VISION PAPER

Heather Clark

Douglas County Board of Education has a motto of leading and learning and recognizes that quality education involves the student, the teacher, and the community (www.douglas.k12.ga.us). Their vision statement outlines understanding of how students learn, striving to create lifelong learners, and endeavoring to provide a challenging, comprehensive instructional and curricular program for all learners. Although New Manchester High School is the newest school in the county, its mission statement mirrors the countys statement; however, it also adds challenging comprehensive education for all students in an innovative learning community( http://www.douglas.k12.ga.us). It is this innovative learning community that should be focused on within the classroom setting. While academic innovation can take many forms, it is through educational technology that students will become engaged, productive, and demonstrate mastery of concepts. In order to improve students education through technology a technology leader is necessary, access to appropriate and up to date technology is required, and a student data warehouse to create a student centered classroom environment is essential. Each of which is supported by The International Society of Technology in Education (ISTE) essential conditions (www.iste.org). These include a shared vision, skilled professionals, support policies, etc. which challenges the commitment districts have to their technology integration. Technology in the classroom must never replace a teacher. Lavin et al (2005) argues that for technology to be effective, it must be associated with appropriate teacher pedagogy (p3). Technology will enhance the student driven classroom with the teacher working alongside the student; not as a typical instructor, but as a guide and facilitator. A skilled professional, as defined by ISTEs essential conditions, will use their knowledge of student learning teaching strategies and use technology to enhance the learning experience for the student. Theodore Creighton suggests that the teachers role as facilitator is an effective one. He states that in a technology rich classroom, the teacher provides a strong skill base for students to discover topics. The teacher will provide these environments, activities, 1

VISION PAPER

Heather Clark

and experiences for students to learn through problem solving, critical thinking, authentic tasks and collaborative work (2003,p71). In this new classroom environment, the role of the teacher will shift from dispenser of knowledge directly, to co-collaborator; working with the students and guiding them. New Manchester High School does not need more technology devices. New Manchester High School needs teachers who support this theory that technology will enhance student education, not replace them. A moderate percentage of the teachers feel that technology will make a teachers job obsolete and are apprehensive about utilizing it for this reason (www.ntce.org). Working with my fellow teachers, this is a common thought. Douglas County has a technology coach and she does an excellent job. However, New Manchester High School needs its own, separate technology coach to work with the teachers. The International Society for Technology in Education recommends that schools have a skilled professional experienced in the selection and appropriate use of technology in the schools (www.iste.org). However, do teachers have time to sit in professional learning sessions only to be told to start implementing new technology in our classroom immediately? What happens if we have follow up questions? What happens when the technology expert leave the school and returns to the district office? New Manchester High School needs someone who will work with us to begin the implementation and be available for follow up questions and support. The teachers of New Manchester High School need someone to show us that technology can make our jobs easier, not replace us. We need someone who will work with individual departments to show how technology can support their discipline and tools to engage their students. We need a person who will help departments work together to refine shared skills like reading, problem solving, and critical thinking. This is also supported by ISTEs Ongoing Professional Learning essential condition where teachers are offered the opportunity and time to share ideas. The research, as stated above, supports the idea that technology does not replace teachers. Although it may change the definition of their jobs, it cannot replace them as a critical player in education. We, as a faculty, need to support this movement as a whole. We need to move in

