I agree with the 10th grade student who says there's need for more computer science language to be taught to both students and teachers, in order for both to use laptops or regular workstations. I also agree with parts of the study that show that the best learning comes from "groups of 4 or 5" sharing and learning together, helping each student learn, and backed up by teacher as both teacher and coach, who can also learn from students about the computer access languages for "any digital content."
Based on a proposal last winter in Illinois to distribute laptops to 7th grade students, and provide teacher training and instructional support centers (passed Illinois House but not acted on in Senate due to cost and complexity), the following memo was developed on the need for Learning Pods (sm) (basically Memory Cards) for students and teachers to plug into laptops or workstations anywhere, and "how to get there from here," based on sharing information by leading school districts and researchers like those in Texas. See memo below, including the growing role of Digital Content Catalogs, which are there to simplify access by teachers, students and others, including note the Chicago-based Museum of Broadcast Communication (set to open downtown this winter) with digitized content on tv, radio history, wars, race relations, arts, Layton Olson Layton E. Olson, Esq. Howe & Hutton, Ltd. 20 N. Wacker Dr., Suite 4200 Chicago, IL 60606 312-263-3001 Fax: 312-372-6685 [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.howehutton.com www.acnconsult.org Modeling our future: #1 Resources on Instructional Support Centers, Content Catalogs and Archives: Helping Teachers and Students with Laptops and Learning Pods(sm) o Background on Future of Digital Literacy -- HB 5244 I-Connect Program, Laptops and Learning Pods(sm) and Teacher training needs o Resources on Instructional Support and Content Catalogs in Illinois in Digital Literacy-Digital Government Civic Tech Agenda Layton Olson, Telecommunication Innovation and Access Network, Howe & Hutton, Ltd. (Law firm for Associations -sm) , copyright, May 2, 2006 INTRODUCTION TO LAPTOPS, LEARNING PODS AND EDUCATION Modeling our Future series presents resources and memos of a Civic Technology agenda for a Better Quality of Life. It presents (A) models of future to (B) public initiatives and (C) implementation in practice. The series illuminates steps that we can take together, in our daily associations and networks, to improve the quality of lives and communities, including by strengthening the social networks and investments in under-invested communities, and building competitive regions in our world today. The series illustrates partnerships between community, business, education and public officials to increase, and track, quality of lives in terms of time, money, social cohesion and public health in relation to investments of taxpayer and private funds and volunteer commitments by public and private business and nonprofit sectors. Modeling Our Future series illustrates the role of Public Communications activities (such as for Digital Literacy and Enterprise Skills awareness campaigns) play in the use of electronic tools and public engagement by youth, adult, senior and special audiences. The series reflects the philosophy of the author and the law firm of Howe & Hutton, Ltd. (the law firm for associations sm) that speeding up the learning curves of legal institutions and their staff and volunteers matters, whether acting together in the form of tax exempt associations, consortia, businesses or public bodies. In our Learning Society, it is appropriate that tracking paper #1 focus on how education can strengthen the community productivity of all, with user-friendly Learning Pods (sm) that will soon be in all our lives. ELECTRONIC EDUCATION TOOLS AND HB 5244 This Resource List has been developed because Illinois General Assembly is considering HB 5244 I-Connect Computer Program. I-Connect provides for major teacher training for demonstration program to distribute several thousand laptops to 7th grade students and teachers, developed by Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn, Chair of Illinois Broadband Development Council On March 3, Illinois House passed HB 5244 (House Amendment 3) 70 to 40 with 4 not voting. Sen. Jacqueline Collins is the primary sponsor in Illinois Senate. . See www.ilga.gov Fiscal note estimates that House Amendment 3 version will cost about $5.3 million, a significant sum in light of constraints on all budget items and the need for significantly more staffing in currently understaffed ISBE areas with responsibilities for distance learning services. Illinois Senate assigned this bill to Rules Committee, and it is not clear that there will be time or budget funding available to before the end of the session, currently scheduled for week of May 8. In any event, the wide interest and discussion may generate demonstration activities in the coming year, including bringing together the kinds of persons and institutions listed below. BACKGROUND ON DIGITAL NETWORKS - IN SCHOOL & AFTER-SCHOOL Under proposal by new president James White, University of Illinois in 2005 established 4th Mission (Economic Development) along with Traditional Missions (Teaching, Research, Community Service Extension), and prepared plans for 4th University as Virtual University (along with UIUC, UIC and UIS) to deliver distance learning academic, professional development and community service programs, including teacher training. Comments on Virtual University planning was made in November 2005 at "Future of Digital Literacy Reception" at Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield by Richard Judd, Center for Entrepreneurship, Department of Business Administration UIS, arranged by Cindy Erickson, Laboratory for Community and Economic Development UIUC Extension (217-244-0433). Keynote speaker on Future of Digital Literacy was Anne Craig, Director, Illinois State Library, talking