Introduction
Over the past decade computers have increasingly found their way into high schools. Presently there is a concerted effort to connect these machines to the Internet. Indeed, there is a vast array of information available on the Internet and a good deal of it can be used by teachers and students to enrich learning experiences. However, while a number of teachers have now become somewhat adept at using computers, most of them do not possess the skills to develop Web pages, find appropriate Web sites, and/or incorporate the information available from these sites into their classrooms.
A number of examples of how the Web can be used as an educational tool were outlined in the proposal submitted to the Foundation last year. In the interest of brevity we refer the reader to that document (particularly the section "The World Wide Web as an Educational Tool"). Given the unparalleled expansion in Web usage that continues to occur, the importance of incorporating the Web into the classroom has, if anything, become even more important than it was when that proposal was written. As a result, the need to train a cadre of teachers with the skills to employ computer-enhanced teaching in their classrooms is even more pressing today.
Previous Workshops
Last summer Stevens Institute of Technology in collaboration with Passaic High School developed and ran two workshops with the goal of preparing high school mathematics and science teachers to utilize the Web as an educational tool. Illustrative topics were chosen from mathematics, physics, biology, earth sciences, and chemistry. Where relevant, related environmental issues were explored. Dr. Lawrence E. Levine, Professor of Mathematical Sciences at Stevens, and three teachers from Passaic High School, an inner city school located in Passaic, NJ, led the workshops. Two Stevens students, one undergraduate and one graduate, served as computer aids as well. One follow-up session took place at Passaic High on October 21, 1997. A second will be convened in May 1998. Funds to supplement those received from the Dodge Foundation were obtained from the Independent College Fund of New Jersey.
The Narrative Report recently submitted to the Dodge Foundation shows that the workshops conducted during the summer of 1997 improved the computer skills of all participants to a substantial degree. Participants made an excellent start towards incorporating the use of the Web into their teaching. However, it is also clear that much more needs to be done. Further training of those who attended in 1997 is crucial in order to insure that computer enhanced learning becomes a natural part of their classroom environments. There is also the need to train new participants in this area.
1998 Web Workshops
Based on the successful experience of last year Stevens Institute of Technology in collaboration with Passaic High School will conduct two one-week workshops during the summer of 1998 which are designed to give teachers of mathematics and science the wherewithal to use the Web as a teaching tool. One will be for teachers who did not participate last summer and will be similar to those run in 1997, whereas the other will be for those who did participate last summer. The summer workshops will be held at Stevens, and there will be two follow-up meetings during the academic year which will be hosted by Passaic High. Each workshop will be limited to 20 participants.
Passaic High School, an inner-city school, is well positioned to collaborate in this project. In recent years it has embarked upon an ambitious endeavor to provide its students with state-of-art computer equipment which will be utilized to achieve the NJ Core Curriculum Content Standards. Mr. Carlist Creech, Principal of Passaic High School and Mrs. Regina Reilly, Instructional Technology Director of the Passaic City School District have expressed their support for these Web Workshops.
Dr. Lawrence E. Levine will direct the project. Mrs. Barbara Dodin and Mrs. Joan Tabor are science teachers at Passaic High who have agreed to serve as workshop leaders. Mr. James Orthmann, a senior graduate student in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at Stevens will also be a workshop leader. (All three were involved in the workshops run last summer.) In addition to the workshop leaders two students from Stevens with expertise in computing will also assist the participants. This means that there will be a total of six individuals working with the twenty participants in each workshop. In this manner each participant will be given the personal attention required to master the subject matter.
We now describe each workshop. Both workshops will meet daily from 8:30am till 3:30pm with a one-hour break for lunch.
Workshop for First Time Participants
The activities of each day are given below. They are based on the successful format that was employed during the summer of 1997.
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Handouts related to the various topics covered by the workshops will be prepared and given to all participants. Every effort will be made to make sure that they end up with documentation that would allow them to continue the work they began at the workshops. A CD containing appropriate shareware software will also prepared. This CD together with a copy of Microsoft Office 97 will be distributed to each participant. Office 97 contains Word 97 and Excel, both of which are useful in the preparation of Web pages. Other appropriate software will also be distributed.
Continuation Workshop
Evaluation questionnaires were administered at the conclusion of each workshop conducted last summer as well as at the follow-up session held in late October. From the responses to these questionnaires it is clear that the workshops increased the computer skills of the participants to a great extent. (See the Narrative Report dealing with this project that was submitted to the Foundation.) However, all participants have indicated that they felt that they needed more training. Indeed, every teacher said that s/he would like to participate in a second workshop during the summer of 1998. With this as background we propose to run a one-week workshop for those who attended this past summer. The goal of this workshop will be to review the skills taught last summer and extend and reinforce them in areas not covered previously.
The approach of providing a combination of presentation and hands-on work will be continued in this workshop. The emphasis will again be on "doing". The planned five-day schedule is given below.
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Follow-up Sessions
There will be two follow-up meetings at Passaic High School where the participants in both workshops will report on their progress in implementing the use of the Web into their teaching. Each Web project group will demonstrate its work. In this way each teacher will end up with a "package" of Web material suitable for classroom use. One follow-up meeting will be held in late October 1998 and the other in May 1999. In this way everyone involved will be kept abreast of what others are doing.
