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Posted on October 12, 2011
Writing, Collaboration and Sustainability in Saugus Union, CA
by James Rosso
A fourth grade 1:1 pilot focusing on writing within the science curriculum serves as a model for other grades, disciplines and districts.
Saugus Union School District (SUSD) has earned a reputation as a leader in utilizing technology — including Web 2.0, social networking tools, and Linux open source software — to maximize education opportunities. One program that Jim Klein, SUSD's director of information services & technology, is particularly proud of is the Student Writing Achievement Through Technology Enhanced Collaboration (SWATTEC), a recently completed two-year pilot involving all 1700 of the district's fourth grade students. The program targeted writing, information literacy, and Internet skills with help from one-to-one netbooks.
The Vision
The overall vision of the SWATTEC program was, "To select and use technology to support the achievement of the instructional goals of the District and to support the preparation of students to live and work in the 21st century." It was determined that writing was an ideal area to address with the fourth graders; after spending grades 1-3 learning to write the students were ready to start writing to learn. Based on the belief that "writing is the key to learning in all subjects," the goal was to encourage students to write and to share what they wrote with the community and especially with their peers.
Science was chosen as a subject area of focus. Here is the how the program is described at the district web site: "With a focus on writing within the science curriculum, the SWATTEC project will engage every fourth grade student in the district by providing a sustainable, one-to-one computing environment, which will be used to advance writing skills, build science knowledge, increase student and teacher technology proficiency, engage students and teachers in 21st century collaborative environments, and promote student writing achievement."
ISTE NETS standards, correlated with the California State Standards, were utilized in planning the SWATTEC program, with a particular emphasis on:
- Creativity and innovation skills;
- Communication and collaboration;
- Research and information fluency;
- Critical thinking and problem solving;
- Digital Citizenship, including Internet safety, ethics, and copyright;
- Technology skills.
Infrastructure and Digital Content
The fourth graders received their netbooks, equipped with Linux software, in January of 2009. The netbook was chosen for the program because it was inexpensive, light and portable—perfect for young learners and the writing they would be using it for. The open source software allowed the district to keep costs down while building a robust learning environment. In addition to the netbooks, each classroom received an LCD projector, a teacher laptop, a digital interactive pad and a laser printer to facilitate teacher instruction. Mobile carts were available with electrical connections for charging the netbooks and wireless access points were set up in every classroom.
Rather than using Moodle, the learning management system popular with many schools that have adopted open source, SUSD chose the social networking platform, Elgg, since collaboration and networking were key elements of the SWATTEC program. The students and teachers used a variety of software, including a web-based student-driven writing evaluation tool and Web 2.0 intra-district collaborative tools.
Professional Development
Recognizing that the success of a technology program depends on the teachers rather than the hardware or the software, Saugus Union School District places a strong emphasis on effective and sustained professional development. The SWATTEC homepage quotes Jacqueline Goodloe, a Washington D.C. teacher: "When it comes to technology in education, you can create it, you can design it, you can produce it, you can legislate it, you can order it, you can restructure it, give it standards and outcomes for it. But the bottom line is that if it is going to happen, teachers are going to have to make it happen."
To enhance the goal of living in the 21st century, the professional development for teachers was geared to preparing them to be leaders rather than technicians. Throughout the two-year pilot teachers were supported as they explored issues related to digital citizenship, Internet research, 21st century skills, classroom management, and other aspects of integrating technology into the curriculum. They also participated in a mentor program with opportunities to establish communities of practice.
Funding
Funding for the pilot program came from a variety of sources but mostly from the federal Title II Part D, Enhancing Education Through Technology (E2T2) funds. Additional funds were secured from district funds as well as from individual school funds such as donations, PTA fundraising, and grants.
Now that the original pilot is over, the district is exploring additional ways of sustaining the program. The netbooks were purchased by the school for the pilot but SUSD is working on a plan to have parents purchase the netbooks, with the district providing the software. When asked about equity issues, Jim Klein explained that loaners would be made available to the small group of families that could not afford a netbook and pointed out that lack of Internet access is a bigger equity issue than hardware. The solution to that challenge, he said, is to send home all the software needed for 24/7 learning on a CD, allowing all students to access it with ease.
Results
The Saugus Union School District was pleased with the results of the program. As stated at the SWATTEC web site: "From the beginning, the district set ambitious goals for the project, and we are pleased to report that the program has been a huge success! Student proficiency in English Language Arts on the state test jumped an incredible twenty-four percent (24%) - a greater gain than Saugus has seen in any year since state-wide testing was instituted. Student writing tests showed an average thirty-seven percent (37%) gain from the beginning of the year, with several students achieving fifty percent (50%) or more individually! Both student and teacher technology literacy also showed impressive gains, and students are more actively engaged and participating in their own learning."
A team from the University of California, Irvine, served as outside evaluators for the program. SWAATTEC's vision is reflected in three questions asked by the evaluation team:
- Are the netbooks and software practical, inexpensive, easy to use, and adaptable for classroom work?
- Did the combination of netbooks and software encourage and facilitate learning and teaching?
- How did the netbooks and open source software function in terms of pedagogy, professional development and curriculum?
To conduct the evaluation, the U.C. Irvine team utilized test scores, online teacher and student surveys, observation, interviews, and documents. In their final evaluation they summarized the SWATTEC program as follows: "Overall, the Saugus laptop program appears to be extremely well designed, thoughtfully implemented, and well received by teachers and students. Learning activities with laptops match well with what is known about how students learn best with technology." The final report concluded that the SWATTEC program had a positive effect on teaching and learning. "Furthermore," the report noted, "while all demographic groups benefited from the program, the greatest benefit accrued to those students most at risk."
The SWATTEC pilot was so successful that the district has decided to continue it with the fourth graders and expand to additional grades. Additional evidence of the program's success is that at least 20 districts throughout the country are adopting the tools and methodologies of the Saugus program.
As district leaders wrote in one summary of the program's effectiveness: "The digitization of school is not the mechanism for bringing 21st century tools/skills to education. A compelling, continuous access environment, built on reliable technology that students and teachers can count on, where transparent technology use is both assumed and presumed, is the only way to educational transformation, and Saugus has built a free, sustainable, replicable platform, with a proven effective plan to get us there." |
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