ISTE recommendations and my TechQuest project idea

In the ISTE policy brief, Techology and Student Achievement--The Indelible Link", there are 7 factors identified for successful technology implementation.
I have included these 7 factors along with a connection to my TechQuest project plan about Promethean Board use in our local schools and using this IWB tool to effectively teach lessons in creative and informational writing.

1. Effective professional development for teachers in the integration of technology into instruction is necessary to support student learning. (On Feb 20th, I will participate in a day-long training at a state-wide ASTE confference on the effective integration of the Promethean Board technology. I will share resources from this training with my colleagues. I will participate in the trainings offered by our local tech staff members and seek one-on-one training from local mentors who are effectively using this IWB technology in their classrooms.)
2. Teachers' direct application of technology must be aligned to local and/or state curriculum standards. (I plan to investigate how the NETS for teachers and students are being used in our schools, as well as how the use of the Promethean technology is aligned with curriculum standards in language arts and other subjects. I have 5 years of experience with a standards-based model of education as part of the award-winning Chugach School District in Alaska)
3. Technology must be incorporated into the daily learning schedule (i.e., not as a supplement or after-school tutorial). (The school-wide expectation is that teachers will incorporate the Promethean Boards in their daily learning schedule. In my current role as an instructional aide, I will need to partner with other teachers to use this technology with students on a day-to-day basis.)
4. Programs and applications must provide individualized feedback to students and teachers and must have the ability to tailor lessons to individual student needs. (I agree with the statement in this ISTE brief that "educational technology provides multiple avenues for assessing student learning and allowing students to communicate what they have learned to their teachers and parents." One goal of my TechQuest will be how to provide individualized feedback to students on their creative and informational writing, plus provide an opportunity for the students to share their writing projects with their families.)
5. Student collaboration in the use of technology is more effective in influencing student achievement than strictly individual use. (I plan to focus on effective ways to use the Promethean Board to encourage student collaboration in the area of responding to and editing creative and informational writing.)
6. Project-based learning and real-world simulations are more effective in changing student motivation and achievement than drill-and-practice applications. (I have read a number of articles and blog postings that are critical of the ways in which Promethean Boards and other IWBs are mis-used in classrooms. The criticisms point out how teachers are using this technology to do "old things in new ways" such as drill-and-practice worksheet type applications instead of using this technology in a transformational way with project-based and real-world simulations on the IWBs)
7. Effective technology integration requires leadership, support and modeling from teachers, administrators, and the community/ parents. (I plan to research how our local middle school administration, staff and students are sharing the results of their effective use of Promethean Boards with community and School Board members. Our local middle school has been using this technology for more than 2 years, while some of our elementary classrooms just received their IWB at the end of last month.)

I hope that these 7 factors from the ISTE brief will help guide my research and training on the Promethean Board, which is an important tool that is being implemented district-wide in our local classrooms.

New York Times blog discussion about "Wired Kids, Negligent Parents?"

My creative 10-year old son was asked by his language arts teacher to write a paragraph about an animal in its natural habitat. He decided to write about "tweens" and "screenagers" in their natural habitat of school. My sons (10 and 14) and I talk about the phenomenon of "screenagers" when we talk about reasonable amounts of "screen time" and the amount of time their friends spend on their screens. This blog discussion can be found at http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/28/wired-kids-negligent-parents/?emc=eta1
I agreed with 2 pieces of advice for parents from Linda Guernsey who wrote,

"Experiencing the media together would a good first step. The research on “co-viewing” — on the positive impact that comes from parents watching media with their children and talking about it — is persuasive. Schools and community groups need to wake up too and explore how these media interactions could be turned into more active learning experiences that extend to real, face-to-face life.

And yes, we will still need to set boundaries. I liked the example, given at the Kaiser Family Foundation forum last week, of middle-school parents banding together to impose a texting “curfew” on weeknights."

Recently, I had dinner with a group of friends to discuss our teenaged kids (who are all friends) and to share ideas about how to pick our battles and work together to enforce some common rules, including curfews on texting on school nights. This discussion helped us to create an agreement with our "screenager", who turns off and gives us his phone and laptop at 10pm on weeknights.
I feel like I should wear a black and white referee shirt, since I often find myself in the role of policing parental limits on daily screen time. It would be more positive for me and my husband to find more opportunities for "co-viewing" when my sons are allowed screen time.

