|
Teachers Putting InTech Training to Use in Classroom ATHENS, Ga. - Clarke County teachers say that Georgia's 13 technology instruction centers are making a big difference in how they are using computers the state has so heavily invested in throughout its public schools.
"The kids are getting to use their imaginations, they're not just sitting in front of a TV watching videos," said Amy Seymour, a third-grade teacher at Chase Street Elementary School in Athens. "On the computer - they create it, they manipulate it and they're able to make a statement on it. That's why I like the interactive programs." Clarke County Schools have sent several teams of five teachers each to the University of Georgia's Technology Training Center at the Rivers Crossing complex on College Station Road. More than 5,000 teachers and administrators from15 school systems in Northeast Georgia have participated in a variety of training the TTC has offered since its opening in July 1997, according to Director John Wiggins. But the training may just now be catching up to the technology, some teachers say. While the state has spent millions of lottery-generated dollars putting computers into Georgia classrooms over the last several years, very few of those dollars have been earmarked for technology training. But last year, Georgia's Department of Education opened 13 Technology Training Centers around the state in an effort to close the gap. The UGA Technology Training Center has two locations: one in Athens and one at the Gwinnett University System in Lawrenceville. The center has five full-time staff members, two graduate assistants and three part-time staff members. The staff includes the director, five instructors, a technical specialist and an office manager. Funding comes from a state Department of Education grant to UGA and from UGA funds. The UGA Center serves teachers from school systems in Barrow, Clarke, Elbert, Greene, Gwinnett, Jackson, Madison, Morgan, Oconee, Oglethorpe, Taileferro and Walton counties. It also serves teachers in Buford, Commerce and Jefferson city school systems. One of the center's most comprehensive training programs for teachers is InTech - Integrating Technology into the Student-Centered Classroom - a statewide initiative that consists of seven days (50 hours) of training. InTech classes are taught using a basic productivity package, a multimedia software package and a variety of curriculum-based software applications and World Wide Web applications. "We are showing teachers how to integrate the technology into the curriculum and student-centered classroom. We are showing them how to use technology as a tool to promote the higher order thinking skills in students," said Wiggins. How schoolteachers are using computer technology in their classrooms was one of several questions posed in a national study recently released by Washington-based Education Week. The study found the best use of technology for raising student achievement allows students to interact dynamically with information and each other, rather than drill-and-practice. For example, it said, a dynamic approach for fourth-graders would be math games and other learning games. In eighth grade, examples were simulations and applications such as a spreadsheet. By that measure, Georgia fell somewhat below the national average, the study said. Among the state's fourth-graders, 42 percent had teachers who reported using computers for math games and learning games, compared with a national average of 54 percent. Among the state's eighth-graders, 19 percent had teachers who reported using computers mainly for simulations and applications, compared with a national average of 27 percent. "Most teachers probably would (just use it for practice-and-drill) until they take InTech training and realize that you can do so much more with the computers," said Maureen Fiore, a third grade teacher at Fourth Street Elementary. "It really helped to open up my eyes." Another Fourth Street teacher, Dorothy Stroup, loves to talk about the computer-related project her fifth-graders completed last spring. It was an idea that blossomed from InTech training. "This was one great, big, huge quarter-long project in our science curriculum," said Stroup, leafing through a binder of pages revealing "post cards" the students had created on their computers. Each page contains what appears to be a post card. The bottom half is filled with a color photo from a national park. The left side of the top half is filled with about three paragraphs describing the park and in the upper right side of the top half is a color mug shot of the student who produced the "post card" where you'd normally find a stamp. "We had the kids write business letters to the national parks to obtain the information. They were able to use scanners to import the pictures and we used a quick-take camera to take pictures of themselves. That's what technology does for kids. When we went to InTech, they showed us how to pull all of this together." The project also included students drawing diagrams on their computers to contrast facts and characteristics between the state where their park was located and their home state. "Gosh, now that I'm looking at it, all these ideas are straight out of InTech," said Stroup. Such creative computer-related projects have become common for fifth-graders at Fourth Street Elementary, according to Sue Stone, the school's computer teacher. "They (students) know how to edit. They know how to cut and paste. They know how to pull in graphics. They know how to go in and make spelling corrections. They know how to spell check. By the time they get to the fifth grade, most of them do know the elementary processes of word processing," said Stone." For more information on InTech or other programs at UGA's TTC, contact John Wiggins at 706/542-3002 or visit the Georgia Department of Education's website at www.doe.k12.ga.us/ Wednesday, Oct. 7,1998
|
But
the biggest winners of all are students in Georgia's public schools.