Education Special Section
Thinking Technology
Area Schools E-volve With Digital Makeover in the Classrooms
Scott McLeod has an online blog titled “dangerously irrelevant,” which is his take on American education. McLeod — an associate professor and coordinator of the Educational Administration Program at Iowa State University — charges that most schools in the United States serve their students poorly when it comes to technology and the tools needed for a 21st-century job.
To change that, McLeod gives workshops to school administrators around the country urging them to provide students with a digital education, which includes not only computers, laptops and Internet access, but a virtual wonderland of high-tech gadgetry that is making today’s classrooms virtually unrecognizable from the ones most parents remember. Move over chalkboards — today, there’s the electronic whiteboard, an interactive computer-based system that includes a large touch-sensitive screen and projector linked to a computer. Speaking of computers, both Macs and PCs are becoming the 21st-century version of pen and paper for even the youngest students.
Last year, the National School Boards Association called McLeod one of the voices shaping the future of education. If McLeod were grading your child’s school, would it get a passing grade? And what are the standards for an “F” or “A+” when it comes to high-tech honors?
Asked for examples of states that are doing a decent job with educational technology, McLeod said that Virginia was somewhat ahead of the rest of the country. However, he pointed to West Virginia and other states taking part in an initiative called the Partnership for 21st Century Skills as providing ideal models for schools throughout the country.
As part of that partnership, West Virginia’s educational technology plan calls for incorporating teaching computers, large-screen televisions and interactive whiteboards in half of all its classrooms by the 2009-10 school year, along with adding digital cameras, electronic responder devices and digital music players. The plan also requires that almost every school have an Internet Web page by 2010 and that 99 percent of the state’s elementary schools employ Internet-based instruction and software by then.
According to McLeod, Washington area schools are “making progress,” but more strides need to be made. “At some point, we have to move in the direction of getting a computer in the hands of every kid 24-7,” he said. “Labs and mobile carts are OK — as are having a few computers in each classroom — but teaching and learning change entirely when every student has a computer every day.”
So to see which area schools are faring better than others in the technology department, The Washington Diplomat has put together this primer on e-learning that spotlights various public and private grade schools in Maryland, Virginia and the District.
Surprising Tech Surge in D.C. Public Schools
In a little noticed development in the District, Mayor Adrian Fenty and his new school chief Michelle Rhee have brought on an information technology superstar, Vivek Kundra, to overhaul educational technology in the city’s ailing public schools. Kundra most recently served as Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine’s assistant secretary of commerce and technology. A former software executive and international technology consultant, Kundra led a Virginia trade delegation to India and brought back $99 million in investments.
When Fenty made a pledge last November to put computers into every D.C. public school and fix the often-defunct school Web links, he put Kundra in charge as the system’s chief technology officer. So Kundra’s office promptly ferried 5,900 new computers into the District’s public schools. “I ran it like a military operation,” Kundra joked in an interview with The Washington Diplomat. But joking aside, the massive job was finished just two months later at the end of January 2008.
According to Shirley Bellamy, Rhee’s new acting director of educational technology, “we now have a teacher-dedicated Dell computer in each classroom and three to five computers per classroom in every school — Apple computers for kindergarten through grade eight and PCs for nine through 12.”
Most urgently, however, Kundra has been installing a fiber-optic network that is a hundred times faster than the existing links in the city’s school system. This new network will be able to stream high-speed telephone, Internet and cable television information, including advanced multimedia applications, into every school. “In the fall, we’ll be done,” he said.
But that’s just the start. The goal is to place high-tech tools in every classroom, including wireless laptops, interactive whiteboards and videoconferencing abilities — all to prepare D.C. students for modern jobs and the global marketplace, Kundra said.
This school year, the team plans to set up four fully technology-equipped schools in the city. “This is not a pilot,” Kundra emphasized, calling it a practical step toward a larger goal. “We’ll have 40 classrooms this year that will have all this, including an interactive whiteboard in each class. We’re working on it now.”
The four schools are Amidon and Whittier elementary schools, Jefferson Junior High School and Coolidge High School. Bellamy is also applying for grants to support high-tech career education initiatives at Spingarn, Roosevelt and Ballou high schools. In addition, 11 D.C. elementary and middle schools last year received interactive whiteboards, and a number of other schools have gotten them through parent-teacher association fundraising, private gifts or individual grants.
Capitol Hill Day School: A Private Model in D.C.
Capitol Hill Day School is a private coeducational school tucked into a corner of Capitol Hill just down the street from the Library of Congress that serves 230 students in pre-kindergarten through grade eight. “Our students leave here well prepared to use technology and to do so in a way that’s responsible,” said Martha Shepardson-Killam, head of the school.
Indeed, with a topic-based curriculum that focuses on patterns and relationships, technology is seen as an integral thinking tool.
