EdTech Avenue

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I am hopeful these will download for you. Let me know of success or failure. Should we have a new category of ’standards’?

I am feeling energized after yesterday’s meeting!

For a little while, anyway…

Now that I’m really on the home stretch, work is slightly more stressful than it was before Christmas break. I’m working very hard getting things done that I want settled before I start my leave in what I hope will be a few weeks yet. This week I started updating our mobile lab, which is quite a task when there really is nowhere to set them all up at one time attached to power. I have a few set up in my office and a few out on the top of the cart which is sitting in the hallway for lack of any other place for it! These laptops are pretty slow; they are Pentium III 650 machines with 256 MB RAM running Windows XP. I’ve been working with half of them on a wired 100MB network and the other half on their wireless 54MB cards. Windows updates haven’t been run for quite some time, so there are many!

We’ve also begun our 2nd Learnia test for the year. Since we are only giving one ClassLinks test, I wanted to make sure there was a similar ratio of standards covered as are on the ClassViews tests. That was no small feat for math since of the six from which to choose, none include all the standards. Reading was a bit easier; I was able to find at least one ClassLinks with similar standards to the ClassViews. I ended up building my own tests for math to include as close to the same standards as I could find. I had some trouble with matching up the standards with the actual items available to add to the tests, but I worked around it. We’ll see how it works out!

And then there’s the E-Rate process… We did not receive as many bids as I expected from our Form 470 posting. But now I think that is probably a good thing. With our budget the way it is for next year, I think we’ll hold off on the bigger projects and just apply for discounts on services we already have in place.

We have completed most of our Learnia tests now, save a few absent students. It actually went pretty well, if I had to give an overall opinion. But I’m starting this conversation about what could be done better and what tips and tricks others used to survive the sessions.

Overview
I made sure all student lab workstations were equipped with the proper add-ins/plug-ins needed for the testing, and I went through and enabled pop-ups for the student Learnia site ahead of time. We used Internet Explorer v.7 at Blessed Trinity.

I created cards for the students with their Site Code, Student ID/Username and Password. I used index cards and just pasted a regular mailing label on which I had printed the information using mail merge and a spreadsheet. The “test tickets” printed on the Learnia site are virtually useless - you really can’t use them more than once (even if you laminate them first, I learned last year), and they’re hard to store in those little strips. Each teacher got a set of student cards for each group they teach.

I also created a resource binder for each of my teachers. These binders contained:

• A list of their students with passwords,
• A copy of the instructions for tests they will administer,
• A full printed copy of the test (without answers), so they could make their own copies if giving the test in written form,
• Sample answer sheets to use if giving the test in written form, and
• Math reference sheets (for math teachers only).

This seemed to help them to know exactly what their responsibility was as test administrators and keeps all of their information in one place. My plan is collect the binders at the end of the year so they can be updated if necessary for next year’s teachers.

Scheduling the tests wasn’t nearly the hassle I expected. I had the teachers schedule their own time and was available to help for at least their first testing period. After that, they could request my help if they wanted it. Once students were logged on (more difficult with the 3rd and 4th graders), things went very smoothly, and most teachers did not need my help. Some teachers scheduled an additional time in the lab to teach students just how to log on to the site. Being their first time, I thought this was very beneficial as far as time efficiency was concerned. In future years, perhaps only the 3rd grade would need to do this, since most other students will be familiar with the process. Some teachers broke the tests up into multiple class periods and others used time from other classes to complete the tests in one sitting.

Issues and Questions
There are still some issues with the administrator instructions. Many of the specific instructions are incorrect (such as the existence of a highlight tool?). I found that to be confusing for the teachers and students, and in some cases the teachers went “off-script” to give instructions, which is not ideal for a standardized test.

Students (especially the younger ones) could benefit from a better zoom tool to make the text bigger. At younger reading levels, the students are used to larger text. The zoom tool, while helpful on the first reading passage, does not allow you to use it for the other passages, and it manipulates the screen in a way that prevents the user from being able to scroll properly.

Join the Conversation
Are other schools or teachers having similar experiences and issues? Please add to the conversation with your comments, good and bad, about your Learnia experience! I have also asked my teachers to add their comments here.

