TECHNOS

August 21, 2008

July 2006—Vol. 3, No. 7

Shape of Life: The Story of the Animal Kingdom series available!

Based on the PBS documentary, The Shape of Life, this series meets AAAS National Science Teaching Standards for Grades 9-12.

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

Wendy D. Puriefoy, President, Public Education Network (PEN)

The Public Education Network, or PEN, is a national association of Local Education Funds (LEFs) and individuals working to advance public school reform in low-income communities across the country. Its motto is: “Public Involvement. Public Education. Public Benefit.” Wendy D. Puriefoy, PEN’s President since its inception in 1991, is a nationally recognized expert on issues of school reform and civil society. Prior to being recruited as president of PEN, Ms. Puriefoy was executive vice president and chief operating officer of The Boston Foundation. As president of PEN, she has been the leading force behind systemic reform initiatives in school finance and governance, curriculum and assessment, parent involvement, school libraries, and school health. Ms. Puriefoy, who holds degrees from William Smith College and Boston University, serves on the boards of numerous high-profile national organizations, including DEMOS, Hasbro Children’s Foundation, the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, and the National Center for Family Philanthropy. Technos “spoke” with Ms. Puriefoy via email in June.

T.: The mission of the Public Education Network is “to build public demand and mobilize resources for quality public education for all children through a national constituency of local education funds and individuals.” Please describe what a Local Education Fund, or LEF, is and how it works.

W.D.P.: Local Education Funds (LEFs) are tax-exempt, nonprofit, community-based organizations that work to improve student achievement for all children attending public schools. A local education fund convenes key players in the community, administers innovative school programs, brokers’ resources, awards grants, and enhances the visibility and value of the public schools. LEFs are independent of the school districts they serve and are focused on the improvement and reform of the public school system as a whole. LEFs are organized as ongoing community organizations, with professional full-time staff and a board of directors reflective of the communities they serve. LEFs work with public school systems serving a significant population of disadvantaged students.

LEFs convene a wide range of stakeholders to help develop and implement local public school improvement strategies. In cooperation with schools, businesses, and other community-based organizations, LEFs broker creative school reform initiatives with teachers, school boards, and administrators.

Their mission is the improvement of public education within a particular geographic area, and they have a long-term relationship with the schools and districts within that area. LEFs are highly influenced by their local context, constantly assessing the political landscape, then adapting and strategizing within the opportunities and limits that it offers. Because they are locally-based, LEFs’ value as agents of change is their ability to adapt innovation to the needs and contours of the local setting. They also contribute to the sustainability of reforms because of their commitment to a local community. Their purpose is to stimulate change that improves public education, particularly in low-income communities. They do this through building civic capacity, as well as school and district capacity to implement reforms.

A great example of LEF success can be seen in Mobile, Alabama, in an effort led by the Mobile Area Education Foundation. Hundreds of citizens from throughout Mobile County (including educators, parents, business and community leaders, students, and higher education officials) came together to launch an historic undertaking—the creation of a genuinely student-centered, community-driven long-range plan for the Mobile County Public Schools. The creation of the “YES WE CAN Community Agreement” led to the implementation of an unprecedented performance-based strategic plan for the school district. The community agreement represents the ideas and aspirations of more than 1,400 citizens from throughout Mobile County who participated in public forums on school quality and whose finding were officially presented to the school board. The community agreement, facilitated by the LEF, led to a district-wide focus on six areas of improvement: Communications, Equity, Governance, Parental and Community Involvement, Student Achievement, and Teacher Quality.

In what other ways does PEN “build public demand and mobilize resources” to ensure that all students have the opportunity for a quality education?

In a democratic society, public education cannot depend on acts of charity for survival. Public schools should not have to rely on private sources of funding to accomplish a federally mandated mission to leave no child behind. Yet the federal government is cutting taxes, states are slashing education budgets, and our most disadvantaged students and schools are paying the price—expected to know more, expected to do more, but not given any extra help to achieve more. If we truly expect greater levels of achievement from every child, then we must demand focused and sustained investment in the financial equity and human capital of every school.

