Cobb County School District Building Technology Literacy Proficiency in Middle Schools

1. Background and Goals 2. Technology Literacy Assessment 3. Grade Level Interventions 4. Recent Success Stories

 2 nd largest school system in Georgia  More than 106,000 students  Schools  Elementary – 68  Middle – 25 (9 Title I)  High – 16

To assist every student in crossing the digital divide by ensuring that every student is technologically literate by the time the student finishes eighth grade, regardless of the student’s race, ethnicity, gender, family income, geographic location, or disability. Portion of the NCLB Act known as ‘Enhancing Education Through Technology Act of 2001’ (E2T2)

…is the ability of students to use the tools of their society with skill in an ethical, accurate, and insightful manner to meet the demands of the 21st Century workplace and world.

RESEARCHRESEARCH We need to “prepare their children for a society where learning and employment were increasingly dependent on digital access and expertise. (Staples, Pugach, Himes, 2005). Harold Wenglinsky (2006), in his article Technology and Achievement: The Bottom Line, asserts, “We can measure how various activities in the school and in the classroom- including computer access and use- correlate with student performance.”

Interventions Analyzed and Reported Data Analyzed and Reported Data Tech Literacy Assessment Tech Literacy Assessment Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3

 Online- performance and knowledge based questions  Generalized technology proficiency  CCSD Middle School scores are reported to the GA DOE  Provides a various reports- individual, class, school and district Click on link below

SSystems and Fundamentals WWord Processing SSpreadsheets MMultimedia & Presentations TTelecommunications & Internet DDatabase SSocial & Ethical

District Technology Plan Student Technology Literacy Goal Increase the number of schools meeting student technology literacy proficiency by 2012 Strategy: Implement interventions for schools that fall below student technology literacy

 Technology Literacy Coaches  TLA 411  EasyTech  TechYes  Technology Integrated Units  Teacher Survey (link to survey) Teacher Survey

Collaborative Planning CoachingTraining

COACHING  Teachers use technology primarily to introduce content, drill, or quiz. (Study of Georgia Schools, 2006)  Teachers do not see an “intimate connection between technology and the curriculum,” (Zhao, Pugh, Sheldon, & Bowers, 2002)  About 7% of teachers are advanced enough to integrate. (Sparks, 2006)  Teachers learn best from their peers… through the experiences that have yielded successful technology implementation. (Zhao & Bryant, 2006)

6 th Grade EasyTech 7 th Grade Technology Projects 8 th Grade TLA Test Prep and Remediation

 Title I schools- TLA pre and post test  EasyTech tutorials to build technology literacy Click on picture to view sample curriculum.

 Project based technology integration  TechYes  Software Applications  Microsoft Excel  Movie Maker and Photo Story  Microsoft Publisher Click on link below

 TLA 101 (test prep)  Assisted students with multimedia and spreadsheet projects  Remediation with small groups (possibly through business course)

Proficiency

 Increased TechLiteracy assessment scores  Raised awareness of what skills students need to acquire to be technology literate  Increased technology integration  Increased teacher enthusiasm

 Chance McPherson  Mindy Ramon  Tricia Frazier Blog