about digital literacy and technology support through Illinois 4,000 libraries, managed by Jesse White, Secretary of State and State Librarian. The Reception, which featured the reading of a Declaration of Digital Literacy and Community Technology Centers was presented to Carlos Estes, staff member of Rep. Constance Howard, chair of House Computer Technology Committee, and was hosted by Illinois Community Technology Coalition and 6th Telecommunications Conference (for rural economic development and telehealth), and facilitated by UIUC Laboratory for Community and Economic Development and Midwest Technology Access Group. Many community colleges, undergraduate and graduate institutions are fast expanding virtual campus programs, focusing on professional development and part time students, often in multi-campus networks. Many youth development organizations and networks (such as Street Level Youth Media, and CTCNet Chicago) work with electronic media as youth develop and use new media. Groups like Youth Communication, Chicago, in which citywide teens produce 45,000 circulation New Expression and convene weekly NE on TV talk show on cable TV, are working to create student Learning Pods, which plug into laptops and workstations, as part of its Electronic News Room tools for Skill Development & Tracking program for high school students hosted at Columbia College. Leaders in instructional support centers, digital content catalog and archives and cyberinfrastructure include: TEACHER INSTRUCTIONAL SUPPORT - DISTANCE LEARNING CENTERS Joel Mambretti, director of programs at International Center for Advanced Internet Research www.icair.org (750 N. Lake Shore Drive, Suite 600, Chicago, IL. 60611 312-503-0735) and linked with several programs of educational technology support for teachers, including through Northwestern University Information Technology department www.it.northwestern.edu Mike Dickson, leader of programs at Western Illinois University, Macomb, IL. and developer of Center for the Application of Information Technologies, which manages several distance learning teacher training and support programs in Illinois, other states and around the world www.cait.org 309-298-1907. He is also on policy committee of ICN and a member of Governor's Broadband Task Force. Thomas Muscarello, PhD, Associate Professor, DePaul University, School of Computer Science, Chicago was instrumental in funding and creating DePaul's Center for Community Technology Services, and currently direct its remaining functions working with community technology centers and k-12 programs. A charter member of the Mayor's Council of Technology Advisors and worked on the Council's Education and Digital Divide subcommittees, he worked for several years on Technology issues, raising several millions of dollars to create digital divide programs. These included substantial technology training and support programs working with Archdiocesan schools. 312-362-8737 office; cell: 312-375-5573 Doug Power, with Broadband Development program at Northern Illinois University, with 4 campuses including DeKalb and Naperville, works extensively with Outreach or Distance Learning programs in which students participate in curriculum as well as special events online (including for professional development training audiences including teachers), and including thru videoarchiving partnerships with leading edge companies. Cell 312-405-1021. CONTENT CATALOG AND VISUAL ARCHIVE CENTERS Andy Pincon, leader of producing, archiving and distributing video materials in Illinois networks, including DCEO Small Business Development Centers and community technology networks, and regional and worldwide networks, working through Chicago City Colleges and Digibridge Workforce Training Society. 630-886-3808 www.digibridge.org Bruce DuMont, president/founder of Museum of Broadcast Communications, with major holdings of radio/television and other programs digitized for availability to many audiences, including teachers and librarians (large curriculum visual content materials in arts, civil rights, history, wars) and with new facility to open fall 2006 downtown Chicago. 400 N. State Street, Suite 240, Chicago, IL. 60610 312-245-8200 www.museum.tv The Pacific Basin Institute established at Pomona College, Claremont, CA in 1997, by then-President Peter Stanley through his scholarly interests in the Philippines. It is headed by journalist, book author, film maker Frank Gibney who, helped produce The Pacific Century television series. With Frank came his vast Asian film archive. The website for PBI is on Pomona College website at: http://www.pomona.edu/pbi/ (Layton Olson is a 1964 graduate of Pomona College, has visited the archive and can provide information at 312-263-3001 STATE, REGIONAL AND NATIONAL RESOURCES ON TEACHER SUPPORT, INFORMATION FLUENCY INSTRUCTION AND INTERNET 1, 2 AND 3 INFRASTRUCTURE FOR VIRTUAL MENTORING Dawn Wichman, Aurora, with experience at North Central Regional Laboratory, has worked with 7 state region for education research and analysis, including in distance learning in Illinois to coordinate with trainers and Illinois state board. Also with wide experience in education research, policy and project implementation in Michigan, where she was also a city councilperson. 616-450-4876 Bob Houston, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, Aurora, project manager 21st Century Information Fluency Project, which provides resources and training to Illinois educators and learners to locate, evaluate and use digital information resources more effectively, efficiently and ethically. 