Bridging the Digital Divide Sessions
Description The Illinois Virtual High School (IVHS) has as its primary purpose to "assure equitable access to rich and varied learning opportunities for Illinois students". Despite being a very new initiative, the Illinois Virtual High School (IVHS) has already served over 400 students. Come to this session to learn about how the IVHS is helping to meet the needs of students throughout the state and what our plans are for the future.
Presenter Matthew Wicks, CO-chair of the Illinois Virtual High School Steering Committee has 15 years experience in the computing field, the last 5 in an educational setting. After serving 4 1/2 years as the Chief Information Officer for the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA), Matthew Wicks is now Director of Virtual Learning at IMSA. In this position, Matthew is responsible for increasing opportunities for virtual learning for all students in the state of Illinois. As part of these responsibilities, he manages the day-to-day operations of the Illinois Virtual High School (IVHS). The IVHS, an initiative of Governor George Ryan, is a statewide collaborative project under the governance of the Illinois State Board of Education.
Prior to working at IMSA, Matthew worked for Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and AT&T. He has a bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Purdue University and a Master of Science in Computer Science from Northwestern University.
PDAs with Problem Based Learning: Low Cost Field Data Collection
Description
We will demonstrate how to use PDAs (Palm OS) in the field to collect, organize and evaluate data for educational experiences. The presentation will include how to use data base, drawing, and memo software. We will also discuss how these connect to desktop computer counterpart software and office applications.
Presenters
Jim Gerry is the Chief Information Officer at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy. He is IMSA’s information technology leader and his department’s projects include the use of PDA’s, wireless networking, web redesign and the unified database in the educational environment.
Chris Kolar is the Coordinator of Information Technology Integration at IMSA. His current projects include 21st century information literacy skills and supporting technology used by IMSA faculty. His research includes advanced knowledge acquisition in ill structured domains.
John Thompson is a member of IMSA’s Biology faculty and Fellow at the Center@IMSA specializing in Problem Based Learning. He is focusing on in-the-field learning experiences for his 21st century Ecology curriculum at IMSA and for his upcoming Illinois Virtual High School Ecology course.
The Role of School Libraries in Bridging the Digital Divide
Description In this session we will discuss the critical role that school libraries and media centers play in helping teachers and students bridge the digital information divide. Our discussion will focus strategies and resources school libraries and media enters can use to foster the development of 21st century information skills in their schools. In this context, we will also discuss IMSA’s 21st Century Information Skills grant program.
Presenter Dr. David Barr is Director of Online Learning at The Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, in Aurora, Illinois. He works with IMSA staff to develop online materials, software and courses and directs online projects involving schools throughout the state of Illinois. Dr. Barr currently serves on the Illinois Century Network's Advanced Engineering Task Force, the Illinois Online Leadership Council and the ISTE NETS National Leadership Team.
MindUniversity - Using the Internet to Teach and Save Time
wiredclassroom environments. Discussion and hands-on lab will be featured in this presentation.
Presenter Jacob Plummer is the Chief Operating Officer of MindUniversity, a creative educational enterprise dedicated towards introducing dynamic learning opportunities for Illinois educators, students, and communities.
Previously, Mr. Plummer taught technology application courses in the Business Division of Carl Sandburg College in Galesburg, Illinois. He received an economics degree from Knox College and is a 1996 graduate of IMSA.
Real Science 2002: The CD-ROM -vs.- Media Streaming
Description Real Science is an interactive CD–ROM (and soon to be web–based streaming movies) developed by IMSA students for elementary students in grades 3–6. This "kids teaching kids" high tech CD–ROM includes movies, interviews and interactive supplements. Real Science has been produced on CD–ROM for the past three years and distributed free of charge to elementary and middle schools who request a copy. The financial limitations of reaching a larger audience via CD–ROM distribution has paved the way for senior research student, Eric Bowden, to test digital video streaming from the Kids Institute web site. While streaming could potentially reach all U.S. classrooms, the majority of elementary schools cannot adequately utilize streaming due to dial up or slow connectivity. What is the future of streaming media to elementary schools? Come learn how the Real Science CD–ROM is created, hear an update on video streaming pilots, participate in our connectivity divide discussion, and receive a free copy of Real Science 2001 (dual platform) for your school or classroom.
