Enhancing the Learning Environment within Manchester – using 21-century techniques Peter Sorrentino May 3, 2005

Enhancing the Learning Environment within Manchester – using 21-century techniques

Peter SorrentinoMay 3, 2005

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Agenda

• What are we proposing

• Why are we considering a Internet-based system

• What are the Benefits

• Who will be involved

• What must we do

• How long will it take

• What are the Costs

• Summary


What are we proposing – “Project 21st Century” or P21C

• Putting in place a system to enhance learning opportunities for students of the Manchester School District.

• This system is: (see screen images in Appendix “screens”)– designed to enable teachers to provide course materials and activities

on the internet: assignments, forums, lessons, quizzes, glossaries, etc.– for students, parents, teachers, administration and the community– easy to use, point and click based system designed to simultaneously

save teachers’ time and improve students’ learning opportunities– available to all users from anywhere at any time– 21st century technology, Internet based, modern and practical– compliant with “No-Child-Left-Behind”– designed to save costs of educating– widely used throughout the United States and world (over 4,000 sites) – supports over 50 languages– implemented to supplement, not replace existing practices


Why are we considering a Internet-based system

• Supplement existing, traditional education practices with current mechanisms pervasive in 21st century student lives

• Support district goals and support district and individual school missions

• Comply with No Child Left Behind (see Appendix NCLB)

• Support teachers by supplementing existing pedagogical and learning practices, not require or standardize on one

• Give 21st century students a modern, familiar interaction via the Internet

• Provide parents and the community visibility into courses and learning materials

• Establish within the district a tool new teachers expect in a modern educational environment


What are the Benefits

• Offer students a familiar and “cool” or appealing interface to education – an Internet interface

• Provide an easy to use tool for teachers to make the course material they select available on the Internet to students, parents, administration as well as the community

• Support compliance to No Child Left Behind

• Complement the district’s existing teaching tools with a 21 century Internet tool making selected educational material available 24/7 for students out of school for various reasons

• Enhance the image of the Manchester School District as leveraging modern, economical tools and practices

• Increase the appeal of the District to candidate teachers with a familiar and state of the art teaching tool

• Save the district money. For example: distributing a combination of electronic and paper copies of student materials, versus strictly paper copies


Who will be involved

• Teachers

• Department heads (BLICs?)

• Students

• Parents

• Administration

• Community


What must we do

• Establish specific goals:

• Determine a rollout plan including a pilot implementation:– Start with a subset of teachers in one school to determine exactly

what must to done to achieve he most

• Evaluate the initial implementation and determine potential improvements

• Develop the improvements for the general implementations

• Rollout the pilot derived, improved implementation

These steps could be performed simultaneously for high, middle and elementary school, or each school type could be handled

individually.


How long will it take

• The timing is very dependant on the appetite and will of the participants.

• All schools could be up and running in a little as a year

• Or high schools could be fortified in school year 2005-2006, middle schools in 2006-2007 and elementary schools in 2007-2008.

• Each of these years would involve a pilot, enhancements and rollout to each school.


What are the Costs

• Software license (no cost, open source software)

• Technical system operations: hardware, operating system, database, Internet connectivity, etc (initial + annual)

• Iterations to refine needs and desires or various stakeholders (ongoing)

• Loading and configuring (initial)

• Implementation of customizations, updates (initial + periodic)

• Integrating system with other district systems (initial)

• Training: Teachers, administrators, students, … (initial + annual)

• Support (annual)

• Maintenance (annual)

• District wide, per participating school, …?


Cost Factors & Recommendations

• Factors: – Rate of adoption: big bang, planned march, organic expansion, etc.– Support and training philosophy:

Traditional centralized first line support, escalated technical support Seeded, self-service training and community support with escalated technical

support …?

– Level of customization

Recommendation:• Organic expansion, community based support, no

customization initially– Summer 2005: Seed the system at a high school, hold a workshop to

train some enthusiastic “mentors”, mentors flesh-out courses– In fall begin students begin leveraging the system– Update workshop materials with experiences and in winter introduce a

second high school and maybe a third depending on first semester results.

– Summer 2006 plan and introduce the “mentors” from a middle school to the system, repeat above.


