Something Better

A place for 21st century learners
February 2003

Close your eyes. Imagine you’ve entered a room with rows of desks arranged side by side. In the center of every other desktop is a window, under which sits a monitor accompanied by a computer. The computers, networked and equipped with high-speed Internet access, offer the latest in educational software. In the front of the room stands a built-in SMART Board, a 57-inch screen that projects the teacher’s computer desktop and responds to a touch of a fingertip on the big screen. Behind the SMART Board, a green chalkboard creates a backdrop, a concrete reminder of the past. You’ll also find a scanner, a color ink jet printer, a digital camera, a teacher and 17 third-grade students among the more typical colorful classroom decorations. Students are using technology to travel to the moon and back. Two girls ask their teacher if they can stay in from recess to work on their PowerPoint presentation, while others are designing a moon-resort brochure that features their research and the photos they’ve collected. Milan NEA member Kristen Chapman never imagined that this would be her classroom five years ago when she began her teaching career at Milan Elementary School, located in rural northwest Missouri.Chapman was completing her second year as a third-grade teacher when her principal brought her a proposal that would transform her classroom into a state-of-the-art 21st century learning environment. A young teacher only two years out of college, Chapman knew this was an offer she couldn’t refuse.The school received a grant from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Missouri Research and Education Network for a program known as eMINTS or “enhancing Missouri’s Instructional Networked Teaching Strategies.” The grant provides the following:

• One computer for every two students

• Teacher laptop with modem and network card

• Teacher workstation

• SMART Board and high lumen projector

• Color printer

• Digital camera

• Scanner

• Software: Web browser, MS Office, Inspiration, Internet filtering

• Internet connectivity

• Full technical support and service

“The students think we have the coolest classroom in the school,” Chapman says. “In the beginning, they think of the computers as machines with a lot of fun games to play. They cannot believe it when I show them all they will learn from these incredible machines.”Chapman says she teaches the same curriculum and usually at the same pace as the other two third-grade teachers. She, however, takes a different route to reaching the goals. Although the other classrooms do not have the number of computers that Chapman’s class enjoys, district administrators have provided five computers for each of the other third-grade classrooms and a portable SMART Board so that other third graders (and their teachers) can experience the type of learning their friends experience in the eMINTS classroom. “The eMINTS project infused nearly $100,000 of technology into a third-grade classroom and a fourth-grade classroom that were void of technology,” says Milan Superintendent Heath Halley.During the 2000-2001 school year, Chapman and colleague Lisa Schoonover, a fourth-grade teacher, began the eMINTS professional development program. Chapman has now completed 175 hours of eMINTS professional development. She’s learned to use Microsoft Word, Publisher, Excel, PowerPoint, Netscape Composer and Hyperstudio.Training for the eMINTS professional development program also includes instruction on inquiry-based learning as an instructional strategy.“Inquiry-based learning helps students construct meaning and a deeper understanding of important concepts through carefully planned experiences,” says eMINTS Instructional Program Leader Monica M. Beglau. “Inquiry-based learning is prompted by a problem, question or need to know and involves the students’ personal ownership of that problem.”Multi-media technologies contribute to inquiry-based learning by providing students and teachers with unique tools to support and facilitate the exploration of knowledge.“My teaching methods changed dramatically that first year,” Chapman says. “I was so excited about teaching all of this new information. I was also a bit scared. I had so many new ideas and plans to share with my students, but I was also worried about whether I could remember all the software well enough to teach it and whether third graders could complete the projects I had planned.”Chapman soon learned her worries were unwarranted. Her students met the technology challenge with enthusiasm and soaked up the new educational challenges like sponges. Chapman now has a new concern: how will teachers without eMINTS technology continue to motivate students’ learning after they’ve left the “techno fairy tale” classroom? More than one-fourth of the districts that receive eMINTS grants address this concern by continuing to add eMINTS classrooms using local funds, according to Beglau. “Although we do not keep records of the additional technology that districts add to classrooms as a result of the eMINTS program, we believe that the majority of our districts have provided more technology for teachers and that eMINTS teachers have shared what they are learning with their colleagues,” Beglau explains. “I have learned that my students will learn better and the knowledge will stay with them if they are involved from the beginning in the learning process,” Chapman explains. “I know that the knowledge my students acquire will be a part of their lives, not simply an answer on a piece of paper.”

`Favorite projectsChapman’s eMINTS professional development included “how to create a WebQuest.” A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented activity in which the learners draw most, if not all, of the information from the Web.Visit http://emints.more.net/resources/webquest/index.html to find a collection of WebQuests, written by Missouri teachers and indexed by subject and grade level.

Following are four of Chapman’s favorites.

To the Moon and Beyond
In one project, students develop a list of questions about the moon. They list the questions on the SMART Board, paste them to a Microsoft Word document and print them as a research note sheet. Chapman provides links to Internet sites, featuring information about the moon, on the classroom Web site. Then the students work with their partners using the Web sites and their science text books to find the answers to their moon questions. Later, Chapman provides a scoring guide for a moon brochure. On the computer, the students create a brochure to attract vacationers to their moon resorts. They must include information about the moon that Chapman would have assessed with a worksheet in the past.

Ancient Ones WebQuest
In this WebQuest, students become archeologists who have just uncovered ancient pottery. They have to research three Native American tribes using Internet sites to find the origin of the pottery. Then they create a press release explaining the authenticity of the pottery and the research pointing to their conclusions and announcing the unveiling of a museum exhibit that will display all the Anasazi artifacts. The students work in groups of four. Each member of the team researches a specialized segment of the Anasazi culture. They collect materials and begin making clothing, cliff dwellings, weapons, kivas, pottery and petroglyphs for the museum.

Weather WebQuest
The local meteorologist has left town. Students must create weather tools using links provided in the classroom WebQuest. Each student from a team of four makes a tool (thermometer, barometer, anemometer and wind vane) and shows his or her teammates how to make it and how to use it to measure weather. They make a table in Microsoft Word to record the weather at four different times. After a study of videotaped weather forecasts, the students work to create their own weather forecast using Microsoft PowerPoint. Chapman includes a scoring guide on the WebQuest. Students include a joke or trivia, current conditions, the five-day forecast and tornado safety tips. After practicing and perfecting their forecasts, they take their “show” to other third-grade classrooms.

eMINTS, a place for 21st century learnersThe enhancing Missouri’s Instructional Teaching Strategies (eMINTS) program transforms elementary classrooms into places for learning where teachers and students use multimedia tools to improve their understanding of the world, work together and achieve at new and higher levels.eMINTS is administered by the Missouri Research & Education Network under contract from Missouri’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). MOREnet, part of the University of Missouri System, provides Internet connectivity, training and technical support to Missouri’s K-12 schools, colleges and universities, libraries, teaching hospitals and clinics, state government and other affiliates.For more information about the eMINTS program and grant guidelines, visit http://emints.more.net. If you need to speak with someone about applying for an e-MINTS grant, call Deborah Sutton at the DESE instructional technology office, (573) 751-8247.

by Debra Angstead