Partnerships for Progress

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Partnerships for Progress
Laura Reasoner Jones, SBTSFairfax County Public
Schools Diane Reed, PhDCaseNEX
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Introductions
Diane S. Reed, PhDVice-President, Mid-Atlantic
CaseNEX, LLC
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• Laura Reasoner Jones
• Project Manager
• K12nectsII Project
• Fairfax County Public Schools
• and
• National Board Certified Teacher

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• What is K12nectsII?
• A partnership between the school system and
  school system foundation to bring technology
  resources to underserved populations and
  communities.

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• What is CaseNEX?
• http//www.casenex.com

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What is CaseNEX?

• Research-based professional development founded
  at the University of Virginia Curry School of
  Education.
• Case-method learning in a collaborative setting
• Reflective case analysis process applicable to
  real education problems and opportunities
• Funded by two Department of Education Grants
  Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers To Use Technology

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Benefits of the Case Method

• Realistic slices of life depicting actual
  school scenarios as they are, not as they should
  be
• Traditionally used in legal, business and medical
  education
• Active engagement and reflection by teachers
• Training to act vs. training to know
• Cost efficient train-the-trainer model
• Convenient and flexible - 24/7 access to learning

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CaseNEX and the Case Method

• There is no need to invent artificial
  challenges for teachers. Real life in schools
  presents the best opportunities from which to
  learn.
• - John Dewey

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The cornerstones of CaseNEX
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• A reflective approach to problem-solving

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USING THE FIVE-STEP CASE-ANALYSIS METHOD
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Content Areas

• Equity and Diversity
• General Education
• Gifted Education
• Leadership in Education
• Math Education

• Reading and Literacy
• Science Education
• Special Education
• Technology Integration

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The K12nectsII Project

• Continuation of successful earlier initiative
• Desire to make a difference for needy, diverse
  population of students and families.

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Demographics

• Fairfax County
• Median income--80,753
• National median income--43,504
• Free/reduced price lunch income limit for family
  of four 18,400
• (2003 figures)

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• Project schools
• 55-70 of students qualify for free/reduced price
  lunch
• 55-70 of students live in families making less
  than 18,400, in a county with a median income
  over 83,000.

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• Over 55 of students are non-native English
  speakers, compared to system rate of 20
• Over 80 come from non-English-speaking families

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Digital Divide

• 79 of people in county have home computers and
  Internet access (Census figures)
• than that have Internet access

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Partnerships and Data

• Fairfax Education Foundation
• http//www.fairfaxeducation.org/
• Casenex
• http//www.casenex.com/

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CaseNEX Professional Development

• Administrator Professional Development
• Online courses for teachers

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CaseNEX Problem Solving Method

• Training facilitators
• Developing school teams

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Components of K12nectsII

• Community
• Becoming aware of the current resources
• Using the resources we have
• Creating new resources

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• Family
• Purchasing home computers
• Obtaining Internet access
• Learning computer skills
• Staying safe

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• Schools and teachers
• Surveying for baselines and planning
• Developing tech plans for schools
• Developing professional development plans

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BASELINE DATA
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• Teacher surveys with CaseNEX
• What are your skills and attitudes toward
  technology?

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• 16. Select the answer that BEST describes your
  knowledge and use of technology- enhanced
  instructional strategies..
• 1. I know little or nothing about how technology
  can improve student learning and never or seldom
  use technological resources to present my lesson
  content.
• 2. I use a variety of technological resources in
  my lessons that assist my students in learning
  lesson content. I design lessons using
  technological resources such as presentation and
  multimedia software and I identify technological
  resources for students to use.
• 3. I prepare my students to identify, evaluate
  and select technological resources that support
  their learning needs. I design content-driven
  lessons in which my students work collaboratively
  to meet instructional goals.
• 4. I am familiar with how the use of
  technological resources can support the needs of
  diverse learners and am able to describe how
  technology may be used in the classroom. However,
  I rarely include technological resources in my
  lesson design.

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• Results
• 540 teachers participated
• 62 felt that they design and use technology
  resources to support instruction
• 75 communicate electronically with peers and
  parents
• 75 use and value technology for instruction

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• Needs
• Increase exposure to and understanding of current
  research on using instructional technology
• Increase skill level in evaluating resources for
  accuracy and suitability in meeting learning
  objectives
• Increase skill level in assessing student work
  created using technology resources

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• Increase familiarity with technology standards
  for use in the classroom and in lesson design
• Increase integration of technology resources and
  use of alternative assessments
• Decrease reliance on print resources and paper
  and pencil tasks
• Increase use of technology to communicate with
  parents and peers

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• Increase of people who see themselves at the
  beginner level of technology user to describe
  themselves as confident
• Increase confidence level in designing lessons
  for students with diverse needs from beginner
  to confident
• Increase of people feeling confident and able
  to train others in identifying and locating
  technology resources

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• Increase confidence level in evaluating resources
  for accuracy and suitability in meeting learning
  objectives
• Increase confidence level in assessing student
  work created using technology resources
• Increase of people who regularly integrate
  technology resources and use alternative
  assessments
• Decrease emphasis on learning applications and
  increase learning of critical thinking skills

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• Internal Teacher Survey
• In your assigned subject(s),
• What is hard for you to teach?
• What is hard for your students to learn?
• What forms of technology support are needed?

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• Observational datawhat is really going on in the
  classrooms?
• Using form adapted from SETDA guidelines, SBTSs
  (TRTs) from other schools are assisting in data
  collection.

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• Looking at
• Nature of student and teacher technology use
• Student engagement in primary technology
• Visual sweep of room for products
• Hardware and software used
• 15 minute snapshots three times a year

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• Digital divide data
• School census information
• Teacher-collected email and Internet access
• Emails entered into SASI and followed up with
  calls and letters about interest

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Making a difference

• Improving awareness of resources
• Maps
• Handouts with locations and hours
• Translations into languages

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• Creating access
• Teaching how to get free email accounts
• After school and evening classes on computer and
  email use

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Email in other languages Did you know you can
sign up for free email, and read news in over 11
languages? Go to http//www.yahoo.com Scroll to
the bottom of the page to the international page
Or go to Spanish http//espanol.yahoo.com/
French http//fr.yahoo.com/ Chinese
http//chinese.yahoo.com/ Russian
http//ru.yahoo.com/ Japanese http//www.yahoo.co
.jp/ Danish http//dk.yahoo.com/ German
http//de.yahoo.com/ Greek
http//gr.yahoo.com/ Italian http//it.yahoo.com/
Norwegian http//no.yahoo.com/
Swedish http//se.yahoo.com/ Email is free and
available from any computer with Internet access
(schools, libraries, community centers, etc.)
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• Training the community
• Libraries
• Community Centers
• Computer Clubhouses

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• Using FCPS resources
• FCPS 24/7 instructions and nights
• Internet safety classes and handouts in languages
  
• http//www.fcps.edu/fcps247.htm

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Developing your action plan

• In groups of 3-4, discuss and choose one thing
  that you could do in your system to effect
  change
• in instruction or in access.

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Sharing Out
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Thank you and enjoy the conference.