Legislature(2009 - 2010)SENATE FINANCE 532
04/01/2009 12:00 PM Senate EDUCATION
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| Rebooting Education | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
JOINT MEETING
SENATE EDUCATION STANDING COMMITTEE
HOUSE EDUCATION STANDING COMMITTEE
April 1, 2009
12:09 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
SENATE EDUCATION STANDING COMMITTEE
Senator Kevin Meyer
Senator Joe Thomas
HOUSE EDUCATION STANDING COMMITTEE
Representative Paul Seaton, Chair
Representative Cathy Engstrom Munoz, Vice Chair
Representative Robert L. "Bob" Buch
MEMBERS ABSENT
SENATE EDUCATION STANDING COMMITTEE
Senator Bettye Davis, Vice Chair
Senator Charlie Huggins
Senator Donald Olson
Senator Gary Stevens
HOUSE EDUCATION STANDING COMMITTEE
Representative Bryce Edgmon
Representative Wes Keller
Representative Peggy Wilson
Representative Berta Gardner
OTHER MEMBERS PRESENT
Representative David Guttenberg
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
Rebooting Education: Digital Learning in Alaska's Classrooms
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
No previous action to record.
WITNESS REGISTER
CARL ROSE, Executive Director
Association of Alaska School Boards (AASB)
Juneau, AK,
POSITION STATEMENT: Talked about the importance of technology to
st
education in the 21 century.
SARAH MARINO, Teacher
Yaakoosge Daakahidi Alternative High School
Juneau, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Talked about the impact of the "One-to-One"
laptop distribution program at Yaakoosge High School.
LAURY SCANDLING, Assistant Superintendent
Juneau School District
Juneau, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Discussed technology in learning.
MARK BROWN, Tech Team Member
Yaakoosge Daakahidi Alternative High School
Juneau, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Shared his experiences with the laptop
distribution program.
BRIAN SONESEN, Tech Team Member
Yaakoosge Daakahidi Alternative High School
Juneau, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Shared his experiences with the laptop
distribution program.
JERALL TORRES, student
Yaakoosge Daakahidi High School
Juneau, AK
POSITION STATEMENT: Shared his experiences with the laptop
distribution program.
DR. DAVID L. SILVERNAIL, Researcher
University of Southern Maine
Portland, ME
POSITION STATEMENT: Presented the Maine Learning Technology
Initiative (MLTI).
ACTION NARRATIVE
12:09:11 PM
CHAIR SEATON called the joint meeting of the Senate and House
Education Standing Committees to order at 12:09 p.m. Present at
the call to order were Representatives Buch and Seaton.
^ Rebooting Education
Rebooting Education: Digital Learning in Alaska's Classrooms
12:09:41 PM
CHAIR SEATON announced the business before the committee is a
presentation on rebooting education.
CARL ROSE, Executive Director, Association of Alaska School
Boards (AASB), Juneau, AK, stated that we are in the midst of a
global cultural revolution. Webster defines a culture as "an
integral pattern of human knowledge, beliefs and behavior that
depends on man's capacity for learning and transmitting
knowledge to succeeding generations." Looking at world trade,
goods and services, distribution, manufacturing, time and
distance, communication, and relationships among cultures ... at
this new and emerging reality, he said, it is not possible to
tell today's youth what to expect in the future. He stressed how
important it is for the classroom to reflect the environment in
which students live.
The Consortium for Digital Learning is an opportunity to create
pilot programs across the state but getting sufficient bandwidth
in classrooms to make it possible to use technology for learning
is difficult. He turned the presentation over to Sarah Marino to
discuss Yaakoosge's experience with technology in the classroom.
