Transmitted via satellite, produced by the State Education Department Satellite Broadcast Network; broadcast from the studios of NYNET.

For additional information, call or write:

John Quinn
Room 668 EBA
Office of Curriculum and Instruction
New York State Education Department
Albany, NY 12234
(518) 474-5922
E-mail: jquinn@mail.nysed.gov

(Music)

>> Roseanne DeFabio: Instructional technology is invaluable in supporting all students in achieving the learning standards and preparing to meet the new challenges of the State assessments. It's an invaluable resource for teachers as well as for students.

Teachers use it to differentiate instructions so that children can be working on different kinds of projects at different times. They use it to give their students access to a world of information and opportunities that never could be brought into the classroom before. They use it in order to help their students perform at higher levels than they were capable of before.

And students use it every day. For students, technology is such a natural medium. They're drawn to it. They're not frightened by it, and they want to use it to show what they can do and find out what the technology can do. So it's a great match.

I remember when I was teaching English that reluctant writers suddenly became rather engaged writers when they could write in word processing and edit their own writing, when they can go now to the Internet and find the supporting information that teachers are telling them they needed to have. And it's not just the computers. It's the video capacity; it's the recording capacity; it's all the technology that's part of their real world, and now it's brought into their classroom and they see how they can make their learning apply to their real life.

So they're excited about it; their teachers are excited about it, and it applies to all children. Even children who have disabilities, with the technology, can overcome those disabilities and demonstrate the achievement that they're capable of.

The Department has a number of promising statewide technology initiatives of its own. One that enters our life every day is the video conferencing and teleconferencing capacity. We have been able to do more workshops and meet with groups of people in different parts of the state on a regular basis, in a way we never could before because of the limitations of travel time and funds for traveling. So we're having regular meetings ourselves using the technology.

A lot of professional development is being done now with technology. We're using the CD-ROM capacity and the Web capacity and the distance learning capacity for teachers to share lessons with each other and to review each other's lessons. To post them up, we have our New York State Academy posting their lessons up on the web now so that other teachers can come in and see these lessons based on the standards and get some examples of how to do them themselves. And, incidentally, a lot of those lessons are lessons that include the use of instructional technology. So teachers who may not have thought of using instructional technology in certain ways now have models that are available to them through the Web. We have programs, especially some exciting programs in the arts that are using technology. The Summer School of Dance, one of our summer school institutes, had a distance learning project this year, and the students who have been studying dance all those weeks, they use distance learning to do research and to do multimedia presentations, to confer with faculty and get information from faculty at other institutions.

We have a project for gifted students that was developed by gifted educators that shows teachers how to differentiate instruction. It uses the technology in order to do that. There are other projects that really are using professional development capacity through instructional technology, and it's really important to recognize that on our model schools network, it's providing an avenue for teachers to learn the ways that technology can be used as a very valuable vehicle for helping all the children attain the standards.

>> Rochelle: Hello. Welcome to "New York Learns: Teacher to Teacher." I'm your moderator, Rochelle Cassella. I would like to thank Assistant Education Commissioner Roseanne DeFabio for taking the time to help introduce our program: Higher Standards through Instructional Technology.

We all know how important technology has become in our daily lives. We use it to shop, to conduct our banking business, for play, to keep in contact with our family and friends. In our schools, technology has become a part of how we teach and how we learn, and technology has permeated almost every aspect of many school districts. More than just computer lab, technology is an integral part of every day classroom instruction and is an important aid to a teacher as he or she assesses individual student performances.

This, of course, is technology in instruction in a best-case scenario. We're happy to say that there are many exemplars of technology plans in place in schools throughout New York State. We'll show you several during today's program. We'll also discuss the components of a successful technology plan and provide information on how to tap into available funds to assist your school's technology program. We will visit classrooms in New York City, Sauquoit and Oswego School Districts, where technology is just another tool a teacher has during daily classroom instruction. You'll see that it's never too early to introduce technology to students, and we'll have an example of how technology makes the playing field a little more level for students with disabilities.

Before we can show you the best way to use technology in your classroom, we need to make sure that we're all clear on what we mean by instructional technology. Lynn Reuss from the Office of Instructional Technology at the State Education Department, we're going to start off by making it clear what we do not mean when we talk about technology in the classroom. What are we not talking about?

>> Lynn Reuss: Thank you, Rochelle. First of all, for the purposes of this broadcast, I think it's important for us to focus in on how we define technology in its instructional mode, and that definition comes to pass as a result of teachers using technology within the context of learning standards and as a form of assessing student achievement. So that would be our connotation for these purposes for instructional technology.

>> Rochelle: Okay. And we have that vision statement up on the screen there that talks exactly about that.

>> Lynn Reuss: In addition to that, we try to set the stage about using the context of learning standards and addressing appropriate locations and purposes for the use of technology. Technology should be whenever possible placed in the classroom as an integral part of the instructional program rather than an add-on to the program. It needs to be a learning tool and a teaching tool so that it can provide for all dimensions of teaching as well as all kinds of student learners, including those with special needs.

>> Rochelle: Okay.

>> Lynn Reuss: We also have another graphic, I believe, that recommends a strategy, a broad-based strategy that teachers, when given these new tools in their instructional setting, they need special training that is directly related to the use of this technology, to incorporate it into their daily instruction among core academic subject areas.

>> Rochelle: Okay. What else do we need to include?

>> Lynn Reuss: We need to know also that the classroom setting is where technology tools come alive. And we need to not waste a lot of time assessing the technology in and of itself but rather how it can serve as a means to an end, that end being an improvement in student achievement.

>> Rochelle: Okay. We're not talking just limited to personal computers. I think a lot of people think that when we talk about technology today, but we're also talking that there are other options in instructional technology. What do we mean?

>> Lynn Reuss: Well, far in advance of our computers in the classroom, we had television in the classroom, and I think we really failed to capture and harness the instructional utility of the TV, even though students continued to abuse and use the technology in the home and for student learning purposes.

We have tremendous technology today. We have the use of calculators. If you can envision learning centers that go beyond having manipulatives for students to use but also incorporate the use of interactive video disk technology, CD-ROM versions of video clips, all sorts of manipulatives for students of all abilities to use. That, again, interfaces with wonderful cooperative learning styles and constructivist activities.

In addition to the CD-ROM and the video disk, one thing you might envision is the use of probes, science probes, and that again mimics for all student populations what we hope they'll be able to do when they get out into the world of work and into institutions for higher learning.

We have them using tape recorders so they're constantly reinforcing the standards of reading and writing and listening and speaking, using these new tools. That gives them the capacity for expressing and the capacity for exhibiting their understanding and their mastery of the concepts.

>> Rochelle: And a pure form of technology in education would be long-distance learning, being able to bring in a class or a teacher from another site into this particular classroom by means of this kind of videoconferencing that we often do.

>> Lynn Reuss: Absolutely. Our students can access real-time, real-world information. They can access primary sources of this information, go right to the author, go right to the inventor, in some instances, and get the information and report on that and analyze it and incorporate it into a report. So it's a very exciting place to be as well as the use of Internet, far beyond the communication purposes, but again a wonderful source that needs to be defined by both the teacher, the librarian and the student for appropriate instructional application.

>> Rochelle: Dave Grapka works with a program funded by the State Education Department called T.R.E. That's Technology Resources for Education.

David, for some students with disabilities, technology can be assistive or adaptive technology that can level the playing field for them. What are we talking about when we're talking about assistive technology?