VISION PAPER

Heather Clark

this direction together. There will be resisters and continued fears; however I believe that our own technology coach who can work one-on-one with teachers will help minimize these resisters and alleviate concerns. New Manchester High School is distinctive in the fact it has the largest economically disadvantaged population and highest at-risk population of the high schools in Douglas County. With this brings unique challenges to education. Muir-Herzig (2003) in her article discusses this phenomenon. She states that at-risk students are not being challenged in the classroom and are not being exposed to complex thinking skills. (2003p4). She continues and suggests that technology in the classroom can offer these students authentic learning opportunities (Muri-Herzig, 2003, p114). Through the use of real world simulations with the use of technology students can carry out tasks as real workers would. Students who are at risk for school failure is not recognized as a disability by the federal government. However, many of the issues associated with disabled students are also present in at-risk students. Learning difficulties such as trouble with short term memory, lack of motivation to engage in school work, difficulties in written expression, inability to read at grade level, and difficulty remembering sequences of tasks are shared between students with identified disabilities and at-risk students (Robyler & Doeing, 2013, p411). It is through the effective and productive use of technology in the classroom that we can motivate and engage our unique population. As stated earlier, New Manchester High School does not need new technology devices. We already have class sets of netbooks for students to use, Promethean Boards with supportive technologies, netbook sign outs at the media center for home use, wireless internet access for students, and a active vote devices at our disposal. What New Manchester needs is hardware and software that can create real world phenomenon and authentic learning. This would include interactive software, virtual simulations, and authentic online projects (Roblyer & Doering 2010, p318) tasks for the students to master the content and refine problem solving and critical thinking skills. This is supported by ISTEs

VISION PAPER

Heather Clark

Implementation Planning essential condition which focuses on student learning through digital learning resources. Companies such as Lesson Planet, Texas Instruments, Phet, ArcScience, and others offer educational simulations to help students practice concepts relevant to the real world. However, these are not free. They require membership and a membership fee to use them. If New Manchester High School can get memberships to these, we can use them to motivate students in the classroom and help them demonstrate mastery of concepts. Muir-Herzig argues that effective use of technology in the classroom can increase GPA, attendance, and graduation rates; two things that New Manchester High School struggles with (2003, p115). As discussed earlier, at-risk student behavior and cognitive function often parallels students with identified cognitive disabilities. The increase of effective technology in the classroom can target the specific deficiencies associated with at-risk students. Short term memory issues are common with atrisk students (Roblyer & Doering 2010, p411). Effective technology in the classroom can help through the use of reminder services such as http://iping.com or www.iremind.com. These will help students stay organized and use their cellphones or other electronic devices to assist them. Lack of motivation in education is another issue that is common among at-risk students (Roblyer & Doering 2010, p411). However, educational technology can help. Through the use of authentic real-world learning tasks, such as gaming, simulations, or application problems, students can take control, be accountable and be an active member in their education and demonstrate mastery of concepts through relevant assignments. Students begin to take responsibility for their education because the students become more engaged in their lessons. Students can use www.crayon.con to create their own newspaper for a social studies class or http://trackstar.4teachers.org to help engage students. Another aspect of at-risk student learning is deficiencies in reading and math. Online calculators and graphing calculators are helpful to students who struggle in math (Doering and Robyler 2010,p411). A predictive word processor such as http://wordq.com can help students with reading disabilities. However, these technologies require

VISION PAPER

Heather Clark

registration and membership fees. In order to teach the unique demographic of New Manchester students within Douglas County, we must have access to technology that is best suited to help our population. Technology use in the classroom should not be limited to how the technology benefits the students; although that is an important aspect. Technology in the classroom should also benefit teachers and direct how teachers reach the students. Wayman (2005) discusses the importance of teachers being able to share data within the school and within a school district. He states that the ability for teachers to share data is no longer a choice, it is a must. He argues that the ability for teachers to share data help teachers become more informed and reflective practitioners ( Wayman 2005,p304). He suggests that teachers can become more informed about student progress and also have the opportunity to collaborate with other departments (2005p304). Finally, he states that implementing a data collection system to be analyzed and utilized by teachers should occur in 3 ways. First he suggests a student information system (SIS) to show real time student progress such as attendance and assignment submission. Secondly he states that an assessment system that organizes data by standards will help teachers monitor student mastery. Finally a data warehousing system that provides teachers access to the historical data of a student would be necessary (2005p305). Creighton (2003) discusses adopting technology to the construct of planning. He suggests that all stakeholders need to be involved in initial planning stages in order to increase student learning (2003p83). However, he does not discuss the medium in which to do this. Waymans approach to data collection and sharing would support Creightons notion of involving all stakeholders, from the student to the community as a whole, in educational planning. Data collection and distribution to various stakeholders would help keep teachers informed about student progress in all classes, as well as help parents keep up to date with their student educational development.

