Importance of Information Technology
Educators from across Long Island began with a groupware tool, TeamFocus,* to facilitate brainstorming, sorting, and presentation of ideas. Novices along with experienced computer users inputted responses to questions about what they valued in teaching/learning/community, dreams they had for the future, how they might create a shared vision of the future with others, and what they might need to move from their shared vision to a future they desired.
Nine hundred statements were inputted on networked computers during our first 45 minutes session. In that time, statements inputted appeared randomly on others’ computers as triggers for new thoughts. All statements were printed and small groups of people sorted and categorized them. The groupware software was used to link those in categories and move a process along that most agreed would have taken months without the tool. In addition, every participant had a voice and all were part of the generation of ideas. We had a place to begin. The vision drove what we did. The technology tool changed the nature of what we could accomplish, how, and when. We intermixed the day with conversations off the computer. Those conversations determined how we used the software. We directed it and our future.
One outcome of our session was consensus that we wanted to be continually linked via telecommunications as we built our learning community. Our next technology step, therefore, was to put in place a telecommunications infrastructure accessible to anyone who wanted to join us with little or no cost to them. We did this. Although in-person sessions were encouraged, online forum conversations were our first requirement to be part of the Village. Newsday helped with its telecommunications gift.
After a few years of blending telecommunications with in-person action, we added a multimedia dimension to the Village. Constructivist, learner-directed, activities were designed by participants on and off the computer. We are now headed toward streaming video, virtual reality environments, video conferencing, blended, again, with in-person experiences out in the community for purpose. Opportunities to learn what is currently available and what we can expect or create permeate our atmosphere. Rather than learn in more traditional class sessions, technology users support one another as a technology network of varied levels of expertise builds dramatically over time.
With tools in hand, we have many possible directions. We choose those offering portability and the sharing of resources. Our technology goal is to offer the capacity to link to the Village as we build the Village. Culture building and support come with the giving of all that we have.
The gifts of resources permit access, portability, and sharability
Village organizations and Villagers with resources opened them to others. A spirit of offering to others permits access to happen. Here are some of the technology gifts given to support our growth:
TeamFocus from IBM, later called Group Systems V* when taken over by Ventana East Corporation, was loaned to the Village for use in planning. It is this groupware tool that modeled for Villagers the ease with which one could enter our in-person space and blend online and offline computer use as we moved forward conceptually.
Newsday’s gift of our first bulletin board forum and unlimited user accounts was followed by their offering Prodigy services when Newsday and Prodigy* were joined a couple of years later. During that period, Prodigy had a Long Island Team (our Village) forum in addition to all other services. Newsday provided our telecommunications backbone from 1991 to 1998. Newsday has participated in other ways since. Maureen McInerney from Newsday has been a Villager from our beginning, active in the Village at leadership meetings and always offering ways for Newsday and later Newsday.com to contribute.
In 1994 NEC Foundation of America* provided us with a laptop, speech synthesizer, and assistive software for Villagers with challenges such as limited vision. With our new equipment, Villagers could "hear" the words written in our early telecommunications conversations and "speak" to contribute. We understood we wanted the Village to build without constraints for anyone who wanted to participate. That year we began to confront what some of those constraints might be. We thought hard about the individuals in our Village, who they might be, and what they might need. Having a portable computer with configurations to meet varied special needs was part of our solution. That first laptop modeled for all in the Village that this was possible.
The Village was the recipient of NYNEX’s top Excellence in Education Award in New York State in 1996. With it, we were given funds to acquire additional equipment and support our shift to a Village web site home. That year we moved to a combination of dialogue online, in-person activities, and technology-rich activities online as well. Villagers could check in to see examples of Village collaborations, find resources, in addition to conversing online. That year saw the birth of our online children’s magazine, The Voice. Created to "hear The Voices of children in the Village," The Voice has become a favorite place for students to enter from schools, home, and local libraries. Creators Linda Alesi, Faye Lourenso, John Meschi, and Betty Volpe have been joined by Dominic Natoli, Barbara Riley, and Karin Levy over the years. Mostly supported by the time and energy of these leaders and participants, The Voice is one of the great success stories of the Village. (See http://team.liu.edu/TheVoice and please explore the evolution of The Voice over the past several years.)