>> David Grapka: Well, the assistive technology devices and services are both defined in federal statute. Those definitions are very broad. They essentially define the two as anything that helps a child with a disability improve their functional abilities, overcome their limitations. And schools are responsible for providing assistive technology devices and services, as long as the committee on special education determines that that child with that disability can benefit and have a free and appropriate public education. That's the legal stuff.

But what's really happening, I think, in the schools, is that assistive technology is a process, and we're taking a look at a process that involves several things. The most important thing in that process is the student. We have a graphic that kind of depicts what this process looks like.

The first thing we want to take a look at is the student: Who is the student? What are their goals? What are their needs? What are their abilities, the things that they can do? We also need to take a look at some of the things that they can't do because those are what we're trying to focus on to find technology to help that student.

The next thing we want to take a look at is the environment or environments. Where are we asking this child to do certain things? For a child who has a learning disability in math, you're primarily looking at a solution for that child in the math classroom. But for a child who maybe doesn't speak at all, you're looking for an alternative augmentative communication device, or an A.A.C. device, that they would use in all environments, in all classrooms, the cafeteria, the bus, wherever.

The next thing we want to take a look at are the tasks: What are we asking this student to do in these environments? Another way of looking at tasks are outcomes, what we want to happen to this child. You mentioned having a level playing field. That's exactly right. We want them to be able to access all the same things that the other kids in the classroom are accessing.

There's a quote that's been bandied about that says for people without disabilities like ourselves, assistive technology makes things easier, but for people with disabilities, it makes things possible, which is a nice way, I think, of looking at overcoming the federal statute that says we have to do this; I would think people would want to do this. And that's hopefully one of the things we'll get out of today's show.

In terms of looking at -- the last thing we want to look at after we have decided who the student is, what are we asking them to do and where, is "Okay, what devices or what solutions, technology solutions, would help that child?" What we recommend is for people to take a look at three different levels of technology solutions, the first one being a no-tech solution. For a child with a math disability, using that example again, a no-technology solution could be one-on-one tutoring for specific textbooks. A low-technology solution could be something along the lines of books on tape. Maybe the child doesn't read well; we want that stuff read to him or her. A high-technology solution could involve a computer with a scanner and scanning materials into the computer and using special software to enable the materials to be read to that student outloud so they can still get that information.

>> Rochelle: What would be some other examples of assistive technology? A computer would certainly be helpful. Tape recorders, Lynn was talking about tape recorders. You're talking about books on tapes.

What else?

>> Well, we have -- in our office, we have a database and you can actually get this online from the University of Wisconsin. There was a database of over 22,000 different assistive technology devices, and they're all categorized in a variety of ways, by disability, by functionality and what have you. But there are a range of devices that one could apply to these various solutions.

What we ask people to consider is that most of this technology, those 22,000, most is low in cost. And yet the feeling that most people tend to have is that most technology is high in cost. It really isn't. There are some devices that are, but what we need to do is get people to think ahead and plan for providing this technology to all of their students. We have talked about instructional technology, and assistive technology really is part of that. What we're saying is that technology should be a tool for all students in the building to access all programs. It's just that through the Special Ed Individual Education, the I.E.P. process, things are a bit more personalized for kids with disabilities.

>> Rochelle: Okay. Before we continue that discussion on how we might go about linking into those 22,000 different devices and determining which is right for the child, we want to take a look at Oswego Senior High School student Shawn Cahill. He has spina bifida, but aided by his motorized wheel chair and both laptop and desktop computers, along with Oswego's inclusive program, this student participates in all his classes. Here's how assistive technology is working for Shawn in his own words and in the words of Ken Eastwood.

>> Oswego has been doing inclusion for some time now and very successfully. What technology does for these kids is it gives them another tool, if you will, to be included.

>> It's made me, I would say, more efficient, more able to do a better quality job faster because I'm really slow at writing, my handwriting. But on the computer, I can type pretty fast, so I can get long assignments done in half the time that it would take me to write them out.

I recently did a report for my Participate in Government class last semester, and it made it a lot faster. If I would have had to write ten pages, it would have taken me months to do, and I knew I only had a few weeks. High school would be a lot harder without the computer because there's a lot more you can do on a computer. You can make your work better quality than you can handwritten.

It's helped me to become more independent.

>> That technology, what it does for them is actually helps them to be more like the regular child, not a child that can be identified as a special needs child. So in a nutshell, technology has helped us to simplify the inclusion program, if you will, and make it more successful so all kids can work cooperatively together without being singled out in one category or the other.

>> Rochelle: Terrific. Shawn wants to go on to study computer programming now, he tells me.

David, where would people get in touch with you if they wanted some additional information about assistive technology?

>> Well, there are a couple of ways. We're located in the city of Albany at 1979 Central Avenue. We have a toll-free number for New York State. It's 1-800-248-9873. We have an E-mail address which is treecenter1@aol.com, and the web address is fairly long but if they give us a call or check out the E-mail, we'll send them that. Long, meaning I don't have it memorized.

>> Rochelle: Dot, dot, dot...whatever. Okay.

Give me an example of the process that you described for us, looking at the students, the tasks, the goals, the devices, and give me an example of how that was used to come up with a program for a particular student.

>> Well, I'm glad you asked because one of the circles that really doesn't appear is the circle of implementation. And that's the most difficult thing, the training piece.

We had a young man in a local school district who was in middle school and a non-reader, and he came to us for an evaluation and we did a needs assessment and found out what was available to him in the school district, what had the teachers tried, what worked, what didn't work, and to try and put all that together in some kind of testing ground for him, to let him try out some different things. And what we finally recommended for him was, using the school computer and the school scanner, we found a piece of software called "The Ultimate Reader." It's only $89, and you can use that software to have things read to you, either things that you scan in or things that you create yourself or that teachers create with you or for you.

But the key piece in all of that, I think, really was the willingness of his guidance counselor and the staff to want to help him. Without that kind of advocacy from staff in the district, you're not going to have a lot of success. I think with the video that we just saw, it's obvious that not only was Shawn committed and motivated to help himself, but so were his staff and his administration, and that's really the key to this, to make these recommendations work for this person, is to have those people trained.

>> Rochelle: Okay. Well, let's talk with some of the people in our audience. Ken Eastwood is the Assistant Superintendent at the Oswego City School District. Ken, give us some other examples of what kind of assistive technology is going on in Oswego to really further that inclusive program there.

>> Well, there's two stories that I can communicate that give a good example of that, both from an elementary building and secondary as well.

In one of our second grade classrooms we had a child who was learning disabled and had some reading difficulties. She was in her second grade class talking with her teacher when the reading supervisor came into the class looking for a book that she could not find in one of the libraries. She came to this class because this teacher has a very rich literacy environment, if you will, many books, and she thought the teacher might have the book for her. When she came over to the teacher, she asked her if she had a particular book and the teacher said, "No, I don't," and they started to problem-solve about where they might be able to find it or buy it or purchase it.

Well, the child was listening to all of this and after about a minute or two, she said to the teachers, she said, "Well, did you try the computer?" The reading supervisor looked at her and said, "Yes, I did try the computer." She said, "Well, did you try the library?" She said, "Yes, I was in the library, and I also tried the library." The child kept going. She said, "Well, did you try the Union Catalog?" At that point, both teachers stood up and were a little stunned, and they go, "Well, no." She said, "Well, if you try the Union Catalog, you can check the library collections in all our other libraries and if you found it there, then you could do an interlibrary loan and have it sent to you in your class."

