWilliam D. Dean Elizabeth SagehornHeather Ellwood Rick Smith Cara Erenben David D. ThornburgSteve Hillis Kim Vanderleer Nancy Knowlton Carolyn YoungDon Lipper

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 the 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.

Copyright © 2007 SMART Technologies Inc. All rights reserved.

education.smarttech.com

departments

Research Matters 10Get Your Game On

by Heather Ellwood

Buying Smart 12Testing the TCO Tool

by Don Lipper and Elizabeth Sagehorn

PD Profile 14Data-Driven Development

by Cara Erenben

Smart Practices 16Grand Slam Technology

by Kim Vanderleer

Nancy’s Notebook 18Leading Issues

by Nancy Knowlton

Guest Column 20Connected Learning

by David D. Thornburg, PhD

columnsDigital Reviews 39

Point of View 40

Tech Trends 42

Product Watch 44

Education by the Numbers 46

Web Resources 47

10

C O N T E N TS VOL. 3 NO. 2 SPRING 2007

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.

David Thornburg is thefounder of the ThornburgCenter and is its directorof Global Operations.Each year, through hisworkshops and presen-tations, he reaches many thousands ofeducators worldwide. His focus is on theeffective use of technology in education,with a special focus on inquiry-driven project-based learning. Prior to foundingthe Center, Thornburg was one of the firstresearch scientists at the famed XeroxPalo Alto Research Center, and several ofhis early inventions are still in daily use.

Charlene O’Hanlon isan award-winning editorand writer, specializing intechnology tools andtrends. Over the last 15years, her articles haveappeared in numerous technology andtelecommunications trade publications,including PHONE+, CRN and CampusTechnology News. A native of Arizona, shegraduated from the University of Arizonawith a bachelor’s degree in journalism andnow makes her home in New York.

Heather Ellwood is afreelance writer based inCalgary, Alberta, Canada,who has an ongoing inter-est in writing about educa-tion issues, practices andinnovations owing to her former career asa high school English teacher. She wasalso the editor of a sports and fitnessmagazine, and most recently, she was anin-house writer for one of Canada’s largestagricultural cooperatives.

Spring 2007 | i.e. magazine | 5

T hrough all the work the busyfolks here at SMART do withadministrators and educa-

tors, we consistently hear the sameprevailing concern about technology– “How do I know I’m buying theright technology for my district?”

Whether you’re buying one newprojector for one school or stan-dardizing on computers for yourentire district – deciding whichtechnology to buy can be a stressfulendeavor.

Will it help produce the resultsyou’re hoping for? Will it last? What is its total cost of ownership?Which technologies really enhancelearning? The questions are endless,but eventually, you must make adecision.

That’s why in this issue, we haveadvice from administrators, districttechnology coordinators, researchersand many more on how to chooseand buy the right technology.

Our ever-inquisitive reporterDiane Curtis spoke with four districttechnology administrators andlearned exactly what steps they taketo ensure they choose they right tech-nology. They revealed everythingfrom what type of research they do,to what conferences they attend, to

how they assess and test a piece oftechnology before they buy ((CChhoooosseetthhee RRiigghhtt TTeecchhnnoollooggyy pp.. 2222)).

We also asked administratorsfrom top school districts to tell uswhich technologies are on theirmust-have lists and what successthese tools have brought to theirschools. Find out if the tools thattop their A-lists are in your schools((MMuusstt--HHaavvee TTeecchhnnoollooggyy pp.. 3344)).

For those trying to gauge thetotal cost of ownership of class-room technologies, we spoke toadministrators who tested CoSN’sTCO tool. They explain whether ornot this tool can actually help youplan your technology spending((TTeessttiinngg tthhee TTCCOO TTooooll pp.. 1122)).

To show you the positive side ofvideo-sharing websites, we also spokewith two teachers who are usingYouTube.com and UthTV.com tomotivate students and help them seehow the things they learn at schoolrelate to the world outside the class-room ((GGlluueedd ttoo tthhee TTuubbee pp.. 4422)).

We hope the examples and advicewe’ve gathered from administratorsand experts around the world for thisissue can help you in your efforts tobring effective technology to thestudents in your classrooms.

Don’t forget to check out our new Letters to the Editor section ((pp.. 77)), where educators like youvoice their opinions and expresstheir ideas on our articles and interviews, or the realm of educa-tion technology in general. If you’dlike to comment on something inthis issue, you can send your thoughtsto [email protected].

Sincerely,Wendy McMahonManaging Editor

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR


NEWS & TRENDS

New support from SMARTTo save customers time, SMARTTechnologies Inc. has redesigned itssupport site on www.smarttech.com.The site’s improved navigation andnew features will help customers findinstant answers to their questionsonline.

Visitors to the redesigned site will notice a visually appealing, easy-to-navigate interface. On the firstpage, visitors can search andinstantly access hundreds of docu-ments and articles about using,maintaining, optimizing and trou-bleshooting SMART’s hardware andsoftware products.

The site is an excellent tool forcustomers to get the latest support

information about SMART productsand gain access to the most currentsoftware updates and downloads.

SMART Technologies Inc.www.smarttech.com/support

Getting technical withNASA – In an effort to attract morestudents to careers in technical disci-plines, such as science, technology,engineering and mathematics (theSTEM subjects), NASA announced anew Education Framework duringthe NASA Education PartnershipSummit held outside Washington DCon January 17.

Educators, policymakers, studentsand officials from NASA and other

government agencies helped formu-late the framework, which illustratesfour things these groups can do toincrease students’ interest in STEMsubjects – inspire, engage, educateand employ.

Happy hiring I am on the board of directors for theMississippi Association of SchoolAdministrators (MASA), represent-ing my organization, the MississippiEducational Computing Association.I also serve as the webmaster forMASA. I recently received the Winter2007 issue of i.e. magazine andwould like to use the article “How toHire Tech-Savvy Teachers” on ourwebsite…. I think the informationcontained in this article (as well asyour magazine, as a whole) could beinvaluable to administrators as theyface the challenge of hiring a newgeneration of teachers.

–Rick Smith , MississippiEducational ComputingAssociation , Choctaw,Mississippi, United States

Floydada keeps getting betterI am president of the Floydada schoolboard. I would like to respond to anarticle by Wesley Fryer that ran in theSpring 2006 edition of i.e. magazinetitled “Laptop Learning.”

Since that article was published …FISD (Florida Independent SchoolDistrict) began working with BlueMoon Solutions and Reese Tech-nology Center … to provide inexpen-sive and reliable Internet access forour students and community.Beginning in February 2007, theentire city of Floydada will becovered with a mesh network ofWiFi coverage.

Our students, as well as sub-scribers in the community, will havemobile broadband coverage any-where in the city limits [as well as]VoIP telephone service. Along withthe citywide WiFi coverage, BlueMoon Solutions will be providingfixed-wire Internet service for thosestudents living outside the city limits.

I firmly believe [these initiatives]… will place Floydada and FISD in thetop few of a select list of the mosttechnologically advanced cities ofany size in the nation or the world.

–William D. Dean, DDS,Floydada Independent School District,Floydada, Texas, United States

Persuasive reading Thank you for your magazine i.e.interactive educator. It helped meconvince my superintendent to get aSMART Board in my classroom andhas given me wonderful ideas forusing it. We just got the board, andwhile it isn’t hooked up yet, I canhardly wait.

I’m a second career teacher. Ispent 30 years in the Navy beforecoming to this small Nebraska townto teach math.

–Steve Hillis, Hartington Public Schools,Hartington, Nebraska,United States

A big thank youThank you, thank you, thank you.

We are a site that is technologi-cally challenged, but we are makinggreat strides to rectify this area.Thank you for the information onfunding resources.

–Carolyn Young,Marconi Community Academy,Chicago, Illinois, United States


Within this framework, K–12administrators will focus on inspira-tion, the space agency will focus onengagement and formal education,and colleges and universities will high-light employment opportunities.

For its part, NASA hopes to buildstrategic partnerships with schoolsfocused on improving knowledge andunderstanding of how to teach STEMsubjects. In doing this, the agencyhopes to attract and retain morestudents to the STEM disciplines and,ultimately, further its objective ofpreparing today's students for successin the 21st century.

To help outline exactly how it canwork with schools, the agency hascommissioned a series of FuturesPanels. The panels, which are com-posed of academics, scientists andother concerned stakeholders from avariety of geographic locations, willmeet throughout the year to discusspotential partnerships, explore newopportunities and foster an ongoingdialogue at each of NASA’s 10 regionalresearch centers.

At the end of the year, the groupwill release a report detailing itsdiscussions and offering suggestionsfor how NASA can work with schoolsto accomplish its education mission.

NASAwww.nasa.gov

The ideal laptop – A consor-tium of educators and technologyproviders has developed a list ofspecifications it says are essential tobuilding the ultimate one-to-onecomputing solution for schools indeveloped nations.

Known as Project Inkwell, the grouphas been working for almost threeyears on a set of industry standardsfor hardware and software manufac-turers to reference when designingpersonal computing solutions forschools. The group says the majority oflaptops purchased by schools are

tailored to the needs of the businessworld, but they would benefit morefrom one-to-one computing solutionsbuilt specifically for the classroom.

Inkwell is believed to be the firstorganization of its kind to try to estab-lish a set of commonly accepted stan-dards for one-to-one devices inschools. The organization defines one-to-one learning as an environment“where every learner and educator hasalways-on, real-time access to personallearning technology.”

Inkwell standards state that laptopsfor schools should be as lightweight aspossible, preferably under fourpounds. The group also recommendsthat schools do not purchase devicesunless they are small enough to fitinside a student’s backpack or standardschool locker for safe storage. Theyemphasize that one-to-one devicesshould come with protective carryingcases that guard against the uncertain-ties of daily classroom use and travel.

Battery life also is important to thegroup. For students to get through atypical school day, the Inkwell grouprecommends that all laptops used inschools come with batteries capable ofproviding at least four hours of opera-tional time and that each battery becapable of withstanding at least 300full discharges and refreshes prior toreplacement.

Screen lighting, basic memory andtotal cost of ownership are just a fewof the additional technical issuesaddressed by Inkwell's specifications.In all, there are 150 items for manufac-turers to consider.

The full list of these specificationsis available for free to all public K–12schools in the United States. Schoolsinterested in reviewing these specifica-tions or joining Inkwell are encour-aged to contact the organization.

Project Inkwellwww.projectinkwell.com

SMART expands lessonactivities – Fifty new SMARTlesson activities, created specificallyfor K–12 teachers, are now availablefor Notebook software 9.5. This nextgeneration of lesson activities incor-porates more interactive Adobe Flashobjects, which bring lessons to lifeand enhance student engagement.Answers and help buttons makestudent-directed learning easy andmake activities flexible enough to beused by nonspecialist teachers.SMART lesson activities forNotebook software 9.5 are createdbased on, and correlated to, curricu-lum standards in North America.

The new lesson activities forNotebook software 9.5 include inter-active title pages with notes that giveeducators a quick reference to thelesson’s objectives and ideas fordifferentiation. Interactive title barsprovide information about each lessonpage and help with how to use it inthe lesson. Flash objects are versatileand can be stored in Notebook soft-ware’s Gallery or moved to anotherlesson activity.

All new lesson activities have a consistent color-coded designspecific to the subject area and gradelevel, and lesson activities foryounger children feature a fun andfriendly new character called Scout.Science lesson plans are in green,English in orange, history in purple,math in blue and geography inbrown.

SMART Technologies Inc.http://education.smarttech.com

NEWS & TRENDS

Kids learn better when learning is interactive

www.smarttech.com

Kids explore their world by touch.

With a SMART Board™ interactive whiteboard

in the classroom, they can explore the world of

learning the same way. A SMART Board interactive

whiteboard'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 450,000 classrooms around the globe,

teachers use SMART Board interactive whiteboards

to help kids touch their world.

© 2007 SMART Technologies Inc. All rights reserved. SMART Board, smarttech and the SMART logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of SMART Technologies Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.


Computer and video games,whether played on a PC, ahandheld device or a free-

standing console, are an integral partof young people’s lives. No doubt,every educator would like to captureand replicate the excitement andinterest generated by these gameswhen they teach. And, according tothe latest research, much of whichcomes out of the United Kingdom,video and computer games do have aplace in the classroom.

With that in mind, elementary andsecondary administrators, educationleaders and teachers should review theresearch and understand the implica-tions because, in the end, the respon-sibility for implementing games ineducation will rest with them.

Games + curriculum = learningThe United Kingdom-based TEEM(Teachers Evaluating EducationalMultimedia) produced the “Report onthe educational use of games,” whichsought to understand the level ofengagement experienced when videogames are played and if this level of engagement could be translatedinto an educational context. Theresearchers wanted to identify theways games supported the learningand teaching of curriculum content.In addition to in-class trials withgames, the research also included anat-home component. Through inter-views and surveys with parents andchildren, the researchers examinedthe role video or computer gaminghad in a student’s life outside school.

In all, TEEM collected and analyzedover 700 responses from students,parents and teachers.