What are other schools doing for the mid-year testing? Is anyone using more than one ClassLinks test? If you are using only one, which one?

It’s been a LONG time since my last post, and for that, I apologize. A summer I thought would be spent relaxing by the pool and tweaking my blog for the archdiocese tech coordinators was not so much that. Instead, I managed to just barely make it through NECC and spent much time on the couch suffering the effects of morning sickness!

But like many of you, I am now back to work full-force and itching to get blogging again! I have yet to fix my form-mailer to collect data from the archdiocese tech coordinators, but I am hoping that while I was “out” some new plug-ins came “in” and that will help that form to be up and running very soon.

What’s Ahead
The big scurry this fall for most of us is getting ready for Learnia, Harcourt’s answer to standardized testing online. Blessed Trinity was part of the pilot program last year, and apparently we were one of the few schools for whom the testing went well. I hope this can be a forum for some of us to share ideas about what works and what doesn’t, and how to prepare your network, teachers and students for the testing.

I’m finally starting to get caught up after installing some new (refurb) PCs that came in during workshop week!

Another issue for me this year will be researching, encouraging, and attempting to find funding for a Student Information System. Many on our staff (including I) have spent many hours dealing with data issues in the last four weeks. It seems we duplicate our work three or four times these days for all the different changes that come about, which is quite a bit of time when students are still registering on the first day of school! I hope we can reduce that workload with an integrated system soon. I will be looking to my colleagues for advice!

Session Resources: Mia Murphy presentation

Problem: How to assess

Sylvia Martinez - Generation YES
Looking for authentic assessment of kids being center of technology called “Tech YES.” Assessment is always the tail that wags the dog. Student guides the process (peer assessment), they use criteria that matches the ISTE NETS standards. Talks about sharing, writing, creativity and project-based collaboration skills. Students should be using real technology for a real purpose - personally meaningful. Authentic assessment is hard, takes time and teacher focus. Working in a number of states. There is only one way to perform assessment. Each school and grade may be different.

“The test means it’s over.” Technology literacy should open the doors, not indicate you are done.

Mia Murphy - NC Dept. of Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention
Mia Murphy presentation

Kate Kemker - Florida Dept. of Education
Built their own Florida assessment - outsourse with separate company. Years ago created inventory for teachers with performance-based assessment. Skills performed are scored as the test progresses. Worked with researchers to get standards. Broke into six sections similar to NETS, came up with performance indicators to track proficiency in those areas. Survey to make sure others agreed on the important issues. Pilot allowed for feedback from various teachers with different researchers (design and focus groups). Also involved the teacher’s union. Implemented, aligned with their professional development plans. Teachers could do the assessment at their leisure, taking different sections at different times if they wanted. Then teachers can take their results into building their professional development.

Student Tool for Technology Literacy then developed that mirrored the same process using NETS. Framework has five sections: essential operational skills, missed, missed, independent learning, independent ethical issues.

Discussion is Open

How do we know we’ve reached the point where students are technologically literacy?

Why is it important that we do this?

The process needs to start with professional development.

If we don’t get students on board with what we are doing with technology, in appropriate and instructive ways, we won’t move forward. Some teachers may need to follow after students.

Florida Digital Educator Program teaches teachers how to perform tasks we want them to use in their classrooms - not just Word, PowerPoint, etc. Two-day program is more inclusive and means more to teachers when they return to their classrooms. Everyone needs to be using same vocabulary and have the same access.

NC has a state-wide assessment for 8th graders.

Silly to assess the proficiency instead of the literacy, and if we assess the tools we are also missing the point.

Why are we assessing something that is not being funded?

We have to first define what exactly we want the outcomes to be — media literacy? technology literacy? information literacy? What are these?

Kids have the technology proficiency, we need to take them further.

Drilling is not the only way to teach low-performance students.

We start with assessment and it drives classroom practice.

NCLB has very little about technology literacy. ETAN (EdTech Action Network) is here at the conference - get involved - we can change the direction with our voices.

Technology can not be the barrier to students achieving.

Are there technology literacies for lower than 8th grade? NC is moving it back from 8th grade progressively.

Could digital portfolios be used for assessment?

Some states mandate the same assessment and testing in every school, but others do not and leave it more open-ended.

Let the discussion continue…