Plugged In

Learning with Toys

• PRINT
• EMAIL

The 1.3 million Ninetendo DS Game Boys that left store shelves by the end of last year-and are most likely banned from classrooms—may eventually become teaching aids. "Teachers are afraid kids will play and that play isn't learning," says Elliot Soloway of the Center for Highly Interactive Computing in Education at the University of Michigan. "But learning and play are integral."

Soloway's team develops curriculum software for computers, personal digital assistants, and even the Game Boy. "The irony," says Soloway, "is that drill-and-practice math—the very thing kids hate when it's with paper and pencil—is fun on the Game Boy." In the same time it takes to complete 500 math problems on a worksheet, a child can do 1,300 problems on a Game Boy. "If time on task results in learning, these kids are learning," he says. Daphne Bavelier, who heads the Brain and Vision Laboratory at the University of Rochester in New York, also sees a reason for Game Boys in the classroom. Her research shows that people who play action games exhibit better visual attention than nonplayers. "This means that they could pay attention to a broader field of view; they could more efficiently process a fast stream of images, or they could track more objects at once," she explains.

Leapfrog, which develops curriculum and assessment tools, sees an opportunity for its gaming device, the Leapster. "We want to use this device to teach," says Michelle Fitts, a Leapster brand manager. With that goal in mind, the company recently released a number of titles including The Incredibles, a reading, math, and science program for second and third graders based on the Pixar movie.

Will Game Boy software developers soon be vying for school contracts the way textbook publishers currently do? A kid can only hope.

By Christina Wood

Special Education Q & A
Diane Longhurst Johnson Talks About the New Idea

 Johnson is an educational consultant with both classroom and supervisory experience at the district, university, and state level. We recently spoke with her about how the recent reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA) will affect administrators and about how technology can help special ed teachers.

What does the reauthorization of IDEA mean for administrators?
Two significant changes directly affect them. The first is how schools can handle the inappropriate behavior of students with disabilities. The difference in the new law is that when it is determined that a student's behavior is not a manifestation of a disability, the educational placement can be changed, but it is now the burden of the parents to appeal the decision.

The second has to do with money. In the new law, up to 15 percent of IDEA money can be used to support interventions for students who are struggling academically or behaviorally in general education. I call this "preventative special education." Wise administrators will learn about research-based instructional and behavioral interventions and will carefully spend this money on programs and practices that have been proven to make a difference.

What are some of these programs and practices?
One program that helps special education students perform better on writing tests is Inspiration Software's Inspiration (www.inspiration.com). Another great nuts-and-bolts writing program is Step Up to Writing from Sopris West Educational Programs (www.sopriswest.com). Also available from Sopris West is a product called Responding to Individual Differences in Education (RIDE), a computer-based program that assists educators in managingstudent behavior. The Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy system (http://dibels.uoregon.edu) is an exceptional tool for monitoring reading progress in the early grades. Another valuable resource is TeachSpecialEd.com, an Internet-based program to help teachers work with students who have mild and moderate disabilities.

What about all those forms that everyone complains about?
Another major change. The IDEA 2004 regulations will result in reduced paperwork. Individual Education Plans (IEPs) for mildly or moderately disabled students no longer need to include benchmarks and objectives—just annual goals.

Are there any tech resources to help with IEPs?
GoalView (http://ltools.com/goalview/index.asp) from Learning Tools International is an IEP writing program. Just put in your state standards and it helps administrators ensure that the IEP is defendable and filled out correctly.

Hosts with the Most
Why schools are choosing to outsource data processing.

You've already subcontracted transportation, cafeteria, and janitorial services, but what about your core competencies tied to instruction?

One area currently experiencing an outsourcing surge is data management and reporting. With the ever-increasing emphasis on accountability, administrators are turning to private companies for help. "We didn't have the capacity in the research office to turn around this information [standardized test scores] in a short time frame," says Dan Bugler, chief officer of research, evaluation, and accountability for Chicago Public Schools (CPS).

In fact, CPS has contracts with three companies that provide technology to help teachers analyze student performance.

