The following pages contain examples of sites around the Northwest that are using technology to support early childhood learning. These are just a few of the many excellent programs in the region and throughout the country. Educators at some sites have integrated technology into their classrooms for several years, others for a much shorter time. The scope of the use varies. Though each has a unique approach, all share the common philosophy that technology, used appropriately, can enhance children's learning. Included for each site profile is contact information, observed outcomes from the thoughtful use of technology, and tips from these educators for incorporating technology in schools.
Oregon
Portland Public Schools Head Start
4800 NE 74th St.
Portland, OR 97218-3824
Contact
Melissa Kolb
Phone: (503) 916-5724
Fax: (503) 916-2670
Web site: www.pps.k12.or.us/district/depts/headstart/
Description
Portland Public Schools Head Start has five sites in North, Northeast and Southeast Portland. Six hundred and twelve three- and four-year-old children 12 diverse cultures and languages are enrolled in full- and half-day sessions. The district recently received a small amount of funding specifically for technology integration. Before adding technology to their curriculum, staff members from the five sites formed a committee to answer the question, "What will be most beneficial and useful in supporting student learning?"
The committee agreed that any technology should be a tool and not a teacher, and that it should not take the place of something else in the program, or replace interaction among the children. After carefully considering the needs of the students, the current curriculum, potential uses for the teachers, and available resources, they recommended purchasing a computer scanner, and printer for each classroom. They looked at software in light of its appropriateness for the development needs of young children and selected an open-ended drawing program. In addition, they purchased a digital camera for each school.
The classroom computer is available to the students as one of their choices during center activity time. Two chairs are placed in front of the computer to encourage interaction and conversations. Children are encouraged to work together and share their projects. One piece of software, the drawing program, is provided, and children are encouraged to explore it in depth.
The digital camera has become a useful and versatile tool for the teachers. It is used to enhance learning in several ways:
- To assist with the transition between home and school. Photos of the many things children see on the first day of school (the bus and bus driver, the school entrance, the office and secretary, the class and teacher) are printed and shared with children and parents during the first home visit.
- As a tool to help children stay on task, gain independence, and increase time management skills. Teachers show students a picture of themselves successfully performing tasks as a reminder of what is expected. This strategy is both motivating and reinforcing to the student.
- To enhance communication between parents and child, as well as parents and school. Photos of activities such as zoo visits and open houses are often sent home with the students. No captions are needed, so when the children share the pictures with their families they can be discussed in the home language.
Looking ahead, the staff anticipate purchasing an additional computer for each classroom. They are also considering additional software purchases. But the priority is to get additional digital cameras, which they see as more useful and beneficial to their program.
The Portland Public Schools Head Start committee developed a philosophy statement to guide any use of technology in the classroom. This brief document sums up the reasons for their success: technology should be interactive and empowering, promote creativity, support language development and provide an opportunity for language interaction, and should be used to enhance children's learning.
Observed Outcomes
- Technology encourages communication and enhances children's language and concept development.
- Digital photos encourage child-family communication.
- Digital cameras provide personal, visual clues indicating daily routines and transitions.
- Digital cameras provide children firsthand visual clues for developing self-concept and understanding their role in social interactions with peers.
- Digital cameras document experiences with community, such as field trips and guest artists, further enriching children's connection to the world outside of school.
Keys to Success
- Consider technology as a tool to enhance learning, not as a substitute for child interactions.
- Allow children to make their own choices of when and how they use technology; never force it upon them.
- Allow teachers to make their own decisions on when and how to use technology with their students.
- Involve staff in the decisionmaking process when defining technology policies.
- Have a formal committee to screen technology tools and software for the entire program.
Alaska
Hoonah Elementary School
P.O. Box 157
Hoonah, AK 99829
Contact
Howard Diamond, Principal
Phone: (907) 945-3611
Fax: (907) 945-3492
E-mail: howarddiamond@yahoo.com
Web site: www.hcs.k12.ak.us/
Description
Teachers often say that technology opens up new worlds to their students, that it brings information to their students that otherwise wouldn't be available to them. Tammy Halfacre, kindergarten teacher at Hoonah Elementary, thinks so as well, especially considering the unique location of her school.
Hoonah, is a community of about 900 on Chichagof Island, forty miles west of Juneau, Alaska. Hoonah's population is about 80 percent native Tlingit. Getting to and from Hoonah can be quite involved. The only transportation means are by a twice-weekly ferry or by three to six passenger planes that flies to Juneau and back several times a day, depending on weather, and other factors.