The NYNEX funds seeded activities throughout the Village in 1996. Funds were not used for top-down management. Rather, they were used for sharable resources and to move us more powerfully toward the future. Our Village laptops travel from place to place offering resources to empower/connect our builders of the future. All who want to be part of the Village can have access. Even if for only a day or a week, a Village laptop is available.
Norma Goldberg from Cablevision joined us around the same time, 1995-1996, and has played an active role in our leadership TEAM since. Our relationship began with the offering of Cablevision’s extraordinary multimedia presentation about Long Island as backdrop to what we did. A gift to all in the broader community, the company produced a 28-minute technology-rich celebration of Long Island, Long Island Discovery, for a wonderful 100-seat auditorium at the DNA Learning Center in Cold Spring Harbor. With surround-sound in a uniquely designed setting to maximize the impact of many large and small monitors and speakers circling the room, one feels enveloped by the presentation. Cablevision hosted a number of our sessions. We started with the 28-minute show and then met to continue our conversation and activities moving the Village deeper and deeper into the community. As we were committed to local community, the stimulus of that presentation was extraordinary every time we saw it. In subsequent years, our Cablevision partners have actively played leadership roles with us, leading sessions on television production, bringing in educators from Cable programs such as Arts & Entertainment, Bravo, and the History Channel, and interacting with Villagers as partner using their new web site for educators, http://powertolearn.com, through their Optimum Online service. Cablevision gave us several digital cameras. Those are out in the field with Villagers. Everyone now has access to a digital camera. Again, all one needs to do is ask to borrow one.
These are examples of technology in the Village. They are gifts, but they are not gifted to a project or to specific people or organizations. They are gifted to the Village, a concept with activities building it to make a difference in community. The giving of gifts models the idea that "we have for you" or that all in the Village "want to give to you." Our donors gave time and expertise in addition to equipment and support. The donor organizations are now embedded deeply into our learning community in ways that identify them as Villagers as well as Village resources.
We began with many people in the community wondering how people would be able to afford the various tools (e.g., computers, Internet access, digital camera, scanners). We have helped to create a community in which the technologies surround us and are available. How to use them, when and where to access them, who to approach for support are the questions now. Use and access, though, are accepted. Local public libraries, for example, offer free Internet access to all. Now, there is no one who wants to be part of our community who cannot at least go to their local library to get online. In addition, Villagers know we share resources and will support one another. Whoever has, offers.
Beyond tools. Tools are just tools. Nothing more.
Most learning organizations are now either using some technology tools or planning to use them soon. This requires not only costly purchases, installation, and training, but also the first step toward understanding why to use technologies, how to maximize their impact, and how to encourage people in their organizations to use them. Many organizations are doing with their technology tools what they did without them, not knowing where their use might help transform teaching and learning to accomplish new goals or old goals in new ways. Many struggle with reluctant employees who either do not want to learn to use the tools or cannot imagine finding the time to use them. Many people are terrified of relying upon a computer for fear of it malfunctioning at the moment they need it. The Village offers many models for use and support to help K-12 schools, universities, museums and other cultural organizations, and businesses. These models blend with efforts within each organization and looks to create partnerships of support and collaborations beyond them.
People in
the Village see systems of leaders/mentors/
apprentices/ supporters in everyone who participates. Once online, all
else is easy. The Village offers connections and collaborations with people
continually learning to use powerful tools for information gathering,
data management, presentations, expressions, research. For example, skills
acquired assist students and parents in becoming viable economic assets
enabling them to function and compete in the job market. They can also
help empower students as they learn at any stage of their growth and development.
Our model of support encourages anyone who wants to participate to engage
in just-in-time learning while people interested in becoming technology
leaders spot the Village and support one another and, thus, the whole.
Technology support: Programs and approaches to surround users with sparks and models to sustain learning
We call the leaders/supporters who reach out to others our “sparks.” We are fortunate to have many. Exceptional technology learners/users, John Meschi and Faye Lourenso, led many of the technology support session and web constructions in the Village over the years. In addition, children as partners used technology in learning anything they wanted to learn without manuals and without classes. They have been wonderful. There were also people in the community who were using technologies and who were eager to support Villagers once they understood what we sought to do. Plus, we had two major avenues to support technology in the Half Hollow Hills School District and in Long Island University.
