Pittsburg schools emphasize new technology, training

November 30, 2008 10:31 pm

— By Andra Bryan Stefanoni
news@joplinglobe.com
PITTSBURG, Kan. — When Pittsburg teacher Sherry Turnbull began her career in the late 1970s, she used a chalkboard to communicate concepts and facts to students, and they used handcrafted posters to communicate what they had learned.
Those chalkboards slowly gave way to dry-erase boards and overhead projectors.
“Technology has changed a great deal since the old purple mimeograph, filmstrip projector and overhead projector that I started with 30 years ago,” Turnbull said. “We thought yellow highlighting markers were a cool tool then.”
With technology evolving even more rapidly, the Pittsburg School District this year has put into place several initiatives to help teachers keep up with the changes.
“Technology has become a tool in our classrooms, one that we don’t even think about using,” said Noah Grotheer, district technology coordinator. “It has been worked into the everyday procedures and into our curriculum, and is now just another part of our teaching strategy.”
A year ago, the district also hired Pat Walker, whose title is technology facilitator.
“Pat’s role in our district is to research and plan implementation and training for new technology in our district,” Grotheer said.
Walker created “Mondays @ 4,” a professional development program open to teachers every other week. He said it gives them a chance to delve into technology they need to learn more about while he provides tips and guidance.
In addition, Dragon Tube — similar to YouTube — allows teachers to post videos and have an instant means of networking at their disposal.
“There is a wealth of knowledge to be gained from others,” Grotheer said. “This is a site that allows teachers to link to streaming media such as what’s found on YouTube, or to upload their own content, and it gives us the ability to manage the content and keep unwanted material out of our classrooms.”
At Pittsburg Community Middle School, administrators gave technology teacher Debbie Polen an hour each day so she could help other teachers with projects that incorporate technology.
“If a teacher e-mails me with a request for help with a project, I can bring software to her classroom, help her map out the steps, and make instructional videos to have ready for her class to view as the students start working on various parts of the project,” Polen said.
In one case, an eighth-grade language arts teacher wanted to create podcasts of poems her students wrote.
“We set it up so they could type in their poems and put them in PowerPoint slides, with credits and animation. Then they would play it and record an Audacity sound clip using microphones, then attach the sound clip to the PowerPoint slide,” Polen explained. “When they played the final product, it was the students reading the words of their poems as the slides scrolled through. There was a lot of learning on everyone’s part for that one.”
At Pittsburg High School, a 36-week Foundations for Technology course is on tap to allow students to use state-of-the-art computers, the Internet, Web design, desktop publishing, digital imaging and video editing, with a price tag of an estimated $300,000.
Grotheer said that when someone says the word technology, people often think of computers, but the district has evolved past that. In the past year, Pittsburg has seen a great deal of expansion, with more than 200 digital projectors as well as numerous document cameras, digital whiteboards and classroom audio systems.
The district also deployed more than 100 new laptops, replaced a computer lab at Pittsburg Community Middle School and, before the school year began, brought in roughly $600,000 worth of additional technology, according to Cory Gibson, interim assistant superintendent.
As for Turnbull, who started out with mimeographs and filmstrip projectors, she teaches an after-school club at Lakeside Elementary School called “Techno-Whiz.” She said children clamor to sign up for it every four weeks throughout the school year.
“They learn to use digital cameras to take pictures and download them using laptop computers, then we use programs such as iPhoto and Print Shop to create documents or photo collages which students print in color and take home,” she said.
The students also have explored the use of animation and voice recording software.
“E-mail, wikis and blogs connect us with the world instantly,” Turnbull said. “Teachers take attendance and lunch count, and keep their assignments and grades on the computer. Technology is emerging so fast that it is difficult to keep on top of all the ways it can be used in the classroom.”

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