Personalized learning
services stand out at FETC 2003
By Corey Murray
eSchool News, February 11, 2003
In search of ways to
meet the requirements of the No Child
Left Behind Act (NCLB), thousands of
educators came to the 23rd annual Florida
Educational Technology Conference (FETC)
Feb. 4-6 in Orlando. What they found
was an evolution in thinking--from one-size-fits-all
technology solutions to customizable,
online services tailored to individual
student needs.
Despite a bleak fiscal
landscape, attendance at this year’s
event was estimated at more than 12,000
educators, vendors, and other stakeholders,
all told an increase of some 20 percent
over the previous year, according to
conference producers. Attendees who
eventually made their way out of the
sun and into the exhibit hall at the
Orange County Convention Center got
to test-drive new technology solutions
from more than 500 educational vendors,
take part in any of 200 sessions, and
network with colleagues during any of
the 67 hands-on workshops.
While such products as
the Tablet PC and personal digital assistant
(PDA) arrived on the ed-tech scene with
great corporate fanfare, it is the less
publicized, internet-based applications
used to create personalized assessments
and individualized learning experiences
that might provide the clearest indication
of what the future holds for technology
in America’s schools.
Online assessment
Scantron Corp., the company
whose name for years has been synonymous
with the bubble-style scoring sheets
used on most high-stakes tests, is touting
one such program. The company’s
ParSYSTEM 6.0 product suite consists
of several components designed to help
educators pinpoint the strengths and
weakness of individual students.
Scantron administers online
assessments to students and then uses
its technology to break out data on
such assessments at state, district,
class, or individual levels. The results,
which are password-protected, can be
accessed by teachers and administrators
in real time, then used to decide which
subject areas teachers need to emphasize
in class or even to students individually.
The scores come complete with graphs
and charts to illustrate where each
student, class, or school stands in
relationship to others.
According to Bill Tudor,
Scantron’s executive vice president,
the technology will be particularly
useful as schools search for ways to
meet the new standards of accountability
put in place by NCLB. "The No Child
Left Behind Act mandates that schools
measure each student’s grade level
progress, and in a large district the
sheer volume of student data associated
with this kind of testing can pose an
enormous management challenge,"
he said.
In a demonstration for
eSchool News, Tudor showed how the technology
was able to aggregate data to illustrate
achievement gaps between different demographic
and socioeconomic groups, letting educators
know immediately how much work needs
to be done in what subject areas, and
making sure each school and every student
is performing at satisfactory levels
under the new law.
Larry Bolinger, principal
of Merritt Brown Middle School in Panama
City, Fla., called Scantron’s
new system ideal for preparing students
for major high-stakes tests. "This
is the best diagnostic tool I’ve
come across in terms of accuracy and
reliability with the FCAT [Florida Comprehensive
Assessment Test]," he said. "You
can access real-time, accurate data
and then use [the data] to adjust instruction
individually by student."
To provide even more immediate
testing results, Scantron also offers
ParSYSTEM as part of its Classroom Wizard
tool. The Wizard enables teachers to
administer online tests using handheld
devices and then collects the scores
immediately from students for real-time
assessment. Scantron houses all the
data recorded for each school customer
online, so school leaders don’t
have to worry about the problem of long-term
storage.
The company said it can schedule up
to 2 million online assessments a day.
‘Intelligent’
instruction
But educational service
providers are using the internet to
do more than just personalize assessment
data. Many companies also are turning
to technology to provide customized
curricula aimed at encouraging students
to take a more active or, perhaps, interactive
role in their education.
During the conference,
educational publisher Holt, Rinehart
and Winston made available its Quantum
Artificial Intelligence Tutors for students
in need of help with chemistry and other
science concepts. The programs’
artificial-intelligence (AI) technology
enables students to go online from school
or at home to practice how to write
equations and complete formulas. What
separates Holt’s AI technology
from other internet-based tutors is
that it helps coach the learner to the
correct answer by pointing out individual
mistakes and providing clues that evoke
critical thinking skills based on these
mistakes. The more well-versed a student
becomes with the subject matter, the
more complex the reasoning used by the
technology becomes.