VISION PAPER

Heather Clark

New Manchester High School has the first two of Waymans suggestions. We have an online grade book, Infinite Campus, which tracks and stores student attendance, lists student grades for each quarter in each class, and student schedules. Douglas County also uses Thinkgate.net which allows teachers to scan tests, grade them, and sort the data by standard. This allows the teacher to quickly see if and when a student masters the standards. Although the county has these two useful sites, it would also be helpful if we were able to streamline these two programs; offering one place for the teachers to check mastery of standards and input grades. Although we have the first two suggestions, we do not have a comprehensive warehouse of data, such as Wayman suggests, which would go far to create a student centered classroom. This is also supported by ISTEs Curricular Framework which outlines digital age learning and work. Wayman (2003) outlines his three recommendations can greatly benefit teachers of at-risk students such as New Manchester High school. He states that the introduction of comprehensive data collection increased teacher expectation of students, specifically a more positive attitude of teachers towards their low-performing students (p297). Although a changed attitude towards our failing students is important, there are other aspects to a comprehensive data warehouse that allows for teachers to view and share. One major aspect is the ability for teachers to view transcripts and test scores from previous years For example, it would be greatly beneficial for a math teacher to be able to see what standards were mastered from the year before and what standards need to be refined this year. The teachers at New Manchester High School could use that data to organize peer tutoring, mastery stations, or remediation on those concepts. Another great way to use this data would be to view attendance records from previous years to develop a trend among students or design positive incentive programs for improving student attendance; an aspect that plagues teachers of at-risk students. Alternatively, it would be helpful for teachers at New Manchester High School to be able to view past results of standardized tests and Lexile scores. It would be greatly advantageous for the teachers to know if a student is unable to demonstrate mastery because they do not understand specific

VISION PAPER

Heather Clark

concepts or because they cannot read what is expected of them. Teachers of at-risk students often run into students who are easily frustrated and quit a task prior to completion only to later discover it is because they read drastically below grade level. Teachers should have a way to know before a student enters their classroom whether they are on grade level or not. This is not an aspect the teacher should discover on their own about a student throughout the semester. In order for teachers to produce a student centered classroom, the teachers must first know about their students. A student centered classroom is supported by ISTEs essential condition where they discuss planning, teaching, and assessment centered on the needs and abilities of students. A comprehensive student data warehouse would help the teachers produce this student centered classroom. ISTEs essential conditions address conditions necessary to successfully implement technology in education. Obviously the use of technology is important and required in an academic setting. However this can be represented in the classroom in multiple ways. New Manchester High School needs a skilled professional within the school to help teachers adopt new technology effectively to not only help the students, but to help themselves. Through personalized assistance and individualized professional learning, New Manchester High School can be a 21st technology school. Further, we need implementation planning; specifically access to technology that engages students through real world, authentic learning tasks. Finally, New Manchester High School needs a student centered classroom. In order for teachers to crate student centered classroom, teachers must know about their students. Teachers require a database stores student data on attendance, standardized test results, student transcripts, etc. These improvements would not only help New Manchester High School, it would also support the Douglas County Board of Education shared vision of providing comprehensive education and creating lifelong learners.

VISION PAPER

Heather Clark

References

Creighton , T. (2003). The principal as technology leader. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press, Inc. Douglas county school system. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.douglas.k12.ga.us/ Korzma, R. B. (2003). Technology and classroom practices. Journal of Research on Technology Education , 36, 1-14 Lavin, A. M., Korte, L., & Davies, T. (2003). The impact of classroom technology. Journal of Technology Research, 1-13. Muir-Herzig, R. (2004). Technology and its impact in the classroom. Computers & Education, 42, 111-131. National council of teachers of english. (2013). Retrieved from www.ncte.org Roblyer, M. D., & Doering, A. H. (2012). Integrating educational technology in teaching. (6th ed.). Boston, Mass. : Pearson. Wayman , J. (2005). Involving teachers in data-driven decision making. JOURNAL OF EDUCATION FOR STUDENTS PLACED AT RISK, 10(3), 295-308.