I. Project Identification
Signed by: Ronald Abdouch
Project Director
II. Project Summary
The Community Discovered , currently completing the second
year of full operation, is a five-year project that links technology
and the visual and performing arts with other subject areas to
transform the education of K-12 students in Nebraska and nationwide.
A special emphasis has been placed on serving disadvantaged students
in rural and urban areas . The focus of this project is to develop
curriculum models of engaged student learning using technology and
resources of the Information SuperHighway. Four art museums are
currently involved: The National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian
Institution; The Joslyn Art Museum; The Museum of Nebraska Art; and
The Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden. In addition,
the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts and the Getty
Education Institute for the Arts have also assisted with the
project.
This project is being conducted by Westside Community Schools in
Omaha, Nebraska. The Community Discovered has expanded on the
mission of Prairie Visions: The Nebraska Consortium for
Discipline-Based Art Education, at the Nebraska Department of
Education. Prairie Visions is a consortium of nearly 100 Nebraska
school districts, the Nebraska Department of Education, the Nebraska
university system, three Nebraska art museums, and other arts and
education agencies. Prairie Visions has been sponsored by the
Nebraska Department of Education, the Getty Education Institute for
the Arts, and the Nebraska Art Teachers Association for the past ten
years. Recently, administration of Prairie Visions has been
transferred from the Nebraska Department of Education to the Nebraska
Arts Council.
The Community Discovered builds upon and extends the impact
of the initial pilot project, The Art and Technology Integration
(ATI) Project, which was conducted by Westside Community Schools and
Grand Island Public Schools in Nebraska. The ATI project received a
two-year grant from the Excellence in Education Council, funded by
Nebraska state lottery proceeds, and was completed in June, 1997.
The Community Discovered project has five goals:
To facilitate realization of the goals and evaluation of the
project, a three-tiered advisory board is in operation and is being
utilized throughout the project. The members of these boards are
asked to interact with project staff for the purpose of guiding the
evolution of the project and providing feedback regarding the
outcomes. The members of the boards and the descriptions of
the purposes are provided in Appendix F. The three tiers are defined
as the Board of Advisors (BOA), a group of nationally respected
professionals with connections to the goals and activities of the
project; the Community of Friends (COF), a group of parents and
community representatives who share an interest in the goals of the
project and are vested in the success of the project as stakeholders
in our communities; and the Council of Administrative Partners (CAP),
representing individuals from each of the participating districts and
partner agencies involved in the actual conduct of the projects
activities. Each participating district has also developed its own
Community of Friends board and is represented in the larger COF
through annual meetings of these boards. Further, an on-line board of
students is being targeted for use as a student advisory body. This
group, called the Student Advisory Partners (SAP) will include
students across the K-12 continuum and from all participating
districts. They will provide direction and feedback to project
participants and the evaluation team through a listserv and focus
group meetings. In this way they will provide a flow of information
throughout the growth and development of the project. The co-chairs
of the advisory boards are Senator J. Robert Kerrey and Dr. Elizabeth
Broun, Director of the NMAA.
The Council of Administrative Partners met on January 27 for a
progress update, discussion of project initiatives and activities
based on formative evaluation from year one, and discussion of
participant commitments. The annual meeting of all boards was held on
April 4 and 5, including site visits to each participating school
district and a meeting of all the boards. All board members, in
response to their request to visit classrooms, were divided into
small groups on the first day of the meeting for travel to each of
the participating districts outside the Omaha area. A meeting of the
complete group took place in Omaha on day two, with reports and
demonstrations from the Westside teachers and students and each of
the arts agencies participating in the project. Members of the
project staff and the evaluation team reported on particular aspects
of the project and progress to date. Each of these boards have
assisted in recent meetings related to planning for sustainability of
the project, which have been held during the Summer and Fall of 1997.
The processes used and the outcomes of these meetings were shared at
the Directors Conference in October in Washington, DC.
III. Project Status
Within its second year of operation, the project "The Community Discovered: The Search for Meaning Through the Integration of Art and Technology in K-12 Education" is continuing to make substantial and consistent progress in its training, classroom integration, and evaluation activities. As described in the Project Summary section, the project focuses on enhancing education by developing interdisciplinary constructivist curriculum units that deliver the arts and art resources to the classrooms of Nebraska and the world via use of the Internet. The project is a multi-element education program that: brings the arts and art museums into classrooms electronically; develops computer integration strategies; trains and supports teachers; builds curriculum, instruction, and assessment strategies; and seeks to build a nationwide community for the arts and technology integration. The involvement within the participating districts has been systematic and has included the direct participation of the following.
|
|
|
|
Throughout the past year, teachers within
The Community Discovered
Project received training in
creating integrated curriculum, various technology/Internet skills,
constructivism, and how to utilize the arts in an interdisciplinary
unit. Many of the skills learned in these training sessions have been
passed on by participants to colleagues partnering with participants
and have been institutionalized within the curriculum. District site
coordinators have also played an important role in providing both
technical and curricular support to participants and partners. They
have also worked to maintain the enthusiasm of these teachers by
providing help to both teachers and students, in and out of the
classroom.
The Evaluation process for The Community Discovered
continues to expand and evolve, with evaluation related data being
collected and systematically reviewed for formative input into
specific project objectives and related project activities. The
evaluation design is carefully matched to project activities and is
implementing a five year plan for both formative and summative review
(see Appendix B). The evaluation is essentially that of an "impact
analysis". In evaluation studies, impact analysis can be defined as
"determining the extent to which one set of directed human activities
affected the state of some objects or phenomena, and . . .
determining why the effects were as large or small as they turned out
to be" (Mohr, 1992, p.1). In this examination of the effectiveness of
The Community Discovered project, the evaluation design is
focused on analyzing data related to each of the five goals and
related project objectives. The evaluation determines the general
progress and impact of the project on K-12 education in the
participating schools and includes a systematic review of the
learning environments for both students and teachers. The evaluation
also helps document the project as a potential model for replication
by other educational institutions and organizations.