In Half Hollow Hills, Corinne Carriero, K-12 technology coordinator, Associate Superintendent Robert Sandak, Superintendent Kevin McGuire, and Assistant Technology Coordinator Ellen Robertson have worked together with others in the district to create a clear and ever evolving long-range technology integration plan. Participation in the Village enables Half Hollow Hills to implement the vision of the plan as it pertains to student abilities and achievement. Technology as a tool within the various curricula areas assists students and teachers to achieve goals and capabilities. Multimedia computers add a new dimension to experiential learning and enrich the education process. While manipulating sound, video, graphics and text students control their own learning experiences. In addition, Village participation helps students acquire knowledge and skills enumerated in the New York State Education Department "Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment Frameworks." Namely:
- to acquire
knowledge, skills and attitudes...to pose questions, seek answers,
and design solutions.
- to use
a full range of information systems, including computers, to process
information and to network with different school and community resources,
such as libraries, people, museums, business, industry.
- to acquire
the knowledge and skills related to the tools, materials, and processes
of technology.
- to understand
the relationship among various disciplines, identify common themes,
connecting them, and apply these themes to other areas.
- to apply
the knowledge and thinking skills of [various disciplines] to address
real-life problems and make informed decisions.
Half Hollow Hills’ emphasis on active participatory knowledge gathering and sharing where learners create knowledge versus inactive book learning is reinforced by all Village activities. New York State Curriculum Resource Guides encourage multidisciplinary approaches and inquiry-based learning through such strategies as discussion, analysis, cooperative learning, peer mentoring, and independent research where students are active collaborators in their own education and the teacher's role is shifting from “sage on the stage” to “guide on the side,” again approaches and strategies that are reinforced by Village activities.
The Half Hollow Hills district in-service program also reflects the philosophy of active participatory learning. Teachers are trained in the mechanics of using the hardware and software through the exploration of tools that enhance and expand the curriculum by including learner-centered, interdisciplinary, constructivist activities.
Staff development is designed to serve as a model for learning. As learners, the teachers themselves engage in activities that involve collaborative learning, discussion and independent research. As part of Half Hollow Hills’ unique partnership with Long Island University, a two year Master’s Degree program in Educational Technology is offered within the District. As a result of this program, over 25 teachers have received Master of Science Degrees in Educational Technology, and 20 more district teachers are currently in year two of the program. These teachers make a unique contribution both in and out of the classroom. In addition to being experts at integrating technology into their curriculum, they support other teachers on a daily basis, serve as instructors in the district’s in-service program, and are active in the technology integration component of curriculum development.
Michael Byrne, James Dunne, Francis Roberts, and Bette Schneiderman of the Department. of Educational Technology at Long Island University and many talented adjunct instructors deliver an innovative master’s degree program, T.E.A.M,. to more than for 100 teachers in various locations each year. (See http://eev.liu.edu/teamoverview.htm for a description of T.E.A.M.) With a history of its graduate program in Computers in Education since 1983, T.E.A.M. was created to work intensively with cohorts of approximately 25 students each over two years to explore of the potentials with technology to accomplish deep and sustaining transformation of teaching and learning for children.
T.E.A.M. exemplifies the building of a learning community. Every graduate student in T.E.A.M. must have a computer and modem at home and blend what happens at weekly in-person sessions with a fluid connection between sessions. Underlying the program is a belief that powerful learning systems for the future can be created and studied as they evolve. All learning actions become part of the Village and are naturally integrated into K-12 schools and our cultural and community partner organizations. Hundreds of students have graduated with their master’s in our Educational Technology Department. In all, T.E.A.M.s on the C.W. Post campus of Long Island University and in K- 12 school districts across more than 100 miles of Long Island are strategically placed to be in different kinds of settings. Each cohort is cohesive and yet all join in action through the collaborative activities of the Village. T.E.A.M. members act as a vanguard creating the life long learning skills among hundreds of local students and partners in community.
A cadre of "sparks" grows in the Village year by year. These people join us from varied settings. As they join us, they become surrounded by others who support them.