12:12:17 PM
SARAH MARINO, Teacher, Yaakoosge Daakahidi Alternative School,
Juneau, AK, has taught at Yaakoosge for four years and will be
principal there next year. The name "Yaakoosge Daakahidi" means
"house of knowledge" and was given to them by the Tlingit elder,
Anna Katzeek. They have about 150 students who come to them from
Juneau and from out of state. One of things all of the students
have in common is that they did not find success in the
mainstream school system and most have pretty big gaps in their
educations. It is a very diverse group, so in this one small
school they have a number of challenges to meet as educators.
About 50 percent of the students are Alaska Native; a large part
of the student body qualifies for free and reduced lunches; many
of the students are homeless and about 40 percent qualify for
special education services. They have found that having access
to technology has helped many of the students and teachers to
find success.
MS. MARINO continued; Yaakoosge started their "One-to-One"
program in the fall of 2006 and saw an immediate improvement in
attendance. On the survey they conducted a year later, almost 40
percent of the students said access to the laptops was
significant in motivating them to come to school. For students
who have not found success in education before, that is
fantastic! Many of these students skipped school for months at a
time so to motivate almost half of them to attend regularly is
really exciting. Their most impressive statistic however, is
that 90 percent of their students had an increase in their GPA
last year. On their annual spring survey, students claimed that
the laptops helped them with research and organization and
allowed them greater creativity and the opportunity for hands-on
learning. Technology helps students find their learning style
and do the work in the way that works best for them.
Research is an area in which technology is most helpful. Text
books are out of date the moment they are printed; using a
laptop, students and teachers can find information from diverse
sources that is so current it may not even have been published
in magazines yet. What is most exciting however is that this
technology has made the world accessible to their students; it
has allowed them to be involved in nationwide, even worldwide
conversations. It has opened up incredible leadership
opportunities to them as well; Yaakoosge cannot afford a
dedicated IT staff person, so they formed a student-led tech
team that provides user support to other students and even
staff. Laptops and technology are the tools to create life-long
learners. There is no way she can educate these kids in
everything they will need to know in the world but if she can
teach them how to learn, how to use these tools, they can figure
it out.
12:20:31 PM
LAURY SCANDLING, Assistant Superintendent, Juneau School
District, Juneau, AK, was the principal at Yaakoosge Daakahidi
Alternative High School for four years and was a high school
administrator for nine years prior to that. She reflected that
not having electronic technology at students' fingertips is like
asking her or the legislature to do their jobs without their
technical tools. Kids are way ahead of her generation, she said,
in terms of their intuitive and natural use of technology but a
laptop is just a tool and is only a good investment if it
enhances learning achievement to a greater degree than other
tools.
MS. SCANDLING said that it was particularly challenging at
Yaakoosge to expect and support excellent attendance and
academic achievement. As the first recipients [of laptop
distribution] in their district and among pilot programs in the
state, AASB asked them to track data. They selected a cohort of
kids and matched their performance during the spring prior to
the program, when they had not had their hands on laptops, to
their performance the following spring, after a year of working
with laptops both their attendance and their GPAs had improved.
They also asked the students to report on their experiences with
the program, expecting to hear that they enjoyed having the
laptops to listen to their music or play games; what the
students actually said is that they are better organized. One
student said his life is in that notebook [laptop]; he doesn't
lose homework any more. They also reported being better writers
and writing for longer periods of time.
12:24:34 PM
CHAIR SEATON thanked Ms. Scandling and apologized to the
presenters for the Senate Education Committee members' lack of
attendance, explaining that the Senate was still in session.
12:25:04 PM
REPRESENTATIVE GUTTENBERG said the Denali School District has a
laptop program. He asked if the Department of Education is
evaluating and tracking the results of placing technology in
various school districts.
MS. SCANDLING said that, to her knowledge, the state is not
currently monitoring that information, but AASB is doing so
through their requirement that One-to-One sites establish data
points and collect the data over time. She deferred to Mr. Rose
on AASB's housing and compilation of that data.
12:26:15 PM
MR. ROSE said they are contracting with the Institute of Social
and Economic Research (ISER) to do baseline studies and provide
a report; they have been collecting data for about a year and a
half but do not have any conclusive information yet.
