Creating Educational Opportunities
Creating Educational Opportunities with wireless technologies.
Don Shirley Daviess County Schools Owensboro, KY
Commercial broadband supports the local school system with PowerConnect WiFi.
PowerConnect provides commercial Telephony, and Internet services. Community Broadband Solution is a broadband product serving end users with a product similar in speed to cable. Daviess County Public Schools has 100% Internet access in the classrooms and every freshman in high school is provided a laptop with Wi-Fi. The district is moving toward a paperless curriculum in the next five years.
There was a lack of broadband wireless providers in Daviess County. Eighteen months ago when the system was implemented, customers were happy with dial-up. The demand today for broadband has exploded and customers are asking for broadband.
The broadband system at district schools was disconnected from the homes of students. Outside the city limits in the rural areas, Internet connections became non-existent. The challenge was to use school assets to enhance home use by students, and not compete or interfere with commercial services. Network services now perform the same for student at home or at school.
Wide area net mesh network use towers for line of sight transmission and student services are subsidized by the business services. Rural areas are served on the provider-side up to ten miles and on the client side up to four miles. The current challenge is to build a network to grow with demand. Services like IP television will be a standard in the next two years and that delivery will be available on the PowerConnect Network
High speed Internet service 1 Mbps- $17/month. The filtered service allows the school district to control what is offered to the students.
Greg Daigle World Class Teacher Initiative,[ Digital Watershed ]
Discovery based learning can take students outside the classroom using hardware and software to enhance the learning experience. Using global environmental issues as an example, one can illustrate how a cross-disciplinary topic can use these technological tools to enhance learning.
Students can move between the classroom and the garden to study a garden plot. Students test the soil collect data and upload, take and share photos of their plot. Students use templates to collect and house images and data with their classmates. This creates a collaborative scenario using wireless technologies.
Examples of software used for this learning experience include Scratch. Scratch uses a visual organizational model to map and diagram interactive elements and show their relationships.
“What’s the Secret” is a product created by 3M and TPT. “What’s the Secret” is a CD-rom project using science “Edutainment” to engage students. What’s the Secret uses object oriented prolonged play to enhance learning. Science topics are presented with interactive videos sounds printable artifacts. Tools like notepads are integrated into the interface. Digital interactive science experiments allow users to learn about science with a high level of interaction. “Interactoids” are employed to engage users. “Interactoids” are custom gadgets similar to an Apple widgets found in Dashboard. They are highly interactive tools that enhance the fun and the educational topic.
Sharon Balke, Lee Oltmans -- [ Minnesota Online High School ][ Electronic Library of Minnesota ]
A public online public charter school now serves Minnesota students grade 9-12. MN Online High School students can earn a high school diploma online or make up coursework missed in a “bricks-and-mortar” school. MN Online High School provides a personalized interactive learning experience using proven educational strategies. Students with health issues, pregnancy, bullied children, dropouts with a desire to finish their coursework can all attend with out stigma. Social and peer pressures can also be avoided. Others who attend include athletes and artists with demanding practice schedules. Educational options are expanded in rural areas with limited resources.
Rigorous courses get students engaged and excited about learning using online models that are used in colleges and universities. Teachers are encouraged to be innovative in their course delivery. Teachers have a r