The games selected for trial andevaluation in the classrooms of the12 TEEM study schools were prim-arily simulation or quest-basedgames, and most were commercialoff-the-shelf games (COTS), notgames designed specifically foreducation (commonly referred to asedutainment games). Some of the 18games selected included The Sims,Sim City, RollerCoaster Tycoon, Age ofEmpires and Bob the Builder.

Teachers in some classes used TheSims game, in which students createand manipulate characters in a simu-lated world as a starting point forgroup discussions and debate topics.In other classes, students were pairedup to create their own theme parkusing the game RollerCoaster Tycoon.In both these situations, teacherswitnessed vibrant debate, cooperativeproblem solving and much communi-cation and discussion from the gameplaying.

Overall, TEEM’s findings revealedthat because of the content of thegames and the proficiencies neededfor successful play, learning arises,knowledge is developed and commu-nication skills are honed.

However, at the time, TEEMresearchers found that “many of theskills valuable for successful gameplay, [as] recognised by both teachersand parents, are only implicitly valuedwithin a school context. Teachers andparents both value the conversation,discussion and varied thinking skillsdemanded by some of the gamesemployed.” However, teachers felt

Get Your Game OnReviewing the research on digital games for learning

RESEARCH MATTERSby Heather Ellwood

Research says computer and video games can motivate students to learn andincrease their 21st-century skills.


that these skills alone “could notjustify the use of games within acrowded school curriculum.”

But a recent study conducted bythe Federation of American Scientists(FAS) titled “Harnessing the Power ofVideo Games for Learning,” appearsto indicate that it is precisely thesetypes of intangible skills that are mostvalued and sought by employers andpostsecondary institutions when theylook at prospective candidates.

Students + games = motivation“Teaching With Games: Using com-mercial off-the-shelf computer gamesin formal education” is another UKstudy educators around the world canlook to for valuable information.

This study was conducted byFuturelab, a nonprofit institution witha focus on developing innovative learn-ing resources and practices for the 21stcentury. The study was released in2006 and offers a broad overview ofteacher and student uses of and atti-tudes toward COTS computer games

in schools. It also identifies the factorsthat impact the use of three entertain-ment games in school (The Sims 2,RollerCoaster Tycoon and Knights ofHonor) and describes the processes bywhich teachers plan and implementgames-based learning in existingcurricular contexts. The study consistsof two parts: first, national surveyswere conducted by Ipsos MORI ofprimary and secondary teachers, andschool children aged 11–16; second,detailed case studies of 10 teachers’approaches to using games for learn-ing were compiled.

Some teachers were worried theywould be sidelined or lose control of

their classes because of the auto-nomous nature of computer games –but Futurelab’s study revealed other-wise.

Futurelab’s study found that achiev-ing particular education objectivesthrough the use of the game dependedmore on a teacher’s knowledge of thecurriculum than on his or her ability toplay the game. Indeed, the researchersdiscovered that using games in ameaningful way within lessons de-pended far more on the effective useof existing teaching skills than it didon the teacher developing any new,game-related skills. Futurelab’s find-ings also demonstrate that far frombeing sidelined, teachers were requiredto take a central role in scaffolding andsupporting students’ learning throughgames.

A number of other significantfindings are outlined in the report.Teachers and students in the casestudies reported that using games inlessons is motivating. In fact, whenlessons are built upon students

exploring the games in a freeformand autonomous manner, the lessonyielded high engagement. The reportalso indicates that educators andeducation researchers should nowmove beyond the generalization thatchildren are motivated by playingcomputer games, “towards a morenuanced understanding of exactlywhat in games play is motivating inorder to best understand how toengender such engagement in theclassroom.”

As with most other innovations ineducation, Futurelab’s researchersfound the true measure of how effec-tive these games were in the class-

room rested with and reflected thequality of the teaching. The mostsuccessful teachers were able to accurately judge the abilities of theirstudents and clearly distinguish the objectives they were hoping toachieve through the use of the gamein their class. These teachers werealso able to specifically identify andisolate the game’s resources thatsupported and met their objectives.

Where do games fit?Both of these studies indicate thatvideo and computer games do have aplace in education, but the specificshave yet to be determined. Educatorsare asking how they can effectivelymeasure the learning that occurswhen students play games and whattasks and learning objectives are besttaught using games. Others wonderabout the negative effects of videogames and game-based learning tools.

But, with this and other games-specific research in place, computerand video games may indeed becomepart and parcel of the realm of educa-tion, with the hope they will give ourstudents increased opportunities tobuild 21st-century skills. Game on, theresearch seems to be saying.

Heather Ellwood is a freelance writer based

in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Formerly an

in-house writer for an agricultural coopera-

tive, and once a high school English teacher,

Heather has an ongoing interest in educa-

tion issues, practices and innovations.

Recommended websites TEEM studywww.teem.org.uk/publications/teem_gamesined_full.pdf

Futurelab studywww.futurelab.org.uk/research/teachingwithgames/report_01.htm

“teachers witnessed vibrant debate, cooperative

problem solving and much communication and

discussion from the game playing.”

Since 2003, over 1,700 schooldistricts have signed up to usethe Web-based TCO (Total

Cost of Ownership) tool from theConsortium for School Networking(CoSN), a pre-eminent voice in educa-tion technology, to estimate the TCOfor various technologies. But whatexactly is this tool? What are districtssaying about its effectiveness? And is itsomething you should try?

The TCO tool is a vendor-neutralresource that claims to help districtsand schools better measure andmanage their IT investments. It wasdeveloped for CoSN by Gartner, Inc.(a leading authority on businessTCO) and the North Central RegionalTechnology in Education Consortium(NCRTEC). Development took placeat the North Central RegionalEducation Laboratory (NCREL) with

financial support from the U.S.Department of Education.

Gathering the dataTo use the system, schools need tocollect data on 100 topics, includingequipment, software, external serviceproviders, and direct and indirectlabor costs. While most administra-tors who have used the programrecognize that collecting this muchdata is time consuming, they say therewards of understanding the cost ofongoing support for technology areworth the effort.

Nina Wilkening, IT managementand budget coordinator for theDepartment of Information Tech-nology in Fairfax County PublicSchools, Virginia, admits that becauseof the extensive amount of data neededto use the TCO tool, she probably

wouldn’t use it again. “There is a needto constantly pull data, some of whichis not readily available, via the systemswe utilize,” explains Wilkening.

Despite this, Wilkening says shewould still recommend the TCO toolto others. “Everyone should probablydo a total cost of ownership exerciseat least once. If you find the supportsystems make it easy to use the tool,then we would advocate for morefrequent use.”

Sally J. Bair, technology facilitatorfor the Northern Lebanon SchoolDistrict in Pennsylvania, agrees thatpulling together the data took time, butfeels it was worthwhile. “[Defining] thedata we needed and gathering it waswhat took time for us. [But] the use ofthe tool was easy. We simply input thedata and it worked,” she explains.

Before switching to the TCO tool,Blair was using spreadsheets to esti-mate technology purchases – a methodthat didn’t provide her with muchfeedback.

At the end of the process, Blair waspleased that the tool pointed out thingsher district should consider to maxi-mize cost savings, such as standardiz-ing on products, streamlining training,and assessing the amount of technol-ogy support staff required and the timeit takes to provide that support.

She doesn’t think comparing costswith other schools is beneficial.Instead, she recommends using thetool year after year to compareprojected costs with actual costs.

Calculating carefully For Dan Honore, director of informa-tion services for Kenosha SchoolDistrict in Wisconsin, CoSN’s tool


BUYING SMARTby Don Lipper and Elizabeth Sagehorn

Testing the TCO Tool Schools rate CoSN’s free program

Collecting the data required to use CoSN’s TCO tool may take some time, butadministrators say it’s worth the effort.


provided more accurate calculationsthan their previous estimating system.

He finds the tool works best torecommend certain purchases. “I useit to change the thinking of mycustomers. They are short-termthinkers, looking only at the initialpurchase price. Once I show themthe total cost of ownership, it makesdecision making more efficient andaccurate.”

One area that Honore felt could usesome improvement was the tool’sreporting ability. He would like the

tool to provide more details. “I wouldlike to press a button to get thecomplete report,” he explains.

Making the right decisionsRound Rock Independent SchoolDistrict’s experiences with the TCOtool have been covered in one of themany case studies available on theCoSN website.

Ed Zaiontz, executive director ofinformation services for this Texasschool district, says the data collectionpart of the process was undoubtedlyexhausting. “It took approximately80–100 hours to collect the data.” Butusing the TCO tool led him to changethe technology he purchased and howhe used it. “The data that you get fromthe TCO tool causes you to look atyour technology decisions and see ifthere may be a better way to imple-ment the technology,” he explains.

For example, at the time of theTCO study, Round Rock ISD hadapproximately 3,330 inkjet printers inuse, with an estimated annual supplycost of $250,000 (approximately $75for ink cartridges per printer). Thedata led them to rethink their deploy-ment of inkjet printers and look tolaser printers.

The number of servers in thedistrict was also examined. By reduc-ing how many servers the districthad, they were able to reduce themaintenance costs and technicalsupport required.

Creating a technology plan Aside from school districts, anotherorganization that supports the use of the TCO tool is the Chicago PublicSchools’ arm of the Principal Tech-nology Leadership Institute. Whenworking with principals to develop

school improvement plans, the insti-tute uses the TCO tool and theresources available on CoSN’s website,such as district case studies, to createthe technology portion of a plan.

“We [demonstrate] the CoSN TCOtool and [review] activities anddiscussions related to the case stud-ies,” says Sharnell S. Jackson who isheavily involved with the instituteand is Chicago Public Schools’ chiefeLearning officer.

She explains that the feedback andresults they see when principals putthe tool to use are positive andencouraging.

“The principals cite that the casestudies are enlightening, sobering andbeneficial. Few administrators, if any,previously considered costs such asthe time teachers must take to resolvetheir own tech-support issues.”

In her experiences, Jackson hasfound that the principals who usedthe TCO tool to create school technol-ogy plans were twice as likely tounderstand the operational supportrequired for technology, 40 percentmore likely to hire appropriatepersonnel for computer support and40 percent more likely to understandbudgeting for technology.

Taking the next stepsIf the TCO tool sounds like somethingthat could work for your district, takethe lead from these districts, andinvest the time and effort in collectingthe data.

If you’ve already taken the TCOroute, and you’re ready for the nextstep, CoSN has also created a supple-mental tool that measures the value ofinvestment (VOI), to help schoolsdetermine which technology is themost beneficial and most aligned withtheir district’s goals.

Why should educators care abouttechnology VOI? Rich Kaestner,CoSN’s TCO and VOI project director,is fond of quoting a passage fromAlice in Wonderland:

“Alice asks, ‘would you tell me,please, which way I ought to go fromhere?’ ‘That depends a good deal onwhere you want to get to,’ said the Cat.”

Kaestner says “It’s difficult to deter-mine your technology direction if youdon’t understand current costs (whereyou are) and can’t definitively statewhat you plan to accomplish (whereyou want to go).”

For many school systems, CoSN’stools will help them discover bothanswers.

Don Lipper and Elizabeth Sagehorn are a

husband and wife writing team who have

written for many publications, including

Time, People, In Style and Money.

“Once I show them the total cost of ownership, it

makes decision making more efficient and accurate.”

Recommended websites CoSN’s TCO toolwww.classroomtco.org

CoSN’s VOI toolwww.edtechvoi.org

Round Rock ISD TCO metricswww.classroomtco.org/2004_case_studies/texas.pdf


A n already successful Georgiamiddle school is on its way toachieving even higher learn-

ing outcomes and education resultsbecause of its data-driven professionaldevelopment program.

“We are the best performingmiddle school in the county, and weare the third best performing middleschool in Georgia,” says Gene Taylor,principal of Alton C. Crews MiddleSchool in Gwinnett County.

Despite such successes, schoolleaders are striving for even greaterresults by regularly improving teach-ers’ skills in a pervasive and consis-tent fashion.

This professional developmentprogram is based on content driven

by results from state-standardizedtest and operates as in-depth, ongo-ing sessions. A single instructionalstrategy can be the focus for monthsat a time until the majority of teach-ers have learned, implemented andevaluated its effectiveness.

“I want to blow the roof off thescores,” says Taylor, who hopes toclose the achievement gaps betweenstudents of different races andeconomic situations in his schools.

School leaders look at all aspects ofstudent data, including demographicssuch as poverty and race, to determinewhere students could improve. “Wedidn’t really have any areas where wefailed, so we looked at areas where weperformed lowest,” Taylor says.

Reading nonfiction data, for exam-ple, was one of the areas that neededimproving. As a result, the school’sprofessional learning sessions focusedon how teachers could improve eachstudent’s ability to interpret nonfictionmaterial, including charts, graphs,data and other reference materials.

Thirteen other instructional stra-tegies have been identified by thedistrict to improve student perform-ance, including integrating technol-ogy, using summarizers, workingwith graphic organizers, teachingvocabulary and assessing frequently.

Every other Thursday, teachers gettogether for an hour of professionaldevelopment. The sessions happenduring school time before classesbegin, and although it is completelyvoluntary to attend, an estimated80–85 percent of teachers participate.