The evaluation process continues to use multiple sources of
information, and includes a comprehensive approach to data collection
that is targeting information related to each project goal and
objective. These data types include: 1) teacher survey data, 2)
electronic data, such as listserv participation and electronic logs,
3) classroom observations and videotaping, 4) teacher and student
interviews, 5) student projects and portfolios, 6) teacher growth
plans, 7) focus groups, 8) standardized and teacher created test
data, 9) attendance records, 10) trends in disciplinary actions, 11)
stakeholder surveys, and 12) changes in school structure. All data is
summarized and placed within a World Wide Web page format that is
available for review by the project staff, participants, and
interested stakeholders. An evaluation team derived from the Office
of Internet Studies (OIS) in the College of Education at the
University of Nebraska - Omaha (UNO) is coordinating the evaluation
process with assistance from West Ed Laboratories, an additional
source of external review.
The evaluation process emphasizes the blend of both quantitative
and qualitative data analysis with conclusions and implications for
each reporting period based on multiple sources of data. Reports such
as this one are being produced for each reporting period with
additional formative feedback provided to the project between
reporting intervals (i.e. summaries of teacher survey data), and
through dissemination using the evaluation-related World Wide Web
page. The status of each project objective (along with organizational
goals and related evaluation activities) is summarized in the
following narrative. Additionally, consensus meetings held to
establish partner statements of shared vision, activities and
outcomes (Appendix D) provide a mutually defined measurement
backdrop. These statements are integrated and referenced throughout
the report and are reflected in the Evaluation Indicators and
examples of the data collected.
It is important to note that the goals and objectives have evolved
slightly from their original format as written in the original
application. While the content/intent of the original goals and
objectives remains unchanged, the organization and numbering of these
objectives have been altered slightly (as per progress report of
2/96).
Goal 1: To enable students to achieve high
academic standards by integration of the arts and technology in all
core subject areas..
Objective 1.1
80% of students in classes using the modules will
show evidence of improved academic achievement as indicated
by: a) decline in absenteeism, b) increased student
self-concept as indicated by student attitude surveys and
focus groups, c) students performing at higher levels as
determined by each school's assessment of student progress
and electronic portfolios.
|
Activities
|
|
|
Evaluation Plan
|
|
Status
The Community Discovered project is well underway for the second year of formal activities, and participating teachers continue to develop and initiate appropriate planning and delivery of curricular units. Each of the participating teachers are building on the training they received over the previous summer, which provided extensive experiences in technology, discipline based art, constructivism, interdisciplinary planning and teaching, and general integration strategies. Professional development activities are continuing throughout the academic year. Teachers are also periodically reviewing student performance following relevant lessons using a World Wide Web page journal/log process which is accessible over the Internet. In addition, participating teachers have selected individual students to examine more extensively for a student case study process. Teachers are also initiating work on their curriculum modules/units, using a standard format which has been refined over time based on participant input. These modules are available over the project web page. Each unit is being linked to the National Goals for Education, the National Standards for all disciplines, the State Frameworks for all disciplines, District Outcomes for the participating districts, teacher-learner outcomes identified by the participating teachers, student-learner outcomes identified by the participating teachers as related to their specific curricula, and the goals of The Community Discovered. Using a centralized database, these unit plans can be accessed by searches on any of those links or by search parameters linked to artists, arts form, or a particular teacher. These units reflect the shared vision statements for what students will be able to do within the project.
|
Partner Statements of Shared Vision: Students Will:
Example Outcome Indicators/Evaluation Measures:
|
Student development work is a strong part of the project, and
students are involved in a large variety of innovative and creative
projects. Some students have developed electronic products such as
HyperStudio stacks, virtual reality sculptures, or other lesson-based
electronic products utilizing a variety of educational technology
tools such as Clarisworks. These electronic student products and
multimedia projects are also helping to represent the project within
the project web site, as evidence of student accomplishments, and
help reflect student achievement. Two visuals, one related to a
virtual reality sculpture, and the other related to a hyperstudio
stack on personal tragedy, represent the high quality of these
student projects:
Student Project Examples:
|
|
Similar to the more visual student products, student written
products have also been impressive related to the project, and are
represented by these selected writings.
|
|
Student attitude information has been collected by the evaluation
team and has included student focus groups, interviews, and journal
reports from some classrooms. Each of these sources indicate that the
project is indeed motivating for students, and student quotes show a
real energy and enthusiasm. Representative quotes are included
below.
|
In several of the participants' classrooms, parents are also surveyed for feedback within the project (often in multiple languages). Such feedback is routinely positive, and the quote below is typical of the parent support for the project.
|
For several quantitative measures, the project is examining
classroom-based research data being collected by the project teacher
participants which targets outcomes directly linked to their
individual project growth plans and classrooms. This classroom-based
research data, which will be summarized at the end of this academic
year, appears quite positive so far. As an example, one teacher
focused on increased reading scores. Data indicated that students
within the project had significantly increased in the California Test
of Basic Skills (CTBS) reading scores from a pretest average of 21.7
to a posttest average of 62.5. This compared to a control group (from
a similar class which was not involved in the project) that increased
to a posttest score of only 43.6. Teachers are examining a wide range
of classroom based achievement, including attendance information and
standardized test information.
Within the population being served, subgroups of students who are
at-risk for academic failure or who have been verified for special
education services are also being identified for targeted evaluation
activities. In particular, participant teachers are closely following
at least one student each in an individual case study process, which
includes focused electronic journaling via web page. In addition,
working with other faculty within the University of Nebraska system,
the Project Director and the Evaluation Team are also directing the
work of graduate students who are conducting thesis related research
incorporating project activities.
|
Goal 2: |
To provide students and educators in rural and disadvantaged urban areas with equal access to the information and resources available from state and national institutions associated with the arts. |
Activity I: The Electronic Art Museum in the Classroom
|
Objective 2.1 |
A minimum of 750 art images will be available through the Internet along with curriculum and contextual information for use by educators and students. Images will come from the collections of the Smithsonian NMAA; the Getty Education Institute for the Arts; the Joslyn; the Sheldon, and MONA, the Kennedy Center and regional performing arts agencies. |
|
Activities
|
|
|
Evaluation Plan
|
|
Status
Again, this second year, The Community Discovered teachers
participated in a week long summer workshop at The National Museum of
American Art (NMAA) to review available works, learn methods of
integrating these images into various curriculum areas, and plan for
their classroom use. During that week they also participated with the
Kennedy Center staff for one day to consider how the performing arts
resources might be incorporated into the curriculum. In addition,
discipline based art training was conducted in a joint workshop with
faculty from Prairie Visions Institute, and the project co-hosted a
workshop focusing on contructivism and technology with the
Connections Challenge Grant (a Nebraska Technology Innovation
Challenge Grant).