Well, after that, they went over with the child to the computer, and the child then searched the Union Catalog, found the book, and did the interlibrary loan for the reading supervisor.

The lesson here is that technology is intuitive for these kids. They automatically use it to solve problems where we adults oftentimes use other paradigms or solutions or other ways of solving some of our solutions.

The other story that I have is a very recent one, and this has to do with when the film crew for this show came into Oswego and one of the videotographers was in the class and after about 20 minutes went up to the teacher and said, "Where are they?" And the teacher looked at him and said, "Where are who?" "Where are the special needs students?" The teacher said, "You mean you don't see them?" He said, "No, I can't." He smiled, the teacher, was elated and said "Well, it works!" The point being is that the kids are so integrated with the rest of our students using technology and resources and programs in the classroom that the kids truly are integrated and the inclusion program does truly work for all of our kids.

>> Rochelle: That's terrific. That's wonderful. Susan, do you have an example of what goes on in Sauquoit?

>> I guess I would just support what Ken just said. We have, of course, very spirited children, as you do in eighth grade, and I guess I can speak from the point of view of discipline. In our technology classrooms, there is virtually no discipline problems and it's the same children who are in all the other classrooms, but they're just non-existent in those classrooms.

>> Rochelle: Okay. Terrific. Thank you very much. Wonderful.

Well, a high priority on the Federal Education Department's agenda is to see that all classrooms in the country are wired, and I would imagine that many school districts in New York State are feeling the pressure to have the latest and greatest technology in their classrooms. This is no inexpensive undertaking, however.

Lynn, what financial assistance is available to districts who are either developing or implementing technology plans in their schools?

>> Well, happily, the funding for leveraging programs that highlight instructional technology applications are increasing at both the federal and state levels and we'll run some of those programs on the screen so that people may understand how we have taken the federal entitlement programs such as Title I and Title II and Title III, Title VI and so on, and we have begun not only to purchase equipment for all of our schools, public and non-public, but also we have set a tone, again, as we have, with the context of learning standards.

We have asked that in addition to acquiring and purchasing equipment that there be some instructional rationale to those purchases and that they go far beyond just the reporting and the activities around wiring and connectivity issues to really explore school improvement needs, to govern where this equipment will be placed, how the teachers will be trained, what kind of related professional development can be put in place to support that equipment and how the planning for short- and long-range goals for this equipment can be supported over time.

So we're looking for systemic and sustained methodology to accompany the expenditure of our federal moneys and our state programs.

I.D.E.A. funds support students with special needs in the form of purchasing equipment, getting additional aid in the classroom for the students, for example, having this incorporated into their individual educational plans for those students.

Some of the research funds that govern really all of the entitlement initiatives still have a recommendation that if you are expending some of these moneys on hardware acquisition, software acquisition, there needs to be a balance between the professional development applications and some planning and that plan needs to be revisited frequently.

At the state level, we have become, again, very consistent with that language and that approval criteria for both entitlement activities through our shared service activities, through BOCES, and through our administration of grants in that we require an equitable disbursement of activity across hardware purchased, training and connection to learning standards.

>> Rochelle: So if the dollars are out there to help --

>> The dollars are out there. The challenge for our schools really is to try to coordinate the activity across all of the federal and the state-funded programs, and that is a challenge to them because in fact they are not doing Title III or they're not doing Goals 2000. They are in fact administering to their school improvement needs through a well-coordinated approach to these funding streams.

>> Rochelle: Okay. Explain for us again what federal programs there are that are available for funding.

>> Okay. Title I is one of the largest programs that provides instructional technology access for students that may fall within needs for remediation in the areas of math and reading. That also branches into other standards areas, but there have been programs that are more inclusionary, in keeping with what David had described, where students of all abilities, really, who are in classrooms with new technology, with well-trained teachers, now have a real augmented program without a pull-out, down-the-hall, repeat the same kind of thing with another individual...

With Title II, we're focusing on math, science, and technology.

With Title III, we're trying to establish regional collaborations, partnering with cultural education, museums and libraries and our business partners to have a more business-based approach toward the applications for technology.

Title VI allows us to purchase materials and software to correspond with some of this work.

So, again, if you put all of your sources of funding in one basket and still understood that the driving force behind those expenditures should be the school improvement needs, our schools are on a good course for having both program and fiscal strategies in place.

>> Rochelle: What about adult education, the adult education net?

>> Again, we're trying to administer to the very early learners, beginning with pre-K and even students in the home and providing for that continuum right on through adult education. All of these -- even start would be a federal program where some of these new tools could be configured into learning centers for the early learners. We're seeing Muppet learning keys; we're seeing science probes so that students in a safe environment can go out and measure temperature and kinetic energy and look at heat and light factors and do some calibrations at a very early level.

>> Rochelle: How do districts start to tap into some of these available funds? What's the first step for them?

>> Many of the federal funds that were described here are entitlement programs. They come to the states each year, and there is criteria assigned to each one of those programs that we must adhere to but also that are compatible with leveraging and expanding instructional technology programs.

In addition to those, there are very, very important competitive grant initiatives that enable our schools to go above and beyond and report and share in a broad sense what they're doing, to promote good instructional technology practices.

>> Rochelle: Okay. I'm going to bring into the discussion some people in our audience, representatives from two school districts -- Oswego, just north of Syracuse, and Sauquoit Valley, outside of Utica. Ken Eastwood, as I said, is the Assistant Superintendent of Instruction at Oswego, and Susan Synakowski. She is the principal at Sauquoit Valley Middle School. I want to bring them into the discussion.

Ken, I know that your technology plan at Oswego was financed through the Board of Education. Tell me about how your project was taken care of?

>> Well, we used the typical bonding program that many districts do to first do the infrastructure and then also an initial infusion of equipment.

But our district, after some significant research in schools that are successful versus schools that fail, we additionally added 2% to our general fund budget to sustain the effort in technology over the course of many years. What that 2% buys for us over each year is significant staff development, so the staff development isn't a one-shot deal, happens initially and then it's over with. We do considerable staff development each year to the tune of about, I'd say, 2,500 to 3,000 seats of in-service for our teachers.

In addition to that, the remaining part of that 2% purchases equipment so we're able to turn over 15 to 20% of our equipment on an annual basis. Now, what that does for us is builds out obsolescence. We know that one of the causes of failure is you purchase equipment under a bond and then in two or three years it's obsolete, and you live with that obsolescence now until you get to a new bonding program many years down the road. So what we tried to do is build that obsolescence out through part of the 2%.

>> Rochelle: Okay. What about upgrades as well? Do you have tech people on staff who are part of your district staff then to help with the upkeep of the technology and also to work with teachers if they've run into a problem, or to help do the training?

>> Yes, we do. We have actually done some unique things with our network. One of the things that we did was we abolished an administrative position and created two teachers on assignment. And the purpose of those two individuals is to provide a conduit, if you will, between central office and our teachers, people who are teachers, very successful and quality teachers, but also have been working with technology, to go into the classroom and work with our teachers in their environment. Those individuals also do some staff development for us.

The second thing we have done and that is part of our network is that we believe teachers are educators and not technicians. As a result of that, what we do is the vast majority of our problems are solved from a remote location. So if a teacher has a problem with a piece of software or a piece of equipment in their classroom, they E-mail the help desk. We then take control of that piece of equipment, that computer, from a remote location and fix it. So now we're able to repair, if you will, fix 75% of our problems from a remote location and get that equipment back up and running in a very short period of time and we don't have to send a lot of people around the district to go into classrooms and disrupt that environment and to fix the technology that's in the environment.

