Educators in some high-needs Alabama schools declare their students will not be left behind in an era driven by technology and innovation.

Kurtavia, a first grader at George Hall Elementary in downtown Mobile, sits at a computer bigger than she is and strikes several keys. A window pops up on the screen and when she clicks the Play button, we see a colorful image of a group of firefighters battling a blaze.

First grader Kurtavia wrote and narrated a photostory for her school's Wetpaint wiki site, recounting her class field trip to Mobile's fire academy.

On an audio track, I can hear Kurtavia’s voice explaining what we’re seeing. As she clicks through the slideshow, her “internet voice” clearly and succinctly describes this digital documentary of a field trip her class made recently to the Mobile Fire Training Center and several area fire stations.

“Kurtavia not only narrated our report,” tech teacher Robin Ogburn says proudly, “she also wrote most of it.”

When I ask Kurtavia to sum up the experience, she tells me that “they had a black and white dog. It was a fire school. We learned how the firemen keep safe when they’re putting out a fire. We sang songs about fire safety and heard the alarm go off. They had a puppet show.” She and other students also got help from the firefighters in defining words like “bay,” “hazardous,” “emergency,” and “backdraft” from the special vocabulary list teachers create for every field trip.

This six-year old girl from one of Mobile’s most depressed neighborhoods is fully aware that her photostory can be viewed by anyone anywhere in the world with Web access. To her, it’s an exciting process that allows her to share something important from her own life experience. “Other children can learn from this, too,” she tells me.

Kurtavia is less aware that by creating this web-based product, which requires her to analyze and synthesize information from different sources, she has begun to make her way across the digital divide – taking her first steps toward a future in which such skills will be essential to her success.

Web 2.0 Projects In Alabama Schools

We’ve created a terrific page at the Delicious social bookmarking site where you can link to over 170 present and past projects of teachers and administrators in our 21st Century Learning program. Blogs, wikis, podcasts and much more! http://del.icio.us/abpcjohn

Equity in the new millennium

Like most labels that emerge as shorthand ways to dramatize a problem, the expression “Digital Divide” has developed layers of meaning over time.

Can we simply define the digital divide, as Wikipedia does, as the gap between those with regular, effective access to digital and information technology, and those without this access?

Consider, though, that some schools serving students on the wrong side of the Digital Divide may (as a result of federal and local funding or grant opportunities) have multiple computers in every classroom, fully equipped technology labs, a totally wired building with wireless Internet capibility, and a certified technology teacher. Other schools – especially in rural communities with a small tax base – may have much less.

Thoughtful 21st Century-minded educators in both urban and rural schools tell us that the Digital Divide is not just about hardware and software, or the basic training it takes to use them in the classroom. In our conversations with these teachers and principals, many of whom have participated in ABPC’s 21st Century Schools program, they highlight other issues that tend to widen the divide:

At Fayetteville School's technology learning fair, parents and local citizens joined teachers for workshops and discussions about 21st Century learning.

Home access – Many 21st Century-minded teachers in more affluent schools are extending their students’ learning experiences by creating websites, blogs and wikis that engage learners before and after school in discussions and projects. In higher-needs schools, the percentage of students with high-speed Internet access at home is much lower, making it difficult for teachers to justify online enrichment activities outside of school hours.

Parent concerns – While parents at every socio-economic level have concerns about the potential negatives of technology and the Internet, these concerns are more pronounced among families where adults have little personal experience with the “digital age” and rely on secondary sources of information (news media, church, social gatherings) to form their opinions. When parent resistance is high, schools are less likely to pursue activities that require access to web-based tools, email accounts, and the like.

Focus – In schools with many struggling students, the intense focus on raising student test scores and trying to meet NCLB’s Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) benchmarks discourages experimentation with new technologies and new ways of teaching. Computers often become instruments of remeditation and drill, rather than portals to web-based tools and networks that can help students develop 21st Century skills.