Presenters Britta McKenna, Coordinator of the IMSA Kids Institute, works with IMSA students who design products and services that benefit the Aurora community and Illinois. Britta is also the Real Science 2002 Advisor, working with five student Editors and 30 IMSA students on their annual issue of the CD–ROM.
Eric Bowden is a senior at IMSA and a second year editor of Real Science. He develops the software interface using Macromedia Director and is testing streaming of the Real Science articles off the new Kids Institute web site.
Other IMSA students involved with Real Science 2002 will also co–present.
Community Partnerships: Making the Connection
Description Today, educators are becoming familiar with the many aspects of digital divide issues. While access and availability remain hurdles to educational delivery and opportunity in both rural and inner-city environs, communities across Illinois are developing strategies to expand access and collaborate across boundaries. The Illinois Century Network has worked to foster community cooperation to address key resource issues. This session focuses on real successes and failures to identify best practices when mobilizing community resources for educational delivery.
Presenter H. Neil Matkin serves as Director of the Illinois Century Network. Dr. Matkin holds a Master's of Science in Telecommunications Management and a Master's of Business Administration in Information Systems Management. He earned his Doctorate in Education from Texas A & M University.
Signed into law on June 8, 1999 by Governor George Ryan, the Illinois Century Network today serves over 2 million Illinois citizens - mostly students from kindergarten all the way to community colleges and universities - from almost 5,500 connected institutions. The most successful state network of its kind, the Illinois Century Network is a joint venture of the Illinois Board of Higher Education, the Illinois Community College Board, and the Illinois State Board of Education. Its inception created a robust telecommunications backbone to provide high-speed data, video, and audio communications for schools, libraries, colleges, universities, museums, municipalities, state agencies, and other public entities. With nine Regional Technology Centers located strategically throughout the state, the network provides local connectivity services to participant institutions as well as industry certified technicians in the event of outages. With an OC3-OC12 backbone and multiple high-speed connections to the Internet, the Illinois Century Network is truly a high performance, redundant network with proven reliability and service.
Global Learning: Changing The Digital Divides
Description The roles of education have traditionally included teaching and learning, research and technology innovation, and business incubation. Furthermore, education has been looked to as a means of bridging digital divides in information, connectivity, and communication. In order for these digital divides to be effectively bridged, however, education must continually take into account both traditional pressures including financial, economic, and political issues and also new trends in life long learning and technology innovations. What's needed for global learning to succeed is thus not only lower cost broadband and wireless networks, but continuous and relevant teacher training and support, research into how people learn in the Internet age, and relevant, standards based online educational content. This will allow the Internet to finally center learning around the student instead of the classroom, to focus on the strengths and needs of individual learners, to make life long learning a practical reality, and to break the traditional boundaries of space and time. The 21st century student thus presents a much changed and expanded student profile to the educational institution. We are seeing a growth of a services based model for education including ever expanding globalization, equity investments in education institutions by private firms, and mergers and acquisitions both in for profit education firms and content providers. The future is truly here now to deliver educational services to anyone, anywhere, anytime, on any device.
Presenter Marc Hamilton is Director of Technology for Global Education and Research at Sun Microsystems Inc. In this role, Mr. Hamilton is responsible for driving the widespread adoption and use of Sun products and technology at Sun's education and research customers.
Mr. Hamilton has over 19 years of experience in the computer industry. For the last 8 years he has held various technology management positions in Sun's field sales organization. He has published a number of technical articles and is the author of the book, "Software Development, Building Reliable Systems" that focuses on the people, process, and technology issues surrounding software development. Prior to joining Sun, he spent 11 years in various software development roles at TRW, one of the world's largest software developers.
Mr. Hamilton holds a BS degree in Math and Computer Science from UCLA, an MS degree in Electrical Engineering from USC, and is a graduate of the UCLA Executive Management program.