Modifications in the activities, schedules, and content of the
1997 summer professional development activities were made based on
participant feedback from 1996. Related to these modifications,
instead of attending the full week at the Prairie Visions Institute,
Community Discovered participants during 1997 attended activities for
2 1/2 days of Discipline Based Art Education at the Prairie Visions
Institute, and for the remaining 2 1/2 days, they were involved in
similar activities off-site, but within an on-line format to provide
a virtual institute process.
Several other project training activities, such as MidWinter Mindstorms in January, were also conducted throughout the school year to assist teachers and students in learning to incorporate arts resources, the technology skills to do so and the education/curriculum changes necessary to insure appropriate use of the resources in a constructivist teaching-learning environment. The shared vision statements reflect this strong collaboration in the project with cultural institutions.
|
Partner Statements of Shared Vision: Cultural Institutions Will:
|
|
Outcome indicators/evaluation measures:
|
Building upon their training experiences, project teachers are
continuing the process of planning the integration of arts resources
into classroom activities. Teachers are linked to museum and
performing arts agency personnel, and to other educators, by use of a
project facilitated listserv, which facilitates ongoing communication
between project participants, and provides additional information for
the formative evaluation process. Docents at the NMAA were provided a
computer from the grant to enable them to access email with the
participating teachers and eventually to use desktop video
conferencing. The information exchange between participants within
this listserv is indeed interesting, and reflects a true
collaboration among participants. The use of this listserv is
evolving, and during the last year of monitoring this communication
process the percentage of curriculum oriented messages (as opposed to
technical or other content) has increased from 33% to 54%. The
messages reflect a true partnership process between the project
museums and teacher participants, as represented by this example
message from the National Museum of American Art.
|
Constructivist pedagogy requires holistic thinking and the integration of disciplines. To promote such efforts and empower teachers to employ interdisciplinary constructivist planing and teaching it was helpful to include a variety of art forms and not only the visual arts. Therefore, project activities have also included some limited activities with the performing arts, and the project is benefiting from collaboration with The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and statewide arts agencies, including Opera Omaha and The Omaha Community Playhouse through their educational touring groups and the apprentice program of The Playhouse. Through arrangements with the Kennedy Center, visiting artist, Namu Lawanga, African Dance Cooperative, provided professional development as well as student participation workshops on use of movement/dance within the curriculum.
Two teachers from The Community Discovered were also invited to
participate in a 5-day institute at the Kennedy Center during the
summer of 1997. In this environment they worked with other teachers
who are Kennedy Center Fellows, to develop web-based, arts integrated
curriculum. Throughout the week they participated in on-line chats
with teachers from throughout the nation and the world via the
Kennedy Center website. Opera Omaha also provided a workshop entitled
"Opera Goes West" during the Fall of 1997, followed by performances
of the touring group for students throughout the state.
For the visual arts, the NMAA has taken a strong leadership role
in initiating museum-related activities in the project and has been
continuing to work through many technical and copyright constraints
related to image scanning and publishing. Their web site, using
feedback from participating teachers, has evolved into being a model
one for the country and is an excellent example of the contribution
such organizations can make to classroom learning. [URL:
http://communitydisc.wst.esu3.k12.ne.us/HTML/resources]
As an outgrowth of the 1996 summer institute at the NMAA, a
focused effort was made to develop a Special Interest Group related
to the works of William H. Johnson. The majority of holdings of his
work are with the NMAA and were going to be 'on tour' at the Joslyn
Museum in the Spring of 1997. Using this as an opportunity to help
teachers network, provide a model for developing constructivist, arts
integrated curriculum, and for interdisciplinary teaching and
learning, a group of about 20 participating teachers used this
opportunity to focus on these particular works as central to their
curriculum development. Many of the units produced by these teachers
reflect the centrality of the arts in curriculum development and the
interdisciplinary links made to these works (see Unit Abstracts in
Appendix G).
During the planning for the 1997 workshops, the NMAA and the Kennedy Center staff met with the project director to discuss development of similar focus groups around which teachers could collaborate. Using the initiatives of the national agencies and the state museums (e.g. touring exhibits for schools planned for 1997-98 academic year) the agenda for the summer institutes was defined. During that time, teachers were presented resources related to several special interest areas. These have been formed into special interest groups (SIGs), facilitated by project staff, site coordinators, or museum personnel, and linked to the museums through staff at the NMAA and other agencies. These SIGs have been actively forming throughout the late summer and early fall and have begun to meet in small groups to collaborate in identifying resources and developing curricular units, all within a web based environment for communication support [URL: http://communitydisc.wst.esu3.k12.ne.us/HTML/sigs/]
An electronic request form [URL:
http://communitydisc.wst.esu3.k12.ne.us/] is being used by teachers
to facilitate planning for the retrieval of arts resources. The
partner museums and arts agencies are well integrated into the
project. Specialists are employed at each of the art museums to work
with teachers in researching resources and digitizing images and
textual materials for access over the Internet. Resources from the
Kennedy Center have also been provided through staff of the ARTSEDGE,
at the Kennedy Center, as part of the contracted arrangements and
in-kind resources. The web pages of these museums and the Kennedy
Center contribute substantially to the project and are of the highest
quality. They can be accessed easily through links with The
Community Discovered Web page [URL:
http://communitydisc.wst.esu3.k12.ne.us/HTML/resources/]. Each of
these web pages are accessed continually by electronic hits from
around the world, and the interest in these sites is expanding
rapidly, as indicated by recent 1997 statistics from the Sheldon Art
Museum.
Web Site Hits for Museum Resources (Example: Sheldon Museum):
|
|
As of Jan 1 |
As of Mar 1 |
As of May 1 |
As of July 1 |
|
Total Files Served |
21,985 |
64,471 |
110,206 |
165,442 |
|
Daily Average |
360 |
488 |
605 |
683 |
|
Unique Sites Requesting |
1,517 |
4,668 |
8,156 |
12,199 |
|
Countries Served |
37 |
52 |
61 |
65 |
The quality and utility of the web pages developed in the project
is considerable, andThe Community Discovered Project World
Wide Web page, accessible from
http://communitydisc.wst.esu3.k12.ne.us, and the linked Museum Pages,
recently received an award for their utility for use in the
classroom, as indicated by the following communication from the
Northeast Regional Technology in Education Consortium:
The Community Discovered Project World Wide Web page was
also featured in the Innovator of the Month Section of the Eisenhower
National Clearinghouse. Such an award is related to solid
relationship of the project to all disciplines, including mathematics
and science.