Staffing – Several rural and inner-city principals told us that – given the smaller recruitment pools available to them – it is more difficult to hire teachers who have a background in technology-infused teaching, or at least some enthusiasm for acquiring the necessary knowledge and skills. In rural areas, in particular, schools often have stable, more “mature” faculties who often stick to tried-and-true methods and are less eager for innovation.

Sustainability – What happens when an elementary school develops a strong focus on 21st Century learning but feeds into a middle school with little or no awareness or interest in integrating technology into curriculum and instruction? While this problem is by no means unique to high-needs schools, it is more common – and the consequences of this lack of continuity are more dire for students. In some forward-thinking schools, it can also reduce teachers’ sense of urgency for change and create resentment toward colleagues in other schools.

In the minds of the educators we interviewed during recent “best practice” visits to several urban and rural schools, these are obstacles to be overcome – not impenetrable barriers that relieve their schools of the obligation to help their students develop the skill sets that experts say will be sought after in the 21st Century workplace.

Here is some of what we heard and learned:

George Hall Elementary

At inner-city George Hall Elementary, where almost 100 percent of students qualify for free lunch, principal Terri Tomlinson estimates that fewer than 15 percent of students have access to high-speed Internet at home. “If our kids are going to learn these 21st Century skills, they are going to need to get it here in our building.”

Tomlinson says many educators still see technology and the Internet “as just another way to obtain or manage information. But in our school we’ve come to see that it is a lot more than that. It’s about whole new ways to work and think and learn, to conduct your business and your life. ”

Technology teacher Robin Ogburn spearheaded the development of George Hall Elementary's multi-media website where students post podcasts, photostories and blogs about their academic travels. 

Tomlinson knows well that the first responsibility of teachers at George Hall is to assure children have the basic math and literacy skills they need to become self-learners. But like many other educators who are involved in transforming struggling high-needs schools into high performing learning communities, she and her faculty are not satisfied to invest all of the school’s time and attention on basic skills and the lower tiers of Bloom’s Taxonomy. They want their kids to have the same chance to compete in an innovation-based economy as children from the most privileged public schools in Alabama.

With the right support and leadership, Tomlinson says, teachers can have the best of both worlds – they can build strong literacy skills and also use technology to push students into higher levels of learning. She uses the example of George Hall’s many field trips, which not only expose children (many of whom have never before ventured much beyond their inner city neighborhood) to the larger world, but are carefully integrated into the reading and writing curriculum.

This hall-length mural leads young readers to George Hall's library and media center. 

“Deep learning is not just being able to regurgitate the definition of a word,” she says. “It’s actually being able to transfer that word to other contexts--to reach that level of understanding where you’ve really ingested that word and you can put it back out in various ways. That’s what we want our field trips to help accomplish.”

After each field trip, students return to school and create webcasts documenting what they have seen and learned during their travels. “That’s where these 21st Century learning tools can help us with our basic teaching and learning mission here at George Hall,” Tomlinson says. (See our story about the GHES field trips.)

“The children are actually talking about where they’ve been and what they’ve learned, using new vocabulary in authentic contexts. And the fact that they are doing this for various audiences makes it even more meaningful and purposeful to them. They want to get it right because they understand that people they don’t even know are listening and learning from them.”

Fourth grade teacher Amy Lowe helps her students document a recent field trip on the George Hall Elementary School website. 

Although George Hall joined the ABPC project in early 2006, the inspiration for the multimedia field trip project came after members of the school’s technology leadership team attended ABPC’s 21st Century Octoberfest last fall. “We saw examples of what other schools were doing, and on the way back to Mobile, we brainstormed this idea,” says fourth grade teacher Amy Lowe. “We decided it was something we had to try for our kids.”

With support from technology teacher Robin Ogburn, the team members developed a home for the project at the free Wetpaint.com website. They began capturing digital images of their field trip experiences and worked with kids to create multimedia files in the school technology lab which they then uploaded to the Web. (Visit the GHES website.)