>> Rochelle: Terrific. Susan Synakowski, we're going to be showing some video of what goes on in the Sauquoit Valley Middle School with regard to technology. How is your program funded there?

>> Some of it is, of course, through our local budget. We have really accessed the BOCES, taken advantage of the Model Schools money and the Goals 2000 money, and through the Common Learning Objective, COSARS, we have been able to do a lot of good, high-quality work through those services. Also, next month, our community is going to be voting on a technology-based building project, and if that passes, all the classrooms in our district will be geared for instructional technology.

>> Rochelle: Okay. Great. Regina Barton, I'm going to call on you, behind Susan. What's going on in the New York City area?

>> Well, there's quite a bit that's going on in the New York City area. One of the latest projects that's been going on is Project Smart Schools, which was incepted in 1997. It's a $150 million project of the mayor and the chancellor, and what it's done is put four computers and a printer in the middle school classrooms to support instruction.

As part of that, the F.T. Teacher Center has been in since the start, providing staff development and actually setting up the vision for that staff development. We have also done this through the Model Schools Program, which we are closely collaborating with. We have been able to work with many, many teachers on developing thematic units and showing them how very simply to get started with that piece of equipment in the classroom so that they can thoroughly integrate it and be able to teach.

>> Rochelle: Terrific. We'll be talking a lot about staff development as a very important part of a technology plan. Susan, you mentioned COSARS to help with funding. Anybody else using COSARS for funding programs? Oswego is as well?

>> We typically -- much of our staff development is done through Model Schools with our local BOCES, as well as the purchase of equipment on an ongoing basis is done through BOCES as well. The leveraging of our moneys with BOCES' aid has saved our district probably around $2.5 million over the course of our technology program. So it's not small change; it's very significant money.

>> Rochelle: Okay. Terrific.

>> One more point, I think, that the schools have gotten very creative. You know, we do have our Boards of Cooperative Educational Services, and we have our Teacher Resource and Computer Training Centers, and our new clients and our challenging clients are the large cities that are new clients for BOCES and for teacher centers, as well as our non-public schools. So I think we're all on the same page in terms of what work needs to be accomplished and how.

>> Rochelle: All rightie. Well, it isn't enough for a school district to find funding and then to purchase computers and have them available -- remember, Lynn said that really wasn't part of good instructional technology -- but you have to have a good plan. That's vital to the success of the use of technology in the classroom, the emphasis being on the word "good," because Ken Eastwood's research showed him that many, many, many technology plans -- probably more than 90% he reviewed -- failed within the first few years. Lynn, what do you consider essential for a successful technology plan?

>> Again, I think the solution for successful instructional technology planning is to get the right people involved. Again, we take a similar approach to involving the full community, the administrators, the faculty, the parents and even the students, that we come up with at least a three to five-year plan that includes short and long-term goals that are grounded in school improvement needs and in the learning standards. Again, you know, we're getting repetitive, but I think something that makes New York State unique is that we have a context for this work and that in fact determines that it will connect in some way, shape or form, to teaching and to learning. So I would say it rests solely in, number one, who you get involved, what you are focusing on? Are you bridging the work of this committee, the technology committee, with the overall committees that are based at the building and district level? Are you on the same page? Are you preserving that instructional integrity throughout? And last but not least, are you revisiting it frequently to make sure you've hit your targets?

>> Rochelle: Okay. I want to now bring into the conversation Francess Brewer. Francess is State Coordinator of the Mohawk Regional Information Center, and Regina Barton, bring her back, U.F.T. Teacher Centers' Computer Training Center, training teachers in how to use technology, incorporating it into daily instruction. That's very, very, very important to a successful plan, right? You've got to have the computer; you have to know how to use it, and you also have to know how to implement it into your curriculum every day.

Regina, for instance, what's being done for staff development in the state?

>> Okay. I think we can start off -- we have a graphic I think we can talk about because the key word here is the Model Schools Program. It's a process used for staff development to get teachers to really incorporate the technology within their instructional program.

It's a turnkey training model so that teachers are really training their peers that are of the same content or of the same grade level. I think that the conversation stops or starts, I should say, with curriculum and then how the technology applies, rather than focusing on the technology itself.

One important thing that we have done this year with the Model Schools Program is we have done a lot of collaboration with the Peer Review Process. What that means is that there are a lot of exemplar lessons being peer-reviewed that incorporate the technology, and they're available to teachers across the state, through the World Wide Web. Regina can talk a little bit about how staff development...

>> Rochelle: Okay, great.

>> Yes. Part of what's happened is we have collaborated since 1996 with the Model School Program, and we have taken off from where they began.

Basically, the curriculum drives the technology. Well, we have come up with a paradigm that really incorporates it a step further, and that is to put all the pieces together and, as the graphic shows, when you put all the pieces together, the standards will shape the curriculum. The curriculum will drive the use of technology in the classroom, which will ultimately again support the standards. That's the cyclical diagram that we're looking at.

That is what we take into the classroom with us. That is the staff development that we think is going to drive this whole use of technology. If the curriculum isn't there, then the technology is of no use. That's what we try -- how we try to do that is to model it in the classrooms with our teachers. We have about 180 site-based, school-based sites where we have technology. We get into the classroom with the teacher; we model lessons; we help them integrate in the classroom and design the lesson so that they can continue, you know, to do this and also to embrace their fellow teachers in doing this work, too.

>> Rochelle: What kind of reaction do you get from teachers when you come in and start teaching them how to use this?

>> They love it. They want us to come back. The kids love it. They learn so much. That's the wonderful thing about it. It's a cycle that keeps going and going, and I've embraced -- in fact, I can think of one teacher that I worked with, and she had no previous computer experience, so we were working in her classroom and the kids were getting excited and she's getting excited and last year one of her students won the computer fair in the district. She was give more computers to continue doing the work and teachers were coming by and saying "Why do you have all that technology?" And she got so tired of saying it, when they passed by, she just said, "Because I use it!" (Laughing) And that's how the model works.

>> Rochelle: Francess, how do you go about getting teachers comfortable with the idea of using this technology as part of their classroom instruction?

>> Well, hopefully -- we provide training at different levels. Like there's regional training so that teachers from school districts can come and then become turnkey back in their own district so that they're in a very familiar environment being trained in the school district. Gloria this morning spoke about how she approaches it. She is a Model Schools trainer for us and maybe Gloria could talk a little bit about how she approaches training teachers to use technology.

>> Rochelle: Okay. This is Gloria Petrie. We're going to be seeing Gloria in the video a little bit later, from Sauquoit. Gloria?

>> Well, I'll just give an example of something I'm doing right now. Right now I'm teaching Microsoft Publisher to 14 of our students -- or 14 teachers in our district, some from the elementary school, some from the middle school, and some from the high school. It's a very interesting group to work with, especially after teaching all day. This is three hours in the evening that they are giving up as well. But they're willing to do this because not only are we teaching, am I teaching the actual publisher software, but we're also developing learning units that they'll take right back and use with their classes. So that's been our focus. Every time we do offer it within our own district, we offer it to people from every single building and we always expect a learning activity that they will use in their classroom, so it is a good education.

