TECHNOS

January 6, 2009

Technos

April 2007—Vol. 4, No. 4

It is with much regret and deep sadness that AIT announces the passing of George Wright, a longtime friend and colleague who served on the Agency’s Board of Directors. Mr. Wright died on March 30, 2007, after a courageous battle with cancer. His wife, Hélène Fournier, reminds us that “George was a pioneer and a trailblazer, and never one to conform to tradition for tradition’s sake.” He will be missed by his loving family and friends, and certainly by all of us at AIT.

Into the Book available!

This exciting new series is a multimedia teaching resource designed to enhance reading comprehension for K-3 students.

Welcome to the technos.net e-newsletter, published by AIT’s Technos Press. You’ll find valuable information here about AIT products and services and other noteworthy news from the world of education. Please let us know what you think, or what you’d like to see here, by emailing us at: editor@ait.net. Thank you!

Featured Interview

Bob Barker, Executive Vice President, Associated General Contractors of Wisconsin

When it became clear in the state of Wisconsin that there was a great need for skilled tradesman and construction industry professionals—which would only dramatically increase in the near future—the leadership of Associated General Contractors of Wisconsin began to plan. Out of its 2003 Strategic Plan came the initiative for Construction Career Academy, the first of which is in place at Burlington High School, near Milwaukee. Rather than focus on vocational education, or souped-up tech or shop classes, AGCW members wanted to make sure that students in their Academy would take rigorous academic courses as well as become exposed to the construction trades. The benefits, they felt, would accrue to the students, who would have college-prep courses on their transcripts, as well as to the community, which would have quality construction industry workers available. But the benefits also showed up in strong student interest in staying in school and getting better grades, not to mention improved leadership and communication skills. Technos spoke with Bob Barker, the executive vice president of AGC of Wisconsin, about the Construction Career Academy initiative.

How and why did the Wisconsin Associated General Contractors group choose to become involved in the Construction Career Academy at Burlington High?

The Construction Career Academy initiative came out of the strategic planning process that our board of directors and staff went through in 2003. At the time the Board believed it was imperative that AGC work to improve the perception of construction in the eyes of parents, teachers, guidance counselors, and students—while recruiting of a future workforce into our industry, both at the trade level and at the professional level. Workforce development was and continues to be a cornerstone of our strategic plan.

Why we got involved at Burlington High School had to do with the fact that at the time, the president of our association was Peter Scherrer, of Scherrer Construction Company in Burlington. Peter had relationships already established with the school district administration and contacts within the community. He also understood that BHS was very proactive and innovative in offering learning opportunities to students.

Going into this initiative, we understood that we had to have the support of the superintendent of schools and the administration to embark on this initiative, and we felt Burlington was a great place to start. Plus, the size of the school was just about right.

Are there other similar career academies in Wisconsin or elsewhere?

AGC has another academy operational in Fond du Lac. While they are using similar curriculum, you can't say it is exactly like BHS at this point, and I don't think there is an exact model of our Academy in Wisconsin. There are a couple of charter schools, home building programs, etc. However, we don't believe the Academy model, which by the way continues to be built, has yet to be duplicated.

There are other AGC chapters around the country that are pursuing this Career Academy initiative. We're actually one of eight chapters to receive a sub grant from our national organization—AGC of America received a $250,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Labor, and we received a $21,000 sub grant directed toward our effort at Burlington High School.

Our interest in the Construction Career Academy model goes back to 2003, and our due diligence related to the workforce development initiative. Through our network of national contacts we heard that the AGC of St. Louis and AGC of East Tennessee (Chattanooga) were extensively involved in workforce development efforts. Peter Scherrer and I traveled to St. Louis to visit the Construction Careers Center charter high school; and then to Chattanooga to visit the construction career academy at East Ridge High School. Peter and I returned with the recommendation that the Construction Career Academy model be utilized as our workforce development effort. The primary reason was that it is AGC's mission to make this a statewide effort, and the Academy model appears easier to implement and flexible to meet the needs of individual high schools.

As far other academies in addition to East Ridge High School, we understand there is an academy in Omaha, Nebraska; two academies in Mississippi; one in Houston, Texas; one in Anchorage, Alaska; one in Portland, Oregon; and one in San Antonio, Texas. These academies are all part of the USDOL sub grant from AGC of America.

Read the entire interview.