21CIF combines online courses, face-to-face workshops and interactive tutorials with up-to-the-minute curricular resources and Wizard Tools. Funding includes grant from U.S. Department of Education Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, the IMSA Fund and several Illinois companies. www.21cif.imsa.edu 630-907-5071 Bob Cohen, Cohen Communication Group, New York City, is a leader in evaluating grid computing systems, integrating Internet 1, 2 and 3 levels of communication to enable companies and governments to handle large content transmission (such as visual files) direct to workstations, laptops and other mobile devices (such as for teachers and students), and at fixed distance learning centers, homes and other everyday use locations now needing more bandwidth. He is author of university-based studies of the economics of grid computing and trends, as part of digital and utility infrastructure for enterprises and governments worldwide. 917-705-6524. Marjorie Hlava, President, Access Innovations, Inc., provider of software for content management, database services since 1978, and host of www.NICEM.com - National Information Center for Educational Media - educational nonprint titles, working with associations of specialty libraries and content providers. NICEM is a database of non-print educational media, including software programs, CD, DVD, 16 mm films, video tapes audio cassettes, with over 660,000 items from 25,000 media producers and distributors. It was established in 1964 and is recognized as the US MARC Cataloging authority for non print media by the US Library of Congress. Part of the NICEM database is available through www.MediaSleuth.com for ordering from about 64,000 titles. 505-998-0800 or 800-926-8328. Albuquerque, N.M. ________________________________________________________________________ ______ -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Satish Jha Sent: Monday, July 31, 2006 2:02 AM To: The Digital Divide Network discussion group Subject: [DDN] Fwd: $14 Million Study Proves (???) StudentLaptopsIneffectiveAcademically A note from a tenth grade student ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: shantanu jha <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Jul 28, 2006 11:12 PM Subject: Re: $14 Million Study Proves (???) Student LaptopsIneffectiveAcademically To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] The fundamental problem with laptops and mathematics/science is that there is just not enough computer science taught today. It is impossible to be a mathematician or scientist these days without being heavily involved in the use of computer modeling. Every mathematician, scientist, and engineer will have to become fluent in the use of Mathematica, Maple, MATLAB, or some other computer algebra system, and this cannot be done without computer science. The links between mathematics and computer science are incredibly far-reaching as well, giving considerable pedagogical value to the use of computers in mathematics. For example, any given "for" or "while" loop we use is basically a finite induction process directly analogous to the method of inductive proof we use constantly in mathematics. Recursion, another oft used computer science technique, appears often when we deal with generating functions and recurrence relations - which, in turn, are two of the areas of mathematics that lend themselves best to analysis via computer science methods. I'll only comment briefly on reading. There is no good reason that one can't read as much with the use of a laptop and the internet than with a book. Give someone a laptop with internet access, and they have a key to an immense amount of online material. Whether it is reading the classics or reading a math textbook, there is almost always an online alternative that is cheaper than buying a book. Merely go to http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/ and search for any great work of literature and it shall be found. Of course, everything I said does not apply to the average student. However, for the student that enjoys the tools that laptops offer for academics, it is an invaluable tool. I think introducing technology into schools today suffers from much the same problem as U.S public schools do on a broader level - no matter what new and innovative teaching method you may have, the students that don't want to learn will not. While engaging the students with images and technology may help, the students have to meet you half way there. > > At 2:01 PM -0400 7/23/06, John Thompson wrote: > >"Reading and mathematics are probably the two areas where you would > >least expect to find a positive impact on test scores." -- Why is that? > > > John > > We carried out research in 10 one-to-one laptop schools, and reviewed > research from hundreds of others. Laptops are least frequently used > in mathematics instruction. With rare use, there is little chance > that they would help raise test scores. (Why they are rarely used in > mathematics instruction is another question, but I guess that most > teachers find the range of software and online resources for teaching > math unhelpful, especially given the way most US math instruction is > geared. One exception is Gometer's Sketchpad, but that is mostly used > at the high school level, and the majority of one-to-one laptop > programs are in middle schools.) > > As for reading, one major contributor to reading gains is extensive > reading -- and that much more easily takes place from books, rather > than the screen. Computer-based intensive reading tutorial programs > are usually so mind-numbing that teachers and students fail to > implement them well. There are of course some creative ways to use > laptops to promote reading comprehension , yet much more common and > frequent uses of laptops are to develop research skills, writing > skills, data analysis skills, etc. And laptop use often takes place > in classrooms that emphasize multimedia/multimodal literacy. None of > this means that laptop use will hinder reading scores, but it's also > unlikely that it will raise scores -- especially in the first year of > implementation. > Mark > > -- > _________________________________ > https://www.linkedin.com/in/satishjha > -- _________________________________ https://www.linkedin.com/in/satishjha _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