Technology has provided Hoonah's children learning opportunities similar to those children in larger communities have. Besides providing access to information, technology can be used to show Hoonah's children how other children live and learn all around the country. Halfacre's students are penpals with kindergarten classes in New Jersey and in Texas. Halfacre takes digital photos of her students and emails them to the other classes. The classes also have exchanged videotapes of their activities.
The children communicate with their penpals frequently, either writing individual letters on class stationery they created themselves, writing group letters or through email. Halfacre says on her web site: "Starting the year writing to our new pen pals is an exciting way to introduce writing, letters, sounds, signing their name and patterns. Later in the year this is excellent for mapping skills, social studies, and literacy lessons about letter writing."
Technology is used to celebrate student achievements. Every class at Hoonah has a part of the hall's wall to celebrate their successes. Halfacre has covered her wall with dozens of vibrant colorful digital photos of her students engaged in all sorts of activities. The pictures show the children doing everything from saying the pledge of allegiance at the Potlatch, to working on various projects. In the middle of the pictures is the caption "Look How Far You Have Come!" Halfacre takes pictures at every opportunity, and they are displayed around the school, in the monthly school newsletter, on her class web site, and in the school yearbook. As Halfacre says, "When the children see their pictures everywhere, they have a sense of pride and ownership of their school." Sharing the pictures with parents encourages family-school-student communication, and is exciting for the parents to see their children's accomplishments. "The kid's excitement is what prompts me to do this," says Halfacre. The pictures also give the children immediate positive feedback, because the digital pictures can be displayed instantly. The advantage to having instant pictures is especially important when it can take a week to send pictures to Juneau for developing.
Like other schools that are beginning to integrate technology into the curriculum, Hoonah's administration has supported the staff by listening to their suggestions, and giving them the resources and independence to experiment and implement their ideas. The staff is currently exploring how technology can be used for authentic and project-based, cooperative learning. Staff have encouraged the administration to use a grant to purchase a project-based learning science curriculum that utilizes computer technology. This would replace a computer lab used primarily for drill-based skills. The program builds on children's current knowledge with students working collaboratively on science activities in small groups or in pairs. The projects are correlated with the curriculum standards for kindergarten through 6th grade, and so they will enhance educational goals rather than being an add-on.
The replacement of the drill-based computer lab for this hands-on module lab, will be an adjustment for some. However, says John Halfacre, one of the teachers involved in the new lab, most of the staff are willing to try something new if it is aligned with the current curriculum and will benefit the students.
The staff and administration's enthusiasm for trying new ideas if they benefit the kids' whole learning is one reason this school is a wonderful learning environment. Infusing various technologies in the classroom, whether it is a digital camera, videotape, or project modules enhance learning and encourages children to learn.
Observed Outcomes
- Photos celebrate student learning and reward their achievements. Children take pride in their work; parents take pride in their children.
- Technology promotes greater understanding of others.
- Technology brings communities closer together.
- Technology enhances communication with parents as they can see what their children are doing on the class web site and pictures in the newsletter.
- Technology brings out children's individual strengths.
Keys to Success
- Just jump in and play with it.
- Observe other people until you get more comfortable using it yourself.
- Administration should encourage experimentation and staff to try new ideas.
Idaho
Fernan Elementary School
520 N. 21st
Coeur d'Alene, ID 83814
Contact
Char Soucy, First Grade Teacher
Jim Gray, Principal
Phone: (208) 664-2659
Fax: (208) 769-2923
E-mail: csoucy@usa.net
Web site: www.sd271.k12.id.us/fernan/
Description
Appropriate use of technology to support learning is taken seriously at Fernan
Elementary. Principal Jim Gray says in his welcoming remark on the school's
Web site: "Implementing all of our available technological resources is exciting. It does not, however, displace Fernan's commitment to provide the highest quality education possible; it only enhances our efforts. As a professional educational team, we will use any tools within reach to more efficiently promote the school and hook our kids on the power of education."
This philosophy is evident in the school's focus on literacy and character education. Char Soucy, a first grade teacher, is concerned about the negative influences that children receive daily, and envisions her students as "productive, caring members of society." In line with this vision, she teaches her students to use technology responsibly, and how to decide when technology is appropriate to use for a given purpose. She notes that technology is now part of our world and is here to stay. Her role is to teach them the best uses of technology to support communication, build community spirit and as a tool for learning.