PEN and its members see a vital link between the quality of public education and the quality of life in a democratic society. They look to public engagement as the basis of education reform. PEN believes that for significant improvement in public education to occur and be sustained, community will and capacity have to be strengthened to take on responsibility for improving education outcomes. School superintendents and school boards come and go and, as they move through the revolving door of leadership, improvements in policy and practice often get lost. This frequent change in direction and leadership diverts attention from complicated school reform issues and reduces the odds of achieving lasting reform. To mitigate this churn, PEN’s Theory of Action calls for the development of a community-held vision of education reform created through a variety of public engagement activities.

The more community stakeholders become engaged with one another, the more likely they are to discuss issues and work together to create solutions. By working through the difficult public decision-making process (finding common ground, building relationships, and getting various partners involved) the public will ultimately take responsibility for education improvement and for the policy changes necessary to sustain it.

A common thread runs through three PEN areas of school policy focus—standards and accountability, teacher quality, and schools and community—namely, that public engagement activities supported by reliable data will build community accountability for providing the policies, the practices, and the conditions needed for children to meet high standards of academic achievement.

PEN’s approach to school reform is ambitious. Its strength lies in people who are able to understand and participate in the decisions that affect them, their families, and their society. It rests on the belief that everyone has a stake in our public schools, and that an active citizenry has the responsibility to elect public officials who support quality public education and to hold them accountable for allocating the resources needed to improve schools for all children. The Theory of Action is about transformation. It is about the transformation of individual interests to collective interest, about moving people from involvement to engagement.

Read the entire interview.

For more information about public education reform in the United States, access the PEN Weekly NewsBlast, and subscribe to a free email newsletter.

Read Ms. Puriefoy’s Featured Essay, below.

Featured Essay

“Education: Everyone’s Responsibility”

By Wendy D. Puriefoy, President, Public Education Network (PEN)

Public education is the single most important public institution in a democratic society. It is our ultimate department of defense against poverty, ignorance, hatred and intolerance. Today, with more than 53 million children attending America’s public schools, we can justifiably take pride in the scope of and access to public education that exists in this nation. But scope and access are only half the story. The battle in education is for equity, for the right of every child to a quality education, and this is a battle we must win.

To one degree or another, every generation of Americans has had to wrestle with the challenge of educating its youth. We know it takes qualified teachers, capable school leaders, supportive learning environments, adequate resources, a rigorous curriculum, high expectations linked to standards, fair diagnostic assessments and nonacademic supports. But one vital ingredient has been missing in this formula for education excellence, and that ingredient is public responsibility.

National polls conducted by PEN in partnership with Education Week reveal that the public is ready and willing to take responsibility for its public schools, but often feels uncertain about the best way to do so. The answers can be found in our rights as citizens in a democratic society.

As citizens, we take responsibility for our public schools when we vote for the candidates and provide the funding that supports and advances education equity. As elected officials, we take responsibility when we keep the promises we made while campaigning and when we fight for the resources our public schools need. As school administrators and teachers, we take responsibility when we put into place the appropriate teaching and learning practices so that all children can learn to high standards. As members of the business community, we take responsibility when we provide schools with resources, internship opportunities and role models. As leaders of community organizations, we take responsibility when we join with schools to provide services to students and their families. And as members of the philanthropic community, we take responsibility when we provide long-term money, support innovation and give new ideas time to take root.

We are all responsible.

We as a nation cannot afford to stand by and allow our public schools to become wastelands of mediocrity. We must not allow millions of children to grow up unaware of their rights and responsibilities as citizens, unprepared to support themselves and their families, with little or no stake in society’s welfare. We must not accept achievement gaps, tolerate inequitable funding systems, make do with deteriorating buildings and outdated textbooks and defend failing schools and substandard teaching.

Democracy is preserved only when we exercise it. Our children will get the public schools they need when each of us is willing to do what is necessary to reclaim, revitalize and re-establish public education as the powerful engine of democratic principles and progress it is meant to be. Ensuring that every child in America has a quality public education takes time, takes money and, most of all, requires acceptance of our personal and collective responsibility to see this ideal through to fruition.