The key to the program’s success isthis high level of participation. “It’snot just our star teachers. The massmajority of teachers are involved,”Taylor says. He explains that theschool is working toward achieving100 percent participation.

“We make the hour as fun andworthwhile as it possibly could be,”says Janet Blanchette, the school’scoordinator of technology and pro-fessional learning.

Snacks and door prizes might beoffered, but more importantly, teach-ers are learning something new, apply-ing what they learned in the classroomand coming back to discuss it.Teachers also meet with other teacherswho teach the same grade and subjectto further discuss strategies learned intheir professional development train-ing sessions.

Data-Driven DevelopmentContinuous training based on test data leads to PD success

PD PROFILEby Cara Erenben

Data-based PD classes enable administrators at Alton C. Crews Middle School togive teachers the skills to support students’ growth.


“We are sent away with a mission totry something,” says Susan Harris, aneighth-grade language arts teacher atAlton C. Crews Middle School. “It’smore active and [involves] doing,rather than [just] walking away with astack of papers.”

In the past, the school’s profes-sional development consisted of one-shot workshops with little or nofollow-up. It was like ordering from acafeteria menu – teachers chose toattend workshops from a list simplyto fulfill the number of hours neededfor recertification.

Three years ago, that systemchanged. Now teachers at Alton C.Crews need to earn 10 professionallearning units (PLUs) every five yearsfor recertification. Teachers earn one

PLU for every 10 hours spent at profes-sional learning sessions. If they imple-ment what they learned, they earnanother PLU. If they can show it hasmade a difference toward improvingstudent performance, teachers earn athird PLU.

“We have a very dedicated staffwho are committed to improving,”says Blanchette, a former teacher whonow plans and leads the training. “Icould throw out great sessions, but ifthey weren’t committed it wouldn’tmake a difference.”

Having teachers master each skillbefore moving on is key, Blanchettesays. In the beginning, “I was throw-ing a new thing at them each week.It’s much better to learn one thingwell before moving on,” she explains.

Many fads in education becomethe focus of professional learningworkshops, but teachers at Alton C.Crews quickly learn that the contentthey are taught isn’t a fad. By focusing

on the same instructional strategiesweek after week, staff see that thetechniques they are learning are partof the overall school plan and thatthey are expected to use these tech-niques for years to come.

For example, teachers spent morethan two months learning to imple-ment graphic organizers. To begin, thetopic was introduced; then, teachersused the technology in the classroom;and finally they evaluated its effect ontheir teaching.

How and why to use an essentialquestion is another example of aninstructional strategy the teachers aretaught. Teachers post an essentialquestion in their classrooms to keepstudents focused on the objective ofthe day’s lesson.

In Harris’s classroom, for example,she recently wrote, “How do youorganize an effective, persuasiveessay?” Anyone who walks into theclassroom – whether it’s a student,teacher, principal or parent – can seethe question, she says.

“What we do is fabulous,” saysMary Britt, who teaches a giftedlanguage arts class to sixth- and eighth-grade students at Alton C. CrewsMiddle School.

The professional learning work-shops taught Britt strategies forsummarizing a lesson. Before studentscan be dismissed, she has them writedown one thing they learned about theday’s lesson and put it on the board.

“Anytime you can approach alesson a little bit differently, otherthan ‘open the textbook and turn topage 57,’ the students are moreengaged,” says Britt. Not only does itadd variety, it also engages a varietyof learning styles, she explains.

In addition to addressing multipleteaching strategies, the school’s profes-sional learning program highlightspeer coaching. Teachers frequently gointo each other’s classroom to observetheir peers in action. Peer coaching isnot about judging each other’s work,but rather about identifying behaviorpatterns. Teachers ask their peer coachto observe them and answer questionssuch as, “What are the kids doing thatI’m not seeing?” and “Do I tend toonly call on certain students becauseI’m anxious to get to the rightanswer?” This helps teachers collabo-ratively determine if they are meetingstudents’ needs.

“I definitely focus to the right sideof my classroom, and I tend to onlycall on those who have their handraised,” Harris says.

Britt says the ability to interact withother teachers is most valuable to her.“Teaching can be a very isolated career.You can easily go into your classroomand close your door,” she explains.

With so much collaboration, ideasharing and peer coaching, isolationis virtually impossible at Alton C.Crews Middle School. “There are a lotof ideas shared that are … new to us,”explains Britt.

The ongoing and all-encompassingnature of Alton C. Crews MiddleSchool’s professional learning pro-gram, combined with its data-drivenfocus and teacher collaboration, havemade it a success for everyone.

“You’ve got to be focused. Youhave to make data-driven decisions,”Taylor advises. “Have a vision ofwhere you want your organization tobe, and paint a clear picture for yourstaff with clear steps and goals toachieve it.”

Cara Erenben is an Ontario-based freelance

reporter. Previously, she was a full-time

school technology reporter for eSchool Newsin Bethesda, Maryland.

“Anytime you can approach a lesson a little bit

differently, other than open the textbook and turn to

page 57, the students are more engaged.”


T he SMART Board interactivewhiteboard has transformedbaseball – America’s favorite

pastime – into a catalyst for learning atLexington Local School District. Fromthe superintendent to the teachingstaff, everyone in the district recog-nizes the impact technology has onteaching and learning. As a result,every classroom from kindergarten totwelfth grade has access to a plethoraof technology, including computers,digital cameras and digital recorders.

But according to Deb Ray, Lexing-ton’s assistant technology director, it’sthe SMART Board interactive white-board that has really transformed

learning – especially for the baseball-loving students in the special-needsclassroom.

Pitching the right technologyRay was first introduced to interactivewhiteboards in the 1990s, but ratherthan purchasing right away, the school district’s technology directorresearched which brand of interactivewhiteboard would work best for thedistrict’s needs.

“What we were looking for wassomething that was versatile, thatwas of high quality and wouldsupport upgrades. That’s why wewent with SMART Boards,” says Ray.

The district now has 26 SMART Board interactive whiteboards, twoSympodium interactive pen displaysand three AirLiner wireless slates.

“We have a philosophy that it is ourjob to educate students so they canreach their maximum potential. TheSMART Boards just went right alongwith that. I feel the SMART Boardsallow us to reach all the different learn-ing styles of our student population,from kindergarten to high school –our special needs students as well asour talented and gifted population. It’sjust a natural tool. I haven’t foundanything that it can’t do yet,” says Ray.

Technology is a major priority inthis Ohio school district, and there is alot of support for its integration intothe district’s five schools. That’sbecause, as Ray explains, the district’sadministrators and teachers knowthat students must be digitally literateto be successful in the future.

“We are seeing kindergartners whoare submersed in the technologyworld. From the time they were born,they have played on computers athome. They have different interactivehandheld devices – and I think if wedon’t focus on technology as part oftheir learning, we are missing theboat, because it’s so much a part oftheir lives,” explains Ray.

Putting technology in center fieldRay’s role is to provide professionaldevelopment to teachers and encour-age technology integration in thedistrict’s schools, including EasternElementary School, which has over500 students. Ray periodically con-ducts SMART Board interactive white-

Grand Slam TechnologyBaseball helps students learn geography

SMART PRACTICESby Kim Vanderleer

Nonverbal autistic, physically disabled or cognitively disabled students at Lexington Local School District are making strides in learning using the SMARTBoard interactive whiteboard.

board training sessions at the school toshow teachers how to use their 10interactive whiteboards to createengaging and interactive lessons.

Pat Shook, a special needs teacherat Eastern, attended one of Ray’ssessions to see if the interactive white-board could meet her class’s needs.Shook has been at the school for twoyears and teaches nine students, allwith unique learning abilities. Herstudents are nonverbal autistic, physi-cally disabled or cognitively disabled.Some of her students require therapyto develop their fine motor skills.

After the training session, Shookapproached Ray about the possibilityof using the interactive whiteboard

with her students. Shook was appre-hensive that it might get damaged.But after Ray explained how durablethe technology was, the two begandiscussing how the interactive white-board could work in Shook’s lessons.

When Shook mentioned that herstudents were learning where each ofthe 50 states were located, Ray imme-diately thought of the tools andcontent available in SMART’s Note-book software. She suggested thegeography section in Notebook soft-ware’s Gallery could be effective inengaging the students.

The pair decided to use a large mapof the United States and images ofeach state to help students learn theirlocations. In the next class, Shook andRay taught the students how to touchthe screen and drag the state to theright location.

“It took a bit of time, but thestudents were really into the lesson,and it did improve their ability toretain the information,” says Ray.

Shook noticed that the studentswere receptive to the SMART Boardinteractive whiteboard, but she feltshe could take the learning a stepfurther. Again, she joined forces withRay to learn how she could make thelesson even more engaging.

On the ballRay suggested incorporating hobbiesor sports that interested the studentsinto the lessons. Knowing that themajority of Shook’s students werewild about major league baseball, thepair decided to download the logos ofall the U.S. baseball teams and usethem to help students identify thestates.

When Shook saw how excited herstudents were when their favoriteteam’s logo appeared on the interac-tive whiteboard, she knew thisapproach would add the compellingelement she had been looking for.She had each student come up to theinteractive whiteboard and drag themajor league baseball logo into thecorrect state.

“There was so much more energywith the kids, they just loved it, theywere so excited. It was very successful,the approach we used, and I was verypleased.” says Shook.

Not only did the interactive white-board help her students retain knowl-edge – it also helped them develop

their fine motor skills. Students usedtheir fingers or the pen tool to writeor drag objects across the screen,which improved their muscle controland dexterity.

“Some of the students have trou-ble with writing and their fine motorabilities, and with the SMART Board,they could find Cleveland and thenthey would look for the Indians’ logoand pull it over to the correct state.Even if they sometimes hesitated,they could go back and do it againuntil they did it,” Shook says.

“So they are able to perform whatare considered fine motor skills, butwith their fingers or a marker, it’smuch easier for them. And of course,anytime they have success, it justcarries into everything they do … itmade them feel quite good.”

Success with the SMART Boardinteractive whiteboard has filteredinto all aspects of their classroom.“The students really like to go up tothe SMART Board and take theirturns, and all the students are work-ing together. It has changed the class-room culture because they are nowcollaborating,” says Shook.

Both Shook and Ray agree thatusing the SMART Board interactivewhiteboard has benefited studentswith autism, they are more willing tocollaborate, and it has made thecommunication process easier.

For Shook, the training and supportshe received from her colleagues wasthe greatest help when it came to inte-grating technology into her curriculum– they gave her the opportunity andencouragement to try a SMART Boardinteractive whiteboard to make learn-ing engaging, collaborative and fun forall of her students.

Kim Vanderleer is an Alberta-based

journalist who focuses her love of research

and writing on exploring issues in education

and real estate.


“They are able to perform what are considered

fine motor skills, but with their fingers or a

marker, it’s much easier for them.”


Over the last few months, I have participated in anumber of conferences,

including SMART’s Global EducationTechnology Summit in Calgary, thesixteenth Conference of Common-wealth Education Ministers in CapeTown and BETT (a British educationtraining and technology exposition)in London. Each of these conferencesprovided a great opportunity forstimulating exchanges. After attend-ing these events, I wanted to writeabout two education issues that aretop of mind for me. I’ve also includeda brief summary of new products thatSMART has just released to supporteducators in a 21st-century classroom.

Looming teacher shortagesFor some time, people around theworld have been talking and writingabout the looming teacher shortage.Most recently, UNESCO reported that

this shortage, predicted to occur by2016, runs at 13 million in developingcountries and 5 million in industrial-ized countries – 18 million in total. Thereasons are varied – baby boomers willsoon retire, AIDS has significantlydepleted the number of teachers inAfrica, and giving children in develop-ing countries access to education isnow a greater priority. Add to that thedemands in many jurisdictions forsmaller class sizes and the short reten-tion time for classroom teachers, andone can see a perfect storm emergingin a critical pillar of society.

This enormous shortage will have asevere impact not just on the childrenin the system, but on whole societies.Is anybody with the power to improvethis situation listening? I ask this ques-tion because, so far, all I hear are alarmbells but no strategies or answers.

So what can we do? First, let’s ensure that teachers who

are currently in the system stay in thesystem. We should strive to increasethe retention rate of new teachers,especially quality mathematics andscience teachers. In an in-creasinglytechnological world, every student isgoing to need a high level of knowledge in these subjects.Attracting and retaining qualifiedteachers in these areas has to be aninternational priority. Retention is-sues have long been on the table, andit is time to make concrete stridestoward providing the support anddevelopment that new teachers, inparticular, need.

Second, education funding mustbecome a national and local priority.With the proper resources in place, itis well recognized that student learn-ing outcomes improve, and retainingteachers is easier. The rush to providetax breaks is likely not the best long-term choice – administrators shouldexplore other avenues.

Third, technology may not be acure-all solution, but it could help theteacher shortage crisis. Teachers inone location can support students inconnected locations, whether theyare in the classroom next door oracross distance.