“We’ve come a long way in a short time,” says Lowe. “I can remember last year, we were watching some of the other schools (in the ABPC 21st Century project) present during our online professional development sessions. There was one elementary school that told how their kids were doing a TV show every morning. And I remember thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, there’s no way we could do that.’

“But now, when you look at it, we’re not far from that,” she says. “Our kids are doing podcasting and blogging and learning how to report and narrate. I think what we’re finding out is that if you expose them to it, they are much more ready to do these things than we think.”

Media specialist Patti Westbrook summed up the view of many teachers we spoke to at George Hall when she said: “These children can’t be limited by where they are, where they live, where they were born. It’s our job as teachers in this school to show them there are no limits to learning. There’s nothing they can’t do, with the right teaching and coaching and the right use of technology.”

West Blocton Elementary

The town of West Blocton, deep in the pine forests of Bibb County, is built over a coal mine that no longer exists. To use an ATM machine, you’ll need to drive to nearby Woodstock. It’s as close to “rural” as a small town gets. 

In a recent presentation, fourth grade teacher Dianna Bush told a group of state business and education leaders that among the 18 students in her West Blocton Elementary classroom, only four had Internet at home, and only six had parents could communicate with teachers by email, either at home or at work.
 
Bush told her blue-ribbon audience that for small towns and rural counties, the commitment to prepare children with 21st Century skills “is vital to our economic survival.” She used the example of the nearby Mercedes plant, just across the line in Tuscaloosa County, to make her point. “There are good jobs there but our young people are going to need these new skills to get them. Our county has a lot of timberland. We don’t have many opportunities. We don’t have much of a tax base. We have to prepare for a better future.”

The ABPC 21st Century teacher team at West Blocton Elementary includes (l-r) Vicky Parker, Michelle Carroll, Amanda Johnson, Dianna Bush and Lynn Nelson. 

By preparing high school graduates to become a 21st Century workforce, Bibb County could attract high-tech businesses and industry of its own, Bush suggested. “Our young adults would have the option to stay here and make a really nice living. And our wonderful small communities would not dry up and wither away.”

It would be easy for West Blocton Elementary principal Karen Hubbard and her teachers to fall back on their lack of the latest technology as an argument for not pursuing the teaching strategies associated with 21st Century learning. Even committed teachers may feel faint of heart when they hear stories about schools where classrooms are filled with hardware and every child has high-speed Internet at home.

“It can be overwhelming to go to meetings and hear about places where everyone has a laptop,” says first-grade teacher Michelle Carroll. “Or to talk to teachers in other districts who have all the equipment to do podcasts and videos.”

But while she and other teachers on WBES’s 21st Century School team would love to have the technology advantages possessed by some suburban Alabama schools, Carroll says, “We have really had to get past that and think about what we can do to bring some of these experiences into our classrooms. Because we know our kids need this and if they don’t get it at school, where will they get it?”

Although you can't see the large projection screen, you can see the excitement on the faces of these third and fourth graders at West Blocton Elementary as they demonstrate Think.com, the social network for kids. 

Carroll and her colleagues are modeling a variety of creative ways to make the most of what they have available. Students of one teacher frequently “classroom hop” to use a computer in another teacher’s room while working on a project. Dianna Bush borrowed the literacy lab (housed in a portable classroom) and staged a “paperless classroom” experience for her students, where they went all day without using textbooks or traditional paper resources. Then Bush swapped students with the other fourth grade teachers so their kids could “go paperless” as well.

“All it took was some good will and a little curriculum planning,” Bush says. “Next year, more of us are planning to do it more often.”

West Blocton also maximizes the use of its technology center, which was recently enhanced by a gift of more than two dozen up-to-date computers. “Our reputation as a school that’s determined to pursue 21st Century learning got us the new equipment,” says principal Karen Hubbard, who squeezes her school budget “very hard” to assure that she can keep certified teacher Annette Harris in the center full-time. “She’s a respected staff member who works with all our teachers around technology integration.”