12:26:37 PM
REPRESENTATIVE BUCH asked Ms. Scandling about the extent of the
technology they have available; do they have distance learning
or real-time interactive learning, for example.
MS. SCANDLING said that this year they distributed 400
additional laptops to their freshman class. In conjunction with
the distribution of laptops, the Juneau School District paid to
upgrade Internet access at all three high schools to facilitate
that type of real-time interaction. They do not yet take
advantage of live instruction outside of their district however;
they have a home-school program that distributes laptops to
participants who do access some of the interactive online
courses offered by accredited institutions outside of the
district.
12:28:47 PM
CHAIR SEATON mentioned that the University of Maryland recently
moved to all digital textbooks; the professors say that students
come to class with their books now because they always have
their laptops with them. He suggested that the Alaska school
districts might want to look at digital texts as a way to
decrease expenses.
MS. MARINO said they don't use very many textbooks at Yaakoosge;
they are primarily reference tools. They use EBSCO, a research
database, to get peer review journals and articles and go to
university web sites to gather information but do not have
digital textbooks.
12:30:40 PM
MARK BROWN, Tech Team Member, Yaakoosge Daakahidi Alternative
High School, Juneau, AK, said he has watched students download
textbooks to their computers to get more updated versions and so
they can more easily search for information in the books.
CHAIR SEATON wondered whether the Association of Alaska School
Boards has looked at the possibility of digital texts as a cost-
saving way to acquire up-to-date text books throughout the
school system; he felt that might work well in conjunction with
laptop distribution.
12:31:47 PM
REPRESENTATIVE BUCH brought up another issue that was raised by
his constituency regarding loss of tactile skills such as hand
writing. He asked if the students present would like to comment
on that.
12:32:59 PM
BRIAN SONESEN, Tech Team Member, Yaakoosge Daakahidi Alternative
High School, Juneau, AK, has been at Yaakoosge for two years. He
remembers having to carry a stack of text books and write
everything down in a notebook in cursive. He is very good at
hand writing things, but since he has been using the laptop his
writing has become clearer because it is easier to keep up with
his thoughts. He also finds the grammar and spell check features
useful. He said he doesn't use the laptop for everything; he
thinks it improves his spelling and grammar to write by hand, so
he doesn't think the skill will be lost.
12:34:43 PM
MR. BROWN spoke for a friend who could not be with them today.
His friend said that his hand writing is so horrid that his
papers were often turned back to him because the teachers could
not read them. Since getting his laptop, he's found that he is
really a good writer and enjoys it. Mark admitted that he also
has awful hand writing and doesn't like to do it but on the
computer he enjoys creative writing and is actually working on a
book.
12:36:22 PM
JERALL TORRES, student, Yaakoosge Daakahidi High School, Juneau,
AK, introduced himself.
MS. SCANDLING said she is a certified teacher of English and
former professional reporter, so note-taking was her second life
for years. She wanted to make three quick points regarding how
laptops can enhance the act of writing and thinking. One is that
they see a greater fluency, which Brian put in his own words,
for students who use computers to write. Second, those students
who have physical struggles with writing will often resist
writing, as Mark expressed. The ability to have that tactile
function on a computer instead often unlocks those students who
have resisted the activity because they feel that they are
simply not good at it. And third, research shows that when
teachers grade papers, the quality of a student's handwriting
affects the grade that student gets, as opposed to the content
of what is being written.
CHAIR SEATON asked if they have a speech translation program for
students who have difficulty keyboarding.
MS. SCANDLING said the laptops do have that ability.
CHAIR SEATON asked if the feature is used very frequently.
MS. MARINO said that, although the translation is available on
the laptops, all of their students prefer the keyboard.
12:38:58 PM
MR. BROWN commented that his grammar and vocabulary have
improved since getting his laptop because he is more likely to
look up words he isn't familiar with.
