INSTRUCTIONAL COMPUTING INSTRUCTIONAL COMPUTING[Ed: Links to web pages and/or e-mail addresses which have become inactive since the publication of this article have been enclosed in curly brackets { }. Replacement links have been provided where possible.]
In 1994, NYU's School of Education began to work with the Academic Computing Facility to co-host the summer computer program for high-school students, which ACF had offered free to participants for nearly three decades. "We saw great potential in this program," says Dean Ann Marcus, "and hoped that the school's involvement might eventually lay the foundation for closer relationships of Education students and faculty with the students and teachers of New York City high schools, particularly in the area of educational technology."Last year, working closely with the ACF's Vincent Doogan and Jeff Lane, Shirley Hanein, educational-technology specialist and graduate student in the school's Department of Teaching and Learning, created a four-week curriculum for 35 ninth- and tenth-grade students from a variety of high schools in Manhattan and Brooklyn. The curriculum gave the students—many of whom had no previous computer experience—an intensive introduction to computers and networks, moving rapidly from basic software skills such as wordprocessing, spreadsheets, and databases into telecommunications skills covering e-mail, the Internet, and Web-page design and authoring. The school hired four NYU graduate and undergraduate students as instructors, and they worked closely with the students on the development of both team and personal Web pages.
The results were so impressive and the students were so enthusiastic about the program that we—Lee Frissell, the School of Education's Director of Field Projects; Vincent Doogan, the ACF Associate Director for User Services; and I—immediately began to plan for the summer 1996, and agreed that the School of Education should take responsibility for the continuation of the summer program. This time we had something different in mind: we wanted to build more academic content into the curriculum, and we wanted to forge student-and-teacher leadership groups that would return to their high schools to support technology initiatives.
First, we needed to find a way to involve our faculty and graduate students in curriculum development and instruction, while at the same time increasing the academic content of the curriculum to meet some of the needs of the public schools we work closely with. A focus on math and science seemed a natural for us and the public schools alike, and we had just hired a new faculty member, Assistant Professor Brian Murfin, who was very involved in technology and science education.
Accordingly, I proposed to Professor Murfin that he develop a two-part course for School of Education seniors and graduate students in math and science education. The first part, to be offered in the spring, would have students learn about educational technology and develop the curriculum for the summer program, focusing on technology for math and science. The second part, to be offered in the summer, would have the same students actually teach in the summer high-school program, under Professor Murfin's supervision, for credit toward their degrees. We didn't have enough time to get the two-part course off the ground for the spring, but we did find a good alternative, which Brian explains in the next article. We expect to develop the course more fullly this fall.
We want graduates of our teacher-education programs to be skilled in technology, so that they can integrate technology into their own classroom projects in the schools. There are few opportunities, however, to actually practice teaching about technology, and the summer program seemed an ideal setting to help them get that experience. "As we thought about redesigning the curriculum," adds Lee Frissell, "we also decided to change the participants. We wanted to involve high school teachers in the program along with their students. We hoped that when they returned to their schools in the fall, the students and teachers would form technology leadership groups that would train other teachers and students in computing and telecommunications and formulate plans for using technology in their own schools."
The School of Education invited nine high schools in Manhattan and Brooklyn—ranging from large traditional schools to small alternative ones—to select three ninth- or tenth-grade students and one or two teachers to participate in the summer program: the Lab School, School for the Future, Institute for Collaborative Education, East Side Community School, Manhattan Village Academy, Seward Park High School, Clara Barton High School, South Shore High School, and Erasmus Hall's Institute for Science and Math.
In all, the nine schools selected twenty-seven students and six teachers to participate in the program. Neither the students nor the teachers were required to be math or science whizzes, just capable, responsible, and serious. As a result, the program attracted English, art, and science teachers, and the students came with a wide range of experiences in science, math, and computing.
The School of Education is continuing to think creatively about the future of this summer program, and hopes to seek external funds to support the summer 1997 offerings. We think this project has good funding possibilities because the benefits are nicely spread among different groups. Although the program benefits individual high-school students and teachers, the team approach ensures that their training will be passed on to others in their own schools. Bringing teachers together from several local schools encourages networking and joint projects. And our own graduate students learn to design a comprehensive curriculum in technology, science, and math from the ground up and then deliver it to high-school students."
![[ C ]](../icons/CSmF96.gif){kind=icon}
Posted 24 September 1996. Last reviewed 6 December 2005.
|
|
|
|