Lively debate about IWB technology

Thank goodness for the free e-newsletter service from Education Week (http://www.edweek.org). I was just alerted to a featured blogger who wrote a criticism of IWB tools and how they are being used in the classrooms. You can find this posting at The Tempered Radical by Bill Ferriter (http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/the_tempered_radical) At the onset of his post, "Wasting Money on Whiteboards...", he warns "Blogger’s Note: I’m a bit worked up today, so this post has rant written all over it. It’s heavy on the Radical and light on the Tempered. Read at your own risk."
I am so grateful for the forums created by blogs. I plan to read the comments to this posting and join in the discussion with my thoughts about IWB technologies.
I need to make sure that I keep an open mind and wait to decide whether the IWBs (and Promethean Boards specifically) are worth the cost. I am concerned about the passivity of our local community of teachers and tax-paying residents, since I have never heard discussions about the schools' IWBs and how they are being used to increase student achievement and engagement. Why aren't people asking questions about the costs of putting IWBs in all classrooms, even the kindergarten classrooms? Why aren't the schools sharing results with community members about the measurable gains they are observing in their students? The middle school has been using these IWBs for more than 2 years now. The only time that I've heard a presentation about Promethean Boards was at a school board meeting last February, when a group of teachers and administrators publicly thanked our School Board members for sending them to an excellent training on Promethean Boards at the ASTE conference. I don't recall any questions by the board members about the effectiveness of this tool in the classroom.
I plan to talk with local teacher and administrators (with an open mind!) about how they have measured and reported on results to the School Board and community members.

Ideas and plans for Promethean research

I will be attending a training at our school this Friday to help teachers get started with the new Promethean Boards in their classrooms. Although I am not employed as a certified teacher this year, the school staff is supportive of my goal of using the Promethean Board this year to work on creative and informational writing projects. Here are some elements of my plan.

• attend school-wide training about Promethean Boards and collaborate with teachers
• attend the state-wide ASTE (Alaska Society for Technology in Education) conference from Feb 20-22. The full-day session on Feb 20 is devoted to ActivInspire, a Promethean program
• explore the use of Promethean Boards to teach units in creative and informational writing, starting with short-term projects with a kindergarten class

I am currently working on an "animal riddle" book with a group of wonderful kindergarten students. This was an idea that "bubbled up" from their interests and enthusiasm. I will explore how to take this lift-the-flap book (created on my laptop and printed out so that students could illustrate their pages) and put it into a digital format. Or, we may find animal riddles as part of the Promethean offerings.
I am very excited about exploring how to teach and inspire writing projects with this new technology tool.

TechQuest proposal: Promethean Boards

I am currently working as an instructional aide for preschool and kindergarten students in a school that has purchased Promethean IWBs for every classroom. Some teachers have been using their IWBs for more than a year and some have just received this technology. I plan to attend training sessions and devote time to working on the Promethean IWB this year since I intend to apply for a classroom teaching job this spring. I want to develop an effective plan for using the IWB to meet specific state standards in a favorite subject of mine--writing. I will focus my plan on creative and informational writing.
As part of my coursework in my Master's in Educational Technology program, I analyzed Robert Marzano's report on the use of Promethean IWBs to achieve measurable academic progress. It was fascinating to see the analysis and critiques of Marzano's report on various educational blog sites. Since our local middle school teachers have used the Promethean IWBs for more than 2 years, I would like to see how this staff is reporting to the community and school board members about the effectiveness of this technology. I have asked the middle school principal to share any information about the use of Promethean Boards with me.
To summarize, my goals include the following:

• to participate in training and spend time exploring the Promethean Board technology
• to collaborate with my peers online and fellow teachers to develop a plan for using the IWB to meet state standards in writing, including goals in creative and informational writing
• to continue researching reports on the effectiveness of using Promethean Boards to achieve measurable academic gains, both on a nationwide level and at our local level