The formative evaluation process targeting museum participation
has included site visits, focus group analyses, questions on
stakeholder surveys, and electronic monitoring of web site and
listserv use. Additional surveys and interviews are systematically
examining teacher perceptions of museum related activities. For
example, a recent web-based survey given to teacher participants, is
providing museums with additional formative evaluation information to
help further refine their activities and the general educational
utility of their web sites. [URL:
http://ois.unomaha.edu/cdeval/museums/].
Site coordinators are actively meeting with
teachers to assist them in brainstorming ideas for upcoming units
while also assisting them in locating and integrating appropriate
arts resources into these units. Site Coordinators are also offering
technical assistance to teachers in their search for images and other
arts resources and in the utilization of these resources in the
classroom with students. A major thrust of the site coordinators is
to help the participants create a classroom atmosphere in which
students are utilizing the arts resources and technology to create
their own learning experiences.
The project continues to examine the most
effective architecture for videoconferencing and distance education.
Consistent with the original objectives of the project and with the
expanded view of the arts, it is increasingly important for
classrooms to be linked to outside resources in a way that promotes
interaction on-line. With rapid changes in telecommunications and
technology application it is incumbent on the leaders involved with
The Community Discovered
to explore and make available the
resources necessary for such access and connectivity. To this end,
the project is working closely with representatives from cable TV,
satellite systems (i.e.: NebSat), telephone companies and
telecomputing agencies to determine the optimal integration of
resources and to develop the consortium resources needed to make
videoconferencing and distance education available to participating
sites. Some initial training and meeting work has already taken place
through the use videoconferencing on an experimental basis.
The advantages of the videoconferencing format include a shorter
drive time for many of the teachers, and also allow the teachers to
invite administrators or other partner teachers to drop informally
into the sessions. There are also disadvantages, such as technical
problems, and the perception that the videoconference does appear to
cut down on some of the interaction between participants. Many of the
teachers suggested that perhaps a blend of videoconferencing and
"face to face" formats would be the most appropriate for facilitating
future training and meeting-related activities.
One such technology integrates the use of cable television and the
Internet. In cooperation with ACTV, their "eschool" application was
piloted in the spring of 1997, delivering a unique performance from
the Kennedy Center to schools in Nebraska and allowing students to
interact with the performers 'on-line' using a chat feature, provide
web-push technology for delivering www resources, and a live video
performance through COX cable. The success of this interaction and
the potential for development of curricula that can be distributed to
a broad network of educators interested in using curriculum developed
through The Community Discovered was encouraging. Further, through
ACTV it is possible that a revenue stream for curricular projects
would be generated to further support the initiatives of The
Community Discovered. Therefore, a contractual arrangement with ACTV
was agreed upon in the summer of 1997 and has begun to be realized
through teacher training this fall. Further, the Omaha Community
Playhouse has offered to make available their 'apprentice program' as
a pilot curricular unit. Initially, the teacher workshop and student
performance of Opera Omaha's "Opera Goes West" have been taped for
use in developing a unit that can by used asynchronously by teachers.
These are examples of how both the synchronous and asynchronous
application of this technology can be applied (see Appendix I for
Press Release).
|
Objective 2.2 |
Museum educators at the Joslyn Art Museum, the Sheldon and MONA will each develop at least one educational outreach program using appropriate technologies such as the Internet, kiosk, and interactive multi-media. |
|
Activities
|
|
|
Evaluation Plan
|
|
Status
Museum educators are continuing to expand their web pages with
appropriate -images and other resources while also refining their
local process for gaining approval for the digitizing and sharing of
images related to their local collections. These arts educators are
contributing to ongoing communication over the project listserv in
order to help share lesson ideas and provide periodic suggestions to
teachers. Participants and site coordinators
also contribute information to museum educators regarding the images
and other arts resources that would be the most desirable to
digitize. Site coordinators are working with museum educators to
provide participants access to educational packets and information
regarding new exhibits and shows. Each participating museum is
also continuing with project related plans for developing various
kiosk, multimedia, and Internet-based outreach programs. The
evaluation process related to this objective has included a
stakeholder survey that included museum partners, the review of
museum related written information and brochures, and the monitoring
of listserv dialogue. Structured interviews and on-site visits have
also been conducted during the past year. In addition, the evaluation
team is working on an interactive web page instrument and related
assessment rubric which will examine the teachers understanding of
how to integrate the art and technology resources available from the
museums into the learning process, and provide additional formative
evaluation information.
|
Other outreach and support activities of the museums include the following:
|
One particularly good example of the collaborative efforts within the project is the efforts associated with the exhibit of the works of William H. Johnson which was located at the Joslyn Art Museum this past spring. As noted in an earlier section, these works are from the holdings of the NMAA and were the centerpiece for a number of curricular units being constructed by participating teachers. In conjunction with this exhibit students also worked with docents from both the local and national museums via e-mail, to help develop student-docent tours of the exhibit, to assist both teachers and students in utilizing the educational packets prepared in conjunction with the exhibit, and for the effective integration of important performing arts works available from the Kennedy Center and local artists. The e-mail participation involving students was wide and varied and was eventually expanded to student-to-student interaction between schools. A review of these e-mail messages indicated significant motivation and interest by students, as reflected in the samples below-
|
|
Goal 3: |
|
Activity III: Professional Development and Support for
Educators
|
Objective 3.1 |
Through collaboration with private companies, project educators will test and evaluate commercial technology tools (i.e. software packages) annually for applicability to classroom settings and instructional objectives. |
|
Activities
|
|
|
Evaluation Plan
|
|
Status
Continuing to work closely with the Apple Computer Corporation,
the project has further incorporated the purchased curriculum based
computer software bundles for Community Discovered teachers. These
bundles included resources related to elementary, secondary, writing
and publishing, mathematics, multimedia, and biology (with probes).