For more information about the Public Education Network, go to http://www.PublicEducation.org.

PEN has published Taking Responsibility: Using Public Engagement to Reform Our Public Schools. This report reflects on the work of communities participating in PEN’s policy initiative, which focuses on public engagement as the key element in sustainable school reform and on local education funds (LEFs) as key intermediaries in the engagement process. It is available online at http://www.publiceducation.org/Taking_Responsibility/taking_resp_home.asp.

What’s New at AIT?

Coming in Fall 2006!

Look for Into the Book, a multimedia teaching resource designed to enhance reading comprehension for K–3 students, as well as their ability to think and learn across the curriculum.

The nine Into the Book student episodes will 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 will show student viewers how to use these strategies when reading fiction, nonfiction, or everyday text. They’ll also model real-life applications of the strategies.

In the professional development videos, we go Behind the Lesson as teachers demonstrate how they are using these strategies effectively with their students. Programs will combine actual classroom footage with dialogue and personal reflection on instructional practices.

An interactive Web site and comprehensive print materials round out the curriculum package.

This project was developed by the Wisconsin Educational Communications Board, with the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction and a team of experienced educators. It is produced by Wisconsin Public Television and the Agency for Instructional Technology.

Into the Book will be released in September 2006. For more information about the project, visit the Web site or call AIT at 800-457-4509.

Lessons ALIVE!

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

AIT’s 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—in response to popular demand—we have two new entries: one for math and another for science.

Secret Formulas: Calculating the Perimeter and Area of Rectangles and Squares is a math lesson for grades 3–5 based on these AIT products:

Math Works, Program 1, “Measurement: Finding Areas of Rectangles”
Math Works, Program 9, “Measurement: The Difference Between Perimeter and Area”
Math Can Take You Places, Episode 4, “The Long and Tall of It (Measurement)”

Imagine trying to build a fence around a yard or trying to determine how much paint you need to paint a room without having a basic knowledge of measurement and shapes. Being able to measure shapes is crucial when completing many ordinary tasks. This lesson is designed to help students develop formulas and procedures for determining the perimeter and area of rectangles and squares. Students will calculate the perimeter and area of common objects found in the classroom and at home and discover how people apply measurement skills in everyday situations.

On the Move: Understanding Newton’s Laws of Motion is a science lesson for grades 6–8 using these AIT products:
- Minds on Science, Program 9, “Motion: Why Does the Remote Control Car Run Off the Track?”
- Inventing Flight, Unit 1: Science Tutorial, “Newton’s Laws”
If you have ever been in a vehicle when the brakes have suddenly been applied, tried to push a heavy shopping cart, or observed a fish swimming in water, then you have witnessed Sir Isaac Newton’s Laws of Motion. Newton’s three laws of motion govern 99 percent or more of our everyday experiences—from how the planets orbit the Sun to how a person rides a bicycle. This lesson is designed to help students understand the relationship between force and motion. Students will observe objects in motion and speculate why they move the way they do. They will then discuss the meaning of Newton’s three laws of motion and apply these laws to everyday situations.

Check out all of our Lessons ALIVE! lesson plans.

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

“Video on the Learner Desktop”

By George Wright, Service Architecture and Project Management, Benmorroch eLearning Ltd.

The following article is just one of George Wright’s “tissue papers” about technology and education published at the Benmorroch eLearning Ltd. Web site. Mr. Wright joined AIT’s Board of Directors in July 2005.

Where do you start?

Best to think first of the learning model—focus first on what the video says and where it can be used. It has been normal for educators to give attention to the physical components of the technologies involved—hardware is the easiest part—but sooner or later, “What is to be streamed?” and “What do you do with what is streamed?” are questions that have to be asked.

Digital video on the desktop invites use, not just viewing.

