July 2004 — SETDA
Print this article | Email this articleClick here to receive your FREE subscription to T.H.E. Journal
Massachusetts: Virtual Education Space Provides Valuable Tools for Springfield Public Schools
Carrying floppy disks and/or other storage media between home and school, or when traveling, is no longer necessary. As a tool to support presentations and workshops, the VHD is indispensable. It provides itinerant resource teachers with easy access to multiple files instantaneously from any computer with Internet access - a much more efficient and much less problematic process. In addition, through the use of shared folders, the VHD is used to share files between colleagues - with curriculum resources, Department of Education documents and e-books only a few of the resources readily available through the Virtual Hard Drive.Keeping Educators Effective
Searching for instructional resources is facilitated through links to "MarcoPolo" and the recently released "Teaching and Learning Resources" databases. Teachers use these tools to search for standards-based, curriculum-aligned lesson plans as well as professional development materials. Both resources point the teachers to multiple sites that are useful for lesson planning and implementation. A wide variety of clearly cataloged sites provides multiple interactive lessons that engage students in rigorous and compelling ways.
Another resource that promises to be invaluable for the district is the TSAT (Technology Self-Assessment Tool), which was rolled out earlier this year. Springfield has started to use the tool to assess technology skill levels and analyze the data to assess the professional development needs of the teachers and administrators in the district. District and school administrators, as well as teachers who participate in technology workshops, have all taken the TSAT. When educators log on, they are presented with a list of skills that are related to three areas:
- Technology Operations and Concepts;
- Ethics and Safety; and
- Teaching and Learning with Technology.
Users check off the skills that they feel they have mastered and are instantly told where their current skill level lies: Early Technology, Developing Technology, Proficient or Advanced. Educators may take the assessment as many times as they wish, always being kept aware of their current skill level and needs. Personal results are private, but aggregate results are accessible to the VES administrators. This increases the comfort level of educators, ensuring them that personal results are known only to the logged-in user.
The Students
Students in grades 9-11 were given access to the Princeton MCAS (Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System) Review through VES during a two-year pilot launch. Teachers were able to assign support lessons based on assessments that the students participated in when they first logged on to VES.
Future Plans
This summer, about 90 foreign language teachers from across the district will participate in VES training. They will be trained in the use of all aspects of VES and anticipate using it to communicate regularly with each other, as well as with the director of foreign languages.
Discussion forms will also be set up for affinity groups (i.e., grade levels, language being taught, etc.) as well as the entire cadre of teachers. In addition, all of the teachers will take the TSAT so that future professional development can be designed based upon their specific technology needs.