Software evaluation activities are continuing,
and several packages, such as Plan-It Teacher, which was developed by
the British Columbia Ministry of Education, have been used in
The Community
Discovered activities. The
evaluation team has monitored the distribution of computer bundles,
the software review process, and initial video-conferencing
activities as part of the formative evaluation process related to
project-based teacher training and support. Such project activities
reflect the shared vision statements for what business partners will
contribute to the project.
|
Partner Statements of Shared Vision: Business Partners will:
Outcome indicators/evaluation measures:
|
|
Objective 3.2 |
By 1996, each school site in participating districts will have access to technology resource persons available to assist in evaluation, selection, and application of appropriate technologies. |
|
Activities
|
|
|
Evaluation Plan
|
|
Status
The nineteen Nebraska Educational Service Units (ESU's) have
assisted the project in various activities and continue to offer
their support and participation. As part of this technical support
network, a database which includes names, addresses, phone numbers,
and electronic mail addresses of 30 support personnel across the
state has been distributed to teacher participants. Each ESU related
to the project sites is working with the districts to ensure
effective connections of district buildings and classrooms to the
Internet. In addition, the Winnebago School District (an Indian
reservation) is continuing to receive some networking support
directly from U.S. West. Site coordinators are
also currently providing technical assistance with hardware and
software to teachers and their students. The site coordinators are
offering personal training sessions on utilizing new software and
hardware to participants. These sessions are being held at individual
schools with participants who request the extra help. To
enhance the formative evaluation process related to this technical
support, the evaluation team is working closely with the Educational
Service Units to blend state-wide evaluation tasks with those of
The Community Discovered project. This has included the
modification of a state distributed survey to include questions
related to the goals of The Community Discovered project, and
the modification of a structured interview protocol already being
used in debriefing technology resource persons in the state. For
example, in the recent state distributed surveys, the use of Internet
based art related lessons accounted for over 18% of the more than 632
teachers submitting favorite curriculum examples for use with the
Internet from across the state of Nebraska.
Overall, the project has been quite extensive in its planned and
organized activities. The large number of inservice, dialogue, and
other project related activities are reflected in the project
calendar provided within the appendix of the report (see Appendix
J).
|
Objective 3.3 |
By 2000, 300 Nebraska educators, including 60 educators of rural and urban disadvantaged students, will be trained on computer-based educational strategies and interdisciplinary constructivist curriculum to effectively integrate art and technology in all core subject areas. |
|
Activities
|
|
|
Evaluation Plan
|
|
Status
The participants for year two of The Community Discovered
project were selected from formal applications and resulted in 10
teachers from Westside Community Schools, 10 teachers from Grand
Island Public Schools, 5 teachers from Lexington Public Schools 3
teachers from Winnebago Public Schools, and 10 teachers from the
Omaha Public Schools. All applicants were notified by early March of
their status, and those selected began project related professional
development with an orientation meeting on April 9th that included
introduction to on-line resources related to the project, an overview
of the project goals and objectives and an introduction to the
evaluation process.
Intensive training activities continued through the summer, and
academic year. Including the teachers involved in the Art and
Technology Integration pilot project, a total of 270 teachers have
now participated in training activities directly associated with the
integration of art, technology, interdisciplinary learning, and
constructivism to support curricular goals in The Community
Discovered project. These teachers are also working as mentors
for numerous other teachers at their local sites and districts. Teachers within the project have formal partners with
whom they team in constructing and teaching units throughout the
year. Site coordinators are maintaining communications with these
participants and their partners and assisting them in reviewing,
analyzing, and integrating the Arts into their units.
Project training activities have been routinely reported by the
teacher participants as being very appropriate and adaptable to
classroom use, and teachers have indicated that they believe their
knowledge has increased in each of the key training areas. See table
below.
| ||||
|
Knowledge in: |
|
|
|
|
|
Not Improved |
|
|
|
|
|
Somewhat Improved |
|
|
|
|
|
Considerably Improved |
|
|
|
|
The project also co-hosted a contructivism and technology training
workshop with the Connections Challenge Grant (also a Nebraska
Technology Innovation Challenge Grant). In addition, numerous other
project training activities, such as MidWinter Mindstorms in January,
a Surfing Party (web resources), and Basic and Advanced Technology
Institutes were conducted throughout the school year (See Appendix
J).
Project inservices are always focused on four main topical areas of art, technology, interdisciplinary teaching, and constructivism. These areas are always carefully integrated, and all inservice activities focus on the project goals, as indicated by the inservice planning diagram below.
Site coordinators have also met with
participants on an individual basis to assist in completing
personalized growth plans. These growth plans have been collected
within a new electronic web page format (see Evaluation Appendix B)
and are closely monitored by the evaluation team [URL:
http://ois.unomaha.edu/cdeval/growplan.html].
Videotapes of participant teaching are also being evaluated using an established rubric (see Evaluation Plan in Appendix B). The analysis for the past year indicated an increased performance in technology and art integration by the teachers and was especially indicative of an increased art integration as represented by the following graph.
These teaching episode videotapes are
submitted by all teacher participants and are used by the evaluation
team in helping identify teacher change associated with the qualities
of constructivist teachers. Changes in teacher behaviors are noted by
comparing base-line videos to tapes of teachers at the end of the
academic year, and each subsequent year of the project. As new
teachers are added to the project, former participants are being
prepared to work with the new participants to view and reflect on the
videotapes, using the rubrics as a means of developing
self-reflections. Information from the teachers' self-evaluations
will then accompany submission of the tapes to the evaluation team to
promote interrater reliability through multiple observers. This not
only increases the probability for teacher change but enhances the
validity of the evaluation data.
The participating teachers are also very
aware of the importance of the continual training activities in the
project and the support of these ongoing inservice activities in the
development of their curriculum modules. The project staff is very
careful to match the training activities developed to the individual
needs of the participating teachers, within the context of the
specific goals of the project. The formative evaluation process
includes the consistent use of participant feedback surveys after
each training experience (see example surveys in Appendix B).
