Technology Improves Communication in Schools

1. Technology Improves Communication in Schools By Amber Daigle A Presentation About How Schools In Northeastern Connecticut Communicate with their Communities

2. Thomas Jefferson says… "I look to the diffusion of light and education as the resource to be relied on for ameliorating the condition, promoting the virtue, and advancing the happiness of man."

3. Why I Investigated This Topic • CCCT • II.6. Teachers recognize the need to vary their instructional methods by: …b. varying their role in the instructional process in relation to the content and purposes of instruction • III. Teachers Demonstrate Professional Responsibility Through: • 4. Teachers seek out opportunities to grow professionally • 2.c. identifying appropriate agencies in the larger community, businesses and professional organizations that can provide resources for students, classrooms or schools • 4.a. sharing practices with professional colleagues within the school or district • 4.b. enriching their knowledge about content, learners, pedagogy, TECHNOLOGY and the U.S. Public School System…

4. Personal Reasons I Investigated • Teachers don’t share enough, especially between districts • It’s a small world after all… • Personally wanted to create a website w/homework, projects, syllabi so parents would stop emailing me • Cheaper and easier ways to juice up the classroom • The TV Effect

5. Communication in Two Directions • School to Community • Board of Trustees Announcements • PTO Meetings • Athletics & Extra Curricular Activities • Achievement Awards & Ceremonies • Daily Schedules • Community to School • Booster Club • Job/Internship Opportunities • Sharing Between Schools • Academic Opportunities • Check where tax money goes

6. Technology & Communication: What’s Out There Websites GradeQuick Edline “Going Paperless” eBooks Text Messages (Alerts)

7. Websites: What’s Out There • http://www.christophermorin.org • http://shs.westport.k12.ct.us/jdamico/ • http://shs.westport.k12.ct.us/lin/ • http://www.historyteacher.net • http://www.thompson.ctschool.net/ • http://www.thompson.ctschool.net/Teachers/GDaigle/index.html • www.woodstockacademy.org • http://www.ashfordct.org/ • http://www.schoolmatters.com/

8. Websites: What’s Coming • QUESTION: Do you foresee teachers (at Woodstock Academy or on a widespread basis) developing their own websites?  What would be involved in this? Professional development? How would the school set it up in regards to web-space? • ANSWER: Absolutely!  We are piloting this concept this semester with about 20 teachers.  We are using Edline (which is tied into our grading software GradeQuick) as a classroom management tool. Teachers can post assignments, keep a class calendar, post class activities (such as the powerpoint they did in class that day). Next year we hope to make it mandatory that teachers use it for at least their class syllabus, assignment calendar, and progress report grades.  We’d love to eliminate mailing home the quarterly progress reports and just mail out the four report cards.  Saving postage and saving trees.

9. GradeQuick Available Online & Accessible From Home Not that it makes grading quicker (English Teachers…), but it does save paper! Class lists, Seating Charts Student Reports

10. Edline: http://www.edline.com/ • GradeQuick Service that also provides web-space for education-related fields • “Secure, Integrated and Interactive: With Edline’s LCMS, teachers can publish secure progress reports (including grades, attendance, missing work, comments, etc.) en masse at their teacher pages with the click of a mouse. They can launch their gradebook from the same system with which they manage their lessons or post homework online. Students and parents participate in online discussions, find practice exercises, complete assessments online, or hand in homework at the same classroom web page where they find personalized reports from the gradebook application. Because all of the teacher web pages are deployed as part of the umbrella LCMS, parents can quickly see a consolidated view of calendar information from different classes, teams, or groups, all in a central location. And webmasters can manage the entire school (or district) web presence as a whole.”

11. Environment vs. $$$ • Use of Technology is undeniably expensive: • Many public schools would have to rely on state grants, federal grants, etc. • One school in northeast Connecticut says, “We’d love to pilot a one-to-one laptop program with the students (eliminating some of the physical labs such as sophomore writing work shop, etc) but a program like that takes too much funding.  For instance, if the freshman class was given laptops @ $400 each, that would be approximately $126,000.  The next year, when those machines rolled up to the sophomore class, you’d need another $126,000 for the incoming freshmen.  So after four years you would have all four grades having their own laptops, but you’d be devoting approximately $504,000 each year to keep the program going, assuming that after the 4 years the laptop is no longer in good enough condition to keep using it for the program.  That is a heavy investment.”

12. Other Notable Innovations Text Message Alerts eBooks • Since the Virginia Tech shootings, many schools (including UConn-Storrs) have implemented a text message alert system • Kindle:

13. More Notable Innovations • Tablets & Smartboards • Projectors • Ipods/Mp3 Players as tools instead of reprimand-worthy • Cell phones • WiiFit • Skype Chat • Virtual Classroom • Virtual Science Experiments

14. Works Cited • “Education: Jefferson Quotes.” Monticello Research Organization. Monticello: Home of Thomas Jefferson. 22 March 2009 Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Inc. <http://www.monticello.org/reports/quotes/education.html>.