Attention must be devoted to what happens when digital video resources arrive in class or the resource center because video on the PC causes change in personal and group response. It shows first in verbal reference: where we would conventionally say “viewers” for TV or analog video, we find ourselves saying “users” for digital video. A behavioral change shows within the language, too. When video gets digitized, it turns viewers into users.

No educator can put TV-like images on a PC screen and expect that the more “passive” viewing we associate with watching TV will be acceptable. Trials, pilots, labs, play, and practice have proven clearly that digital video adds little value if it is supplied to the user only as surrogate TV. But…when the inherently interactive nature of digital video is grasped and user-enabling features applied, fresh pathways open to the insight that educators seek to foster in the student’s school experience.

What does the user experience as different, exactly?

Consider proximity of user and playback platform as the trigger. The viewing experience changes greatly when moving images are displayed up close on the desktop with controls at hand to intervene in playback. (Small screens on portable small devices are a different story.) Perception and kinesthetic response change, hands reach for available tools, the size of the image is less important, and image presentation varies or alters with content and interaction. Sound source and perspective, just as important as pictures, alters from general “broadcast” in the room to local and intimate when headphones are worn (as they should be where multiple computers are used in class). Most of what we have considered as TV changes—except for the storying and modeling that makes video imaging a compelling resource in the first place. With video now delivered with digital control to the desktop, everything conspires to slide the viewer into user mode.

Read the entire article.

etc. (News You Need)

The Society for Applied Learning Technology (SALT^®) annual conference will be held at the Sheraton National Hotel in Arlington, VA, this August 23–25. Some of the topics to be covered are: Higher Education and Schools, Defense and Homeland Security, Skills Training, E-Learning, Knowledge Management/EPSS, and Instructional Systems Development. For 30 years, SALT conferences have been conducted in a meeting format which encourages an atmosphere of collegial interchanges and interaction among participants from diverse disciplines—and the 2006 Interactive Technologies Conference will be no different. For more information, including registration process, go to: http://www.salt.org/index.htm?salt.asp?pn=washington&mtid=48.

Food for thought: Ever since the printing press was invented, technology, especially in educational settings, has been as controversial as it has been consequential. Author Chad Vander Veen writes in Government Technology www.govtech.net online: “Can technology help disadvantaged students, or is technology…just a distraction? It’s unlikely we’ll find one right answer.” The article, “Technology and the Three Rs,” highlights some of the issues surrounding the use of technology in learning situations—and posits the question of whether it’s a help or a hindrance in some classrooms. It’s a thoughtful piece that we frankly wish we had published in our Technos eZine!

Having trouble setting financial goals? Staying within your budget? Counseling your children and/or students about managing credit-card debt? How’s your savings and investment plan for the future coming along? Take Charge America is a nonprofit financial counseling and debt management service that offers online information and guidance for the public in its Offices of the Budget Doctor and Resources for Teachers sections.

Under the heading of A Little Light Summer Reading (or not)…
- Crash Course: Imaging a Better Future for Public Education, by Chris Whittle (Riverhead Books, 2005)
- The Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit, 20th Anniversary Edition, by Sherry Turkle (MIT Press, 2005)
- Teacher Man: A Memoir, by Frank McCourt (Scribner, 2005)
- Moderating the Debate: Rationality and the Promise of American Education, by Michael J. Feuer (Harvard Education Press, 2006)
- Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don’t, by Jim Collins (HarperBusiness, 2001)
- Learning Rants, Raves, and Reflections: A Collection of Passionate and Professional Perspectives, edited by Elliott Masie (Pfeiffer, 2005)
- Chicken Soup for the Teacher’s Soul: Stories to Open the Hearts and Rekindle the Spirit of Educators, by Jack Canfield (HCI, 2002)
- Schools That Learn: A Fifth Discipline Fieldbook for Educators, Parents, and Everyone Who Cares About Education, by Peter Senge et al. (Currency, 2000)

SchoolSpan and eSchool News Online have devised and published the first national rubric for school district Web site development. “Building Blocks to Electronic Communication: A Rubric for School Web Development and Management” covers content, security, functionality, and interactivity—and is available online in .pdf form at the eSchool News site.