Technology in Support of Equitable Educational Opportunity
Description
Technology offers wonderful opportunities to improve education for all students. While there is a gap between rich and poor schools in the availability of technology, the way it is used reflects a far greater gap in the quality of education between rich and poor schools. This inequity will not go away by equalizing the amount of technology. Because of these educational inequities, technology in poorer schools tends to be used for lower-value educational strategies, such as memorization and play as reward for other work. Better schools use the same technology for student learning through exploring models, using tools for student inquiry, and exploiting online resources. This digital learning divide is the gap that needs to be addressed.
Technology offers two powerful strategies that address the digital learning divide:
- easy access to quality technology-based educational materials and
- online courses for students and teachers.
Presenter Bob Tinker has, for thirty years, pioneered innovative approaches to education that exploit the power of technology. He originated the idea of using probes, such as the ultrasonic motion detector, for student learning based on real-time measurements. He was the first to use electronic networking to permit students to collaborate on dispersed environment investigations. The initial result of this work was the NGS Kids Network, the first curriculum making extensive use of student collaboration and data-sharing.
In 1994 he started the nonprofit Concord Consortium to concentrate on innovative applications of technology in education. The Consortium specializes in online learning, the use of sophisticated simulations in science, probeware and handhelds, and applications of these technologies to pressing educational issues. A common thread of technology, innovation, social need, and potential impact runs through all his work.
Bob earned his Ph.D. in experimental low temperature physics from MIT and has taught college physics for ten years.
Description What do teachers and students need to know and be able to do to build bridges across the information divide? In this session we will review strategies for locating, evaluating and integrating digital information resources to prepare students to be successful as 21st century learners. We will also discuss ways of assessing information skills in the context of state and national standards.
Presenter Dr. David Barr is Director of Online Learning at The Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, in Aurora, Illinois. He works with IMSA staff to develop online materials, software and courses and directs online projects involving schools throughout the state of Illinois. Dr. Barr currently serves on the Illinois Century Network's Advanced Engineering Task Force, the Illinois Online Leadership Council and the ISTE NETS National Leadership Team.
Description The Illinois Online Network (ION), which is administered by the University of Illinois, provides professional development to college faculty to assist them in developing and delivering high-quality online courses. A major component of these professional development activities is a series of online short courses called "Making the Virtual Classroom a Reality" (MVCR). These non-credit courses are designed to help faculty members acquire the skills and knowledge needed to teach online. Currently, nine different MVCR courses are offered, covering topics from instructional design and communications strategies to copyright and intellectual property.
All MVCR courses are delivered entirely online and rely on asynchronous discussion as the principal form f communication. Course instructors model the strategies that participants will use in their own online courses, and the online format gives faculty new to online teaching an opportunity to experience an online course from a student's perspective. Participants interact with one another and with the instructors extensively via Web-based conferencing systems. As of January 2002, over 600 individuals have taken MVCR courses, including faculty from 36 of the 39 community college districts in Illinois, the University of Illinois, and other locations from around the world.
Faculty enrolling in MVCR courses can earn a Master Online Teacher certificate, which recognizes that they have achieved a measurable level of knowledge related to online course design, online instruction, and other issues related to online teaching and learning. More information about the MVCR program can be found on the Web at: http://www.mvcr.org/
Presenter Burks Oakley II is an Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs at the University of Illinois. His areas of interest include distance education, outreach, and instructional technologies on all three campuses of the University of Illinois (Chicago, Springfield, Urbana–Champaign). Oakley also holds appointments as a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, in the Departments of Computer Science and Management Information Systems at the University of Illinois at Springfield, and in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and the School of Biomedical and Health Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Through his innovative use of technology in teaching, Professor Oakley has earned a national reputation as a practitioner and promoter of Internet-based asynchronous learning environments. In the past two years, he has given more than one hundred invited talks at national conferences and on university campuses. He continues to inspire faculty and administrators as director of the University of Illinois Online initiative, a program designed to facilitate the development and delivery of University of Illinois courses, degrees, and public service resources over the Internet. Oakley's other major projects include the Illinois Online Network and the Illinois Virtual Campus.