>> Rochelle: Terrific. That's wonderful. We have a couple of teachers here from Oswego as well. Debra, can you talk to me a little bit about your experience in terms of getting comfortable with technology as part of your daily instruction?

>> Well, at first I was very uncomfortable. But after several in-service courses, I saw the benefit because I knew my students would respond, being a video generation. And now I currently use it approximately 20 times per school year. We have these students creating portfolio covers. We have them researching their name on the web. We do a thematic year, Embrace Diversity. We go out over the Internet; we try to find them pen pals from their country that they're given at the beginning of the year. They do all sorts of research and eventually they do a PowerPoint oral presentation. The more I use it, the more convinced I am that it's kid-friendly and the learning never stops. Even when my unit is over, in their free time during our activity periods, they will go and continue on, learning on their own. So it's made a believer out of me.

>> Rochelle: Okay. Debra, do you have technology fairs at school as well? Andrea, I'm sorry.

>> Yes, we have technology fairs at Oswego periodically. In my classroom this year, I used technology for parent conferences, and the students would make their own portfolio on the PowerPoint presentation, and I had parents come in, and instead of me creating the environment for the students -- I mean for the parents to see their students' work, the students showed the parents using the PowerPoint presentation and incorporated all of their studies that they had done for this semester and showed their parents that way.

>> Rochelle: Okay.

>> So the technology was working for them.

>> Rochelle: Terrific. Administration has to make this possible as well. I'm going to a building principal back there, David hiding in the corner. What do you as a building principal need to do to be able to support the district's plan?

>> Well, one of the things I want to do is praise Dr. Eastwood in our technology plan. One of the things they did very early was not to think we could do it alone. They called in consultants; we worked with some national professional organizations, and also from the State, from BOCES, from SETRC, from all of the different organizations that could help us in developing the plan.

Then we got the people of Oswego involved with those people through surveys and through meetings regarding the technology plan.

The second thing that he did was we spent a year and a half training teachers before the infrastructure was even in place to put the computers into the classroom. He had a little carrot he was hanging out there. If you did not go through -- how many hours, Ken? 45 hours of training approximately?

>> 35 to 40 hours.

>> -- you did not get computers in the classroom.

>> Rochelle: Ah!

>> You would say to yourself, "Well, there are some teachers that would be very happy about that," but within six months, the parent pressure was tremendous upon those teachers to get training for the computers because they wanted their children to have access in the classroom. So I do a lot of supporting what Ken and the technology program have put in place and we're very excited about what's happening.

>> Rochelle: Terrific. And teachers also have to continue to earn points, right? You get the computer, and then you have to do something else at Oswego to be able to get your Internet password. Is that how it works?

>> There's a series of steps to get the services. Interestingly enough, teachers have to go through a heck of a lot more than students do to get that same access, the theory being that the students are there to be learners and the teachers are there as coaches and mentors for the students. So we thought it was really important that they get the training first.

>> Rochelle: Terrific. What about school district web sites? Does everybody have a web site? Go ahead, Ken.

>> I was going to say that we use our web site as a sharing device for students and teachers. If you go to our website, oswego.org, what you're going to find there is very little administrative information. What you will find is a lot of curriculum, sharing of thematic units. You'll see student work that's on-line, et cetera.

The purpose of that is that one of the things we found, especially with our teachers, is that as they moved through using technology, they wanted to see examples of other teachers' ideas, and they also wanted to share with other teachers. We use the web site for that.

In addition to that, as part of a Title III program, we're actually putting up a Regents web site specifically to work and to help students with the new Regents that's coming up.

So we see our web site not just as an informational piece but as a curricular and resource-sharing device for our teachers and our students.

>> Rochelle: And for other teachers as well out there.

>> Absolutely.

>> Rochelle: Well, then, let's take a look at how it's being done. We have talked a lot about it. First we're going to head to Oswego where instructional technology ranges from the so-called traditional industrial arts students using it to design machines and build clocks, to the incorporation of computers in a third-grade curriculum. And it even includes a full television studio where students produce a newscast every day.

>> Three, two, one...cue sports.

>> You're in aquatic life. Do you want to look at animals that are in the water or that live on the land?

>> Make sure you try to follow along with your mouse...

>> I think the place to start with talking about technology in Oswego City School Districts is really to start with the mission and the vision of the district. We're focused on student success; we're focused on standards, focused on assessments, literacy, and learning-centered schools. So technology is a vehicle, a tool that our learners use to assist them in their learning process.

>> So today we're going to take turns and go through the computer.

>> Most of these students have used the computers during kindergarten, first and second grade. By the time they get to third grade, they're really comfortable with it. So it's very easy to introduce something new to them and they pick it up so quickly. I have been able to use it in math lessons and we have used it in writing, processing, used it with science and social studies. We have learned how to go in as teachers into different programs and set up quizzes or skill tests that go along with the subjects that we're teaching.

>> Our average teacher right now, in the last two years, has over 135 hours of instructional staff development, with some of those teachers having as many as 250 hours. So our teachers know how to use the equipment. They know how to use the resources and integrate that into the curriculum. So everything that we do in staff development is related to not just teaching a skill but then answering a question: How do I integrate that into the instruction?

>> Sports news segment. Who's doing attendance? Announcements, do you guys have anything?

>> Have a good vacation, when you come back, Michele.

>> We have to knock that off. We have to get something.

>> In three, two, one... Fading graphics, fading audio. (Music)

>> You saw the coming together of 40 students to produce a five-minute program that varies from day-to-day in a 38-minute period of time. You saw students involved in every aspect of the planning of a commercial broadcast, from setting order, creating title bars, setting camera shots, coming up with the cues, scripting in stories into a computer-driven set of teleprompters, other students around the room working on editing the pieces they were going to need. In general, you saw the application of a lot of learning, a lot of knowledge-level information actually being applied to every day skills necessary to produce the type of programming that we do for our community.

>> Our children have access to all the collections in our district, including the public library. If they do not see it in their building, they can ask for an interlibrary loan directly to their classroom. In addition to that, they have access to over 850 periodicals. So there alone they have a lot of information accessible to them right at their desktop in the classroom that they typically wouldn't have to conduct their research.

We are no longer locked into our little geographic area and trying to be successful by using all of the resources and the ideas of our staff, who are now able to go worldwide and understand and share ideas from teachers from all over the world.

>> Did you pick a story that you really wanted to hear today? Okay. Try to follow along.

>> To get this project launched correctly and successfully and to the point that we are enjoying it, five years since inception, there has been a $10 million commitment to the project, beginning in year one. Then they also did something that most school districts do not do and that was increase their general fund budget by 2%, dedicated to technology, the reason being so they would have a sustained effort. The reason for that is that we know that 95% of instructional technology programs end in failure or are not sustained past three to five years. We didn't want to be part of that 95% failure. We wanted to be part of the 5%.

>> Well, I want to be an engineer, so this is going to help me because I want to be an electrical engineer, and this is the basis of it. And it will also look good when I send away for college, and also I'll have a jump on the people in college when I go to college.

>> One of the things we do know for a fact as a result of having technology in our district for three to five years now is the learning has been enriched and the products that are developed as a result of that learning are much better, much richer, much different and more comprehensive.

>> Rochelle: Some fascinating work going on there. I know that Oswego's plan has been in place for a couple of years now. The goal, of course, is improved student achievement. Francess, have you seen or is there any documentation so far about the impact of the use of technology as part of the curriculum in improved student achievement?