Featured Article

A New Take on “Voc Ed” Will Serve Construction Industry: Construction Career Academy Launches in Wisconsin

It’s not your father’s “voc ed”—at least not in Burlington, Wisconsin. A unique program developed by construction industry professionals in Wisconsin has been launched at Burlington High School, near Milwaukee, and it’s anything but a revved-up shop class. What’s different about the Construction Career Academy is that it emphasizes core academic courses acceptable for college entrance: English, mathematics, and business, with practical applications to the trades.

Associated General Contractors of Wisconsin has taken the initiative to establish the Career Academy at Burlington High School and another in Fond du Lac, with plans to start three more in the state next year, ultimately developing others in nine schools across the state by 2009. “This is our ‘big, hairy, audacious goal,’” says AGCW executive vice president, Bob Barker. “We want to impact the lives of a thousand students in this effort.”

The Wisconsin Career Academy is patterned after others by AGC of America that have been successful in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Omaha, Nebraska. Burlington’s Academy students are exposed to an integrated curriculum with a career field focus. Through field trips and guest speakers, job shadowing and service learning opportunities, they gain knowledge and experience work-based learning. The curriculum, developed by Worldwide Instructional Design System, is connected to real-world applications and is consistent with state and national standards, as well as technical college and university acceptance requirements. For Burlington students, the watchwords are “rigorous academics.”

Career Academy students learn to read and understand industry-specific documents, write reports, solve actual building problems using geometry and algebra, and a host of other skills directly relevant to the construction industry while earning the necessary credits for their high school diploma. Teamwork, problem solving, time management skills, and communication skills are just a few of the non-academic benefits of the Career Academy curriculum. The intent is to ease the transition to college or into the work force. Another benefit is to raise awareness as well as the image of the construction industry.

“We recognize that not all of our Academy students will go to college,” Barker says, “but if they take these courses, they’ll have the opportunity to do so.” He points out that in the construction industry, if a person works hard and is open to learning, s/he can end up owning his or her own company, even without a college education. Plus, careers in the construction industry offer good compensation, health insurance, and pension benefits that many students may not be aware of. Through the Academy, they can find out about those benefits.

Another unique aspect of Burlington’s Career Academy is the involvement of Project Lead The Way, a middle school and high school pre-engineering program. PLTW’s High School Program is a four-year sequence of courses which, when combined with traditional mathematics and science courses in high school, introduces students to the scope, rigor, and discipline of engineering prior to entering college. But even those students not college-bound will accrue learning and organizational benefits from PLTW’s elective coursework. Project Lead The Way is active in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, two U.S. Territories, and in England.

The construction industry is one that is in growth mode in this country and will continue on an upward trend in the future, as the average age of trade workers now is about 42 years old. That means it won’t be too long before many of those workers will be retiring, and the need for accountants, project managers, architects, estimators, and trades workers will only increase.

In 2005, AGC of America was the recipient of a $235,500 grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to establish eight new Construction Career Academies around the country. The grant was part of the President’s High-Growth Job Training Initiative, which has as one of its goals the more effective collaboration of private and public sector partners for the betterment of workers’ skills in high-growth industries. The eight cities and states that received $20,000-plus three-year sub-grants were: Anchorage, Alaska; Palmetto, Florida; Houston, Texas; Louisville, Kentucky; Jackson, Mississippi; Omaha, Nebraska; Portland, Oregon; and Burlington, Wisconsin.

The Burlington High School Construction Career Academy, in operation for two years, is now receiving the majority of its funding from AGC of Wisconsin through the support of its members. A large expense of the Academy is the purchase of textbooks, two for each student, which AGCW is providing. In addition, each student receives a shirt and hardhat that designates him or her as part of the school within a school that is the Academy.

Barker reports that tardies, absences, and suspensions are down, and grade point averages are up, among Academy students. This is the sort of positive impact his organization was hoping for. And it can be duplicated. For more information, contact AGCW.

What’s New at AIT?

Four Prestigious Awards Go to AIT-WECB Projects: Telly Awards and Parents’ Choice Silver Award

This spring has seen an unprecedented outpouring of praise for two of AIT’s collaborative projects with Wisconsin Educational Communications Board. Into the Book and democracy it is! have been honored with prestigious Parents’ Choice and Telly Awards.

