August 2005 — Features

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Sparking a Revolution in Teaching and Learning

By Carole Eaton

  • Curriculum alignment. We had chosen the Four-Blocks Literacy Model (www.four-blocks.com), developed by Patricia Cunningham and Dorothy Hall of Wake Forest University (NC), a broad-based approach that includes guided reading, self-selected reading, word study, and writing as a way of teaching to the strengths of every learner. Our technology component had to support each element of this model.
  • Whole-class instruction. This was a critical component. Our district was looking for technology that would be a tool for teaching an entire classroom, not something that only worked in a lab setting. The interaction among teachers and students—and more importantly, among the students themselves—is a powerful part of learning. Therefore, we needed technology that would further that interaction, not isolate students in front of a terminal with headphones on.
  • Adaptive, engaging content. In addition to supporting our standards and curriculum, the technology had to convey content in a way that responded to the needs of every learner, from the struggling special-education students, to the gifted and talented ones. We also wanted programs that our students would love to use, which is especially important for our at-risk students. Engagement is a crucial component; without it, you may have their bodies, but you’ll never capture their minds.

    • “We pulled all the teachers from a single grade together for two days of training, which allowed us to focus on the specific content for that grade.”

    The Technology Solution

    To create a technology solution that meets all these integration goals, we started with a hardware platform that put technology directly into teachers’ hands in the classroom. Each teacher at Fairmount was issued an Apple iBook G4 laptop (www.apple.com/ibook); one that could be used in the classroom and taken home. The iBooks were equipped with Apple’s AirPort Extreme (www.apple.com/airportextreme) wireless cards, so the computer could travel easily around the class. Every classroom was also given a Toshiba (www.toshiba.com) data projector and a projector screen, so that teachers could present online lessons and virtual manipulatives with the entire class.

    As for software, the Ohio SchoolNet Commission had adopted two possible elementary-level reading programs from which we could choose. We selected Destination Success from Riverdeep (www.riverdeep.net) because of its comprehensive approach that included engaging instructional content (Destination Reading and Destination Math) and fun, illuminating animations, songs, and activities that children (and a lot of adults) fell in love with. More importantly, the tutorials focus on actual instruction and real-world examples, not just endless drill and skill. We could see how this would be the ideal resource for introducing units and reinforcing skills in front of the whole class, while still providing individualized instruction.

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