The Quantum Tutors are
part of Holt’s Online Learning
Program, which also provides interactive,
online access to any number of the company’s
educational textbook titles. By accessing
the books online, students not only
get to read the information printed
in the hardcover editions; they also
get access to links for additional study
and various other resources related
to the subject matter. Plus, the online
versions save them from having to lug
heavy textbooks to and from school each
day, said Pam Nelson, the company’s
senior vice president of marketing.
Now all kids have to do is go home,
log on to a computer, and pull up the
night’s assignment.
Bridging the communication
gap
Just as technology can
be used to personalize learning and
make curricula come alive, it also can
be employed to bridge the communications
gap between stakeholders, making learning
more intimate for everyone involved
from teachers and students to parents
and administrators.
At least, that’s
what the people at Aspire Learning Corp.
have attempted to do. More than a student
information system, Aspire’s internet-based
suite of teaching, reporting, and communication
tools focuses on customizable technology
applications that are easily integrated
into a school system’s existing
infrastructure and are just as easy
for educators to use.
"Aspire is designed
for the teacher who is intimidated by
technology," said Scott Collins,
the company’s head of marketing.
By logging onto the Aspire
Learning System, educators get access
to a number of communication features
designed to include parents and other
stakeholders in the business of educating
their children. From their computers
at home or at work, parents can compose
messages to instructors, access school
calendar information, peek at real-time
grades, and even take a look at what
assignments are due on a given week.
On the teacher side, educators
can communicate with parents by conducting
surveys to gauge opinions about a particular
program or idea before its implementation.
They can also create an accessible web
site library used to store relevant
educational links and tap into online
quiz, test, and grade assessment features,
as well as an online grade book and
attendance ledger.
The communication tool
can be accessed from school or home
directly through the school’s
web site without installation of any
additional hardware or software, according
to Aspire President Andy Little.
During FETC, Aspire also
announced a partnership with CCV Software
Inc. to provide a trial version of the
Aspire Learning System to schools at
no cost by way of a program called Test
Drive.
A paradigm shift
The shift in excitement
from sleek new hardware products to
comprehensive, internet-based applications
and assessment tools at FETC 2003 is
representative of a paradigm shift in
educational technology. Now that most
schools have had access to internet-connected
computers for years and many already
are abandoning traditional desktop machines
in favor of portable laptops and wireless
handheld devices the questions no longer
center on what types of hardware solutions
are needed, but rather on how technology
can be used to provide bona fide proof
of achievement in schools.
Several vendors and educators
interviewed by eSchool News agreed that
by cutting down on the amount of paperwork
teachers and administrators must process
in schools, technology is freeing up
more time for individualized instruction
and placing the emphasis where it needs
to be: in the classroom, with the students.
Of course, that’s
not to say eye-catching new hardware
solutions went unseen at this year’s
show. The folks at Gateway Inc., for
instance, said they received a great
deal of interest in a number of products,
including their flat-panel plasma display
screens, as well as several laptop computer
models and another much inquired-about
device: the Tablet PC.
After watching one demonstration
of how certain models of Hewlett-Packard
Co.’s Compaq Tablet PC technology
are able to record voice and then transform
these voice recordings into text, special
education teacher Gayle Mamer said she
couldn’t wait to see the value
of this technology at work in her classroom.
"It was really cool," she
said. "You know, the way it records
speech and then turns it into text."
Empowering educators
But while a number of
hardware companies were touting their
various nuts-and-bolts solutions, Dell
Computer Corp. placed its focus on equipping
students and teachers with the skills
and planning tools necessary to use
technology effectively.
Fresh from the Jan. 24
Information and Communication Technologies
(ICT) Literacy Summit in Washington,
D.C., executives from Dell announced
plans to promote a new technology planning
architecture, which the company hopes
will help educators meet the accountability
demands of NCLB while equipping students
with the skills they’ll need to
be successful in the 21st century.
The Dell School Architecture
enables the company’s school customers
to take advantage of a number of new
services, including customized technology
planning, yearly progress reports on
student achievement, and professional
development programs aimed at helping
educators understand how their Dell
systems can be used in a classroom setting.
In an interview with eSchool
News, Scott Campbell, Dell’s director
of K-12 services, said the idea is to
change Dell’s image in the marketplace
from vendor to partner. Industry partners,
he said, are able to play a critical
role in helping schools reach their
achievement goals.
"Technology does
not teach, it enables us to teach,"
Campbell said. "Dell is not just
a vendor anymore, we’re a partner."