Into the Book Honored with Parents’ Choice Silver Award

The Parents’ Choice Awards Program honors Into the Book with a highly prized Silver Award. Parents’ Choice Silver Awards are given to excellent products designed to entertain and help children develop universally ethical attitudes, rigorous standards, and skills. Silver Award honorees are highly prized for production and human values.

In its review of the multimedia Into the Book, Parents’ Choice states: “In a perfect illustration of the adage, ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover,’ Mrs. Pingel’s youthful appearance belies her teaching ability. With confidence and skill, the 3rd-grade teacher in Wisconsin’s Franklin Elementary School uses innovative techniques to guide her students through practical strategies designed to improve reading comprehension. The story reenactments are well produced and credibly acted. Teachers, parents, and students (K–3) will benefit from and thoroughly enjoy this first-rate series.”

This year AIT and WECB join other Silver Award winners HBO, Disney, Discovery, and MTV.

Into the Book, democracy it is! Honored with Telly Awards

Two AIT-WECB projects have been honored with three Telly Awards. Bronze Awards go to:

democracy it is! “Choices and Changes”
Into the Book “Evaluating”
Into the Book “Prior Knowledge”

The Telly Awards honor excellence in local, regional, and cable TV commercials, non-broadcast video, and TV programs. Since 1978, their mission has been to strengthen the visual arts community by inspiring, promoting, and supporting creativity. The 27th Annual Telly Awards received more than 13,000 entries from all 50 United States and five continents. The deadline for submissions for the 28th Annual Telly Awards is April 19.

ATW Available in New Locations

In other news, Assignment: The World has been adopted by the California Counties Ed Tech Consortium. ATW also has been licensed by Pasco, Wash. — bringing the number of states it is available in to three more (California, Minnesota, Washington) than it was five years ago.

Lessons ALIVE!

Lessons ALIVE!—Free Online Lesson Plans Feature AIT’s Programs

Our Lessons ALIVE! feature provides free lesson plans corresponding to AIT’s products. We give teachers ideas for going beyond our videos’ teacher guides and for developing lesson plans that combine media from different series or select segments from programs. The lesson plans highlighted in Lessons ALIVE! promote contemporary ideas about structured learning environments and model best practices in teaching.

This month we are featuring an upper-level elementary social studies lesson that focuses on current events.

Voices of History: Relating Historic Events to Current Events is designed for students in grades 4-6 and uses the following AIT Products:

Assignment: The World, any weekly program
Tracks: Impressions of America, programs 3–8

Each week, Assignment: The World presents a review of current events and challenges students to explore the news from different perspectives. In this lesson, students will chose to represent the perspective of an historic figure as they react to the recent news events.

The objectives of this lesson are to:

Relate today’s global events to the events of an earlier time in American history.
Present the perspectives of an historic figure in a different context.
Explain how events and circumstances today are similar and different from the past.

Check out all of our Lessons ALIVE! lesson plans.

Remember that the featured AIT products in this lesson are 10 percent off for the month of April!

Let us know if you’ve created your own unique lesson plans by submitting them to the Technos e-Zine editor at: editor@ait.net. Selected entries will be published in future issues of the e-Zine.

Tech Notes

More about Metadata: The Birth of PBCore

Version 1.1 of PBCore was published in January of this year, quickly followed by the release of the PBCore v1.1 XML Schema Definition (XSD). While this may not have been prominent on the radar screen of most users of instructional video, it is a “big deal” for all of the folks currently working to make public broadcasting media accessible to a growing digital media consumer population.

Essentially, PBCore—a project of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, WGBH in Boston, and public broadcasters around the country—is a metadata dictionary. The goal of PBCore is to establish a standard metadata schema — or organizational structure—that will allow industry-wide sharing of content. As stated on the PBCore Web site, “PBCore is being used in public radio and television and beyond to describe, publish, and share content; and to allow others to find your content.”

PBCore is built on the foundation of the Dublin Core standard for content or resource discovery. Both contain a complex and comprehensive hierarchy of descriptors or elements for each piece of digital content. PBCore whittled the number of possible descriptive elements down to 53, including things like title, creator, date produced, copyright owner, description, audience, subject, and the like.