Soucy keeps her focus on the curriculum and on her purpose. She uses technology with her students to help meet the curricular goals by providing resources and saving time. The children learn that sometimes technology, such as the Internet, can make information collecting faster. When they are collecting data as part of a science unit they look up information on pre-selected web sites. Technology can be used during every stage of the inquiry-based learning model. In the data analysis stage the children create slide show pages by using a template set up by the teacher. They also import their own artwork to the slideshow by either using a draw and paint program, or scanning in drawings for their final presentation. As the children work on the pages, each can decide individually which facts to highlight about the animal they studied. They use word processing to add text to the pages.
Technology supports the focus on literacy in other ways as well-social and communication skills are developed when children use technologies together. The children work together on computers most of the time. She finds the conversation and problem solving that occurs during their work to be valuable for students. As Soucy's students learn to use scanners or other technologies they teach others how to use them. "When children have to explain how to do things to someone else," says Soucy, "it reinforces the task for them. It also reinforces their verbal communication skills to have to explain it to someone else." Soucy teaches the children to explain without using their hands, relying on their words to communicate.
Soucy researches software programs to determine which are most appropriate for her students. Soucy has found that some educational programs have components that provide little educational benefit, such as coloring games. "A lot of technology isn't beneficial for children's development," she says. "Children, especially at the first grade level, need to manipulate objects to have a concrete model from which to develop abstract concepts," adds Soucy. Sometimes a computer simulation can do a better job, such as showing the way the heart pumps blood around the body, but sometimes it is a poor substitute for the real objects. The trick is to know which to use and when.
At the beginning of the year most of her students' experiences with computers are limited to computer games. Soucy broadens her students' view by showing them that computers are more than games, that computers can be valuable tools for learning, depending on how one uses them. Soucy likes to use this analogy with her students: The computer is a tool, just like a pencil. "I tell them explicitly — it's a tool to learn and help present what you know. The way you use it is what counts." She adds, "At first, learning how to use the computer may be the object of the lesson, but after a while, the computer should fade into the background just as a pencil and paper do."
As the year progresses, and her students learn what computers have to offer, Soucy has seen a shift in her students' attitude as they are becoming independent thinkers. While the four classroom computers are very popular with some children during "choice time," many children opt to create artwork or join writing groups. Recently, when it came time for children to choose how they wanted to present their learning, instead of choosing to create a multimedia presentation, their choice was to put on a performance for their families with songs and dances. Soucy counts this as evidence that her students are no longer viewing computers as the "best game in town," but one of many options for learning.
Fernan's school motto is "Spread Your Wings and Soar." Because of Soucy's ability to integrate technology use that enhances her student's social, character, emotional, and language development, the children are indeed soaring!
Observed Outcomes
- Children no longer think of computers as just games; they realize their
value as tools to find information and enhance their learning.
- When students show others how to use the tools of technology they gain
confidence in their abilities.
- Communication skills improve as children articulate to classmates how to do
things at the computer.
- Children need to negotiate as they work together on projects using
technology, encouraging cooperation skills and consideration for others.
- Children learn to think critically and evaluate the source of information.
Keys to Success
- Software and other technology should support your educational goals, not define them. It is too easy to let the available software influence and drive your instruction, when it should always be the other way around.
- Research and preview software to cull out "time wasters" that students do
not need to spend precious school time on.
- Start small. Teach a few students how to use a particular piece of software and then have those students train the next group and so on. This decreases the teacher's role as "provider of answers" and students learn to rely on each other and work together.
- Just because it can be done with technology, doesn't mean it should be. Young children in particular need to perform certain physical tasks for normal brain and body development.
Washington
Whitson Elementary School
P.O. Box 1279
White Salmon, WA 98672
Contact
Vicki Prendergast, Principal
Phone: (509) 493-1560
E-mail: prender@mail.wavcc.org
Description
Even before you step through the front doors at Whitson Elementary School you know that this school is all about children. Handprints of all sizes and colors cover the wall near the door, each handprint labeled with a child's name. The children have literally made their mark on this school. Once inside the school you can see and hear how enthusiastic and involved the children are in their work. Diann Beseda's second grade classroom is alive with activity. Few of the children sit at desks. On the carpet a child sews up a paper quilt. At the computers, children try a new software program — at one computer two children work together, one child using the mouse, the other the keyboard. In another area children are spread out on the floor using pattern blocks to build shapes with symmetry. They take pictures of each other's shapes using a digital camera. In the midst of all this activity, one of the guinea pigs in the center of the room (in a cage) lets out an excited squeal, and some children come over to see why.