These ideas are only a start, butthey are something on which even thesmallest of education systems canconcentrate. Nine years is not a longtime when you consider how long ittakes to develop a teacher and howfast time passes. Think of the nine-year olds you know, and rememberwhen you held them as babies.Funding development and support ofour teachers is a serious issue thatneeds attention now.

Leading IssuesWeighing in on top education issues

NANCY’S NOTEBOOKby Nancy Knowlton

The new SMART Board 600i interactive whiteboard system was just one of themany new products SMART announced at BETT 2007 this past January.


System check upK–12 education has interconnectedpieces and parts. Let one element getout of sync, and it will have an impactsomewhere else. Has your educationsystem had a check up lately? Just asyou don’t always wait until you aresick to visit the doctor, perhaps nowis the time for a serious look at thehealth of your system – a millennialcheck up.

I, personally, had the good for-tune of participating in Alberta’sCommission on Learning, a nine-member independent commissionthat commenced in 2002 and re-viewed Alberta’s basic educationsystem. The last review was doneabout 30 years earlier, so we weredefinitely due for another compre-hensive look at our education system.

We consulted all of the constituentgroups that had an interest in educa-tion and held hearings around theprovince. What a great experience itwas to hear thoughts from parents,teachers, administrators, associationleaders, students, custodians andbusiness people. We also benefitedgreatly from the insight of some ofthe leading thinkers and writers oneducation, and from research thathad been conducted around theworld.

We started with a blank sheet ofpaper and set about building aneducation system that had the appro-priate connection to home andcommunity and that could stand thetest of the next 30 years. We reportedour findings to the minister of learn-ing in October 2003. A copy of ourreport, “Every Child Learns, Every

Child Succeeds,” can be accessed at www.education.gov.ab.ca/commission/printable.asp.

Launched and loadedSMART launched a bevy of newproducts at BETT 2007 from January10–13. We worked diligently to getthese products ready for a worlddebut (in some cases) and a Europeanlaunch (in others). Here’s an overviewof each of our latest products.

Senteo interactive responsesystem

With the click of a button, studentsfeel free to take risks and respond toteachers’ queries quickly and confi-dentially. The Senteo interactiveresponse system enables teachers toquiz, poll, assess and gauge students’

understanding. Because Senteo fullyintegrates with SMART’s Notebooksoftware, it offers both potential and simplicity to teachers using theSMART Board interactive white-board.

SMART Board 600i interactivewhiteboard system (European debut)

The SMART Board interactive white-board has been engaging students withits intuitive touch-sensitive screen formore than 15 years and has recentlybeen updated to make its integration inthe classroom even more seamless. Thenew system combines a wall-mountedUnifi projector with a built-in soundsystem and a SMART Board interactivewhiteboard. With the 600i, teacherscan focus on teaching and not bedistracted by cables and shadows.

SynchronEyes classroom management software 7.0

In computer lab configurations,SMART’s classroom managementsoftware enables teachers to guidestudents by monitoring studentscreens, controlling student comput-ers, and giving and marking quizzes.With its new updates, SynchronEyessoftware 7.0 supports mobile devicesand dual monitors, and allows teach-ers to import XML quiz bank files. To address security concerns,SynchronEyes now encrypts all com-munication within networks andauthenticates teachers in order toprevent outside access to classroomfiles.

Notebook interactive viewer This viewer product allows teachersto share their lessons and ideas withthose who do not have access toSMART products. Notebook interac-tive viewer is a simplified, easy-to-useapplication and can be downloadedat no cost from SMART’s educationsolutions website (www.education.smarttech.com). It offers practition-ers the interactive applications ofregular Notebook software (providedwith every SMART Board interactivewhiteboard), making lessons a highlyvisual multimedia experience.

All of these products and more aredescribed in detail on our website.They’re loaded with great new featuresand functions that we know you willappreciate and enjoy.

Nancy Knowlton is CEO of SMART

Technologies Inc., the company in Calgary,

Alberta, Canada whose name has become

synonymous 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.

“Education funding must become a national and local

priority. With the proper resources in place, it is well

recognized that student learning outcomes improve,

and retaining teachers is easier.”


In 1993, Eric Schmidt (then at SunMicrosystems, now at Google)introduced the concept of cloud

computing – when information andapplications are hosted in cyberspacerather than on specific computers.Cloud computing is possible if band-width approaches processor speed.Instead of isolated computers thatshare information with each other forspecialized tasks, the world Schmidtdescribed was one in which intercon-nectedness was ubiquitous. As the SunMicrosystems slogan of the time said,“The network is the computer.”

It took years for this vision tobecome real, and even now, we are justbeginning this new age. But there islittle doubt that we do live in a highlyinterconnected world, especially inour homes. According to research bythe Pew Internet and American LifeProject, over half the homes in theUnited States have broadband access.

With broadband access, theconnection is “always on,” unlike ourexperience in the days of dialupmodem connections. In addition,bandwidth is high enough for mostusers that access is nearly instanta-neous – except for very large filessuch as videos.

Although our homes are increas-ingly well connected, many schools lagbehind home access in two importantways: first, there are far more studentsfor every computer than there are inthe home; and second, school band-width is shared among multiple users,bringing the average bandwidth peruser down significantly in many cases.We can solve these problems by estab-lishing the benefits of bringing broad-band access to students at most gradelevels and virtually all subject areas.

But one question still remains –how do we transform education prac-tice to support learners and preparethem for life in a world unlike anythingour generation has experienced?

Canadian researcher GeorgeSiemens has thought deeply aboutthis conundrum and has used theterm connectivism to describe a modelof learning based on the idea thatknowledge lies outside ourselves, thatthoughts exist in space and time, thatcontent is a byproduct of learning(not the starting point) and that learn-ing is a network-forming process.

While Siemens sees connectivismas a new pedagogy, I prefer to think ofit as a pedagogy amplifier. Good prac-tice in inquiry-driven, project-based

learning, for example, is made betterthrough the use of connectivist tools.

What makes ubiquitous broad-band (and cloud computing) differentfrom more traditional ways of usingthe Web in education? Well, in thepast, one of the dominant metaphorsfor the Web was library. The Webprovided access to huge volumes ofinformation of varying quality, someof which could be used to facilitatestudent learning in a variety of fields.Companies like Nettrekker came intobeing around this model, with theadded value of only having links tosites with high-quality content.

This kind of practice will stillremain powerful in our new world,but it is now joined by several newpractices that did not come into play afew years ago.

MIT’s Henry Jenkins has given thismatter significant thought, and in hispaper “Confronting the Challenge of Participatory Culture: MediaEducation for the 21st Century,”

he tackles the challenge head on. Jenkins describes the creation ofa participatory culture that has four subsets: Collaborative ProblemSolving, Affiliations, Circulations andExpressions. Each of these is a compo-nent of connectivism and is supportedby various online tools.

In my view, the following tools canpoint the way to a powerful future foreducation technology in the connec-tivist world:

In the realm of CollaborativeProblem Solving, the tool Cmap is

GUEST COLUMNby David D. Thornburg, PhD

Connected Learning Changing education through technology use

David D. Thornburg, PhD

“The potential to change education through the

thoughtful use of modern technology is amazing.”


virtually unique. This free concept-mapping tool can operate as a stand-alone program, but its great powercomes from its ability to interact withother student maps stored on specialCmap servers. Imagine studentscreating a concept map on a particu-lar topic. If they get stuck, they canclick on the Suggestion button sotheir computer looks for maps onsimilar topics online that they canreview for help or inspiration.

One of the more interestingAffiliation tools is Second Life, anonline community, which lets mem-bers navigate with their peers invirtual spaces that contain manyfeatures such as online courses. Whilenot designed as an education product,Second Life has a lot of potential ineducation.

The Circulation domain includesblogging, conferencing and podcast-

ing. Often students create documentsthat only a teacher will see. But whenstudents create online reports of theirwork, they can hear from others whohave an interest in their work. Thisgive-and-take provides tremendousincentive for students to share theirperspectives with clarity and vision.

Tools for Expression includeprogramming languages that allowstudent creations to be posted forothers to use and even to modify ifthey want. One interesting program-ming language in this area is NetLogo.This language is an off-shoot of theoriginal Logo programming language,favored by educators in many coun-tries, but it isn’t used as much as itcould be in the U.S., where it wascreated. Programs written in thislanguage can range from simple toolsfor exploring mathematical ideas, tocomplex models of collective behavior

(e.g., flocks of birds). The language iseasy enough for young students tolearn and powerful enough to be usedby professionals in many fields. Best ofall, finished NetLogo programs can beposted on the Web for others to run. Ifdesired, the programmer can alsomake the source code available forothers who want to expand, modify orfix a program that has been posted.

In all of these cases, access topowerful computers and broadbandconnections to the Internet are essen-tial. These few examples are scarcelythe tip of the iceberg, and each daybrings even more innovations to light.

The potential to change educationthrough the thoughtful use of mo-dern technology is amazing. Whether we make progress in this directiondepends, in part, on our willingness toput powerful tools in the hands ofstudents and to create an educationclimate that values independent learn-ing, collaboration and a host of otherskills we are told form the basis for21st-century learning.

It is, in fact, up to us.

David D. Thornburg is the Director of

Global Operations at the Thornburg Center.

He can be reached at [email protected].

Recommended websites Cmaphttp://cmap.ihmc.us

Second Lifehttp://secondlife.com

NetLogowww.ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo

Confronting the Challenges ofParticipatory Culture: MediaEducation for the 21st Centurywww.henryjenkins.org/2006/10/confronting_the_challenges_of.html

“How do we transform education practice to support

learners and prepare them for life in a world unlike

anything our generation has experienced?”

With increased demand for technology in the classroom, and

new hardware and software being produced by the minute,

school technology decision makers have their work cut out for them.

How do they make their final selections from such a wide array of

products? What criteria do they use to make sure the technology

facilitates student achievement? i.e. magazine writer Diane Curtis

talked to several school district technology administrators to find out.

Top districts share tactics for choosing the best for your school

Choose theRight

by Diane Curtis


T E C H N O LO GY AS S E S S M E N T

Director of technology,Northwest Independent School District, TXFor Jerry Ashton, director of technology for the NorthwestIndependent School District (NISD), finding the right tech-nology means doing hands-on research, networking, seeingthe product in action and talking to people who can sharetheir past experiences.

For example, every six weeks, Ashton joins othermembers of TENOR – Technology Educators Non-Official Roundtable of North Texas – to brainstorm.“What are you all doing about an online gradebook?”“What laptops did you choose?” The subjects run thegamut. It’s at these meetings that Ashton gets some ideasand advice to take back to NISD, which is in the Justinarea, near Dallas. But it’s definitely not the only place hegets his ideas. Keeping abreast of the latest in technology,what works and what doesn’t, what’s worth testing andwhat’s a waste of time, is an ongoing process, and ideascome from many directions.

Besides the roundtable, Ashton attends the annualfive-day Texas Computer Educators Association (TCEA)conference – the largest in Texas, with 9,000–10,000 atten-dees. “That’s where we do a lot of networking and meet-ing with vendors,” he says.

He uses these gatherings to keep his knowledge currentand look for specific educational devices such as wirelessslates that allow teachers to control their computer appli-cations from anywhere in the classroom. During theseconferences, he visits vendor booths so he can see newtechnology in action, and he attends the sessions to hearabout new ideas, experiences and research.

When it comes to working with vendors, Ashton typi-cally likes to work with a select group of vendors that he’sbeen dealing with for years and with whom he’s estab-lished a trusting, fair relationship. “We have really goodrelationships with our vendors. They’re very cooperative.They find solutions and don’t take us to the cleaners.”

“That’s not to say I’m not open to new vendors,” heexplains. “That’s when those conferences come in.” Withnew vendors, he takes a don’t-call-me-I’ll-call-you stanceuntil he’s developed a relationship – otherwise he’d spendmuch of his time talking with people trying to sell him thelatest electronic gadget.

Another method Ashton uses to guarantee he choosesthe right technology is arranging to test out a few versionsof the equipment. He says these trial runs are especiallyuseful for helping him make decisions about any technol-ogy that he hasn’t seen in action in an actual classroom. Heused this approach when he was searching for projectorsfor the district’s classrooms. He asked several vendors he’d

worked with in the past to set up their data projectors at aschool over a several-week period so he could test the prod-ucts in a real classroom environment. He checked forfeatures such as brightness, sharpness, ease of use,warranty and price, as well as making sure “that what thevendors were saying was accurate.”

Ashton and his team had been told that wireless projec-tors would be a good solution for the classroom, butduring testing, they found wireless alternatives could notkeep up with the data being sent to them. “Many frames

were dropped, and the majority of content of streamedvideos was lost in the dropped frames,” says Ashton. Thatwas the end of the wireless option. They chose a wiredprojector that met their criteria and standards.

“Once you put it in an environment where you have4,000 computers, and you say, ‘How does it work now?’you determine quickly if it does what you want it to,” heexplains.

But, he emphasizes that the most important character-istic of technology is that it fits the needs of the teachingand learning process within the classroom. “We makesure we do the best for the students. Those are ourcustomers,” says Ashton. “If it doesn’t directly or indi-rectly impact student achievement – student success –then we’re not going to move forward with it.”