In the evolution from analog to digital content it has become crystal clear that it is essential to develop a method of describing that content which is consistent among content providers and distributors. As we turn traditional analog video content into the ones and zeroes of digital content, it is stored away in files on servers. This is great for keeping the content organized and safe. However, when we need to find and access that content, we must have some “tags” to grab hold of—tags that tell us exactly what we are getting. The quality and consistency of those tags in describing the digital content determine the accuracy of the retrieval. If we want a program on the Underground Railroad, for example, we don’t want to pull up a program on the history of the western expansion of the modern rail system. Accurate, standardized ways of organizing the information about a program help us get the program or information we want—and only that information.

There are broadcasting-specific reasons for developing a standard schema for public broadcasters, but the development of the PBCore has exciting implications for educators who use instructional media in their classrooms. The development of digital content has not only made video available through new technologies; it has also made it possible for an educator to use small segments of the video more effectively and easily. Teachers can combine the individual video learning objects with other media and text into multimedia presentations that engage and teach. Students can use this digital content in their own projects. The possibilities for using digital content for learning are developing at warp speed. Public broadcasters will continue to expand the ways they make their digital content available to teachers and students for these purposes.

And all of this is possible because each learning object—each “bit” of digital content—has been filed away with descriptive information that makes it possible to find, retrieve, and use it again…and again.

More more information about PBCore and how it can be utilized for instructional media, contact AIT’s Director of Education, Elaine Larson, at elarson@ait.net.

etc. (News You Need)

The U.S. Department of Education’s Teacher-to-Teacher Initiative offers some excellent resources for teachers, including a list of Teacher Workshops around the country. The Summer 2007 Schedule can be sorted by date, city, or focus—and agendas in .pdf form can be downloaded. You can also sign up for Teacher Updates at this site.
Educational publisher Heinemann-Raintree launched its “Ask a Librarian” free service for educators in March. “Ask a Librarian” allows Web site visitors to interface with a staff librarian and submit inquiries on a variety of topics. Librarians can use the feature to gain assistance in selecting titles, get suggestions for collection development, obtain tips for promoting nonfiction, and receive advice for meeting the needs of readers. Heinemann-Raintree publishes educational nonfiction for K–high school students.
Last month, we featured Dr. Jason Ohler’s Digital Storytelling projects. If you’d like to view his keynote speech at the Illinois Computing Educators conference, access the Quick Time file. His topic: “Then What? The Past, Present and Future of Education and Technology—In an Age of ‘No Child Left Behind,’ What Is Technology’s Role?”
The Center on Congress at Indiana University has received a $100,000 grant from the AT&T Foundation to support development of a new online educational resource, Virtual Congress. This multi-player game will let students participate in an online Congress that functions very much like the real one—with committees, floor action, amendments, back-and-forth discussions, input from constituents, and the like. In Virtual Congress, players from across the country, represented by three-dimensional online characters (avatars) will hold the 535 House and Senate seats. The student-Members of Virtual Congress will introduce bills and work online with others to try to move their proposals through the various stages of the legislative process.
The Spring 2007 issue of American Educator, published by the American Federation of Teachers, features an article by Antonia Cortese titled “Get Real: Here’s the Boost that Poor Children, Their Teachers, and Their Schools Really Need.” To help children from low-income homes to reach the same achievement level as their peers in better financial circumstances, Ms. Cortese prescribes five steps that schools should follow: 1) Focus on teaching quality; 2) Support a culture of respectful student behavior; 3) Diagnose reading problems early and intervene right away; 4) Provide a knowledge-rich, grade-by-grade core curriculum; and 5) Deliver additional supports, staff, time, and resources to the schools that serve the neediest students.
The Coalition of Essential Schools has set its Fall Forum 07 for November 8–10 at The Adam’s Mark Hotel in Denver. The topic is “A Principled Stand”—“Take a stand for the pedagogy, relationships, structures, and policies that create and sustain personalized, equitable, and intellectually challenging schools for all of our children.”
Teachers College Press offers a new edition of Michael Fullan’s The New Meaning of Educational Change. This fourth edition of a reform classic has been completely updated and “is your definitive compendium to all aspects of the management of educational change—a powerful resource for everyone involved in school reform.”