Another company that believes
the first step to effective technology
integration starts with empowering educators
is Macromedia Inc. One of the industry’s
leading providers of web development
software, Macromedia was on hand at
FETC to showcase its Contribute product.
With Contribute, educators
who have only a basic understanding
of web page design can update, customize,
and develop their own interactive web
pages, which are linked to the school’s
server and made accessible from its
home page. The program works by supplying
a template, which is created by the
school’s web master, for teachers
to work from. Once the template is created,
the Contribute software lets teachers
access the pages and make changes by
adding text in simple text boxes and
copying images from an image library
or other resources directly onto the
page. The program even lets educators
cut and paste Microsoft Word and Excel
documents onto the template while keeping
the formatting intact.
"It really allows
you to do things in terms of building
a community, which we’ve wanted
to do but haven’t yet been able
to do," said Kim Cavanaugh, an
author and web design instructor for
Florida’s Palm Beach County School
District.
Cavanaugh, who has been
using Macromedia’s software for
years, said educators in his district
have welcomed the new product because
it allows them to integrate the use
of the web in their classrooms more
fully without seeking constant support
and assistance from already busy IT
staffs.
Online safety
As technology continues
to become more ubiquitous in schools,
many FETC attendees voiced concerns
about the need for students to be as
safe as they are savvy when it comes
to using the internet’s vast resources.
That’s why, as an
extension of its 2000 Safeguarding the
Wired Schoolhouse initiative, the Consortium
for School Networking (CoSN) announced
its "Promoting Online Safety"
toolkit at the conference. This resource,
which is available for free over the
internet and also can be ordered by
mail, has several components designed
to communicate a need for online safety
that relies less on filtering technologies
and more on face-to-face education about
the potential dangers of the internet.
The first tool is a handbook,
called "Promoting Online Safety:
The Home-School Partnership," which
provides strategies for educators to
communicate online safety procedures
with parents and community members more
effectively.
The toolkit also comes
with a 10-minute video that demonstrates
how two particularly tech-savvy districts
in Pennsylvania and Kansas set out to
answer questions of online safety.
Other resources include
a presentation outline for explaining
the importance of internet safety to
parents and community leaders and a
sample flyer designed to promote online
safety events at a school or district.
"This project is
a way to start a conversation with both
the school and the community about internet
safety," said Bob Moore, executive
director of information and technology
services at the Blue Valley Unified
School District in Kansas. "Promoting
online safety involves a partnership
between teachers and parents."
Representatives from the
U.S. Department of Education (ED), too,
were on hand to voice their support
for CoSN’s latest endeavor.
"For students to
engage in [online] learning, we need
to provide them with safe learning environments,"
said John Bailey, ED’s director
of education technology. "Filtering
simply is not enough."
An air of sadness
Back on the exhibit floor,
amidst the high energy and activity
surrounding the arrival of so many new
product announcements, technology demonstrations,
and press conferences, there also was
an air of sadness at this year’s
show.
Still reeling from the
tragic loss of seven astronauts aboard
the space shuttle Columbia, representatives
from NASA were on hand to remind educators
that the need for high-quality science
and technology instruction in America’s
schools continues, and that NASA is
committed to helping schools groom young
scientists for future missions.
The shuttle, lost Feb.
1, was launched into space Jan. 16 from
the Kennedy Space Center, one hour south
of the convention site.
"NASA wants to inspire
the next generation of explorers,"
said former teacher Shannon Ricles,
coordinator and producer of the award-winning
NASA Science Files a free, interactive
web site for students. "You can’t
get them more excited about math and
science instruction than you can by
doing it using space as a backdrop."
In light of the tragedy,
Ricles said NASA is working hard to
generate continued excitement for its
educational programs, most of which
are offered at no cost to schools.