Brainstorming with other educators can be a great way tolearn from the successes, and mistakes, other districts havemade when buying technology.

District administrator of technology,Boise School District, Boise, IDAt the Boise School District, the process for requestingtechnology is informal, but the criteria that technologymust meet is hard and fast. Before any technology ispurchased, it must meet two main criteria: it must besustainable over a period of at least five years and it must becompatible with the district’s operating system, which isWindows-based.

The process unfolds like this: when a teacher at one ofthe 47 schools in the district wants to try implementingnew technology, like blogging, to improve student writing,she talks to the school technology coordinator, who thenrelays the teacher’s idea to Jim Marconi, the district admin-istrator of technology.

“A teacher determines a need, then communicates withmy office to find a solution,” explains Marconi. “We try tofind mainstream solutions – not too leading edge – tosupport. We make sure there is adequate support eitherfrom a vendor or someone else who can answer questionsand provide training.”

Marconi and his staff will then ensure that the technol-ogy works with the districts operating system. This is amajor consideration for the district when choosing technol-ogy because, while teachers who strike out on their own inobtaining computer software or hardware are now growingfairly sophisticated about ensuring compatibility andsupport, it wasn’t always this way. In the early days ofbringing the Boise schools into the digital age, it wasn’tuncommon for teachers to get software and then complainthat they couldn’t get it to work. Often the problem wasthat the software required Windows 98 and the districtonly had Windows 95.

In helping teachers find the appropriate technology,Marconi and his staff also do research and target a fewvendors who might be able to help. More than likely, thevendors will come to us through a state or cooperativecontract, a system, says Marconi, “that saves us fromhaving to go out to bid for things. It also helps with thewhole idea of standardization.”

Still, not all of Marconi’s purchases come through theco-ops. The district recently put a contract out to bid for anew line of computers with new operating systems, notify-ing regular vendors and placing ads in newspapers and onthe district website. The lowest bid turned out to be from aMinneapolis company, which, Marconi says, no one in thedistrict had ever heard of before. “As soon as we [deter-mined] they were the low bid, we asked them to send us twodemos, and we started to call their references. We did moretesting than we’d ever done before,” including, he says,

loading all the district’s applications on the new WindowsVista operating system that came with the computers.Marconi says when it comes to buying computers, the mostcommon problem he sees is incompatibility between exist-ing software and new operating systems. “If you’re going tohave a problem, it likely will be in this area,” he explains.

Marconi predicted that a potential problem with thatparticular computer could be the video card. But it wastested and passed. The vendor also passed Marconi’ssupport test. When talking to vendors, Marconi says healways asks the following questions: If we have a problem,how do you handle the response? Do you have an 800number? Call back? Listserv? “It’s not an in-depth thing,”


An eight-step process for assessing and choosing technology Patti Kershaw, instructional technologymanager, Fauquier County PublicSchools, Fauquier, Virginia.

Step oneIdentify the technology need

Step twoGather the technical requirements

Step threeMatch the need to the appropriate technology

Step fourTest and pilot

Step fiveSeek approval from school leaders

Step sixObtain funding

Step sevenGo through the procurement process

Step eightDevelop an implementation plan


T E C H N O LO GY AS S E S S M E N T

says Marconi. “It just takes a couple of minutes.” But itcovers the critical issue of support and repair.

Sometimes companies balk at Marconi’s five-yearsustainability rule, but typically, he prevails. When it cameto buying these new computers, he negotiated five-year, on-site warranties as part of the contract. “If the computerbreaks, we have somebody to come and fix it.” He negotiatedthe same way with recent projector purchases. “How are wegoing to afford those $300 or $400 bulbs?” Marconi mused.

Of course, vendors aren’t eager to take on more finan-cial responsibility than they are used to, and the projectorvendor was no exception. “They were worried about [thebulbs’] exposure and how teachers might abuse theprojectors.” So Marconi demonstrated to the vendor thatteachers would be required to carry out regular mainte-nance checks and would be given the know-how to takecare of the projectors. In the end, the vendor agreed to thefive-year warranty.

Instructional technology manager,Fauquier County Public Schools, VAInstructional technology manager for Fauquier CountyPublic Schools, Patti Kershaw, is responsible for 3,500 desk-top computers, 900 laptop computers, 360 media carts, 330SMART Board interactive whiteboards, document camerasfor every grade level at two schools, 30 AirLiner wirelessslates and more. When it comes to buying technology, shesays organization and structure are essential to creating aclear process for assessing and choosing technology.

Tempting as it may be to take them, shortcuts don’twork when it comes to getting the right technology into theclassroom, says Kershaw. “Try not to jump the process forthe sake of time. You could end up spending a lot of timeand money on a product you aren’t happy with.”

For Kershaw, the process goes like this: identify the tech-nology need, gather the technology requirements, match theneed to the appropriate technology, test and pilot, seekapproval from school leaders, obtain funding, go through theprocurement process and develop an implementation plan.And, of course, communicate throughout the entire process.

This same process is being followed as SMART Boardinteractive whiteboards, along with projectors, teacher

laptops and media carts, are now being installed in everyelementary classroom throughout the district.

For Kershaw, a vital part of fitting the right technologyto a specific need is participation from an instructionaltechnology resource teacher (ITRT) (one is assigned toevery school in the district). The ITRT is part of the technol-ogy committee at each school, which includes other teachersand administrators. The committee designs a technologyplan and takes their technology requests to Kershaw.

Kershaw is ready for such requests, having kept up-to-date by attending conferences, where she talks to otherschool district technology leaders and meets withvendors. She also reads a lot and searches the Web “to seewhat is out there and what others are doing.”

Similar to Jim Marconi of Boise School District,Kershaw also puts a lot of weight on the support that a

company offers when she’s deciding to buy new technology. The biggest consideration in choosing technology, says

Kershaw, is not necessarily the product itself. “Can wesupport it?” is the more important question. When itcomes to software, she also wants to know whether aparticular piece of software meets teachers’ needs interms of compatibility with operating systems and othersoftware applications. She takes a number of things into

Try not to jump the process for the sake of time. You could end up spending a lot of time and money

on a product you aren’t happy with.

“ “To keep up with the latest technology news, many administratorsread a variety of technology related publications, includingnewsletters, journals and websites.


consideration: the requirements to run the software, serv-ice and support from the vendor, licensing, the ability tonetwork, ease of programming and training time, and thereputation of the manufacturer.

As a final check, she always has a teacher try out thetechnology before a final decision is made.

Director of technology,South St. Paul Public Schools, MNDoug Tomhave, director of technology for South St. PaulPublic Schools, relies heavily on the expertise of others formany of his computer-related purchases, and he’s notashamed to say so.

“We take advantage of the consortiums,” says Tomhave,who has in his neighborhood one of the oldest technologyconsortiums in the nation – TIES educational technologycollaborative. TIES was created in 1967 to provide technol-ogy and information resources to school administrators,educators and students. It’s a joint powers cooperativeowned by 38 Minnesota school districts, representing 400schools and 250,000 students.

TIES conducts its own research and development,provides software support and training, technical consult-ing on planning, design management and installation, andfinds bargains on workstations, servers, system softwareand office applications.

While consortiums do cost money (a base fee, and thenschool districts pay another regular fee), schools still savebecause they get major discounts on software, hardwareand training.

Tomhave, whose district uses many of the TIES soft-ware applications and services, says it saves both time andmoney to let the experts guide him and come up withproducts he can use, such as an electronic gradebook.“They listen very, very well to the users,” says Tomhave.South St. Paul also has the benefit of another organiza-tion, the Minnesota Educational Media Organization,which supports school technology administrators in avariety of ways, including providing networking forums.

That’s not to say he’s never doing research on his own.He reads journals, subscribes to electronic publicationsfocused on technology, combs through newspapers andwebsites to make sure he knows what’s available for teach-ers and how new products are being received. Such infor-mation lets him make the best decisions on whether heshould branch out from the consortiums. But as often asnot, he finds that the consortiums are his last stop.

Through them, Tomhave believes he gets the best dealsand is moving his school towards standardization. If ateacher gets a grant for a digital camera, for example,

Tomhave can buy the camera through a consortium or astate purchasing program. He’ll get a product that hasprobably been purchased throughout the district and sohas compatible ancillary parts, such as batteries, or train-ing, already available.

Another benefit of buying through consortiums,Tomhave says, is that he can avoid what can be an over-whelming amount of sales pitches from vendors. “Onaverage, I’ll get four or five calls a day from vendors.They’re cold calls. And I will typically tell them that’s notthe way I operate. I prefer to do the research and search forthe vendor rather than have a vendor cold call.”

In the end, whether you buy through consortiums,arrange trial runs, follow a clear purchasing process or trya combination of approaches to assess and choose tech-nology, the key is being informed and then choosing thetechnology that works best for you and your schools. Andwith these tips from our experts in your back pocket,you’re well on your way to making technology purchasinga smoother process for everyone involved.

School technology directors and staff who would likesupport and networking contacts with experts andother school leaders should look to these resources:

Consortium for School Networking www.cosn.org

CoSN provides products and services to support andnurture K–12 technology leadership development,advocacy, coalition building and awareness of emerging technologies.

International Society for Technology in Education www.iste.org

ISTE promotes best practices in education use of technology.

Where to start

T E C H N O LO GY S U C C E S S

South Dakota may be famous for being the

place where Laura Ingalls Wilder, renowned

author of Little House on the Prairie, attended a

one-room school house, but nowadays the state is

home to tech-savvy school districts like Kadoka.

Here, education is about the NASA Explorer

Schools program, the federally funded Reading

First Program for K–3 students; SMART Board

interactive whiteboards in all classrooms; and a

one-to-one computing initiative where every high

school student has a Gateway Tablet computer.

Kadoka School District demonstrates that when

states and districts get together the results are

considerable technology benefits for students

SSuuppppoorrttSmall District,

Big State

by Heather Ellwood




Kadoka School District has only 336 students in threesmall campuses, about 50 staff, including a superintendentand two principals, and covers over 1,800 square miles.Even so, it is a shining example of what can be accom-plished when states and districts form strong partnerships.These partnerships are putting technology into classroomsand preparing students to become successful members ofthe 21st-century workforce.

Partnering upThe partnership between South Dakota and its schooldistricts began when Governor William Janklow oversawthe wiring and connection of all the schools in the stateduring his tenure from 1995 to 2003. Janklow created thisand other projects to support the state’s schools because hebelieved that technology was the only way to give SouthDakota’s largely rural student population the same learningopportunities as city students across the United States.

“The state came forward and built the infrastructurethat was needed to put technology in place in our schools,”says Dave Ehlers, network administrator for Kadoka SchoolDistrict, which was just one of the schools outfitted withInternet capabilities thanks to Janklow’s programs.“Without that initial baseline or structure, none of whatwe’ve done would have happened. Since then, we’ve builtupon that base,” he explains.

According to Dr. Rick Melmer, secretary of educationfor the state of South Dakota, schools in the Kadoka districtand across the state are thriving.

“When people think of South Dakota, they just assumenot much is happening or they believe we’re 20 years in thepast, and that’s just not the case,” says Melmer. “We’re verycurrent, and we have a lot of excellent things going on.We’re a rural state, and if we didn’t get with the 21stcentury in terms of technology, some of our rural schoolswould really struggle. Our motivation is to be able tocompete and to help our kids compete – and they can ifthey have access to good technology.”

Melmer says Kadoka School District is actually light yearsaway from wooden slates and one-room schoolhouses on theprairie. In fact, Kadoka district’s students are engaged inworld-class learning each and every day – thanks to thestrong relationship formed between the state and the district.

Not only did the state invest in fully wiring nearly all ofthe schools in its 176 districts, but since then, it has alsofinanced uniform, statewide professional development,and an e-mail and student management system that nearlyevery school district, including Kadoka, has opted into. Thestate has also introduced and helped fund the ClassroomConnections initiative that has thus far put laptops into the

hands of 5,000 high school students in 20 pilot schools.Kadoka High School is one of the pilot sites, which meanseach of its students now has a Gateway Tablet computer foruse, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Maintaining close tiesEhlers is one of the driving forces behind Kadoka district’sachievements according to many of the teachers who workwith him. He works hard to maintain close ties with thestate and says, “We work very closely with the StateDepartment of Education because we have found that thestate’s programs fit our needs.”

Ehlers believes that if a state is going to invest money,they are more likely to invest in a district that is committedto using technology and using it to its fullest potential. Hefeels that is why Kadoka has been fortunate enough toreceive money from state funds.

Standing outThere’s good reason that Kadoka School District receives somuch support. As Melmer explains, “Kadoka is an excellentexample of what is happening in education in SouthDakota. They’ve made great strides in getting our studentsready for what they will encounter when they leave schooland will continue to do so. I think, in South Dakota, we’vebeen creative in our approach to putting technology intoour schools and ensuring our students are getting a state-of-the-art education.”

What also sets Kadoka School District apart from otherschool districts is that it has a firm technology plan, vision-ary leadership and committed teachers.