Other districts, like Broward County (FL) Schools continue to manage data themselves. With the aid of a $2 million grant from IBM's Reinventing Education initiative, the Broward County district created a data warehouse and a tool called Virtual Counselor, making a wide variety of student information available to administrators, teachers, parents, and students. One reason Broward County decided against outsourcing, according to its senior data warehouse analyst, Phyllis Chasser: "When district priorities change, which happens often, it's easier for us to shift gears."

As the demand for more and better data continues to grow, school district officials need to consider their in-house capabilities, the pros and cons of outsourcing, and the return on their investment. As Bugler says, "Even when you outsource, they [the private companies] can't solve all of your problems."

By Juliette "Cricket" Heinze

Why We Use . . .

NEWSBANK
NewsBank, Inc.
800-762-8182
www.newsbank.com

WHAT IT IS: NewsBank provides online information collections drawn from thousands of primary sources (U.S. and international newspapers, journals, broadcasts, and historical and government documents).

WHO RECOMMENDS IT: Bruce Middleton, executive director of media and technology, Alamance-Burlington (NC) School System.

WHY: "We needed a safe and efficient way for our students to search up-to-date information resources over the Internet. Through NewsBank's TCR (The Curriculum Resource) service, our teachers have access to a wide selection of lessons that connect to newspaper articles and other primary source documents that supplement their teaching and align to our state standards. Our students especially like NewsBank/TCR because it provides credible and useful resources all in one place."

Listen to the children

If there is one document that every administrator should have downloaded in January, it is the recently released National Education Technology Plan (http://www.nationaledtechplan.org/default.asp). The report—which attempts to identify signs of progress in core subjects, benefits from reforms stimulated by NCLB, and advances in educational technology—includes input from an obvious but usually overlooked source: the students themselves.

"Today's students, of almost any age, are far ahead of their teachers in computer literacy. Kids prefer to access subject information on the Internet, where it is more abundant, more accessible and more up-to-date," the report states. "Progressive teachers, principals, and superintendents understand this ... they have successfully adapted the endless opportunities presented by computer technology and married them in creative and challenging ways to the high-level technical capabilities and motivation of their students. Students and teachers become partners in the exploration of this new universe."

In conjunction with the nonprofit organization NetDay, the Department of Education gleaned opinions and advice from more than 200,000 students from all 50 states. Besides influencing the plan, the web site shows student contributions in the form of digital movies as well as a blog introduced by Susan Patrick, director of the Office of Educational Technology. Go online and check if some of your district's students have logged in.

Three Big Deals

Edison Venture Fund, which provides capital and services for expanding IT companies, announced a $4 million investment in New York City-based eChalk, which creates web-based communication systems for the K–12 market. The money will go toward sales, marketing, and software development. For more information, visit www.echalk.com.

Curriculum Associates of North Billerica, Massachusetts, is stepping up its efforts to help California schools with the promotion of its research-based Comprehensive Assessment of Reading Strategies (CARS), Strategies to Achieve Reading Success (STARS), and WRITE! products for submission to the state's $30 million supplemental materials appropriation. Curriculum Associates' CARS/STARS program provides skill-specific, individualized instruction for helping students gain grade-level proficiency. More details at www.cainc.com.

STI, the Mobile, Alabama-based data-management solutions provider, partnered with the Illinois Association of School Administrators (IASA) to provide professional-development tracking for Illinois school administrators. IASA is one of the few state associations that helps administrators track their professional-development activities online. Details are at www.sti-k12.com.

 

Christina Wood is a North Carolina-based technology writer who has covered technology for PC Magazine, PC World, USA Weekend, and Family Circle. She is trying to convince her husband to move to Warner Robins, Georgia.

From the Beltway: Tech Support That Works
Four inexpensive tech-support options to help your school achieve a successful technology implementation.

Face to Face: Alan Kay Still Waiting for the Revolution
Since inventing much of the technology behind personal computing in the late 1960s, Alan Kay has dedicated his work to developing better learning environments for children. Now a senior researcher at HP and the president of Viewpoints Research Institute, Kay is launching Squeak, a multimedia authoring tool that allows children to construct dynamic simulations of real-world phenomena.

Forum: Just-in-Time Tech Training
It's common knowledge that we administrators must help propel teachers to the level where they are as comfortable working with technology as they are with the subject they teach. The task for school districts is to devise training processes that facilitate this end.