With Harris’ help, students are establishing safe email accounts (an important first step in using many web-based tools) and learning about social networking through a safe website environment called Think.com, a free service for schools created by the Oracle Foundation. Through the Think.com global network, students in tiny West Blocton are sharing work and exhanging email about their communities with schools in the British Isles and other parts of the world.

Katie and Timera are just two of the many students at West Blocton Elementary who use Think.com, a web-based social network created just for students by the Oracle Foundation, to establish safe email addresses and communicate with students worldwide. 

Oracle also sponsors the international ThinkQuest competition, and Harris annually organizes a team of third and fourth graders to enter the rigorous contest. On June 15, 2007, ThinkQuest announced the West Blocton team’s honorable mention selection in the category “12 and Under” – an impressive accomplishment. Their “Cahaba Student Investigators” project examined macro-invertebrates in the nearby Cahaba River and was selected as a top-10 effort from among nearly 200 entries in their age group.

Harris also supports the Tech Tigers Team, a club designed to give students the opportunity to practice their technology skills. Students produce and present technology based demonstrations and also learn how to troubleshoot computer problems. Members of the team are often called upon to teach their teachers. When the new computers arrived for the technology center, the kids installed them—and also set up the older equipment in teachers’ classrooms.

Another group of students produces a tech newsletter that goes home to parents once a month. “A lot of our parents are scared of the Internet because they hear so much negative on TV and elsewhere,” Bush says. “We have this form that parents fill out at the beginning of the year that gives permission for kids to have access to the Internet. And we have a lot come back ‘No.’ So we have to go back and talk to them, to say ‘Please, let us help your children learn about these things’ and talk about how important they will be in their futures. We have to educate the parents, too.”

Hubbard says her school has opened up the technology lab to parents and has been turned down twice for a 21st C Learning afterschool grant that would provide up to $120,000 to support activities beyond regular school hours. “If we could get something like that, where we had funds to support staff in the lab after school, it would really help us extend services to our kids and involve more parents and community members in what we’re trying to do.”

Hubbard recalls that when her son was in high school, “he was one of the students who helped the teachers with the technology. Now we have fourth graders who can do that. But they’ve got to stay engaged – it’s got to be sustained when they leave here.” For that reason, Hubbard offers the services of her 21st Century teacher team to provide professional development activities for other district schools.

“If they want to become a 21st C school, we’ll be a resource for them,” she says. “That’s the kind of thing you have to do in Bibb County to get what you need. We’ll set up a session during our PD days and say, come and learn how to use blogs and wikis. And if we don’t know all the answers, we’ll find out.”

Fayetteville School

Due east of West Blocton, across I-65 and Lay Lake, Fayetteville School in Talladega County serves about 600 students in grades K-12. FHS had a graduating class this year of 30 seniors—many of whom earned a year or more of college credit before graduation by taking courses at the local community college that are not offered in their small rural school.

Maesa and Anna, fifth graders at Fayetteville School in Talladega County, work on their science wiki.

Although fewer Fayetteville students meet federal poverty guidelines (40 percent receive free or reduced price lunches) than at George Hall or West Blocton elementaries, teachers and administrators say they live in a rural culture where computers, the Internet, and the 21st Century in general are not only less omnipresent but often seen as threatening to traditional values.

During the past several years, an awareness of the urgent need to move to more technology-infused teaching and learning has grown among the school district’s leadership. At Fayetteville School, where a team of teachers participated in the ABPC 21st Century Schools program, teachers are experimenting with wikis, blogs and podcasts -- sharing their limited equipment in creative ways as they take the first steps toward meeting that need.

“The district vision is to prepare the students for the 21st Century,” interim FHS principal Joan Doyle told us. “So what we’re doing ties right into that district vision, and the school board and Superintendent are very supportive and understand its importance.”