>> We at our BOCES have done a technology impact study where we canvassed 52 school districts in our region, and we had a consultant from Columbia University do the impact study, Dr. Mann. The results that he came up with from that study is the belief system of teachers is very important of the importance of technology. In other words, if the teachers felt it was important, then their instruction was better; you know, they had a real significant impact on the learning for children in the actual scores on some tests at the high school levels, the ninth grade math test and high school English test.

Another result of the study was that where there was more technology in a school district, there was a correlation between the amount of technology and the results on those tests at the high school level. We didn't have the baseline data that we wished we could have had in order to do this study, but we have been doing some follow-up studies to try to assess the value of technology in a classroom. It's just very hard to separate the technology from all the other school improvement initiatives that go on with teachers. We have lots of anecdotal data from teachers about the impact of technology in their classrooms, and we know that teachers are very good action research people. You know, they have a test going on all the time as to how their students are doing in their classroom. From that data, it's very significant, showing that the technology is really doing some very important things for the learning of children. The technology itself, because any time anyone approaches a computer, really it's a problem-solving environment for everyone. The new assessments are really leaning toward students having those kinds of skills to be able to problem-solve, analyze data. And the very tool itself demands problem-solving skills.

>> Rochelle: It does. You have to get it to do what you want it to do! (Chuckling)

>> Those little screens pop up at you...

>> Rochelle: The next time my husband calls and says, "How do I get it to do this?" I'll tell him, "This is a lesson in problem-solving."

>> Exactly!

>> Rochelle: I'm going to ask Ken, what have you seen so far in Oswego?

>> Well, I think it's important to know and to remember that technology is not a silver bullet to student achievement. Education is a human process and those factors that go into student achievement -- including quality teachers, instructional focus and time on task -- are assisted by good integration of technology. That's the important fact here, that technology is very important in assisting those variables that lead to student achievement.

The other thing, too, it's very difficult to point to student achievement because many times those tests, those standardized tests, they're not designed to look at the factors that technology is valuable in assisting. You need to bring other types of evaluations in when you look at technology.

Probably more importantly, and this is what -- how we approached it in Oswego, we told our constituents, our community, two things that we would accomplish by using technology: First, we would enrich the teaching and learning environment, and we have clearly done that by the types and the amount of resources that we bring to every desktop in every classroom. Teaching clearly is enhanced as a result of the technology in that environment and the resources that teachers and students can obtain.

Second, and just as important, we said we would make our kids more competitive at graduation, and we have clearly demonstrated that.

>> Rochelle: Okay. Terrific. David?

>> Just another point on this issue is that when you talk about student achievement in New York State and at the national level, you're talking mostly pen-and-pencil testing. If we're using technology to teach students how to do non-real-life situations so that they're successful on tests, that's not the main focus of technology. What I would draw your attention to is from our video, our students in that TV production situation, where they're having real-life experiences, hands-on experiences, authentic assessment... that is that at the end of 38 minutes, they better have a show ready or it hits the fan, so to speak.

We've had visitors; we've had the Commissioner in to watch them put together a show; we've had visitors from all over the northeast to see the show. Every time, they're holding their breath as we count down the last few seconds to the bell, and the students wrap it up every time! And that's real-life learning, in my mind. So let's not forget that some of these experiences are beyond the paper-and-pencil.

The second point is that out of our TV communications program, out of Project Lead the Way, our students are being placed in advanced levels when they go to college. In fact, two of the meteorologists that are on the stations in Syracuse are Oswego High School graduates who got their start with WBUC, that you saw on tape.

>> Rochelle: That's great.

>> So again, when you talk about student achievement, there is more than just that paper-and-pencil measure.

>> Rochelle: Okay. Good enough. We're going to travel on to Sauquoit. Gloria Petrie said she made some significant changes in her style of teaching and her approach to the curriculum so she could incorporate technology into her school district eighth grade social studies classroom. It's working. Gloria's work has been reviewed at the state level and two of her lessons are in the Department's "Teachers' Resource Guide." We took our cameras into Gloria's classroom recently to give you a sense of what takes place there. This report from Wanda Miller.

>> Like I said yesterday, in the business world, if you're trying to sell me a product and you're doing a presentation and I find 14 million spelling mistakes, I'm not buying your product.

>> She's a star and she's done so much for our kids. I know as a school administrator, I'm very grateful to have somebody like her on my staff.

>> I think she's a great teacher. She treats us with respect and she knows we can learn everything that we want to learn. And so she helps us do that.

>> I would put propaganda...

>> Wanda: Gloria Petrie, 30-year veteran of the Sauquoit Valley Middle School, is leading the charge into the new millennium when it comes to technology and learning. Her eight grade social studies class is a primer on just how to integrate technology into the classroom. No textbooks here, no pencil and paper. Students use computers to do their work. Petrie asked for and received permission to rewrite the entire curriculum.

>> I designed my curriculum into five thematic units. I start with politics and economics. Following that, we do a unit on civil rights. Then the unit we're working on right now, which is the conflict unit, and we end the year on an immigration unit.

>> Wanda: Petrie's philosophy is quite simple: Grab the students' interest and give them ownership over their own work. Her 127 students are actually the teacher, she said. She acts as a mentor or facilitator, teaching them the computer skills they need and weaving the lessons into the technology. Very process-oriented, Petrie begins with a glossary of about 15 to 20 words used in a particular unit. While computers are the vehicle to entice the students, she says knowing the material is, as always, key to student performance.

>> One of the standards in social studies is being able to see history in a time-line format or cause-and-effect. I have designed graphic organizers that not just do cause-and-effect but do long-term and immediate causes and immediate and long-term effects. So to get that, they have to complete that.

>> The use of the computer certainly helps the writing process, which is key for all the assessments that are coming up. We're working heavily in the language arts department right now, but what Mrs. Petrie is doing within her social studies class certainly supports that because the students use their writing skills through the computer.

>> Wanda: Like most schools, Sauquoit Valley Middle School has at least one computer in many of its classrooms. By the year 2001, the administration plans to have computers in all classrooms, tied to a districtwide network. Many of Sauquoit's 360-member student body have personal computers at home, and many, if not all, have grown up on video games. So the technology is just another extension of their every day lives.

>> Well, now we have a lot more resources we can add using the computer. We can put in pictures; we can put in sounds even, and it's also a lot funner than just writing it down on a piece of paper.

>> When you're thinking social, you're doing technology, too, and it's really fun just learning both at the same time and then to use it. And you feel confident when you do it.

>> Wanda: Besides being a vehicle to interest students in learning, Gloria Petrie sees computers as another way to help students prepare for the higher state standards that her students will be faced with very shortly.

>> When I set up the project, the research topics focused on specific standards in both the U. S. history standards and the world history standards, knowing that they're going to have to write in almost every assessment and looked at the writing skills. And that's where I put the writing component in.

>> Wanda: That was two weeks ago. Since then, students have had an opportunity to work on their projects and have even had spring break. We're back here now at the Sauquoit Valley Middle School where students will now present their projects. They'll use peer assessment to analyze and to grade their projects. It will also give them an opportunity to assess their own progress and to prepare for tougher state standards.

>> All right. Let's get started and I'll get the rubrics out for your team first.

>> The rubric that I designed for this particular project is a fairly complex rubric because in this project, they are involved in research and factual/historical content skills. They have to include pertinent photographs and other statistics. They have to include good writing skills, which is the second facet. We look at their work ethic and also at the overall appearance.

