Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Our i3 project is a random control trial experiment to look at the effects of the EMITS program,
professional development, and high levels of technology in classrooms on 7th and 8th
grade students and their teachers who are in rural Missouri school districts. The school
districts that we’ll be working with are very small districts, they are very rural,
and most of them have not had an opportunity to have this type of technology or the professional
development for their teachers.
What kind of technology are you proposing? What kind of technology are you talking about
here?
The technology suite for the schools is really very important because it designates them
as 21st Century classrooms in a way. Each of the classrooms will receive an interactive
white board from Smart Technologies. Teachers will have their own individual laptops, students
will each have a laptop so it’s a one-to-one student laptop program, and we will also provide
some peripherals for the classroom, including digital cameras, printers and scanner. Some
of those important things that help make 21st Century classrooms work. All of these schools
are on the small rural school list that’s provided by the U.S. Department of Education
and so our schools range in size – our largest school has a population of about 2400 students
– Kindergarten through 12th grade. Our smallest school has a population of approximately
80 students – K through 12. So we are working with the middle school teachers and students
in those districts – 7th and 8th grade - and we are looking to see how the uses of
technology that are used in transformative ways as teachers learn to do that in professional
development. How those transformative uses really impact student’s communication arts,
or English language arts skills their mathematic skills and also some 21st century skills that
we’ll be measuring along with the project. I think the most important thing for us right
now is that this project brings a set of resources and a set of professional development experiences
to teachers that would not be available to the students in our state if it were not for
this i3 application. These 60 districts are some for the smallest most remote districts
as well as districts that don’t often have the opportunity to successfully compete for
grants or for other opportunities to get this technology into their district. So for them
– for us to be able to say to them-- we have an opportunity for you at very little
district expense to set up 21st century classrooms where teachers learn how to use the technology
and very transformative ways is an incredible opportunity for them and will give us a very
rich research study.