In the April 2006 issue of Edutopia, published by the George Lucas Foundation, you’ll find the first annual reader’s survey on education topics. Read it online or download a .pdf version. Lots of good stuff here, like: the best Web site for educators, the best source of classroom freebies, and the most overrated buzzword or idea (does NCLB ring a bell?—pun intended!).

AIT Products & Services

Two new DVDs from the Agency for Instructional Technology are targeted to both teachers and their students. Classroom management and math are the hot topics of these multimedia discs.

Managing the Disruptive Classroom: Strategies for Educators, a perennial favorite, provides teachers, administrators, parents, and students with a proven set of strategies for managing classrooms and dealing with disruptive behavior. One 60-minute program and a 32-page facilitator’s guide are included in the DVD, which features two workshops by famed school psychologist, Robert Wubbolding.

Math Can Take You Places combines real-world application with fast-paced classroom footage for students in grades 3–6. Patterning, equivalency, reasonableness, measurement, and problem solving are presented through the eyes of five different professionals. The comprehensive curriculum package includes 25 lesson plans, student games, activities, a Web site, and more. (Each video is also available in Spanish with modified lesson plans that include ESL teaching strategies.)

Also on DVD, AIT’s Minds on Science is still available for only $39.95.

Batter up!! 108 Stitches: The Physics in Baseball illustrates complex physics concepts within the familiar context of the all-American game of Baseball: The Pitch, The Hit, Running the Bases, and The Flight (of the ball). Four 7-minute programs for grades 6–12 available on DVD or VHS. Visit the 108 Stitches Web site.

New in AIT’s catalog! Northward to Freedom is a docudrama highlighting New York branches of the Underground Railroad through moving narratives and re-enactments underscored by stirring slave spirituals. Spotlighting the lesser known routes that led through the Hudson and Champlain Valleys of New York, this program celebrates the courage and fortitude of slaves who risked capture, torture, and death to escape the misery of slavery, as well as the sympathetic men and women who faced reprisals of their own in order to help them along the way. One 10-minute program for grades 5–10. Supporting a document-based questioning (DBQ) approach to introduce historical concepts through primary source materials, this social studies program and accompanying guide are appropriate both for U.S. History classes on pre-Civil War America and courses in African-American studies.

Joel’s Library Jam premiers this month…18 five-minute programs for grades K–2; closed captioned; available on VHS and DVD. Joel is a lively librarian and musician who introduces kids to the wonders of the library. This collection of short segments addresses key curriculum standards in language arts for understanding how to use a community library and enjoy the resources that are found there. Not just for quiet reading, libraries are rich cultural resources teeming with fun opportunities, just around the corner. Visit Joel’s Library Jam Web site for more.

Assignment: The World is now available to any classroom via Internet streaming on the World Wide Web. School subscriptions are just $10 per episode; $320 per year. Assignment: The World is a weekly 15-minute update on global news created specifically for use in grades 4–7. Oral and written language, map skills, history, culture, math, and science concepts are all interwoven in the context of real world events. Check it out here: www.atwonline.org.

Inventing Flight for Schools is correlated to national and state education standards. It guides students through the science and history behind the Wright Brothers’ invention of powered flight. Students learn key science concepts and processes by flying kites, testing gliders, and experimenting with helicopter propellers…then analyzing their results. Six 10-minute programs for grades 6–8 available on both VHS and DVD. 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, teacher's guide, student worksheets, and Internet resources. Visit the Inventing Flight Web site.

* Before you sign off here, be sure to check out the AIT Resources for Teachers & Students section of our main Web site. It provides linked resources for educators who use our products.

Read previous issues of the TECHNOS e-Zine.

CONTENTS

Featured Interview

Wendy D. Puriefoy, President, Public Education Network (PEN)

Featured Essay

“Education: Everyone’s Responsibility”

What’s New at AIT?

Coming in Fall 2006!

Lessons ALIVE!

Tech Notes

“Video on the Learner Desktop”

etc. (News You Need)

Recommended Links

AIT Products & Services