To that end, the school has a computer lab as well as wireless laptops on mobile carts, with 55 laptops, 30 new thin client notebooks and 65 other computers (all Dell) throughout the school. The school will also acquire an interactive whiteboard this year. Student cell phones though are not permitted. “The school is small and parents can easily reach us,” Shepardson-Killam noted.
All this technology goes hand in hand with learning tangible skills. For instance, third-graders learn typing skills, fifth-graders collect data from the Web for projects and create spreadsheets, while eighth graders leave with knowledge of desktop publishing and the HTML programming used to build Internet Web sites.
Beth Nalker, a fifth-grade teacher at Capitol Hill Day School, said she particularly likes to use computer software and Internet sites to teach math and science. She cited Geometer’s Sketchpad software with its interactive visuals as a good resource for younger students to understand geometric concepts. For her fifth-graders, she said they respond to astronomy lessons that feature Google Sky or Hubble Space Telescope Web sites. Nalker also uses geographic information system (GIS) software in lessons about earthquakes — “and we’ll use student versions of GIS to make maps in our China studies,” she noted.
In addition to providing tech guidance to students, Shepardson-Killam said the school also provides tech tips for parents, many of whom are concerned about safety issues in a rapidly changing online world that includes social Web sites such as Facebook and MySpace.
Montgomery County: Maryland’s Public Heavyweight
Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) is the largest school district in Maryland, with 137,745 students this year in its 200 schools. The system also boasts a graduation rate of more than 91 percent, 80 percent of its teachers have master’s degrees, and it regularly produces National Merit Scholars.
MCPS also has a sophisticated Web site (www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org) that offers visitors the choice of five languages for viewing the site, which features audio podcasts, educational videos and school newsletters.
In addition, MCPS has its own television studio that provides programs for both county schools and homes through public broadcast channels, as well as around-the-clock online webcasts.
According to Chris Cram, MCPS spokesman and instructional technology staffer, Montgomery County began using interactive Promethean-brand whiteboards in its schools three years ago and is putting them into every middle and high school this coming school year, along with some elementary schools. At the same time, the system is deploying Promethean wireless clickers called “Activotes” that let students communicate with a teacher during class by pushing buttons that light up an electronic class list.
So how does all this technology translate into real-life classroom experiences? At Somerset Elementary School in Chevy Chase, whiteboards went into all of the first- through third-grade classrooms last year. “There are pictures on it that move, such as a thermometer with a temperature reading that goes up and down,” said first-grade teacher Rachael Love. “You can write on it and turn what you write into typed letters, or move images around on it. The children love learning from the board.”
Each of her students also has an Activote at their disposal, and the class has an “Elmo” projector tool with a video camera that replaces traditional overhead projectors. Elmo sends live video images of student papers or projects — such as a clay sculpture — as well as videos or DVD movies directly onto a digital screen.
Outside of school, “children are involved with videogames, computers, iPods and cell phones,” Love said, “so our job as teachers is to use technology as a tool and motivate our students.”
Holton-Arms Embraces Technology
Holton-Arms is a private college preparatory school for girls located in Bethesda, Md., that serves grades three through 12, with a current enrollment of 655 students. Brad Rathgeber, the school’s director of technology, explained that computers are not just used in the classrooms, but rather technology is integrated into the entire curriculum.
Holton-Arms has 13 SMART Board-brand whiteboards, as well as a wireless network and specialized computer labs for music technology, digital photography and student publications. All middle and upper school students are also required to have their own laptops, and students have supervised access to the Internet through grade six, and unsupervised access (with parent permission) from grades seven to 12.
In the Holton-Arms lower school, a design technology program teaches problem solving and basic engineering skills, Rathgeber said. Conducted in a specially designed large room with a central work area flanked by computers, the program allows students to build and program real robots using Lego Mindstorm pieces (Lego sets that combine programmable bricks with electric motors, sensors and other robotic instruments). In addition, fourth-grade girls can construct their own go-carts while fifth- and sixth-graders use computer simulations to test the principles of flight.
“We do movie creation in any class, or sixth-graders might put data about Egypt into an Excel spreadsheet,” Rathgeber added. Students and teachers might also use Audacity voice-recording shareware in language-learning classes where a teacher posts an online assignment and students respond by inserting their voice into the lesson.
In short, emphasis on integrating educational technology is pervasive, and multimedia applications serve academics at all grade levels, Rathgeber said, from the youngest students “all the way up.”
Virginia’s Promising Approach
This past spring, the Virginia Department of Education surveyed staff in almost 500 of its public schools about student use of classroom technology such as computers and the Internet. Although the official survey results haven’t yet been released, the department agreed to share some of its findings with The Washington Diplomat.
Next Page
