Teaching and Learning via the Network

NET AGE
Networking Education Today for the
Advancement of Global Exchange

Project Number Two - 1993

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Theresa Baker
Technology Director
Woodside School District
3195 Woodside Road
Woodside, CA 94062
(415)851-1571
Fax: (415) 851-5577

tbaker@mail.barrnet.net

Other Individuals And Organizations Associated With The Project

Autodesk Foundation, Oracle Corporation, Koret Foundation, James Flood Elementary, Barrnet

Abstract

The NET AGE project integrates telecommunications within the curriculum as a tool for linking students, teachers and parents in Woodside School District (Woodside, CA) and James Flood Elementary (East Palo Alto, CA). In addition to communicating with each other, students, teachers and parents are linked to students, businesses, universities and research centers worldwide. NET AGE is the sustained effort being made by these communities to build bridges between economically and culturally diverse students, to improve the academic achievement of all students, to reduce the alarmingly high drop out rate for the students of East Palo Alto, and to prepare all students for life and work in the Information Age.

Background

The Flood School in East Palo Alto serves approximately 300 students in grades K-8. The children of the school represent the rich cultural diversity of the community: 72% African American, 19% Hispanic, 5% Caucasian, and 4% Pacific Islander. All children in this school district are bussed to the campus, not because of the distance between their homes and the school, but rather because it is unsafe for them to travel alone on foot. The community struggles with an alarming crime rate (the highest crime rate per 10,000 people than that of any other American city), violence resulting from drug abuse, high unemployment and a legacy of unequal opportunity. Although the drop out rate for these East Palo Alto students is not high in the elementary school, the rate soars to 66% in high school.

Only eight miles away from the James Flood Elementary School is Woodside School, a K-8 school serving 436 students. Woodside's children are 85% Caucasian, 8% Hispanic, 5% Asian and 1.5% African American. Most students come from upper income families and it is estimated that 70% could qualify for gifted or talented programs. The high school drop out rate for children living in this area is less than 1% and at least 90% of these graduates continue on to college. Both Flood Elementary and Woodside students attend the same High Schools in the Sequoia High School District. Prior to meeting in high school these students have little or no contact with each another (competitive sports providing their only opportunity for interaction).

The educational staff of these two diverse school communities have joined together to design a way to achieve each school's ongoing goal--educational excellence. Together we have designed NET AGE, a technologically and culturally rich project which will build bridges between children whose futures are intertwined, but whose lives do not reflect the importance of that interdependence. More specifically, NET AGE will enhance the education of all the students by addressing the challenge of helping even economically and socially disadvantaged children graduate and aspire to high skills careers, enable teachers to develop their teaching strategies for the information age, and invite the entire community to assist the children personally and in their studies.

Goals and Outcomes

Goal 1

It is the goal of this project to use the Internet and the NET AGE project objectives to begin to bridge the social and cultural gaps between the schools in order to help build understanding between the communities, reduce the potential fro drop out and provide an exciting new vehicle for student- centered collaborative curriculum .

Students involved in this project. . .

• have daily communication between these diverse communities to develop an awareness of each,

• have created several curriculum based projects and/or presentations based on collaborative communication with a partner(s) from the other school, in order to develop a sense of value among students that is not based on the looks of the person, or on their social or economic status,

Goal 2

It is the goal of this project to improve the academic achievement of all of the students and to provide meaningful opportunities to teach the technology skills so vital to success in the 21st century.

Students involved in this project. . .

• participate in learning across the curriculum utilizing information access technology in the following way:
  1. By work in teams, students will teach others, lead, and develop negotiating skills working with people from culturally diverse backgrounds;

  2. Acquire and evaluate information, organize and maintain files, interpret and communicate and use computers to process and retrieve information;

  3. Develop and demonstrate personal responsibility, sociability, self-esteem, self-management, and integrity.

One of the most profound qualities of the network is its natural adaptability to the skills of students of varying competencies. Each student using the network has found a challenge, whether that challenge be constructing a coherent written response to a simple question or synthesizing information from complex databases, perhaps even in another language. Each project is designed to incorporate a wide variety of components so that every child can identify and feel pride in his/her contribution to the collaboration.

Goal 3

It is the goal of this project to have NET AGE contribute to the development of new curriculum and therefore school reform by helping teachers become comfortable with the new knowledge requirements and technologies for the information age.