Estimated costs

• The recommended plan is preferred for its economical cost combined with the relatively high rate of success of organic growth of such systems

• Estimated costs are as follows: – One time system setup (loading, configuring, etc): $995/school– Annual technical systems operations (hosted): $1495/school, basic

usage, rate may increase as usage grows– 20 hours of third tier e-mail support is provided with hosting fee,

additional support upon request– Mentors are second line of support after on-line documentation– One time workshop preparation and development fee and delivery of

first workshop $1400, subsequent workshops $800. – School personnel setup users accounts, departments, courses, …– No programming customizations– No integration with existing systems– First school startup, a year of operation, and a workshop: $4000. Each

additional school $3200. Subsequent years $1495/school


Summary


Appendix – NCLBNo Child Left Behind – Enhancing Student Outcomes

NCLB Goal How P21C Helps Federal Funding Sources

Enhancing Student Outcomes

Streamlining standardized test preparation

Teachers can provide students with practice tests and supporting material for anytime, anywhere preparation. Additionally discussion areas are available to provide persistently maintained dialogs on test topics.

Title I-A Improving Academic Achievement of the Disadvantaged Improving Basic Programs Operated by LEAs

Delivering state standards-based content

Educators can organize and deliver standards-based materials using advanced content and document management capabilities. The system can also be integrated with state standards databases or systems.

Title II-D Enhancing Education Through Technology State Grants

Individualizing instruction Students can benefit from additional one-on-one instructor attention through discussion boards, chat sessions and assessment feedback. All capability can be available 24/7. The system has support for over 50 languages.

Demonstrating adequate yearly progress (AYP)

Administrators can access up to the minute progress reports on student outcomes at the class, grade, school, or district level through advanced reporting functionality. This data loaded into your existing student information systems (SIS).

Engaging students of all learning styles

Teachers can create standards-based lesson plans that address the needs of kinesthetic, auditory, and visual learners.


Appendix – NCLBNo Child Left Behind – Delivering Professional Development


Delivering On-Going, Cost-Effective Professional Development

Rapid program adoption Teachers teach and learn on learning management systems similar to P21C during their pre-service or continuing education. This catalyzes the adoption of online programs across your district, allowing for focus on instructional practice, not technology.

Title II-A Preparing, Training, and Recruiting High Quality Teachers and Principals Improving Teacher Quality State Grants

New teacher development and retention

Teachers across the district can share challenges and success stories via discussion boards and chat as well as share effective standards-based material with P21C’s content management functionality.

Supporting subject matter expertise

Administrators can create online communities of practices for teachers of specific grade-levels or areas of academic discipline.

New teacher and principal mentor programs

New teachers and principals have 24-hour access to peer support networks, information on best practices, and content.


Appendix – NCLBNo Child Left Behind – Reinforcing home-to-school connections


Reinforcing Strong Home–to–School Connections

Facilitating parent-teacher communication

Teachers can conveniently communicate with parents through email, discussion boards, and announcements.

Engaging parents in academic life of students and providing a window into student performance.

Parents and guardians can use the web-site to participate in their child’s daily academic life by reviewing assignments, grades, online progress reports, and teacher established parent-teacher discussion boards. The system has support for over 50 languages.


Appendix – NCLBNo Child Left Behind – Increasing Equity in Education


Increasing Equity in Education

Serving special needs students

The system is built in compliance with Section 508 guidelines and incorporates principles of Universal Design.

Section 508 and IDEA legislation

Providing access for rural and home-schooled populations

Districts can extend opportunities to rural or home-schooled populations to increase access to courses or activities regardless of location.

Title I-A Improving Academic Achievement of the Disadvantaged Improving Basic Programs Operated by LEAs

Meeting the needs of special populations (remediation, gifted and talented)

Educators can address the needs of students with special school populations, ensuring that the unique requirements of these sub-groups are met. With regard to languages, the system has support for over 50 different languages.

One example of a specialized need: a group of seniors that are in danger of failing a specific course can participate in special sessions online to master required learning objectives.

Title II-D Enhancing Education Through Technology State Grants

Title VI-B Rural and Low Income School Achievement Programs


Appendix – ScreensSample Home Page, All Users: Teachers, Students, Public


Appendix – ScreensSample Science Courses, All Users: Teachers, Students, Public


Appendix – ScreensLogin page & Self-Registration page, All Users


Appendix – ScreensCourse Editor, Teachers only


Appendix – ScreensSpecific Students Courses


Appendix – ScreensSpecific students course


Appendix – ScreensExtensive activity logs are kept for teachers’ review

Documents

Enhancing the Learning Environment within Manchester – using 21-century techniques Peter Sorrentino May 3, 2005