Whitson's principal Vicki Prendergast empowers the staff to use their enthusiasm and expertise to create this child-centered learning environment. The administrators and teachers have long understood the positive benefits that technology, if integrated wisely into the curriculum, can have as a learning tool. They are motivated to apply for grants that provide more resources to carry out their goals. A few years ago the school received a TELDEC (Technology and the Essential Learnings Developing Effective Classrooms) grant. This grant provides a professional development model for using technology to support and integrate the state standards into teaching and learning. Last year, the school received a Gates Foundation Grant that will expand this model to further a child-centered, technologically-enriched educational experience in every classroom for every student.
The technology team includes the principal and five teachers. The team plans the direction the school wants to take, and provides leadership, inspiration, and support to other staff members in integrating technology into the curriculum.
The music teacher, Mary Orcutt, provides a unique role for the team — because she teaches children in all grades, she can offer a perspective on what's appropriate for children at different levels. In her classes Orcutt takes a unique approach in using technology. The students use a music software program's paint palette to create their own songs. The program generates different sounds as the user "paints" on the computer screen. Learning how to compose music in this way is as much visual as it is auditory.
The students create songs that tie in with projects in their classrooms. For a third grade project on insects, Orcutt has the children choose an insect, and then asks the children, "What would the insect sound like? Do you want to create a sound like they make, or an impression of what they sound like?" After the children create their songs, she uses the large screen television to share each student's compositions with the class. Sharing the compositions with the class is very powerful for the students, says Orcutt.
The technology team models uses of technology for other teachers. Some staff members are uncomfortable with the idea of using technology, but the team encourages the staff to take their time, experiment, and observe others so they gradually become more comfortable with how certain technologies can benefit students.
Some of the teachers were concerned that the children are not working on oral communication, reading, and writing skills when they use computers. The technology team demonstrates how to integrate technology into writing, spelling, and oral communication, so that it can be more exciting and fun. Some teachers use software that first tells a story with the text on the screen, and then shows the pictures again, this time without the text so that children can retell the story in their own words.
Children use computer slide shows to present information, and are very eager to demonstrate their projects. The slide shows let children create their own drawings and accompanying text. The children can record their voices reading the text aloud. This enhances their literacy learning, and their verbal and written skills, as well as providing opportunities to create art. Electronic portfolios are used as an effective tool to document how well students have progressed with reading, writing, and oral communication skills. The children record samples of their reading at various times throughout the year. When they play them back, they can hear for themselves how much progress they have made. When parents hear these reading samples, says Beseda, they are excited about their child's progress.
One example of how a teacher saw firsthand how technology enhanced learning involves a boy who is bilingual and not a reader. The boy found one computer program with a book on it that became his favorite — he read and listened to that program over and over again. His teacher was not quite sure if this was a good use of class time. One day the boy went to a box of books in his class and picked out the same book as the one on the software program and began to read it, the first book he had ever read. He was so excited he went to the principal and read it to her. The teacher then saw how this technology inspired the boy to learn.
Whitson is evidently a place where children come first, where the staff are dedicated to giving students the freedom to explore, experiment, and grow. The phrase "all children learning" is not just a cliché here, it is a fact.
Observed Outcomes
- Children are eager to learn and love learning for its own sake.
- Children have a sense of accomplishment using the computer throughout the writing process and printing out their final draft themselves.
- Children learn that computers are just one of many sources to find information.
- Children struggling with expressing themselves through handwriting feel successful when using a keyboard to write.
- Music-writing software makes it easier to do small-group activities.
- Children are empowered as they learn how to use technology on their own, and then share their knowledge with the rest of the class.
- Parents see the benefits of technology as an authentic teaching tool through electronic portfolios, slide shows, and other presentation software.
Keys to Success
- Incorporate technology into your classroom slowly. Don't worry about having to learn everything the first year — use baby steps!
- Give yourself time to work with what you've already learned.
- Experiment! You will learn more by playing with something yourself than by someone else taking you through a step-by-step process.
- Remember that everyone goes through stages in learning to use technology.
- Make the inservice or training sessions special and rewarding for staff.
- Have staff members experience a variety of software so that they understand the difference between drill-and-practice and tools for enhancing learning.
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This document's URL is: © 2001 Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory
Date of Last Update: 09/19/2001 
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