AIT Products & Services

In honor of our award-winning products, this month we feature:

Into the Book is a multimedia teaching resource designed to enhance reading comprehension for students in grades 1–4, as well as their ability to think and learn across the curriculum. Th e nine Into the Book student episodes feature an extraordinary classroom where a group of ordinary students use powerful learning strategies to enter the world of the story. These 15-minute programs show student viewers how to use these strategies when reading fiction, nonfiction, or everyday text. They also model real-life applications of the strategies. Into the Book recently was honored with a Parents’ Choice Silver Award and two Telly Awards.
democracy it is! programs feature character education in action for students in grades 2–4. Program themes include the rules, rights, and responsibilities of both youth and adult citiz ens. Through real-life examples of student activism and participation in communities across the nation, students will learn that democracy is many things to many people. These programs will show student viewers how to make a difference in their own communities and that everyone has a voice in a democracy. The final program in this tier focuses on how students’ personal and collective choices can and do lead to meaningful changes in their communities. Visit the democracy it is! Web site for interactive activities and games, to learn more about the people and places in the programs, and for access to the online teacher’s guide.
Please remember that AIT offers a 10% discount on your purchase of any of the featured lessons in this month’s Lessons ALIVE! lesson.

AIT’s popular Career and Technical Education series are always available:
Applied Communication teaches communication skills required for success in today’s workplace. It combines academic studies with hands-on practice of job-related communication skills—and it applies reading, writing, listening, speaking, and problem solving to on-the-job situa tions in five major occupational areas: agriculture, business/marketing, health occupations, home economics, and technical/trade/industrial. Applied Communication modules each consist of 10 activity-oriented lessons that can be infused into existing courses or used to form the core of a year-long course taught by English/communication, business, or vocational educators. This competency-based curriculum correlates with vocational education and language arts curricula on the high school and post-secondary levels, as well as in adult retraining programs. Seventeen modules for grades 9–12 and adults.
With Attributes for Successful Employability students can enter a variety of actual businesses and experience real-life work situations at a real estate firm, an auto service garage, a retail department store, a micro-electronics company, a re staurant, and many more. They can make on-the-job decisions about appropriate behaviors, practices, procedures, and ethics. The Level I version is driven by barcode command; the Level III version is computer-driven. Four modules for grades 9–12 and adults.
Workplace Readiness prepares today’s learners for tomorrow’s changing workplace. Empower learners to take responsibility for their future by introducing them to the basic skills all workers need to succeed in today’s competitive international marketplace: problem solving, teamwork, and self-management. Four modules targeted to grades 9–12 and adults. A complete kit of Workplace Readiness, I–IV consists of instructor’s guides, learner’s guides, assessment portfolios, student video programs, teacher training video programs, and computer software. Product Code: 317-KIT-V.
Other featured programs this month include:
The Inventing Flight for Schools Curriculum Kit includes six 10-minute video programs, additional science tutorial and “how-to” video segments, a DVD resource disk, a teacher’s guide, student worksheets, and Internet resources. Product Code: 464-KIT-V-CC. V isit the Inventing Flight Web site.
A related product: How Airplanes Work. This 15-minute program provides an overview of the design and construction of early aircraft, explores the mechanical and operational workings of contemporary aircraft from take-off and flight to landing, and unveils exciting breakthroughs in aircraft design. Product Code: 380-002.
The Letter TV III: Vowel Combinations series includes thirteen 5-minute video programs on two VHS tapes. The teacher’s guide can be downloaded for free from the Letter TV III Web site. The third series of Letter TV programs focuses on phonemic rules for readers in grades K–2, mostly related to vowel combinations. With only 26 letters to represent more than 100 phonemes, learning to read means learning how to decode all the sounds represented by certain combinations of letters. The rules presented in each episode will help learners unravel the complicated web of reading, build confidence, and expand vocabulary. Rules are explored in detail and the story provides a natural context for viewers to remember the correct application of the rule. A team-oriented explanation segment clarifies and simplifies the rule for learners, and a catchy song reinforces the concept. Over and over again, viewers see the characters reading as part of the story, effectively modeling positive attitudes toward reading. Available on VHS and DVD. Contact info@ait.net for more information.
Club Write: Expository Writing DVD . In this 15-minute segment, the students study elephants and write an essay explaining why these animals have been brought to this country. Product Code: 419-007-I-CC. Visit the Club Write main Web page to view descriptions of other Club Write segments.

Find out more about AIT’s programs at our online catalog. Check out AIT’s sample video clips.

You're welcome to download a .pdf version of AIT’s 2007 product catalog.

Read previous issues of the TECHNOS e-Zine.

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