Participant Selection
Selection of first time participants will be done in a manner similar to that used last year. Upon receiving a letter of award from the Dodge Foundation materials describing the workshops will be mailed to principals and mathematics and science supervisors of public and private high schools throughout northern and central NJ. Professor Levine has developed a list of key personnel in high schools as a result of running other programs and institutes in the past, and these people will also be contacted. Based on last year’s experience it is anticipated that applications will be obtained from a representative cross section of public and private schools. Efforts will be made to make sure that there are participants who teach under-represented students and/or teach in inner-city schools.
Selection will be based upon current and past teaching experience, educational background, a personal statement regarding objectives in applying for the workshop, and recommendations from supervisory personnel. In addition, the principal of the high school where the participant works will be asked to supply a letter indicating that the school possesses or will soon possess appropriate computer equipment to implement the goals of the workshop. The school must also express its commitment to support the efforts of the participant to accomplish this implementation during the academic year.
Participation in the continuation workshop will be based upon previous accomplishments in implementing enhanced computer learning into the classroom. In particular, the follow-up session to be held in May 1998 will be used to measure the commitment of teachers to the goal of using the Web as a teaching tool. Only those who have fulfilled this commitment will be selected to attend.
Each participant will be charged a $150 registration fee. (School districts have Eisenhower Funds available to cover this cost.)
Evaluation: New Participants
As part of the application process first-time participants will complete a questionnaire that will assess their usage of computer technology both personally and in their teaching. The pre-workshop questionnaire will be designed to measure computer proficiency skills, thus giving an overall picture of each participant’s level of familiarity with computing. At the conclusion of the workshop another questionnaire consisting of questions from the original survey related to the topics taught during the workshop will be administered. Similar surveys will be made at the follow-up meetings to determine how the participants have modified their teaching methodology as a result of using the Web as a teaching tool. The teachers will also be asked to evaluate the workshops on the closing day. They will again be asked to evaluate the workshops during the follow-up meetings in light of their experiences implementing the Web into their teaching.
When appropriate, teachers will be asked to survey their students to get feedback on how the students think use of the Web as part of their educational experience has enhanced their learning. Wherever possible, teachers will be asked to compare achievement by students who were taught topics using the Web with those taught in a more traditional fashion.
Evaluation: Continuing Participants
Teachers who participated in the workshops last summer will be attending a follow-up session in May 1998. Before this session teachers will be asked to survey their students to get feedback on how the students think use of the Web as part of their educational experience has enhanced their learning. Wherever possible, teachers will be asked to compare achievement by students who were taught topics using the Web with those taught in a more traditional fashion.
As noted above the results of these surveys will be a crucial ingredient in the decision of who will be invited to attend the continuation workshop. The goal is to select those who have demonstrated a commitment to enhancing their teaching through the use of computer technology. Current computer skills necessary for mastery of the advanced material to be taught in the Continuation Workshop will be assessed prior to final selection. Upon completion of the workshop and at the follow-up sessions in the fall and spring participants will again be surveyed to monitor progress and measure results.
Institutional Resources and Facilities
The educational approach that has guided the Stevens curriculum for over 125 years has led to a comprehensive integration of computer utilization in the teaching/learning process. These curriculum traditions and recent computer related developments provide Stevens with the framework and resources to meet the current and future technological needs of high school mathematics and science teachers. Stevens has moved rapidly forward with the development of a computing environment in which students, faculty and staff are fully involved in high quality education and research. Through this environment, Stevens has spearheaded new approaches to the incorporation of computers in undergraduate and graduate education curricula and has come to be recognized as a leader in the use of computer technology in education.
Key Workshop Personnel
Dr. Lawrence E. Levine, Professor of Mathematical Sciences at Stevens, will serve as Project Director. Dr. Levine has more than 30 years of educational experience on the high school and university level. His research activities have resulted in nearly 30 published papers dealing with topics in applied mathematics and computer education and related topics.
Professor Levine has directed and coordinated a number of projects designed to enhance the educational backgrounds of high school and college teachers. These include the Summer 1983 Institute for NJ high school mathematics teachers sponsored by the NJ Department of Higher Education; the Faculty Retraining Program in Computer Science also supported by NJ DHE; and the Certificate Program in Computer Mathematics which was supported in part by the Dodge Foundation for 11 years. Recently he has been involved in the revamping of the sophomore mathematics sequence to incorporate the use of the Web and Scientific Notebook as teaching tools. Dr. Levine served as Head of the Department of Mathematical Sciences at Stevens from 1991 to 1995. (See http://attila.stevens-tech.edu/~llevine/ for his vita.)
Mrs. Joan Tabor and Mrs. Barbara Dodin will serve as workshop leaders. Mrs. Tabor has been a science teacher at Passaic High since 1994. She has 25 years teaching experience at the elementary, high school and adult education levels teaching such diverse courses as elementary science, and citizenship. She was given the award for Teacher of the Year from the Archdiocese of Newark in 1993-94, was a finalist for the Princeton Teacher of the Year Award and a recipient of the Tandy Scholars Award for 2 consecutive years.
Mrs. Dodin has been an earth science teacher at Passaic High since 1995. She has 28 years of experience teaching biology and related subjects (ecology, anatomy and physiology) at the high school level. She is active on the Internet, downloading activities for her students and participating in various workshops on a regular basis. She was appointed to participate in the first seminar dealing with major environmental topics peculiar to New Jersey sponsored by the Hackensack Meadowlands Development Corporation.
Mr. James Orthmann, the third workshop leader, is a graduate student in mathematics at Stevens with a broad background in computing. He taught on the high school level before coming to Stevens.