>> There were posters on street cars, billboards, barn walls, highways, public buildings, et cetera.

>> Wanda: Computers have found a home in Sauquoit's classrooms, along with large TV monitors, overhead projectors and other teaching tools. The computers, however, have brought a new way of teaching into the classroom. But not all teachers have the computer know-how of Gloria Petrie.

>> Mrs. Petrie has run workshops after school, as other instructors have, on the various programs -- PowerPoint, Publisher -- and she holds them from like 3:30 to 6:30 in the afternoon and we invite our teachers, and there's financial incentive to participate.

>> Wanda: Back in the classroom, the students are now working on their peer assessment, using the rubric.

>> Again, look at the rubric. You're looking at accurate facts; you're looking at complete facts. Were the examples appropriate?

>> Wanda: They will read over the project themselves, checking it against what they have learned in class. It's then on to the next rubric.

>> Let's look at it just from the writing perspective then. Look for run-on sentences, sentence fragments, spelling...

>> Wanda: Finally, the last presentation.

>> Let me tell you a little bit about the technology we used here. You'll notice that Nikita Khrushchev's face is in the background. We did what's called layering...

>> Wanda: These students have used publishing to design a letter written from the Soviets' perspective during the Cuban missile crisis.

>> I thought it was really good. They used a lot of creative ideas and the colors help you learn because you see it and then you want to really read it. It's interesting.

>> We have a lot more resources that we can use on the computer, like the Internet, and also we can put the same amount of time that we put into writing an essay without a computer and we can come out with a better product in the end.

>> How do you think you did?

>> Pretty good, except the grammar, when we were presenting, like we noticed certain grammar problems that we missed.

>> And I think the other people did, too.

>> I think the students did a good job. I was proud of them. I think they see progress in themselves, and I think they're looking at this state assessment coming up with a fair amount of security in the fact that they will do well themselves.

>> Rochelle: Wonderful work. Gloria has promised that she's going to talk to Steve about "funner." (Chuckling) Well, I kind of like it.

Gloria, what did it take for you to change your approach to the curriculum, to rewrite everything, to incorporate technology in this manner? And what made you decide you were going to do it?

>> Well, I have really enjoyed technology for many, many years. I started back with the old Apple two C's and two E's, using just word processing and databases, and I've become more and more involved to the point where I actually do quite a bit of the troubleshooting and building of computers. I really, really enjoy that.

I also see a lot of potential with using the technology. We talked a few minutes ago about using the technology as a carrots for teachers. Well, I certainly use it as a carrot for my students. They don't get into the "fun" part of the projects until all of their research and all of their notetaking and all of the reading and anything else that needs to be done as far as the factual material is concerned is checked and our initials are on it, either myself or the library media specialist. That's their rite of passage, to get into the computer lab to use the software.

When I went to selecting my software, I started taking a look at things that I thought would be used in the business world or would help students organize their thoughts. So the software that I have chosen and have grown up with over the last few years, so to speak, because they have also made advances in that software, are Microsoft Works because it is an integrated program and can be used in a lot of different ways, including word processing, databases, spread sheets, and whatever; Microsoft Publisher, a very user-friendly, flexible program which gives students a good background on publishing; PowerPoint, which has been mentioned before, is a wonderful presentation. I use it myself when I'm teaching my students, and I also have the students use it, as you can see, when they're teaching.

And lastly, one I started using last year was Inspiration because it does help students organize their ideas also in graphic form. It can be used by both the person who learns visually and the person who learns in a more linear manner.

So I've tried to pick software that is very flexible. I also have many CD-ROMs and things we use and I use with that large screen, which by the way I got through a grant through Model Schools, and it has just been incredible to have that in my classroom. I use it both myself, in my teaching, in my students' teaching and learning, and when I'm doing work with other staff members. So it's certainly been a very advantageous piece of equipment in my classroom.

I have clusters in my room. I have four computers which we use a lot for research or if students need to catch up or those who are going ahead. So the clusters are used. What you saw in the video was the computer lab for the first part and the second part where the presentation was actually in my classroom.

But it's just something I really, really love, and I think it's very enthusiastic. My basic goal, when we talk about student achievement, is to have every single one of my students coming in there and not sitting back but just really actively involved in their learning. That in itself I think will help the students reach the standards because unless they're involved in their own learning, it doesn't matter what standards we have; they're not going to meet them.

>> Rochelle: Susan, we heard Regina talk about the one teacher as other teachers passed by, "What has she got going in there?" and the "because I use it," kind of thing. Gloria's use of and incorporation of technology into the curriculum and also her willingness to share, have you seen that spread into other classrooms now and other teachers actually beginning to do what Gloria has done?

>> Her enthusiasm is very catchy; thank heaven for that. Yes. In short, yes, we have seen it spread throughout this building, and I think much to Gloria's -- I was going to say dismay, but I'll change that. She's our resource; she's our go-to woman for every technology question that we have in the building. And it is very catchy, yes.

>> Rochelle: We heard in this story that the district is moving to increase the number of computers in classrooms throughout the district. So you'll start seeing kids come in from the elementary grades with this kind of background as well. What else do you foresee happening in Sauquoit as a result of some of the technology advancements?

>> Well, hopefully with the passage of this project next month, we're hoping to be networked both locally within the building and with the other buildings as well so that a lot of communication can take place. We hope to share learning units, to put them on the E-mail or on web sites so that we can also share the information, for resource purposes. We also hope to develop a web site -- I know there's one at the high school -- to put homework on, so that students who are absent or parents who might want to do a little checkup could access that web site for homework.

>> Rochelle: Aha! So the idea of technology has certainly been very, very helpful for helping students achieve higher standards, but it's also made that staff development in terms of sharing information easier and also in engaging parents as well.

>> Absolutely.

>> Rochelle: Okay. All rightie. Gloria?

>> I would just like to add that for people who are just starting into the technology and the use of technology and integrating it into their units, if you start simple, it's not nearly as overwhelming. I've had many people when I'm doing presentations, it just seems overwhelming, and I think that's what happens when you get a group like this that's been so involved in it, that sometimes we forget that there are people who are still afraid. I think it's very important that you start very simple, and when you're looking at your curriculum and you're looking at your standards, you find a way... like one of the things I started with was just doing glossary slides on PowerPoint. It's something you can apply to any content area. It's something they have to know in order to reach any of the standards because if you don't understand what you're reading and the basic content that's pertinent to that particular subject, it's going to be difficult for the students, and just to apply it in a simple method, just to feel more comfortable with it and the integration of it in a feasible and a worthwhile manner. I think it's very important when we look at people who are just beginning to say, "Well, do I have the time and the understanding to do this?"

>> Rochelle: Terrific. Very good advice.

We're going to take a look at some youngsters who are starting off. P.S. 124 in Queens believes in starting them off young. It's amazing what these kindergartner students and first graders can accomplish with a keyboard and a mouse in hand. Take a look for yourself in this videotape made possible by the Board of Education for New York City.

(Music)

>> At P.S. 124 in Queens, the students are getting hands-on experience in using computers. No longer just a classroom fixture, the computer has become an integral part of each child's academic achievement, helping to develop reading, writing and artistic skills.

>> We start with a theme approach and the pre-K students are able to take what they have learned in the thematic unit and move it to technology. And then we build on the benchmarks in kindergarten and in first grade.

We're using Kids-Pics and Clarice Works, and the children are familiar with those programs. But what really has given us a great boost here is that we have peer technology, where teachers are working with each other to hone in on the skills and build the skills that they are comfortable with so they can then in turn turnkey back to their students.