Amanda Spurling, a recent college graduate who teaches fourth and fifth grade science, says she uses a variety of approaches to emphasize the 21st Century skills of teamwork, collaboration, project-based learning, and problem solving.

“I don’t just use technology, I use hands-on a lot, too,” she says. “We go into the lab and do experiements. We go outside and do demonstrations. We make a model of something.”

“But the technology, the web tools and the Internet are another important avenue of learning,” she believes. “When they graduate from high school, they are going to live in this Digital Age as adults. They are going to have to know how to use technology, how to present information using digital tools.”

As a school with a relatively small population spread over 13 grades (including kindergarten), Fayetteville often finds itself “under-resourced” – and technology is no exception. Teachers may have one or two computers in a room, and the technology lab is used most of the day for specific business and tech courses. A portable “cow” (computers on wheels) containing 10 laptops can be borrowed from the media center, but there’s typically a waiting list. 

When 11th grade English teacher Jennifer Barnett organizes a web-based project (which is quite often), she supplements the two computers in her room by “farming the kids out.” Some students work in the library, some in the lab, some in other teachers’ rooms. “Basically, you’ll find them at any vacant computer throughout the building,” Doyle said.

“Even though they may not be in the same room, because they’re on the Web they can work on projects together, and Ms. Barnett can monitor what they are doing. That’s pretty powerful, I think. They are collaborating and they’re not bound to be in the same room.”

Barnett, who served on Fayetteville’s 21st Century Schools team with Spurling and three other teachers, also helped organize the school SWAT team – Students Willing to Assist with Technology – which helps both faculty and parents sharpen their digital skills.

The 21st Century teacher team at Fayetteville School worked to spread the word about technology-infused teaching during the 2006-07 school year. (L-R) Former principal Joan Doyle, technology teacher Karen Pemberton, high school business teacher Robbie Stewart, high school English teacher Jennifer Barnett, and 4/5 science teacher Amanda Spurling.

“We don’t have a lot of technology stuff in our rooms,” Barnett says. “But truly, I think all you’ve got to have is a computer and an LCD projector (which you can usually borrow if you don’t have one of your own) and access to the Web. There’s a whole lot that can be done just with that.”

“We’re beginning to discover how to maximize what we have and not feel so deprived,” she says. “In small schools like this, that are not poor enough to get the money but not fully advantaged, either, it’s real easy to feel so woebegone about yourself that you aren’t willing to try some things. But that attitude is beginning to change in our school because a lot of people are beginning to see what’s possible.”

Barnett, Spurling and others are helping to demonstrate those possibilities through blog and wiki activities (Barnett resurrected the school newspaper as an online-only wiki project) that -- as Barnett says -- require little more than a computer, a projector and an Internet plug-in.

Spurling tells a story from her classroom to illustrate the intersection between old-fashioned enthusiasm for learning and the potential of web tools to accelerate students’ acquisition of knowledge and skills.

“The kids just get so much more excited about what they’re learning when they have technology,” she says. “And quite often, their excitement leads them to places where I have a limited amount of expertise. In our recent study of Space, that took us to NASA websites to find out more about the Mars Rover and the Hubble Telescope.”

When the subject turned to interesting phenomena in deep space, some students got “very, very excited,” Spurling recalls. “They couldn’t believe I didn’t know a whole lot about black holes. They wanted the definitive answers. I told them that even scientists don’t understand everything about black holes, but if you go research it for yourself, you can decide which theories you think make the most sense.”

These highly engaged students immediately formed a study club and used a free website to create a wiki where they could record and discuss all the resources and information they gathered. “They did it all by themselves,” Spurling says. “It’s all extra work – at recess, at home, in the library, it’s on their own.”

This story demonstrates the real power of web tools and the Internet to enhance learning, Spurling believes. “It’s teaching them that while I don’t know everything, and no one can know everything, they have access to the Internet where they can find out a great deal about anything that interests them.”

“I think that’s been the biggest outcome of our using the Internet more. It’s their growing understanding that they have an important role in managing their own learning.”