(Reference
to Linkonlearning)
MORE NEWS FROM THE
EXHIBIT FLOOR
Adobe announced that it
has been selected to provide software
for the Technology Applications Certification
Program (TACP), a K-12 teacher training
program dedicated to technology integration
throughout the state of Texas. To help
close the digital divide, more than
1,200 Texas educators will join thousands
of educators nationwide who are already
using Adobe software to create high-tech
curricula for students. http://www.adobe.com/education/main.html
AOL@SCHOOL, a free online
learning service from AOL Time Warner,
announced the addition of four resources
to its web-based education portal. Through
alliances with Bill Cosby’s PicturePages,
Headsprout, ReadNet, and iKnowthat.com,
AOL@SCHOOL will offer free access to
interactive new lessons, including early
reading activities, phonics exercises,
word games, and an interactive science
lab. According to AOL@SCHOOL Director
Mark Nixon, the additional resources
should increase the service’s
value to schools as the company continues
its efforts to help educators aggregate,
condense, organize, and navigate the
vast amount of resources available online.
http://www.aolatschool.com
Apple Computer announced
its spring line of iMac computers, featuring
two new models. The new 17-inch widescreen
model features a 1 GHz PowerPC G4 processor
with faster processing capability and
more memory, as well as a faster 4x
SuperDrive for playing and burning both
CDs and DVDs and internal support for
AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth wireless
technologies, all for $1,799. The second
model, which comes with a 15-inch, flat-panel
display, features an 800 MHz G4 processor
and is priced $1,299. Apple also announced
lower pricing on its eMac line of consumer
and education computers. http://www.apple.com
Corel Corp. demonstrated
its new web-based product, Corel Classroom.
Delivered by Element K, a provider of
online training services, this fully
interactive training program provides
professional development courses for
educators to master Corel’s WordPerfect
and CorelDraw applications. http://www.corel.elementk.com
CrossTec Corp. demonstrated
its NetOP School technology. The program
allows instructors to monitor the work
of students at every PC or lab in a
given classroom. The ability to see
each screen on a single monitor helps
educators keep their students on task
while they work. The application also
lets teachers take full control over
each student’s screen individually
or as a class, giving teachers the ability
to use one person’s work as an
example or demonstrate the steps of
a given exercise in real time. With
NetOP, students who do not understand
a particular technology concept also
can send private instant messages to
the instructor’s computer. A classroom
suite for one teacher and 10 students
costs $895. http://www.netopusa.com
Curriculum Associates
launched its BRIGANCE Screens Online
Scoring Service. This entirely web-based
service lets educators run customized
academic skills reports on kindergarten
and first-grade students to help ensure
that appropriate accountability and
intervention measures are put into place
at a young age. The company offers free
training for the screening service at
http://www.brigance.com. http://www.curriculumassociates.com
The Discovery Channel
School and CDW Government Inc. (CDW-G)
held a press conference to launch a
new partnership geared toward helping
students learn about technology. As
a result of the agreement, CDW-G and
Discovery will produce All About Computers,
a set of technology-related curriculum
materials designed for middle and high
school students. As part of the roll-out,
the products will be sent free of charge
to 5,000 district-level technology personnel
nationwide. Plus, an additional 50,000
posters depicting how wireless technology
works will be shipped to technology
specialists at middle and high schools.
http://www.cdewg.com http://www.school.discovery.com/cdwg
eBook Systems Inc. unveiled
its latest technology, FlipAlbum 5 Professional,
which lets students and teachers create
interactive photo presentations complete
with video clips, sound effects, a searchable
table of contents, and customized text.
Unlike Micorsoft’s familiar PowerPoint
presentation tool, FlipAlbum organizes
its presentations in the form of an
interactive book, complete with turning
pages and a unique bookmarking application,
which lets the presenter skip easily
to specific parts of a presentation.
FlipAlbum books can be shared online
or burned onto a compact disc. The CDs
then can be viewed by teachers or students
at home regardless of whether the FlipAlbum
software is installed on that computer.
The product is available for both Macintosh
and Windows environments, but does not
work across platfroms, the company said.
http://www.ebooksys.com/ebooksys/flash.php
Generation Yes Inc. announced
that teachers will be able to receive
college credit for participation in
the company’s Generation Y program.
This unorthodox professional development
model also meets a national call for
21st-century skills among students by
using students to assist teachers in
the integration of technology into classrooms.