Oakley received his B.S. degree from Northwestern University and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Michigan. He has received numerous awards for his teaching and for his innovative use of technology in education, including the Luckman Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award from UIUC in 1993, the Outstanding Teacher Award from the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) in 1993, the Educom Medal in 1996, the Educational Activities Board Major Educational Innovation Award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 1996, the Meritorious Service Award from the IEEE Education Society in 1998, and the Third Millennium Medal from the IEEE in 2000. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and a former Vice President of the ASEE.
Designing Networked Learning Communities
Description Telecommunication and information technologies can be used to develop webs of expertise that support more inclusive learning designs. The goal is to move from equitable access to technology to the use of technology to achieve equity.
Presenter Dr. Tom Carroll was named Executive Director of NCTAF in November 2001, succeeding the organization's founding Executive Director, Dr. Linda Darling–Hammond. Dr. Carroll leads the organization's efforts to raise standards for teaching and learning, improve teacher professional development, and restructure school environments to meet the needs of all students.
Dr. Carroll's career spans three decades. His appointments and achievements include:
-
Founding Director, Preparing Tomorrow's
Teachers to Use Technology (
PT3
).Under Dr. Carroll's stewardship (1999- 2001) this discretionary grants program at the U.S. Department of Education awarded a total of $275 million to support over 300 colleges and universities, school districts and state education agencies that are working to redesign teacher preparation using modern learning technologies. -
Director, Technology Planning and Evaluation,
Schools and Libraries Corporation (1997-99). During the
start-up of the Schools and Libraries
Corporation (a non-profit agency launched by the Federal
Communications Commission), Dr. Carroll actively worked
with states, schools, and libraries across the country
as they developed implementation plans for the
E-rate,
which supports Internet access for schools and libraries at discounted prices. - Founding Director, Technology Innovation Challenge Grants at the U.S. Department of Education. Dr. Carroll created a $ 75 million national Challenge Grant strategy to support K-12 educators, business leaders, and community members who joined forces to transform schools into information age learning centers. A total of 62 school districts partnering with 239 businesses, 140 colleges and universities, 32 state agencies, and over 200 community organizations, museums, libraries, and associations received support.
- Served as the U.S. Secretary of Education's liaison to the Corporation for National Service during the startup of the AmeriCorps National Service Program (1993-94). Deputy Director, Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) at the U.S. Department of Education (1986-93).
- Dr. Carroll provided leadership for the award of $18 million a year in program innovation grants to colleges and universities working to improve student access and achievement, teacher education, service-learning, and education for a changing economy.
- Dr. Carroll served as Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Education, Clark University (Worcester, MA) from 1975 to 1979, where he conducted research supported by the National Institute of Education, The National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education.
Dr. Carroll holds a Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from State University of New York at Buffalo (1976).
Tom served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Lesotho from 1967 to 1969. As a Rural Community Development Officer in the Ministry of the Interior, he designed and managed the construction of village water supply systems.
Description Today’s students need more sophisticated skills that will serve them throughout their lives. They need to achieve academic excellence as they apply the 21st century skills of self-direction, visualization, teaming, global awareness, curiosity, risk-taking, and high productivity with contemporary tools. These skills DO increase academic excellence—but only within learning organizations that embed them in meaningful, rigorous academic content—the research is clear.
The truth is that today’s education climate of high stakes testing is exacerbating the digital divide—deterring teachers in low-performing schools from using 21st century tools or nurturing their students’ mastering of 21st century skills. This issue is not only about access; it’s about a student’s expertise, experience, and confidence in using 21st century tools and skills to: solve problems; research exciting ideas; communicate with friends, family, and experts; interact as members of communities (online); and define themselves as citizens of the 21st century.
A look around at U.S. schools suggests that FEW of our students are being prepared to live, learn, and work successfully in the Digital Age. Remember, crisis means opportunity. Join this session to learn more about a ‘range of use’ used to ensure learning organizations are readying all children to thrive in this Digital Age.
Presenter Cheryl Lemke, CEO and President The Metiri Group