MS. MARINO added that the students have all prepared brief
statements that she would like to give them the opportunity to
share.
CHAIR SEATON encouraged them to present their statements.
REPRESENTATIVE MUNOZ joined the committee.
12:40:14 PM
MR. SONESEN said Ms. Marino asked him to think about why he
believes the laptops are good for the school so he jotted down
these thoughts.
In a world that works at getting everyone connected and talking
to each other, technology has become a big part of education.
Connecting schools far and wide, sharing experiences from the
smallest town to the biggest city, laptops can send information
at high speeds to connect people's lives through the Internet,
introducing students to a new world that some would never
experience. Replacing the need for paper in the classroom,
laptops can help preserve the environment and save money for
educational experiences outside the classroom.
The world looks to technology for advancements in medicine,
music and even hobbies. Students today will end up in careers
working for Apple or Dell or even starting their own computer
companies. He has already become a teacher in some classes, he
said, showing instructors how to better use new programs.
Although lawyers and doctors are important to the needs of
society, behind every new advancement in medicine, behind
driving a car to work wherever that may be, is technology
pushing innovation forward. Students will learn the new programs
to design the new cars and help the deaf and blind be able to
hear and see again. It all starts in classrooms with the
students learning new programs and exploring the world from
their laptops.
12:42:15 PM
MR. BROWN said he came from a school in Las Vegas, NV with 21 F
grades and a bad attitude about learning. Since arriving at
Yaakoosge he has gained a second family; he has earned awards in
math and writing and now has only one C among A and B grades. He
insists that having access to a laptop has been a large part of
his new success. He enjoys being able to look things up for
himself rather than always calling for help and he actually
likes coming to school now.
12:44:00 PM
MR. TORRES said he attended school in Reno, NV, before coming to
Juneau. There he had almost no access to technology; the
textbooks seemed irrelevant to him; school did not engage him
and he dropped out entirely as a sophomore at 16. Coming to
Yaakoosge and having access to the laptops has renewed his
interest in school. He still doesn't enjoy reading textbooks but
does enjoy researching the topics online for his school work;
the information available on the web is more relevant,
interesting and up-to-date than what he was getting in the
texts. The laptop also helps with his music; the music that was
playing at the beginning of the meeting is his, created on the
laptops provided at school. He pointed out that computer skills
are essential for almost any job today; technology is their
future.
12:45:15 PM
MS. MARINO said that Yaakoosge received Apple's Distinguished
School Award this year. The award is given to schools that have
successfully incorporated technology into their learning
environment.
12:45:56 PM
MR. ROSE introduced David Silvernail, a researcher from the
University of Southern Maine, who was present via
teleconference, to provide information about Maine's study into
the impacts of technology on learning.
12:46:40 PM
DR. DAVID L. SILVERNAIL, Researcher, University of Southern
Maine, Portland, ME, presented a short slide presentation titled
"Research and Evaluation on the Maine Learning Technology
Initiative (MLTI)."
Slide 1: Research and Evaluation of the Maine Learning
Technology Initiative (MLTI)
Laptop Program
Inputs on Student Achievement
Dr David L Silvernail
Director of Research
Maine International Center for Digital Learning
Center for Education Policy, Applied Research &
Evaluation
University of Southern Maine
March 2009
Slide 2: The Goal of Maine's Laptop Program
In 2002, Maine embarked on a bold new initiative, an
initiative designed to transform Maine into the
premier state for utilizing technology in kindergarten
to grade 12 education in order to prepare students for
a future economy that will rely heavily on technology
and innovation.
(Task Force on Maine's Learning Technology Endowment,
2001, p. vi)
Slide 3: Overview of the Maine Learning Technology
Initiative (MLTI)
Beginning in 2002 the State of Maine provided all
middle school students and their teachers with laptop
computers and provided schools technical assistance
and professional development for integrating laptop
technology into their curriculum and instruction.