Teachers from anywhere in the world
now can complete the program online
through Washington State University’s
Distance Degree Program. http://www.genyes.org
Intellitools Inc. hopes
to ease the instructional burdens of
overworked and often underappreciated
teachers by adding to its line of ReadyMade
curriculum products. At FETC, the company
announced two new additions to its suite
of titles: Primary Literacy for grades
K-2 and Lewis and Clark for social studies
teachers in grades 3-5. All of the products
in the company’s ReadyMade product
line provide ready-to-use, technology-based
lessons aligned to national education
standards. http://www.intellitools.com
Kaplan K12 Learning Services
introduced a number of products to help
schools meet the accountability challenges
leveled by NCLB. The Kaplan Achievement
Planner is a software application designed
to analyze high-stakes test results
at district, school, class, and student
levels. It also provides lesson plans
aimed at closing existing achievement
gaps. The Kaplan Reading Empowerment
Program is another recently-released
software solution that gives educators
the ability to pinpoint specific reading
needs of students through assessments
based on Autoskill’s popular Academy
of Reading software. The software lets
educators track individual student progress,
plan professional development workshops,
and schedule one-on-one conferences
to discuss student results. http://www.kaplank12.com
Kurzweil Educational Systems
maker of the Kurzweil 3000, a software
application that converts text to audio
for students with learning and visual
disabilities touted the latest version
of its 3000 product as a potential test-taking
aid for special-needs students. The
3000 comes with a variety of interactive
features, including study aids, highlighting,
note-taking, and writing supports. Students
can scan in text from books and worksheets,
then have the content read back to them,
or they can use a web reading application
to hear the text of web pages read while
surfing the net. http://www.kurzweiledu.com
Linkonlearning Inc. showcased
Canada’s first virtual elementary
school. Students up to grade eight have
access to more than 10,000 lessons,
spread over nine courses, at three progressive
educational levels. The interactive
lessons are aligned with Canada’s
national educational goals and are written
by certified teachers in all major subject
areas. Teachers have the ability to
monitor each student’s progress
by way of an online report card. While
the lessons are geared toward Canadian
standards, U.S. instructors still can
use a great deal of the material, especially
for supplemental instruction or additional
practice, the company suggested. http://www.linkonlearning.com
Microsoft said its Tablet
PC technology is gaining momentum in
schools. Throughout the conference,
the company arranged for attendees to
tour Orlando’s Ocoee Middle School.
Known as one of Florida’s most
tech-savvy schools, Ocoee already has
begun to embrace the new technology
in its classrooms, Microsoft said. The
company also recognized St. Louis Public
Schools as one of its Centers for Excellence.
http://www.microsoft.com
In a move to give schools
more affordable access to eBook technology,
Palm Digital Media Inc. and Lightning
Source Inc. unveiled the Classics Collection.
Students, teachers, and administrators
now can have access to more that 500
classic eBook titles from William Shakespeare
to Virginia Woolf for an entire school
year. The books can be downloaded in
less than a minute to all Palm-powered
handheld computers, Pocket PC devices,
and Mac and Windows desktops, as well
as Microsoft Tablet PC devices and Dana
computers from AlphaSmart. Licensing
begins at $499 for the school year and
gives schools unlimited access to the
books. http://www.palmdigitalmedia.com
http://www.lightningsource.com http://www.palmsource.com
PLATO Learning Inc. celebrated
its 40th birthday this year at FETC.
The provider of computer-based and eLearning
instruction also was pushing its K-3
FOCUS Reading and Language Program,
which emphasizes the five components
of reading as outlined by the National
Reading Panel and included in the Bush
administration’s Reading First
initiative. K-3 FOCUS recently was reviewed
and validated by the Florida Center
for Reading Research. http://www.plato.com
SMART Technologies demonstrated
a number of stylish new devices, including
its Sympodium Interactive Lectern. Through
a touch-sensitive screen attached to
the lectern, teachers can annotate and
give interactive presentations using
a digital stylus. The stylus enables
users to make real-time corrections
to charts and tables. In addition, the
company’s SychronEyes software
puts educators in control of every student’s
desktop. With SychronEyes, teachers
can peek in on a individual student
monitors or freeze every computer in
the classroom with a click of a button.
http://www.smarttech.com
United Learning showed
additional features in its online library
of streaming educational video clips
for schools. As one of the first publishers
to prove through research that its products
actually improve student test scores
(as now required by NCLB), United Learning
continues to expand on the content options
it offers to schools. During the show,
the company announced a contract to
provide its video streaming services
to 750 schools in a 10-county region
of northern Texas. According to the
company, the deal enables its unitedstreaming
service which reportedly is used in
more than 15,000 schools across all
50 states to reach an additional 453,933
students and 31,000 educators in Texas.
http://www.unitedlearning.com/