The evaluation team is also using a World Wide Web based teacher
log process, which asks teachers to answer prompted assessment
questions at the end of every curriculum integration activity which
is a direct result of The Community Discovered Project
Teachers have received periodic training in this log process. A focus
group protocol is also being used to help teachers reflect on the
project and has been refined with feedback from teachers who have
participated in the process. Baseline and follow-up teacher surveys
for The Community Discovered project have been analyzed and
representatives of the evaluation team have visited (and often
videotaped) selected summer training activities, as well as ongoing
activities in the classroom. Teacher case study subjects will
eventually be selected upon further analysis of videotaped baseline
lessons submitted by teachers. Teacher quotes reflect their
enthusiasm and satisfaction related to the training activities within
the project, as teachers witnessed the impact of their professional
development in the performance of their students, as referenced by
the selected quotes below.
|
Objective 3.4 |
By 2000, project participants will demonstrate an increase in skills and knowledge in: (a) use of appropriate technologies, (b) constructivism, (c) integrating art across the curricula, (d) interdisciplinary curriculum development and instruction, and (e) use of electronic portfolio and other appropriate assessment strategies. |
|
Activities
|
|
|
Evaluation Plan
|
|
Status
Teacher participants have received considerable in-service
education so far, including two orientation days in April, ten days
at the summer Prairie Visions Institute, five days at the summer NMAA
workshop, and one follow-up day in September 1996 via
video-conference. The in-service education process also includes a
baseline orientation to the goals of the project, the theoretical
foundation in constructivist educational philosophy, discipline-based
art training, and the technical skills necessary for using the
Internet and the World Wide Web. A tutorial videotape on the creation
and use of bookmarks has been developed and distributed to each site
as a follow-up to "hands-on" training. Additionally, resources texts
on constructivist teaching, use of technology-based visual tools
associated with the constructivist approach, museum catalogs and
other reference materials for professional development have been
purchased and distributed to each site. Abstracts of related
professionals resources are being prepared and made available on the
web site. These will be linked to particular teacher's contributions
and to other Internet resources as this 'cyberlibrary' evolves. Site
coordinators have also established local support activities including
local workshops for invited colleagues, informal brainstorming
meetings, and individual question and answer sessions. The project
in-service education process and site support activities will
continue throughout the academic year and will focus on reinforcing
classroom integration strategies.
The evaluation team continues to survey the participating teachers for information related to each of the areas of art, technology, constructivism, and teaching philosophy, and examine videotaped samples of their teaching. In addition, surveys acquiring teacher feedback related to the summer training activities have also been summarized, and teachers continue to share their ideas and suggestions spontaneously over the project listserv. Teachers appear to be benefiting from project related training in each of the target areas, as suggested by a summary of change related data below.
Surveys:
Video analysis:
Classroom and Field Observations:
More complete summaries of these activities are available through
the Evaluation World Wide Web Page associated with the project, and
accessible through The Community Discovered web page.
[http://ois.unomaha.edu/cdeval/]
|
Objective 3.5 |
Project participants will successfully complete a continuous professional growth plan, evaluate their performance relative to that plan at least annually, and modify it to reflect their progress. |
|
Activities
|
|
|
Evaluation Plan
|
|
Status
The Community Discovered project has established a Teacher
Growth Plan form that all teachers in the project have completed
relative to their initial personal goals for the project. This
process uses an innovative electronic form, which provides direct
access and monitoring by the evaluation team. This Growth Plan form
includes personal goal setting related to the areas of 1) tentative
action plans, 2) data collection, 3) artifacts, 4) timelines, and 5)
personal support needed. These growth plans are being reviewed by the
school administrators, project staff, and the evaluation team for the
purposes of formative evaluation and for providing individual
assistance to current participants in the project. The evaluation
team is using an electronic database related to these growth plans,
to help track and document teacher activities, and better examine the
consistency of activities across the project.
|
Objective 3.6 |
Project participants will report attitudes towards the integration of the arts and educational tools in an interdisciplinary constructivist teaching approach. |
|
Activities
|
|
|
Evaluation Plan
|
|
Participating teachers in The Community Discovered project continue to be surveyed for their baseline and later attitudes and practices related to technology use. Evaluation work at the end of the academic year then compares later responses to initial survey responses to help examine teacher change. Teachers appear to be gaining considerable knowledge in the use of technology, particularly the Internet, which is reflected in both their use and attitude. The following survey question reflects how the use of the Internet by project teachers is expanding.
Figure: Teacher Use of the Internet as Reported by
Survey Questions
Evaluation work in the project also includes a systematic
follow-up process to the surveys which incorporates videotaped
lessons and classroom visitations as well as teacher interviews and
focus groups to gather more specific formative evaluation information
that contributes to project related planning.
In addition, teachers in The Community Discovered project
participated in a two week summer workshop at The Prairie Visions
Institute and received training related to Discipline Based Art
Education. The Prairie Vision Consortium helps support the summer
institute and was initially established by the Nebraska Art Teachers
Association and the Nebraska Department of Education with support
from the Getty Center for Education in the Arts. It includes over 90
public and private school districts in Nebraska. Related to the goals
of The Community Discovered project, the consortium has also
developed a computer assisted process for keeping track of alumni and
has helped partners in The Community Discovered project link
with each other in some of the initial project activities. Site coordinators are also keeping participants
informed of workshops available to them which would enhance their
skills and goals of the project.
|
Goal 4. |
|
|
Objective 4.1 |
|
|
Activities
|
|
|
Evaluation Plan
|
|
Status
Teachers in The Community Discovered project are continuing
to build their curriculum units and refine their lessons based on
classroom use. A standardized format has been developed
collaboratively in the project and will provide consistency in unit
organization and presentation. Unit plans for
the school year will be completed by the end of April of each year
with summer writing time to be spent on the revision and refining of
these plans and the planning for upcoming units. The constructivist
curriculum modules are stored on the project World Wide Web site for
retrieval and use by interested educators from around the world;
linked to the National Goals for Education, the National Standards
for all disciplines, the State Frameworks for all disciplines,
District Outcomes for the participating districts, teacher-learner
outcomes identified by the participating teachers, student-learner
outcomes identified by the participating teachers as related to their
specific curricula, and the goals of The Community Discovered.
Using a centralized relational database, this structure allows
visitors to the web site to search according to any of these goals,
artists' names, arts form, curricular area, grade level or theme.
This web based access is truly disseminating the project across the
world, as represented by the following e-mail message from a visitor
to the project web site.