Students from the Kadoka School District are gaining 21st-century skills thanks to a strong relationship between the district and the state.


“We have done solid planning, and this is something wewill continue to build on for years and years…. When youhave strong commitment, strong planning and results, it allbecomes easier,” explains Ehlers. “Technology, for Kadokadistrict, is creating prescriptive education, and I think aseducators we have always known that’s the best way to go.We’re finding that with the right technology tools, teach-ing to different learning styles is more attainable. We’removing towards more hands-on learning, and that isalways more successful…. We don’t have to teach to themainstream. We are far more flexible because we have theright tools in place.”

Technology all day, every dayHigh school business teacher Chad Eisenbraun agrees. Asone of Kadoka High School’s leaders for its one-to-onecomputing initiative (Classroom Connections), Eisenbraunhas seen firsthand the effects of 24/7 technology on hisstudents since the project’s commencement in September2006. This includes reduced absenteeism, higher studentengagement and classrooms filled with motivated andcreative learners who are collaborating and pushingthemselves, as they never have before, to take on authen-tic learning tasks.

In one of his business classes, students investigated localbusinesses from a marketing perspective and createdposters the various businesses could use to promote theirwares. The assignment was a decided success for thestudents, Eisenbraun and the business owners.

“Every day in class, my students are creating productsthat are real and usable, and that’s our goal in education. Ifyou can do that, you’re really on to something,” saysEisenbraun.

Kadoka district offers a lot of support to the highschool’s one-to-one project. The high school has a fullymanned help desk during school hours, state-sponsoredprofessional development, a cable television system, andSMART Board interactive whiteboards and dedicated LCDprojectors in every classroom. Kadoka also purchasedSynchronEyes classroom management software for thehigh school as a means of fully utilizing both the tablets andthe interactive whiteboards in the project.

“This is our first year with SMART Board interactivewhiteboards, and we are committed to having this technol-ogy in every classroom to support our learning and teach-ing. We gave all of our teachers two days of professionaldevelopment on the boards in the summer and followed upwith a day in the fall,” says Ehlers about the decision to addSMART Board interactive whiteboards to Kadoka’s reper-toire of technology.

Noticing resultsEhlers says the results are amazing. Teachers are engagedand building creative lessons like never before, and thestudents ask to use the interactive whiteboards in everyclass. A member of Ehlers’ help-desk team visited one ofthe rural schools in the district and told Ehlers that theSMART Board interactive whiteboards have really changedthings in a few short months. The technician explained thathe saw a kindergarten student tapping her finger on apicture she’d drawn on the regular old-fashioned white-board. She turned to him and said, “Why won’t it move mypicture? Make it move my picture.”

This particular student, like her K–3 peers in the Kadokadistrict, has used the SMART Board interactive whiteboardon a daily basis since the introduction of the Reading Firstprogram. A federally funded initiative, Reading First wasdeveloped to improve reading and bring students to gradelevel in the early years through an intensive focus on phon-ics, phonetic awareness, fluency, vocabulary and compre-hension. Kadoka district applied for and received extra

federal grant money to support this program. These extrafunds were used to purchase additional Gateway Tablets(aside from those the state funded) and SMART Boardinteractive whiteboards for every K–3 classroom.

Sandy Shortbull is a 26-year-teaching veteran fromInterior School in Interior, South Dakota, one of Kadokadistrict’s two K–8 schools. She uses six Gateway tablets,SMART Board interactive whiteboards, and support fromEhlers and his help-desk crew to deliver the Reading Firstprogram. Although all of this technology was new toShortbull, she says now she wouldn’t do without any of it.

With help from the state, teachers in the Kadoka School Districthave the right technology tools to teach to different learning styles.



“All of my materials for the Reading First program havebeen converted into lessons I can use on my SMARTBoard interactive whiteboard. The students come up tothe front of the class and circle words or read right fromthe SMART Board. Any skill I want to focus on, thestudents can actually become actively involved and takepart. They love it,” says Shortbull. She then adds, “I’m somuch more organized, and it’s so teacher-friendly to use. Iwouldn’t teach without it now.”

Chad Eisenbraun agrees with Shortbull. He maintainsthat the one-to-one tablet project would be far less success-ful without the integration of SMART Board interactivewhiteboards and SynchronEyes software.

“Without all of the pieces, the whiteboards, the tabletsand SynchronEyes, it’s a completely different process andproject…. It’s so nice, as a teacher, to say, ‘Okay class, nowwe’re going to make notes using Microsoft PowerPoint.’With SynchronEyes I can lock up all the other programs butPowerpoint…. SynchronEyes is a key piece for us with thisone-to-one project,” explains Eisenbraun.

Learning for the real world While Eisenbraun’s students in Kadoka High School revelin the opportunities the one-to-one initiative affords them,students in the district’s three elementary schools are alsoamong the less-than-40 schools across the United Statestaking part in the NASA Explorer Schools program.According to NASA, their Explorer Schools programprovides opportunities for active participation in mission-

related research, problem solving and design challenges. Itinvolves grade-specific explorations in science, technology,engineering and mathematics, all supporting national andstate standards. Again, Kadoka district had the proper tech-nology in place so its three elementary schools could beselected for the NASA Explorer Schools program.

But, Eisenbraun points out, Kadoka district has theseopportunities because of the commitment the state ofSouth Dakota has made to supporting the embedding andembracing of technology in all aspects of education. AndEhlers agrees. Because of the partnership between thestate and the district, Kadoka’s graduates are equippedwith what they need to succeed and are perhaps the best

ambassadors to spread the good news about the use oftechnology in schools.

“Our students are tech-savvy, creative, can-do learners.They represent excellence coming out of our schools. Andwhether they decide to go onto postsecondary or enter theworkforce, we can be proud of what they know,” says Ehlers.

Secretary of education Melmer fully endorses the greatthings happening in Kadoka district. It is his responsibilityto ensure that every student in South Dakota receives every

bit as good an education as students in any other state inthe nation. With the right mix of technology, excellent staffand support as needed, this can become a reality.

“We’re very proud of what we’ve done so far in SouthDakota,” says Melmer. “We know we have a long way to go… but it’s imperative for our children to be provided with21st-century skills. The technology initiatives we’ve intro-duced in our schools are doing just that.”

In Kadoka district, there might still be little school-houses on the prairies, but they buzz and hum with thesound of technology-enhanced learning and students whoare ready to take on the world. The rest of the nation canlearn from their excellence.

Kadoka may be a small, rural school district, but students haveaccess to some of the best technology thanks to state support.

Technology, for Kadoka district, is creating prescriptive education, and I think as educatorswe have always known that’s the best way to go.

“ “

Congratulations to the winner of our

Reader Survey Contest..

Willeen MooreheadApollo Middle School,Antioch, Tennessee

Willeen will receive a SMART Board 600 series

interactive whiteboard for her school.

Win an AirLiner wireless slate!

All you have to do is tellus how you are usingtechnology to help your students become globally competitive.

Send your response with your name and contact information to [email protected] April 30, 2007. Oneentry per person please.

Five lucky winners willreceive their very ownAirLiner™ wireless slate.

About the AirLiner wireless slateInteract wirelessly withyour SMART Board™

interactive whiteboard orSympodium™ interactivepen display from 52 feet(16 m) away. The battery-free tethered pen lets you control any softwareapplication, write notes and highlight informationin digital ink. For more information, visit www.smarttech.com/airliner.


I N T E R ACT I V E T E C H N O LO GY


by Charlene O’Hanlon

Study after study has shown conclusively that youth learn

better in an interactive, engaging and collaborative

environment. This fact, combined with the presence and

undeniable influence of video games, has spurred school districts

to look at ways to incorporate technology in the classroom to

create a more interactive learning experience for students.

So what technologies are making the classroom A-list? Interactive white-boards, LCD projectors and online content programs are most popular becausethey’re all designed to keep students interested in learning by involving them inthe process. And most often, these technologies are used in combination witheach other to take full advantage of their best features. Here, technology directorsand coordinators from some key school districts talk about why these technolo-gies made their must-have list and why they have been successful.

Mankato Area Public SchoolsFor Doug Johnson, director of media and technology at Mankato Area PublicSchools, Mankato, Minnesota, interactive whiteboards and projectors are essentiallearning tools for the classroom.

Mankato, which has 16 schools and a student enrollment of about 7,000, isinstalling data projectors, SMART Board interactive whiteboards and audioamplification systems into what the district is calling “Smart Classrooms.”Johnson says teachers who want the technology must submit proposals, and so far the district has outfitted about 70 classrooms with both SMART Boardinteractive whiteboards and data projectors. Another 30 or so classrooms havejust data projectors.

“This is the beginning of a five- to seven-year project of putting equipment intoeach classroom,” he says.

Johnson says his district’s SMART Board interactive whiteboards are especiallyuseful for fostering engagement with students. “We try to stress interactivity, to givekids a chance to use the board to demonstrate concepts and participate in hands-onactivities,” he says. “Teachers, in turn, are creating more interactive lessons thatinvolve the students’ use of the SMART Boards…. We want to see these as more ofa medium where kids can see problem solving in a meaningful way,” he adds.

Top school districts revealtheir favorite technology



Johnson says teachers are amazed at the learning thatoccurs when the students are more engaged.

“Anytime a kid can find a way to be creative, you aretapping into some level of learning at which the studentbecomes engaged. Technology is a way to engage thestudent completely.”

Fontana Unified School DistrictDarcy Whitney, district coordinator of instructional tech-nology for the Fontana Unified School District in Fontana,California, says the Discovery Education unitedstreamingprogram tops her must-have list. “The way it includes videoclips in classroom instruction is truly engaging. It means somuch more to have visual resources,” says Whiteney.

The district, which has 43 schools, including two contin-uation high schools and an adult education school, is in theprocess of building up its network and laying fiber-opticcables to accommodate the content streaming and video-on-demand. The program is housed on the district’s servervault and updated nightly, she says.

“We piloted it at two elementary schools to see if therewas any interest. At the time our network was limited, andthis program is a bandwidth hog, so if we had imple-mented it across the district it would have taken thenetwork down,” she says. “But since we’ve been building[our network], we took it district wide, and it’s been wellreceived.”

Whitney says one of the best features of the program isthe ability to easily balance multimedia with instruction. Inthe past, teachers could use video, but they were unable topause or stop the video, so they would have to show theentire video first and then discuss it with the class.

“These [unitedstreaming] videos are offered in 30-second increments so there can be instruction in betweenthe videos and more learning is occurring.”

The software offers content for grades pre-K through 12,and even some adult instruction, so the entire district isbenefiting from the program. “The content is truly incredi-ble,” she explains. “Everyone has really enjoyed it.”

Richfield Public SchoolsDean Breuer, instructional technology coordinator forRichfield Public Schools in Richfield, Minnesota, saysSMART Board interactive whiteboards and LCD projectorsare his favorite education technology tools for Richfield’sfive campuses and 4,200 K–12 students.

Breuer says teachers are proactively using interactivewhiteboards thanks to a pilot program called TechnologyEnhanced Classrooms, which equips selected classroomswith SMART Board interactive whiteboards and otherinstructional technologies and gives teachers training thatthey can then use to support their peers.

“We have a coach working with the teachers on teachingstrategies, and those teachers then become the technologyleaders in their school,” says Breuer. “This is the first year,and we have seen positive results so far.”

The unitedstreaming program is another favorite atRichfield Public Schools, where staff use the program’son-demand videos and other digital content to helpbolster instruction.

“Students can never have enough support, and these[programs] are a lot more aligned with engaging students inlearning,” says Breuer. “The stand-and-deliver method ofteaching is not the preferred learning style, and studentsneed more engaging, interactive and collaborative content.”

Clear Creek Independent School DistrictKim Shelton, director of instructional technology at ClearCreek Independent School District in League City, Texas,is another strong advocate of SMART Board interactive


The Technology A-List

Who Doug Johnson, director of media and technology, Mankato Area Public SchoolsMankato, Minnesota

Favorite technology SMART Board interactive whiteboards

Why “We try to stress interactivity – to givekids a chance to use the board to demonstrateconcepts and participate in hands-on activities.”

Who Darcy Whitney, coordinator of instructional technology, Fontana UnifiedSchool District, Fontana, California

Favorite technology The Discovery Education unitedstreaming program

Why “The way it includes video clips in classroom instruction is truly engaging.”

Who Dean Breuer, instructional technology coordinator, Richfield Public SchoolsRichfield, Minnesota

Favorite technology SMART Board interactive whiteboards andLCD projectors (various models), The Discovery Education unitedstreaming program

Why “We have a coach working with theteachers on teaching strategies, and thoseteachers then become the technology leadersin their school. This is the first year, and wehave seen positive results so far.”

Who Kim Shelton, director of instructional technology, Clear Creek Independent School District, League City, Texas

Favorite technology SMART Board interactive whiteboards

Why “It’s about making instruction comealive. Everyone has limited funding, capabilitiesand time, and this [tool] absolutely gives teachers the ability to be more efficient withtheir time, to make better use of their time.”