Beginning in 2007, all high school teachers also
received a laptop and are currently being offered
professional development to enhance their use of the
technology.
Current plans call for providing all high school
students with laptops beginning fall 2009. That means
adding another 53,000 kids to the initiative.
12:49:45 PM
DR. SILVERNAIL interjected that his office is responsible for
the ongoing research and evaluation of the laptop program. They
are an educational policy research institute which is funded
partly by the legislature and partly by the university system so
they are charged with providing education research and policy
analysis for the education committee. The Maine legislature has
requested in law that there be a longitudinal study of the
impacts of the laptop program.
Slide 4: This slide shows a graph of teachers' assessments of
the impact of laptops on their students learning, which
reinforces some of the comments made earlier. It indicates that
60 percent or more of the teachers believe laptops have helped
improve their students' learning; teachers reported that the
quality of student work improved and that they showed a greater
understanding [of the subjects]. One of the key questions they
asked teachers was how well the laptops helped their students
achieve Maine's key learning standards and a large majority of
teachers said the laptops helped them and their students achieve
those standards.
DR. SILVERNAIL said he would like to point out three studies
that were more focused on empirical evidence in addition to the
teacher assessments. These studies demonstrate some of the
important things the research is finding about the laptop
program; these are some of the same things that the students
were reporting.
The first study looked at the writing performance scores on
Maine's statewide test prior to and then three years after the
introduction of the laptop program. While many things can impact
performance, the introduction of computers was the one common
element across all the schools.
This study found that economically disadvantaged kids who used
the laptops for writing, rather than as editing tools,
outperformed economically advantaged kids who did not use them
that way. They also had the opportunity to assess kids who wrote
on the laptops and those who wrote in longhand and found that
the improvement was across both modes of expression.
Slide 5: Impact Studies: 1. Maine's Middle Schools
Laptop Program: Creating Better Writers
Study Design:
· Causal- comparative study
· Compared writing performance on statewide
achievement test before and after introduction of
laptops.
Results:
· Writing scores improved approximately 1/3 of a
standard deviation.
· Twice as many students who used the laptops in the
writing program met state proficiency standards as
those who used laptops only as a "finishing" tool.
· Economically disadvantaged students outperformed
economically advantaged students in some situations.
· Overall writing performances significantly improved
both using a laptop and paper/pencil.
The next was a two-year study that he feels demonstrates the
importance of providing professional development and support for
teachers as they try to use laptops as a learning tool. The
Maine Department of Education received a grant from the federal
government to do a random control (RCT) study using a very tight
design with controlled, experimental classrooms; the results
here were that teachers improved their knowledge and then
changed some of their teaching behaviors around how to use the
laptops in their teaching. They found that students in the
experimental classrooms scored significantly higher not just on
the tests designed for the study, but on the statewide
mathematics test. This transferability is an important
indication of understanding.
Slide 6: Impact Studies: 2. Improving Mathematics
Performance Using Laptop Technology:
The Importance of Professional Development to Success
Study Design:
· RCT study on mathematics
· 2-year professional development program
Results:
· Teacher knowledge significantly improved
· Teaching practices and uses of technology
changed.
· Students in experimental group classroom scored
significantly higher on:
1. Tests specifically designed for the study
2. Statewide mathematics test
The third study is one in which they worked one-on-one with
teachers, trying to design studies for their classrooms that
would show the impacts. In this case they used animation to
teach science concepts. There were three major results, one of
which was that comprehension was higher among students who used
the animation. Also, when students were assessed over a month
later, they displayed higher retention rates.
Slide 7: Impact Studies: 3. Using Laptops to
Facilitate Middle School Science Learning: The Results
of Hard Fun
Study Design:
· Field-based quasi-experimental study
· Using animation to learn earth science
Results:
· Students using animation scored significantly
higher on comprehension tests.