Some example constructivist curriculum modules have already been
developed and made available by the teachers in the initial pilot ATI
project. These earlier units and lessons are now being used for
formative review in the evaluation process. They are all
multi-disciplinary in nature and include a wide variety of individual
topics as represented by these abstracts of selected sample
units:
|
Objective 4.2 |
Participating teachers will effectively use one or more computer-based education strategies in their classrooms. Strategies will include Internet resources, electronic portfolios, Hypertext, multimedia, and others. |
|
Activities
|
|
|
Evaluation Plan
|
|
Status
An extensive and focused training process, including extended
summer workshops, is being used with participating teachers in The
Community Discovered project. Training has included fundamental
training in technology, art, interdisciplinary teaching, and
constructivism topics, and complement the overall integration goals
of the project. Project teachers have also received equipment and
computer software bundles related to the project and are continuing
to plan and develop their particular curriculum modules. The site
coordinators are continuing to provide additional individual training
and mentoring activities at each site as necessary. Site coordinators are meeting with participants and
their partners to help develop and implement the unit plans. Through
use of the listserv, teachers are maintaining communications links
with not only other teachers in the project but also with the museum
contact people. Site coordinators are assisting to videotape
constructivist lessons and capture archival data from these
lessons.
The evaluation team continues to survey the teachers for baseline
and later information on their experiences and teaching philosophy,
and examine the videotaped samples of the teachers involved in the
teaching process. Site visits occur yearly with a sample of the
teachers, and teachers participate in structured interviews and focus
groups relative to the formative evaluation process associated with
this objective.
|
Objective 4.3 |
By 2000, the project will produce a comprehensive system of world wide web pages containing links between appropriate resources and the curriculum units developed by participating educators. |
|
Activities
|
|
|
Evaluation Plan
|
|
Status
The project continues to operate its own comprehensive World Wide
Web page, which is available at the address of:
http://communitydisc.wst.esu3.k12.ne.us
The project World Wide Web page is of high quality, and is
continuing to evolve. It provides access to all the project
curriculum modules, general project information, samples of student
work, and links to a project World Wide Web page related to
evaluation information. In addition to access from a link on the
general Community Discovered project page, the evaluation information
for the project can also be accessed directly at:
http://ois.unomaha.edu/cdeval/
This page includes links to all of the evaluation information,
including the evaluation design, sample instrumentation, analysis of
various data sets, and formal evaluation reports (such as this one).
Teachers also use links to this evaluation page to provide
spontaneous formative feedback to the project after conducting
related classroom activities. In addition, this self-reflection
process provides an "electronic journal" related to individual
teacher perceptions and thoughts as they implement classroom lessons
associated with the project.
As well as the World Wide Web pages focused directly on The
Community Discovered project, the project has also worked closely
with ARTnet, where a more general list of resources and links is
being maintained and can be accessed at:
URL: http://artnet.nde.state.ne.us
The ARTnet is an on-line resource maintained by the Art and
Technology Coordinator and Computer Specialist employed by The
Community Discovered and in cooperation with the Nebraska
Department of Education, Prairie Visions, to help support the arts as
a core subject in the K-12 curriculum, and it is an important link in
The Community Discovered project's web page system. The ARTnet
web page also includes links to The Getty Educational Institute for
the Arts and the Kennedy Center's ARTSEDGE, which provide not only
general lesson plans and other curriculum resources, but also a
working model for The Community Discovered teachers.
|
Goal 5: |
To create a national network of educators to support the development and implementation of appropriate learning strategies integrating art and technology with other core subject areas. |
|
Objective 5.1 |
ARTnet will be in place to provide curriculum models, museum resources, and continuing opportunities for information sharing, collaboration and support among educators. |
|
Activities
|
|
|
Evaluation Plan
|
|
Status
This outreach goal for the project is primarily being developed through an ongoing collaboration with ARTnet, which is the electronic network created by Prairie Visions and The Nebraska Department of Education. This network is already operating successfully as a listserv and World Wide Web site with electronic links to and from The Community Discovered Web page. The web site currently receives more than 1500 visitors to the home page each month and initial work is beginning on an on-line Student Art Gallery related to the project. ARTnet is also a useful source of technical assistance for participants in The Community Discovered project, and the evaluation team is documenting its use and effectiveness as a resource to project participants, through the use of both teacher survey and electronic data collection procedures.
|
Objective 5.2 |
Electronic portfolios will be available on-line so the resources can be shared with other Challenge Grants, and other interested projects. |
|
Activities
|
|
|
Evaluation Plan
|
|
Status
As a solid cross partnership activity, the project has developed a
close working relationship with the Western Cluster group of the
Technology Innovation Challenge Grants within the western portion of
the United States. Within this partnership, The Community
Discovered project is working with the other challenge grants to
refine project strategies and the project evaluation process.
Relationships are also developing with other projects outside of this
cluster group, through both electronic and personal communications
between the project and other interested individuals and
institutions. As these personal contacts expand, additional
electronic conferencing activities will be held to solidify the
evolving partnerships. Electronic feedback for use in the evaluation
process is also being solicited through web page forms, listserv
participation, and electronic mail to document the potential uses by
other states.
Of special note is the ongoing partnership with the second Nebraska Technology in Education Innovation Challenge Grant, entitled the Connections Project. These two Nebraska Challenge Grant projects are now working closely on a regular basis to plan collaborative activities when appropriate or to share related inservice costs. In addition, outside of Nebraska, the Community Discovered Project is also collaborating with the Triton Project in San Diego, California, and has authored a joint paper on problem based learning.
Associated with dissemination of the project, the project has also
been aggressive in making presentations related to the project across
the country, and staff presentations include the following: The
Community Discovered: Creating a Community of Learners for
Tomorrow's World, presented at the NECC 1997 Conference in Seattle,
Washington June 30-July 2, 1997; Let the Technology Work for You, at
the Nebraska Educational Technology Association conference in Omaha,
Nebraska; Behind the Screen: Let the Technology Work for You, at the
Midwest Internet Institute in Lincoln, Nebraska; Pictures for
Electronic Portfolios, a teacher workshop presented at Westside
Middle School in Omaha, Nebraska; Using Technology to Support and
Expand Arts Education in Our Nations Schools, presented at the
ArtsEdTech Conference in Palisades, New York; Meeting the Needs of
the Gifted through Art and Technology, presented at the Nebraska
Association for the Gifted Conference in Kearney, Nebraska; Creating
a Community of Learners for Tomorrow's World, at the Technology
Literacy Challenge National Working Conference, sponsored by the U.S.