Who Dennis Barbata, director of information technology, East Side Union High School District, San Jose, California

Favorite technology LCD projectors (various models), School Loop

Why “I see teachers using computers in instruction so much, and they need to have the projection.”


whiteboards. She likes the tools for many reasons, but mostimportantly because they help instructors introduce a newlevel of visual impact not possible otherwise.

“If a science class is reviewing the circulatory system,for example, students can see it in an interactive fashionon the whiteboard and follow along,” explains Shelton.

Clear Creek, which has 39 campuses and a studentenrollment of about 35,000, adopted the interactive white-boards two years ago to use for distance learning and video-conferencing. “We saw there was huge potential, so welooked at what other school districts were doing with thetechnology,” says Shelton.

Since then, 50 SMART Board interactive whiteboardshave been installed in classrooms for exclusive use, and 250more are shared among teachers in the district. Sheltonexpects another 50 or so will be installed in classrooms forexclusive use by the end of the school year.

Another reason Shelton chose interactive whiteboardsas a favorite tool is because teachers within the districtbecame comfortable with the technology quite quickly.“The SMART Boards have been good for role modeling –once teachers see other teachers using the technology andsee how much more motivated their students are, thedemand increases exponentially.”

Shelton adds that the bundled software that comes withthe interactive whiteboards has also helped spur use of thetechnology through the district. “[They] became even morepopular when SMART released Number Cruncher, FinaleNotePad and SMART Ideas [software programs],” she says.“They are easy things for teachers to use, and the studentsjust love it. Music teachers all over the district applied forgrants based on what they could do with Finale NotePad.”

Shelton says teachers have noticed that using these typesof software packages with the interactive whiteboardsmotivates students. “There is definitely a motivation factor.When teachers use the software packages, students getimmediate feedback, and they like that a lot.”

Demand within the district for interactive whiteboardsis so high that the district decided to create the internalClassroom Technology Makeover Grants using moneyfrom a school bond. With this grant, teachers can apply tobe awarded a dedicated interactive whiteboard for theirclassroom rather than sharing one between classrooms.

“Teachers were saying that if they had these technolo-gies in their classroom, they would use them every day,”says Shelton. “So we implemented Classroom TechnologyMakeover Grants and are currently in our third round.”

In the end, Shelton says choosing technology is aboutmaking instruction come alive. “Everyone has limited fund-ing, capabilities and time, and this [tool] absolutely givesteachers the ability to be more efficient with their time, tomake better use of their time.”

East Side Union High School DistrictDennis Barbata, director of information technology, EastSide Union High School District (UHSD), San Jose,California, says demand is highest in his schools for LCDprojectors.

Barbata says the district, which has 18 high schools andan enrollment of almost 25,000, has hundreds of LCDprojectors.

“LCD projectors are replacing the blackboard. I seeteachers using computers in instruction so much, and theyneed to have the projection,” he says. “The problem so farhas been access. We want to make it one-to-one for thosewho want to use them. [Otherwise,] it’s hard to plan forwhen you’ll be using them in the classroom.”

Another piece of technology that tops the must-have listat East Side UHSD is an online program that helps teachers,students and parents share information and stay in-formed. The district is currently using the program calledSchool Loop, an online application that enables teachers todisseminate information, such as students’ workload,assignments and grades to parents and other teachers.

“I support programs that improve communicationbetween teachers, parents and students,” says Barbata.“Products that make posting homework easy and allowthe principal and teachers to send e-mail to parents isimportant.”

What’s on your list?Whether it’s interactive whiteboards, LCD projectors, onlinecontent or some combination of these three – these technol-ogy tools have made it on to the must-have lists of manydistricts because of the positive effects they have on studentlearning and engagement. Have they made it on to yours?


Anytime a kid can find a way to be creative, you are tapping into some level of learning at which the student becomes engaged.

Technology is a way to engage the student completely.

“ “


Expand horizonsTeachers and students can explorehundreds of maps from a reliable,trusted resource on their interactivewhiteboards, thanks to a new onlineservice called the Rand McNallyClassroom. This Web-based tool, fromRand McNally & Co., offers teacherscurrent, accurate content to enhancetheir K–12 social studies, geographyand history lessons. Teachers will finddetailed, updated geography content,skills-based lesson plans and assess-ments, interactive games and activi-ties. Examples of these activitiesinclude a place-the-states puzzle, abuild-your-own-map exercise, conti-nent quizzes, geographical terms andanimated features on the anatomy of amap. The tool also provides informa-tion on each continent, country andstate – right down to the street level.Every part of the world is explained in detail, encouraging students tocompare and contrast populations and economies, or research differentlanguages or holidays. For a sectionthat appeals to younger students,teachers can try the “TravelingTeddies” segment, which features

stories and photos from a travelingteddy bear. Pricing starts at US$0.99per student. Discounts are availablefor multiyear and multi-school sub-scriptions. A free 14-day trial is alsoavailable.Go to www.randmcnally.com.

Listen up Without straining their voices, class-room teachers can now ensure theirstudents hear them clearly with an infrared classroom amplificationsystem from LightSPEED Technologies.The core component of a LightSPEEDsystem is the LT-71 LightMic. Thiswireless microphone hangs aroundteachers’ necks, leaving their handsfree. The microphone’s portabledesign also allows teachers to easilydetach it from the cord and pass it to

students to use. TheLightMic, which weighsless than four ounces,underwent thoroughergonomic testing andis designed to fit com-fortably in a small hand.When the microphoneis combined withLightSPEED’s SR70F IRsensor, an infrared sig-nal floods the room, guaranteeing thata teacher’s or student’s voice won’tcut out. In addition to ensuring high-quality sound and speech intelligibil-ity, the new LightMic is virtuallyunbreakable. It has passed hundredsof drop tests on carpet, tile andconcrete, from heights of 32 inches to20 feet. Education pricing for eachcomplete system starts at US$995.Go to www.lightspeed-tek.com.

Tools for SchoolsDigital resources for the interactive classroom

DIGITAL REVIEWSby Cara Erenben

With World Book Kids from WorldBook Inc., schools can give studentsaccess to an online resource that isloaded with reliable, age-appropriatereference materials and activities.Developed for students aged five toten, the interface has descriptivegraphics and pictures, audio andsimple words to help them easilynavigate the site. The resourceincludes content from the award-winning World Book StudentDiscovery Encyclopedia and activi-ties that support an interactiveapproach to learning. Students areencouraged to make crafts or act outdifferent scenarios that relate to aspecific topic. They can make plaster

casts of animal tracks or learn howto make writing paper from recyclednewspaper. All of the activities andcontent included with World BookKids are tied to U.S. curriculumstandards, ensuring that they meetthe education needs of students. Anannual subscription to World BookKids is available for US$49.95.Go to www.worldbook.com.

Explore the world

T imothy J. Magner’s goal is to maximize technology’s contribution to

improving education. As the director of the U.S. Department of

Education’s Office of Educational Technology (OET), Magner is in charge of

guiding the OET in developing and implementing national education tech-

nology policy to support initiatives like No Child Left Behind and others.

i.e. magazine asked Magner to discuss how the OET is working to support

schools in the technology arena and to provide his thoughts on the how

education technology can benefit students.


Q:HHooww hhaass tthhee rroollee ooff tthhee OOEETTcchhaannggeedd oovveerr tthhee llaasstt ffiivveeyyeeaarrss??

A: Initially, the office emphasizedstudent access to computers andthe Internet, and we have seengreat gains in those areas. But now,while the department is stillconcerned about student access tocurrent technology, we have alsoincreased our work with states andschool districts on the use of tech-nology for assessment and evalua-tion, as well as for operations,management and planning.

Given the increased availabilityof different kinds of technologyplatforms, the reduction in costper unit, and the increasedcomputing power per unit avail-able, the education technologylandscape has become muchmore complex: both the chal-lenges and opportunities havegrown commensurately.

Q:HHooww ccaann aa ffeeddeerraall ooffffiiccee hheellppsscchhoooollss iiff mmoosstt KK––1122 tteecchhnnooll--ooggyy ppuurrcchhaasseess aarree mmaaddee bbyytthhee ssttaatteess??

A: Our mandate is about leader-ship rather than purchasing.Localities and states providemost of the resources for educa-tion technology, so they have thegreatest say in how thoseresources should be targeted.Our office is unique because wehave a national perspective, sowe use that perspective to helpprovide technical assistance tostates, schools and districts onthe use of technology.

Q: IIss tteecchhnnoollooggyy bbeeiinngg uusseedd mmoorreettoo pprreeppaarree ssttuuddeennttss ffoorr tteessttsstthhaann ttoo eennccoouurraaggee ddeeeeppeerrlleeaarrnniinngg??

A: When I travel to schools through-out the country, this is not what Isee. School leaders are usingtechnology in so many ways toimprove the operations of theirdistricts and to enhance class-room instruction. Teachers areusing data, managing studentprogress and using new technol-ogy tools, such as wikis andblogs, to engage students. I thinktechnology is empowering teach-

ers and principals to have morethoughtful conversations aboutwhat is possible in classrooms.

For example, if you have arobust and interoperable datasystem in place, you can begin toget a picture of every child. If youlink that with technology-basedformative assessments, you canuse the real-time feedback tofollow how each child is progress-ing toward his or her goals. Withthat understanding, teachers arebetter equipped to target instruc-tion to the whole class, to groupsor to individuals, and to makebetter decisions about how andwhen to offer instruction, reme-diation and enrichment, whetherwith or without technology. Inthis model, assessment and eval-uation become both a core partof the teaching and learningprocess as well as a way to meas-ure student achievement overtime. Not every school has thesesystems in place, but they arebecoming more numerous, and Ibelieve they are changing the wayteachers and principals look atinstructional delivery.

A Federal Perspective Timothy J. Magner’s take on how technology can improve education

POINT OF VIEWby Don Lipper and Elizabeth Sagehorn

Timothy J. Magner

Q:YYoouu’’vvee sseeeenn aallll tthhee eedduuccaattiioonntteecchhnnoollooggyy oouutt tthheerree –– wwhhaattwwoorrkkss aanndd wwhhaatt ddooeessnn’’tt??

A: Clearly, it’s not just the boxes andwires, it’s how people use them.What I see that works is anemphasis on what we’ve come tocall “fidelity of implementation” –essentially understanding the setof environmental variables thatare critical to the success of anyinstructional intervention, tech-nology or otherwise.

Instructional intervention is notjust a stand-alone event, butrather a part of a comprehensiveset of guidelines that need to beput in place. These guidelinesinclude things at the administra-tive level like principal support forthe software implementation; aclear rationale and planning forintegrating software use with theschool or class’s core curriculumand central instructional goals;ongoing training; and on-sitetechnical support.

These administrative-level effortsneed to be coupled with teacherpractices, such as using softwareperformance data to inform futureinstruction, developing efficientroutines for classroom manage-ment, making explicit connectionsbetween online and offline work,and facilitating student learningwith technology. These are someexamples of the critical elementsthat go into making a technologyimplementation successful.

Q:HHooww ccaann aaddmmiinniissttrraattoorrssmmeeaassuurree RROOII??

A: The metrics you use should be tieddirectly to the goals you have set.One of the things that oftenhappens with technology imple-mentations is that either the tech-

nology acquisitions aren’t alignedwith an organization’s strategicgoals, or the goals weren’t clearenough to be measured effectively.

Q:WWhhaatt tteecchhnnoollooggiieess ffrroomm tthheebbuussiinneessss wwoorrlldd ddoo yyoouu sseeeeccoommiinngg iinnttoo tthhee ccllaassssrroooomm??

A: I think it’s important to make adistinction between the class-room and the rest of the educa-tion enterprise. Much of whathappens in a school districtresembles what happens in busi-ness – transportation, facilitiesmanagement, HR, finance, etc.What happens in the classroom,however, is unique to education.

What is beginning to happen in a great many places is that business-related technolo-gies and processes are makingtheir way into the operationalside of school districts where the adoption is more straight-forward. Innovations such as data warehousing and datamining, business process re-design, different staffing models,e-learning and enterprise-tech-nology-management disciplines

are becoming part of the day-to-day operations of some forward-thinking districts.

Combining these technology-driven innovations with innova-tions in curriculum developmentand instructional delivery is thestep that will ultimately have animpact on what happens in theclassroom. These changes willhave been made possible becauseof the business-related technolo-gies, but the improvementsthemselves will have resultedfrom dedicated education inno-vators taking the best of the busi-ness technologies and processesand shaping them into some-thing that works for education.

Don Lipper and Elizabeth Sagehorn are a

husband and wife writing team who have

written for many publications, including

Time, People, In Style and Money.


Timothy’s recommendededucation technology link

Office of Educational Technologywww.ed.gov/about/offices/list/os/technology


While many schools aroundthe world are banning theuse of video-sharing sites,

others are finding that sites likeYouTube.com and UthTV.com canenhance learning. In fact, someteachers argue that these sites helpstudents understand how somethingthey learn at school can be applied ina real-life situation. They also say thatexposure to these sites motivatesstudents to do better work.

