TechQuest Project Description

The Educational Opportunity: The educational need is such that K-6 students in my building are not being exposed to interactive learning through technology because there is an overwhelming lack of teacher support and training on how to implement and use the SMARTBoards that already exist within our school and a handful of our classrooms. The general purpose of this TechQuest is to increase teacher training with regards to the use of SMARTBoards because of their overall power to increase student learning and achievement.

The Setting:

• Teacher: The teacher will be a current first-grade teacher who will be moving into the position of "Technology Facilitator" in the fall of the 2010-2011 school year who currently uses a SMARTBoard on a daily basis in her classroom.
• Learner: The learners will be a mixture of K-6 regular education classroom teachers who have a wide range with years of teaching experience, technology experience as well as overall comfort level with the use of technology in general.
  
• Subject Matter: The subject matter will include hands-on experience with a SMARTBoard with guided support (guide-on the-side) as well as access to online tutorials that teach how to use a SMARTBoard as well as how to integrate them into learning through the available lesson plans and support services that I will show teachers how to access. Hard copies of tutorials and teachings will also be available to those teachers who wish to have access to one.
  
• Setting: The setting will be in our current school library that will accommodate a larger group of adults as well as the portable SMARTBoard that we currently have for use within our building.
  

Technology-Integrated Solution: As a way to create a "hook" into what they are going to learn about, the initial session will begin with learners being allowed to participate in an interactive game (two teams will be formed) using the SMARTBoard as the tool. Through this initial game, the teacher will serve as the "guide-on-the side" offering help and support where needed. After the game is complete, learners will be asked to reflect with their team members the positive versus negative aspects as to the interactive learning that they participated in. We will then discuss these thoughts and comments as a larger group and those comments will be placed on the SMARTBoard and saved for future reference using the Notebook feature. This too will hopefully create a "hook" into learning more about the SMARTBoard and it's potential with saving work to be looked at or referred back to at a later time. Learners will then watch a couple of videos on the use of SMARTBoards in the classroom with another discussion taking place at the end of them.

In time, and as these sessions progress, I will take on roles of a "sage on the stage" as well as a "guide on the side" as I lead teachers through online tutorials that will teach various components of how to use a SMARTBoard. Tutorials will be followed by immediate practice and hands-on learning with what was just taught, with time for a question/answer period at the end of every session. Overall success with this TechQuest will be measured based on how many and how often SMARTBoards are used within classrooms through observations (as compared to before), online questionnaires as well as general staff comments and feedback.

• Rationale: According to research, the use of interactive whiteboards for learning, raised student achievement by 16 percentage points meaning that a student who performs in the 50th percentile in a classroom that is not using interactive whiteboards would increase his/her score to the 66th percentile in a classroom that did use interactive whiteboards on a regular basis. Other research also indicates that the current generation of students is very visual and the use of SMARTBoards or interactive whiteboards enhances this learning style (as well as auditory and tactile learning) as it creates highly motivated and enthusiastic students who want to demonstrate what they know (which is an idea that teachers are always looking to cultivate). Use of SMARTBoards will also increase once learners (classroom teachers) are shown that lesson plans are readily available for use with a SMARTBoard and can be easily altered at any time as well as saved for future use to be used in the days, the weeks, the months, or even the years ahead. The combination of increased teacher use of SMARTBoards, and increased student engagement and student growth, will increase the overall use of SMARTBoards in classrooms and will allow for a step forward into 21st century learning which will ultimately result in "change with a difference" with regards to technology integration into everyday classroom learning.
  
• Logistics: Every Friday, 45 minutes is set aside before school starts for ongoing staff development trainings and it is this time that will serve as my opportunity to offer staff development training on SMARTBoards to those staff members who currently have a SMARTBoard in their room now as well as to any other teachers who are interested in participating. Teachers will be allowed to count this time in these trainings towards contact hours to be used for PTSB credit if they choose to.
  

Plan of Action: Throughout the final weeks of this school year, I will provide weekly trainings using a step-by-step scaffolded approach to teaching the use of SMARTBoards as outlined above through four 45 minute sessions every Friday beginning mid April and continuing through mid May. After this school year, I will continue to build and work on tutorials as well as hard-copy handouts that will be used in the coming 2010-2011 school year when ALL teachers in my building will have SMARTBoards in their classrooms and will require training and support with how to use them. These trainings will continue to take place and be offered on a weekly basis throughout the school year as long as the need is there.

"What I hear I forget.
What I see I remember.
What I do I understand."
Confucius