Department of Education in Washington, D.C., in Santa Fe, New Mexico;
Internet Research, at the Westside Community Schools; Collaboration,
at the Westside Community Schools; PBL From Prairie to Pacific, the
U.S. Technology in Innovation Challenge Program Community Discovered
Project, presented at the International Problem Based Learning
Conference, Sydney, Australia.
|
Objective 5.3 |
As a pilot cross-state partnership, the Community Discovered project and other projects will collaborate to expand on an effective integrated project in which teachers and students within the project will have the opportunity to communicate electronically with other teachers and students. |
|
Activities
|
|
|
Evaluation Plan
|
|
Status
As with all cross-state partnership activities, to keep costs low,
activities related to establishing alliances will focus primarily on
the use of electronic based collaborations using electronic mail,
listserv, and CUSeeMe based communication. A process for electronic
data collection, as well as a structured interview process related to
this objective, is being developed by the evaluation team.
Additional objectives related to cross-state partnerships from the
original application, as expressed in the last formal report, have
been embedded in the current objectives as a cost saving measure.
Collaboration with the second Nebraska Challenge Grant project has
already also enhanced cross-state sharing. It is planned that in the
upcoming years of the Community Discovered project, additional
districts might be "virtually involved" through on-line
participation. This could involve use of curricular units with
systematic collaboration between teachers in the Community Discovered
Project and their "on-line partners." Through such collaboration,
units would integrated, evaluated, refined, and further enhanced,
through the process. Further, the work with developing curricula to
be used by ACTV, in the e-school network will promote opportunities
for expanding networks among teachers, dissemination of project
resources, additional sources of evaluation through stakeholder
feedback, and a potential source of revenue to assist in sustaining
the Community Discovered Project beyond the life of the
grant.
IV. Summary
"The Community Discovered: The Search for Meaning Through
the Integration of Art and Technology in K-12 Education" is now well
established and underway in its second year of formal activities. The
project has continued to embrace advanced information-based
technologies and has refined its plans as technology-based
applications continue to evolve with emerging capabilities, such as
new capabilities on the World Wide Web. The project is continuing to
build upon its earlier successes and upon a strong organizational
foundation.
The Community Discovered project has already provided
substantial training in technology, the arts, interdisciplinary
teaching, and constructivism, to its teachers, including extensive
summer training at workshops involving faculty from the Prairie
Visions Institute and The National Museum of American Art,
Smithsonian Institution. The NMAA continues to provide solid
leadership and ongoing support to museum-related goals of the
project, and the ongoing work on electronic images by the project's
group of museums promises to provide a rich resource for the
integration of art into other disciplines via the Internet. In
addition, the project is drawing upon successful and extended
external collaboration, through continuing its partnership with
national institutions. These national institutions provide insight, a
broad perspective, and rich resources for the project. Additionally,
the linkages forged between these national agencies and our state
agencies have already been highly successful. Communications among
curators and directors has begun to occur on-line and through
periodic visitations. The museum personnel have begun to develop
common interests through their work with Community Discovered
teachers, that has often resulted in a "joining of forces". Such
outcomes are critical to the ongoing development and sustainability
of the project. Further, such national-state linkages have been
enhanced and reinforced by new partners added to the state level, to
provide additional leadership and support for the related project
objectives.
The Community Discovered project is committed to staying on
the "cutting edge" of educational technology use, and the project is
evolving to take greater advantage of the evolution of the Internet.
In particular, the project is making strong use of the World Wide Web
for storage and retrieval of images and lessons. The World Wide Web
will also be the basis for the evolving "portfolio" representing the
project, so that educators from around the world can share in the
information, knowledge, and resources generated by The Community
Discovered project. Project activities will also make greater use
of video-conferencing, listservs, telecommunications available on the
Information SuperHighway, and other emerging delivery systems.
Although budget considerations caused restrictions in originally
planned cross-state partnerships, the evolution of technology (e.g.,
economical video-conferencing options) will allow for the pursuit of
many of those activities which were at risk due to funding
limitations. Also due to budget considerations, the project will be
making a closer connection with the ESU's to deliver some of the
technical support.
Goals and objectives in the grant continue to integrate the four
strands that we are using in all areas of the project. These four
strands are: 1) the arts, 2) technology, 3) constructivism, and 4)
interdisciplinary planning and teaching. These four strands are
continually integrated and addressed in the many staff development
activities for our participants and will continue to guide us in
achieving the mission statement of the grant.
The evaluation process is also well established and underway, and
continues to evolve and expand with new interactive capabilities on
the world wide web. These evaluation activities draw upon
comprehensive data collection procedures that use both quantitative
and qualitative approaches. Evaluation work continues to provide
useful formative evaluation information to the project, and helps
represent the project to various stakeholders. Teachers benefit from
reflecting on their own videotaped examples of their teaching and
continue to provide important feedback information over the listserv
and in personal interviews. Classroom visitations and observations
are also conducted. The evaluation teams web page also contributes to
the historical and portfolio process for representing the project and
assists in project related dissemination of products of use to other
projects and educators, such as the project evaluation plan,
developed instruments, data summaries, and electronic copies of
formal reports. This page is also being used as a data collection
tool, focused on continual electronic feedback from participants.
Finally, work continues on systematic longitudinal evaluation
processes which will help document the overall implementation model
of the project.
As The Community Discovered project continues to move
forward, perhaps most importantly, there is a real team effort
underway by all stakeholders in the project to positively effect the
learning environment for all students. As any project on the "cutting
edge", it is expected that The Community Discovered project
will continue to evolve as the collaborative and organizational
structure continues to become more refined and as new educational
technologies become available. The project is indeed a comprehensive
one, and its use of a systematic implementation process and the
incorporation of a careful evaluation plan are no doubt critical
components in effectively moving the project forward. The commitment
by all participants to contribute to the overall success of the
project will no doubt provide a natural catalyst for such success as
the project continues to implement its very aggressive set of goals
and objectives.
Appendices:
Appendix A: Budget Information
Appendix B: Evaluation Plan Details
Appendix C: Sample Staff Development Unit
Appendix D: Sustainability Planning Report
Appendix E: Private School Accessibility Plan
Appendix F: Project Advisory Boards
Appendix G: Unit Abstracts
Appendix H: Inservice Training Institute Examples
Appendix I: ACTV Plans and Press Release
Appendix J: Project Calendar of Events
bpawlosk@unomaha.edu, 1/3/98