YouTube.comEltham College, in Melbourne, Vic-toria, Australia, is one example of aschool that sees YouTube.com as auseful tool, rather than a distraction.Around the same time the Australianstate of New South Wales blocked

YouTube.com in all of its schools,Stuart King, an English teacher atEltham College, decided to use thewebsite with his eighth-grade studentsas part of a media study. The project ispart of what King and his school call“knowledge era learning.”

“What we’re trying to do is bemore in tune with what students arecurrently experiencing in the worldtoday. For most of our kids –certainly the ones in the 14-year-oldarea – that means digital literacy, notjust textbook literacy,” explains King.

After getting approval from parentsand his principal, King launched aneight-week project where 50 studentscreated videos and posted them onYouTube.com. Students then tracked,compared and discussed the amount

of viewings and ratings each videoreceived. The aim of the project wasto study popularity versus quality,explains King. “How can you havesomething that’s really popular, butreally low quality [and vice versa].”

Throughout the project, King wasable to monitor, approve or declineall comments to ensure inappropri-ate remarks weren’t posted about hisstudents’ videos. “I set up the accountso I was the account holder. Whichmeans anyone in the world can lookat the videos, but if anyone wants tomake a comment … I have to approveit, and that’s just how the YouTubesite works.”

King says his students learnedsome significant lessons throughoutthe project.

“One big lesson is that the thingskids do at school are relevant to thereal world that they live in and thatthey’re not only being taught thingsthat the teacher thinks they need toknow,” he explains.

He also feels his students havelearned to go beyond simply consum-ing media, and now they can appreci-ate and analyze it. “I think now ifthey look at Web technology orYouTube, they’ll be more ethical intheir use of it, they’ll be more appre-ciative of what’s out there, and theywon’t just speed past as consumers ofthe media, they’ll have some sense ofcontrol over it.”

“We’re not teaching YouTube as atopic, we’re teaching material, we’reteaching language and philosophy,and we’re teaching marketing strate-gies and the analysis of things. Itdoesn’t have to be YouTube, it couldbe anything,” explains King.

Glued to the TubeA positive take on video-sharing websites

TECH TRENDSby Wendy McMahon

Students from Eltham College have learned to analyze media, rather thansimply consume it, through a media study project that used YouTube.com.


UthTV.comAnother video-sharing websitethat may not be as well knownas YouTube.com, but for someteachers is just as valuable, isUthTV.com. This site is tar-geted at artists and mediamakers aged 14–24 years oldand was launched in 2005. Ithas between 2,000 and 3,000members who, to date, haveposted over 5,000 pieces ofmedia, including everythingfrom original video, photo-graphy, poetry, podcasts andmusic.

Samantha Wayne, directorof community for UthTV.com,says what differentiates this site from

YouTube.com and myspace.com, isthat all of the content posted onUthTV.com is original work createdby young people. “We pull downwork that isn’t original, [but] thatrarely happens because of rolemodels within the site,” she explains.

For students in the Digital SafariAcademy at Mt. Diablo High Schoolin Concord, California, this site hasbecome a popular way to have theirwork evaluated and reviewed byfellow artists around the world aswell as their classmates and teacher.

The academy acts as a schoolwithin a school where teachers integrate vocational education withthe core academic curriculum, usingprofessional multimedia designtools. For example, when studentsstudied a world history topic, such asthe civil rights movement, they wereasked to develop a new civil rightsmemorial, create supporting market-ing materials, shoot a public service

announcement and pitch their ideato a board that included teachers andcommunity members.

Randy Depew, multimedia instruc-tor in the academy, says his studentswere already posting their class-created digital materials on theUthTV.com website before heincluded it in his class. When theyintroduced him to the site, he real-ized it was a great way for students toget some feedback, so he startedactively promoting the site in hisclasses. Although he isn’t mandatingthat all of his students use the site yet,he’s considering it because of thechanges he’s seen in the students whoare using it.

“I’m noticing that as studentsengage in these kinds of communi-ties more and more, they are bringingmore sophisticated ideas to the start-ing block than they used to. It’sevident to me that students are outlooking at other designs.”

Depew says UthTV.comserves as a venue for his stu-dents to showcase and sharetheir work while also helpingthem learn about the criticalprocess of comparing their ownwork to others’. Students seehow they measure up againstothers and learn which of theirskills need improvement.

Depew could just post stu-dents’ work to the DigitalSafari Academy website, butthe audience for a school pro-gram website is pretty limited.He explains that using UthTV.com provides them with amuch larger audience.

“It gets them exposure, and they’reactually really proud of the numberof visits they get. It gives them some-thing tangible. They know peoplehave seen it. They know people havecommented on it. So it motivates andit feeds the cycle of creativity. [Theythink,] ‘If I know someone is going to watch it and someone is going toappreciate it, then I’m more likely to produce.’”

Whether it’s YouTube.com, UthTV.com or another video sharingsite, in the right situation video-shar-ing sites can have a positive effect onstudent learning – and that situationmay just be one of your classrooms.

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.

Recommended websites UthTVhttp://uthtv.com

YouTubewww.youtube.com

“I’m noticing that as students engage in these kinds of

communities more and more, they are bringing more

sophisticated ideas to the starting block than they used to.”

Well, class – what do you think?”Educators know only too well that

this question is often followed by si-lence or the appearance of a few all-too-familiar hands in the air. Some childrenare shy, others irrepressible. Many areunsure of their answers and don’t wantto lose face in front of their peers.Encouraging students to participatecan indeed be an enormous challenge.

Electronic voting tools are a newtype of classroom technology catchingon around the world that is designed toaddress this challenge. The latest intro-duction to this arena is the Senteointeractive response system, devel-oped by SMART Technologies Inc.

Saptarshi Basu, product managerfor Senteo, says the system isdesigned to help students communi-cate in learning environments thatare inclusive, active and engaging.“Teachers want to connect with theirstudents,” explains Basu. “They wantto bring everyone into the discussion.”

The two-way communication sys-tem includes a handheld device foreach student and a central receiverthat tracks students’ progress. It alsocomes with Notebook software and

will run with most third-party soft-ware, including PowerPoint, Wordand Excel. Although an interactivewhiteboard isn’t necessary to useSenteo, the hardware package is opti-mized to work with any brand ofinteractive whiteboard and includespacks of 24 or 32 remotes.

Questions can be created in a varietyof formats, including multiple choice,true or false and numeric responses,allowing teachers to gauge theirstudents’ understanding in a formatappropriate to each learning situation.

“Being able to assess casuallythroughout the lesson is key to improv-ing learning outcomes,” says Basu.“Teachers aren’t left wondering ifstudents are ready to move on.” Onceresponses appear on the teacher’sscreen, a breakdown of results can bebroadcast to the class as a catalyst forwhole-class discussion.

During their research, the teamconducted focus groups to elicit direc-tion and feedback from students andteachers. They found that teachers’wish lists for an interactive responsesystem focused on three main points.First, the tool should help improvelearning outcomes by increasingparticipation; second, it should helpteachers assess students so thatinstruction is relevant and effective;and third, it should be easy to use.They also found that educatorswanted something versatile enoughto enable classroom discussion on amultitude of levels.

Basu says the product developmentteam paid close attention to the opin-ions given by teachers and studentsthroughout the design process. As aresult of this research, he says they

have created a response system that,with the press of a button, sparksconversation and keeps studentsinvolved in learning.

Teachers who already use SMARTproducts will benefit from Senteo’sability to integrate with SMART’sNotebook software. “With Senteo,teachers can to take full advantage ofNotebook software by using graphicsand Flash animation to enrich or clar-ify questions on the Senteo screen.”Senteo’s compatibility with Notebookmeans quizzes are easy to constructand are excellent tools for learningand assessment.

Basu says teachers who tested theprototype liked that they could drawfrom Notebook software’s collectionof lesson activities when creatingquizzes. Teachers could drop ques-tions into Notebook-based lessons,add questions on the fly and even usepre-designed quizzes from othersources, such as XML quiz banks orMicrosoft Word.

The product also facilitates com-plex questions by allowing more thanone right answer. So questions canprovoke debate or give students pauseas they consider multifaceted issues.Whether teachers are looking for aquick yes or no, or a carefully weighedresponse, they can easily get studentfeedback.

A tool like Senteo will help teachersavoid the typical blank stares they getwhen they ask questions. “Studentswill be engaged, with their fingerspoised to press the button to indicateif they are learning,” says Basu.

The Senteo interactive responsesystem will be available to purchase inJune 2007.


PRODUCT WATCHby Jane Chamberlin Grove

Click Here to Learn MoreSMART announces the Senteo interactive response system

“


EDUCATION BY THE NUMBERSby Heather Ellwood

23Percentage of U.S.fourth-grade public

school students tested who scored

proficient in reading in 2005: 23

Average fourth-gradereading scale score*

for U.S. publicschools in 2005:

217/500

Average eighth-gradereading scale score

for U.S. publicschools in 2005:

260/500

“The Nation’s Report Card,” National Assessment of Educational Progress (2005), http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard.

* Scale score. A score, derived from student responses to

National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) assessment

items, that summarizes the overall level of performance attained by

a group of students. NAEP subject area scales typically range from

0 to 500 for reading, mathematics, history and geography. When

used in conjunction with interpretive aids, such as item maps, they

provide information about what a particular aggregate of students

in the population knows and can do.

Average eighth-grademathematics score

for U.S. public schoolsin 2005:

260/500

Average fourth-grademathematics scalescore for U.S public

schools in 2005:237/500

26Percentage of U.S.eighth-grade public

school students tested who scored

proficient in reading in 2005: 26

ArtsThe Renaissance Connectionwww.renaissanceconnection.orgTravel 500 years into the past, and discoverhow innovations from Renaissance timesinform life today – visit RenaissanceConnection, the Allentown Art Museum’swebsite. The site’s lesson plans are carefully constructed and enhanced withquirky visuals, which illustrate the ways that Renaissance life and culture resembleour own. Secondary

Tux Paintwww.tuxpaint.orgPresent students with a blank canvas andan array of drawing tools to help them becreative. This open-source drawing softwareincludes an easy-to-use interface, fun soundeffects and an encouraging cartoon mascotwho guides children as they use the program. Elementary

Cross-curricularEducation World www.education-world.comStart your day with a visit to this site to find loads of resources that will help youintegrate technology and the Internet in the classroom. You’ll find lesson plans,professional development information and a host of news and resources for adminis-trators and teachers who want to learnabout technology.Elementary/Secondary

The Webquest Pagehttp://webquest.sdsu.eduCreate better Webquests using this website.San Diego State University, a leader in

inquiry-based learning, hosts the site, which has thousands of sample Webquestlessons and projects. A handy search toolwill help you hunt by grade level andsubject area. Elementary/Secondary

GeographyHistoric Maps in K–12Classroomswww.newberry.org/K12mapsBring historically significant maps into your classroom using this site designedspecifically for teaching the geographicalelements of American history. All lessonsare created to meet U.S. standards acrossgrade levels. The easy-to-use map andlesson index is divided into specific themesand then further broken down by grade level.Elementary/Secondary

History Internet4Classrooms www.internet4classrooms.comUse Internet4Classrooms to find links to the best of everything related to educationon the Web. You’ll find links to lesson plans,assessment ideas, professional develop-ment tutorials and support on differentiatedinstruction. This site was selected as one ofthe 101 best websites by ISTE publicationsin 2005–2006.Elementary/Secondary

MathThe National Library ofVirtual Manipulativeshttp://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/index.htmlHelp students visualize and understandmathematical relationships and applications

using the Web-based virtual manipulativesand concept tutorials available on thiswebsite. The site is supported by theNational Science Foundation and offersactivities in English and Spanish. Topicscovered include algebra, geometry, measurement and probability.Elementary/Secondary

ScienceAmazing Spacehttp://amazing-space.stsci.edu/edsExplore the galaxy, the universe and beyond.The Teaching Tools section will guide youthrough various lesson ideas and interactivegames that are geared to students of all grade levels. Elementary/Secondary

Edheadswww.edheads.orgMake hard-to-teach concepts understand-able using this site’s interactivity. Help teach students about simple machines, the weather, knee surgery and morethrough animated modules that are tied to state and national science standards.Elementary

Social StudiesUnited Nations Cyber School Buswww.un.org/pubs/cyberschoolbusUse this site to access official, up-to-dateinformation and statistics about differentcountries. Educators can find high-qualityteaching materials and educational activi-ties, while students can submit essays onpeace, complete quizzes on the world’sflags or even ask an ambassador questions. Elementary/Secondary

Online LibraryWeb resources for the interactive educator

WEB RESOURCES


PRESORTEDSTANDARD

US POSTAGEPAID

Beaver Dam WIPermit No.340

Looking to conquer classroom apathy? Tired of students

passively copying notes? Dramatically increase student participation in

your classroom with the SMART Board™ interactive whiteboard. Engage

students interactively and you’ll see more raised hands.

© 2007 SMART Technologies Inc. All rights reserved. SMART Board, smarttech and the SMART logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of SMART Technologies Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.

www.smarttech.com

vol. 3 no. 2 spring 2007 choose the...

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