>> Children right now are drawing pictures and writing their own stories in their own phonemic spelling. They're doing activities that they like to do with their families. The project that preceded this is that they drew pictures of their families, and now we're drawing fun activities that families do together.

>> At P.S. 124, kindergartners and first graders are writing some pretty interesting and fascinating stories. In this lesson, the children are writing stories about their families.

>> Me and my family are in the movies and watching "Antz." We are watching "Antz" because we like the movie and we didn't see it, so my mommy took us.

>> Sarah, tell them what you are doing?

>> Drawing my brother Kevin...

>> This is my family. This is my daddy. This is my mommy. This is me and this is my brother. This is my daddy...

>> The activity they're working on increases literacy because it's working with the children's own language. It has been developed by the teacher. The children have spoken to their families. There's oral language involved. The children type; the children play it back, and the children are coordinating with each other. They're communicating and cooperating as they're working. These are all 21st century skills that will prepare them not only for the 21st century but for the next grade. When we go into the first grade, you're going to see the children in that class working on developmentally next level of computings.

>> Working together, the administrators and teachers recognize the importance of cooperative efforts in keeping a program like this exciting and motivating.

>> We have to remember that these are first grade children and they really have very limited skills. So what I do is after I have introduced a unit through books, a farm trip, discussions in class, they went home and they picked their favorite farm animal, and what they did, with their parents' help, they gathered together some information on their favorite farm animal. Once that was in and they shared that in group discussion, they then imported their material on the database entitled "Aster One has a Farm." What they're doing today is they're recording their songs, their original compositions of songs about their favorite farm animal.

They're also using the graphic organizer to begin a step in writing about our next unit, which is the forest animal. They're also illustrating their forest animal. So we're moving from one step to the other.

>> (Singing:) A rooster is a bird, my friend. He does not lay any eggs. He wakes us early every morn. In fact, he wakes us at the crack of dawn. The rooster is a farmer's friend. And that's the story of a male hen.

>> The staff is involved in ongoing training to prepare students for the 21st century technology.

>> Our teachers are encouraged to take an ongoing technology course, computer courses. They register for the courses. They go after school, sometimes on weekends. We have Project Smart in the sixth grade where teachers went for six weeks and they came back and they turnkeyed that information to some of the teachers in Grade 5, and it's just -- as a result of that, wonderful things are happening with technology now at P.S. 124.

>> These children are involved in this program from the time they begin their schooling. By the time the students are in the first grade, they have attained enough skills on their computers to write and perform some very interesting tasks. Computers in the classroom: A vital tool for the 21st century.

>> Rochelle: Just beautiful. They put me to shame!

Regina, what else is going on in New York City schools with technology?

>> Well, another recent development is Project Connection, which is attempting to wire all of the schools for the Internet. That is being undertaken by the Division of Management Information Services at the Board under Ellsmith Taylor. Mark Gora is in charge of the Project Smart Schools. If anyone wants to get in touch with any of them, they can call me up.

But they are attempting to connect everything through the New York City Strategic Technology Plan. I'm collaborating with the Division of Instructional Services, the U.F.T. Teacher Centers, to develop the vision for the professional development for that plan and also to adapt technology standards citywide. So it's been a wonderful collaboration, and it's very successful so far and I'm looking forward to continue helping teachers and helping the city help teachers.

>> Rochelle: Terrific. Congratulations on what's been done and good luck with the rest of it.

>> Thank you.

>> Rochelle: A lot of what we saw at P.S. 124 going on?

>> Oh, yes, yes, especially in that district. In almost every classroom there, I've seen the same kind of things and kids getting involved. And in many, many districts throughout the cities, many similar, many wonderful things. In fact, we recently had a share fair and many of our teachers presented wonderful things the kids are doing. They brought kids along to show what's happening in the classroom, and the best thing is that teachers were talking to teachers. That's the important connection.

Also, our collaboration with Model Schools is important because it puts the teacher first, along with the curriculum. It puts the teacher in the driver's seat and steering the technology to support standards and curriculums, high standards for all children.

>> Rochelle: Terrific. Great. Thank you very much. David, I know that you wanted to let us know about some long-distance learning with regard to the assistive technology before we run out of time?

>> Yes, we have a statewide initiative that's going into the next phase this summer, and that is to enable people to get coursework and graduate coursework in assistive technology through distance learning. But it's a different kind of distance learning. If you were to register, you would get a kit at home with a CD-ROM and disks and reading materials and videos, and then you go on-line and meet with your professor and your classmates on line.

There are 15 courses that are currently available, and we'll be working on getting those out to all of the state in the next three years and also developing new courses for some of those areas that really need some content, some instruction. For example, how to deal with bilingual special ed students and support them with assistive technology. A lot of undermet needs that still need to be addressed, but it's a great program and if people want more information, I hope they'll give us a call at the T.R.E. Center.

>> Rochelle: Terrific. Okay. Lynn, final comments, resources available?

>> Final comments... number one, I just want to remind our audience that technology applications span many grade levels and all student populations. If you have students looking at meteorology, they may be first, second, or third grade students interpreting raw weather data; as well as you may have high school earth science candidates looking at this information in more distinct ways.

Number two, I wanted to mention that please stay on board with assessing the standard, the learning standard, not the means to that end, which is the technology. We didn't take time to assess the utility of the pencil and paper. Don't waste a lot of time with these tools, either, but keep them focused.

And I want our teachers across the state to understand we are aware of their efforts. We're trying to mobilize the teacher integration experts and to try to matriculate them through state peer review and local peer review.

>> Rochelle: If people want to get in touch with you or Fran, where should --

>> There should be a graphic for that information as well as additional funding sources.

>> Rochelle: Okay. Very good. This is where you would get ahold of Lynn Reuss and Francess Brewer, New York State Model School coordinators, to get some additional information about technology and how you can adapt it into your school programs.

That's going to have to be the final word for today's discussion. I want to thank everyone who participated in today's program for your time today and during our videotaping. We appreciate you taking time to share your experiences with us. They've been wonderful and invaluable.

It's also our final teleconference for the 1998/99 school year. It's been an exciting year for those of us working at the Satellite Broadcast Network, and we hope we have been able to bring you some valuable information that's helped make your jobs as teachers a bit easier.

My special thanks to John Quinn, Mike Yates and Major Capers for their invaluable support in putting these programs together. We are working on a full schedule of programs for the next school year. We hope to have a preliminary schedule to your schools before classes close for the summer.

If you have questions or suggestions for us on how we can make these programs more useful to you, please feel free to E-mail us at jquinn@mail.nysed.gov, or tmoore@questar.org. Or give us a call at 518-477-6749; Fax, 518-477-4311. We're always happy to hear from you.

A reminder to fourth and eighth grade math teachers who will be scoring those assessments being given for the first time this June: We'll have special scoring training sessions on Monday June 7th and Tuesday, June 8th. A trainer from Measurement Incorporated will be in the studio with me and a group of teachers from the Albany area conducting scoring training. That session will be sent out to 31 satellite downlink sites across the state where you'll be able to fax, phone or E-mail in your questions directly to the people who helped the New York State Education Department and CTB McGraw Hill develop those exams. Those sessions begin at 8:30 a.m. and run until 2:30 p.m. If you have questions about where to find a downlink site in your area, contact us at the jquinn@mail.nysed.gov E-mail site.