in Action
Evaluating the Fruit of Your Labor
Talbot Bielefeldt, senior research associate for
ISTE’s Research & Evaluation Department,
discusses ed tech initiatives and ISTE’s
Classroom Observation Tool
Spring is the season when yearlong technology and professional development projects
in schools bear fruit in new learning
activities. ISTE’s Research & Evaluation staff spends weeks on the road
observing classrooms and collecting
other data on educational technology
initiatives. Washoe County, Nevada,
is one such destination.
What ISTE found was that teachers—even those who had
to overcome technical glitches—liked using the whiteboards,
and students were engaged when the whiteboards were in use.
Washoe County, which includes
Reno, has devoted its federal Enhancing Education Through Technology
(EETT) funds to installing interactive
whiteboards throughout the district.
This year, Washoe invited neighboring Pershing and Douglas counties
to participate in its program. Washoe
provides central professional development and technical support—no
small task for a program that extends
from the Sierra Nevada foothills and
Lake Tahoe to the northern Nevada
desert.
technical glitches—liked using the
whiteboards, and students were engaged when the whiteboards were in
use. It was rare to see any “backrow
nappers” during observations. The
whiteboards enhanced presentations
by both teachers and students. “
Recitation at the board” was a common
classroom activity in which students
demonstrated solutions to problems
or called up examples of work.
ISTE also noted that the more
teachers used whiteboards, the more
likely they were to turn control of the
technology over to students rather
than using it only to augment their
own lectures. Many of the experienced teachers and the technology
coordinators in the districts are
already looking to the next step:
wireless slates that allow students
and the teacher to interact with the
whiteboard from their seats. Remote
manipulation of the whiteboard holds
the promise of moving beyond the
lecture/recitation model to turn the
technology into a collaborative learning space.
competitive grants funded through
the Nevada Department of Education. ISTE is also conducting evaluations of projects in Clark, Nye,
and Churchill counties. Churchill
County is implementing the eMINTS
professional development model,
Nye County is establishing a mobile
middle school science lab, and Clark
County is further developing its system of site-based Educational Computing Specialists.
This project provides a unique
opportunity to observe teachers
at different stages of development.
Evaluators used the ISTE Classroom
Observation Tool (http://icot.iste.org,
featured in ISTE in Action in L&L,
June/July 2008) to document classroom instruction and technology use.
What ISTE found was that teachers—
even those who had to overcome
The Nevada EETT programs are
among a dozen evaluations ISTE
is working on around the United
States this year for grantees under U.S.
Department of Education, National
Science Foundation, and private
initiatives. For more information on
ISTE’s evaluation consulting, contact
Talbot Bielefeldt, senior research
associate, ISTE Research & Evaluation at research@iste.org, or call
1.541.434.8937.
The Washoe/Pershing/Douglas
partnership was one of four EETT
—Talbot Bielefeldt has been an editor and
program evaluator for ISTE since 1988. He is
currently senior research associate in ISTE’s
Research & Evaluation Department, working on
studies of science education, distance learning,
and technology integration.
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