By providing a safe and supportive environment, teachers are learning through private tutorials and then on an ongoing basis alongside their students from experts in the industry. Through network communication teachers are also able to help one another, share curriculum ideas, and thereby provide a real world model of collaboration for their students. The technological one-to-one training for the teachers ensured that they were able to quickly and efficiently become competent and confident with the project. In addition to learning the technical skills of telecommunications and other computer applications, teachers also developed creative methods for implementing the new knowledge and hardware across all areas of the curriculum.

Therefore, teachers involved in this project. . .

• became facilitators of learning, rather than controlling its pace, allowing students to become more self-directed and independent;

• work more collegially with one another, with parents, and with the business community;

• and became more creative in developing curriculum which is current, meaningful and challenging to students of all abilities.

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Here's What it Looks Like in Action

Through daily communication between students at Woodside School and James Flood Elementary, children are developing keyboarding skills, computer vocabulary, and word processing skills (printing, saving, editing, and moving work). In addition, telecommunication provides a meaningful way to help students improve their communication and basic writing skills while simultaneously providing a means to learn more about the dramatically different lives of children living only 10 miles away.

Currently in the 4th Grade...

Within the social studies curriculum, students are participating in on-line learning in the following ways:

• After a simulation game of Wagon Train experiences, students send an email "journal" of their experiences to a partner at Flood Elementary. (High Tech meets the Wild West!)

• Students contribute to an Internet quest called: "Around-the-World-in-80-Poems." Poems from children depicting their location are distributed from all over the globe.

Within the Language Arts curriculum, students are participating in on-line learning in the following ways:

• Students are creating a "chain story" that is circulating between each student for personal contributions. Students must read through the story and add to it and send it on, to create one large collaborative story!

• Students are creating a database of book reviews in Hypercard to send to Flood and across the Internet.

• Students use their own research reports and encyclopedias to answer the questions of 1st graders.

Currently in the 5th Grade...

Within the Language Arts curriculum, students are participating in on-line learning in the following ways:

• sending poetry about recent field trips to their partner at Flood Elementary,

• reading and contributing to a science fiction and mystery book listserv,

• using WAIStation, Fetch, and Gopher to search for information related to research reports.

Within the Social Studies curriculum, students are participating in on-line learning in the following ways:

• sending requests and searching servers for information related to an "adopted" colony for a report to the class,

• cooperative groups based on "crews" from unit on colonial ships, students shared their experiences with partners and interested professionals,

Currently in the 6th Grade...

Within the Language Arts curriculum, students are participating in on-line learning in the following ways:

• sending and receiving information related to articles students are writing for a L/A class newspaper

• reading and contributing to a student book review listserv

• increasing quality and capability of research by using WAIStation, Fetch, and Gopher to search for information related to newspaper articles

Within the Social Studies curriculum, students are participating in on-line learning in the following ways:

• increasing quality and capability of research by searching servers for information related to units on Rome, Greece, etc.

Within the Science curriculum, students are participating in on-line learning in the following ways:

• increasing quality and capability of research by using WAIStation, Fetch, and Gopher to search for information related to an invertebrate report

• creating hypercard stack research reports to send to partner and out to others via the Internet

Currently in the 7th & 8th Grade Science Lab...

Within the Science curriculum, students are participating in on-line learning in the following ways:

• communication with other students about cooperative scientific investigations or labs

• establishing email dialogues with scientists and researchers around the world

• increasing quality and capability of research by using WAIStation, Fetch, and Gopher to search for information related to reports

Currently in the 7th & 8th Grade Spanish Classes...

Within the Spanish curriculum, students will begin participating in on-line learning in the following ways:

• communication with other students using new vocabulary in Spanish

• establishing email dialogues with native Spanish speakers around the world

• increasing quality and capability of research by using WAIStation, Fetch, and Gopher to search for information related to reports

• accessing art files from Art Proccess Lab related to Hispanic and Spainish cultures

Audio-visual requirements

LCD projection PAD and overhead projector and necessary connection for Mac, Macintosh RGB display (we would bring our own CPU).

Contact

Susan Lane Perry
Director, Departmental Systems Group
Stanford University, Stanford Data Center
Polya Hall, Room 262
Stanford, California 94305-4163
Email address: gd.slp@forsythe.stanford.edu Telephone: (415) 725-8423

Theresa A. Baker
District Technology Director & Net Age Project Manager
Woodside School District
Woodside Road 94062
(415) 851-1571 X 29
tbaker@mail.barrnet.net

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