· Students who used animation had significantly
higher retention scores.
· Students who used animation reported experiencing
"hard fun".
In summary, he said they are seeing some long-term impacts,
although they aren't necessarily immediate; they did not see
some of these things in the first couple of years of the
studies.
They have learned that there needs to be strong support for
teachers. The technology needs to be appropriate to the goal;
the laptop is not the best tool in all cases. He feels it is
important to have an evaluation research plan in place so you
can catch issues early and tweak the system, but also so that
you can systematically track the impacts.
Finally, when talking to other states or school systems that are
considering laptops, he emphasizes that they need to articulate
and manage expectations. There is a general tendency to think
that introduction of the technology and laptops will reform
schools and, while these are tools that can help do that, they
will not reform a school by themselves.
Slide 8: Lesson Learned: What Have We Learned From
These Studies?
1. There must be a clear strategic vision and plan.
2. Teachers must receive strong, meaningful and
sustained professional developments and support.
3. Technology use must be appropriate to the task
and focused.
4. The technology must be used as a learning tool.
5. Assessments must match learning with technology.
6. There needs to be clear evaluation and research
plans developed early in the initiative.
7. It is important to articulate and manage
expectations.
Copies of MLTI research and evaluation reports are
available on the following website:
http://www.usm.maine.edu/cepare
Inquiries may be directed to Dr. David L. Silvernail
at:
Telephone: 207.780.5044
Email: davids@usm.maine.edu
12:59:35 PM
MR. ROSE thanked Dr. Silvernail and offered some closing
comments. Technology, he said, is an equity issue. Young people
who have access to technology have access to the world; those
who do not, face an uphill climb. The issue of bandwidth is the
same issue; Alaska doesn't have adequate bandwidth across the
state. It is important to be able to read, write and compute but
kids today need to be able to access information, validate that
it is good information and use it to create value. This is a
moral imperative for people of our generation, to recognize the
importance of technology and give that opportunity to the next
generation. The school system must represent the environment in
which these young people live.
1:01:22 PM
CHAIR SEATON asked Dr. Silvernail if Maine has gone to virtual
textbooks.
1:01:49 PM
DR. SILVERNAIL said it varies across the state, but more and
more schools are choosing not to issue new textbooks, especially
in science, so it is happening gradually.
1:03:35 PM
CHAIR SEATON thanked Dr. Silvernail.
1:03:56 PM
REPRESENTATIVE BUCH asked the students present to describe how
much time they spend studying using their laptops.
1:04:40 PM
MR. SONESEN said he remembers earlier years in school and having
to carry around a heavy book bag; the laptop reduces that weight
to about five pounds and is a real stress-reliever. He doesn't
use it for all of his classes; they still have paper assignments
in math and don't use the laptops much in art, but he does use
it whenever possible. He uses it for research and writing; it
allows him to provide a more professional and readable
presentation. He probably uses the computer about four hours
during the school day and ten hours total on the weekend.
MR. BROWN said he uses his laptop all day long. Even in math,
where they don't do assignments on the laptop, he uses it to
listen to music, which helps him concentrate on his math. All
together, he uses it about five hours during the school day and
about 3 hours after he gets home on week days. He uses it to run
his personal janitorial business as well for his school work, so
he probably uses it 75 percent of his time.
MR. TORRES said he probably uses it for 90 percent of his work
at school; math is the only thing he uses a pencil for. He
doesn't have take-home privileges for the school laptops, but
does have a computer at home, which he uses probably an hour
each week day and five or six hours a day on weekends.
REPRESENTATIVE BUCH thanked the students again for coming
forward and asked Ms. Marino how these young men were chosen to
represent the school.
MS. MARINO said these gentlemen volunteered to come and are
members of the Yaakoosge tech team or have done exceptional work
in their Apple projects.
CHAIR SEATON expressed his thanks for helping the legislators
understand what they do and how much the laptop project has
helped with their studies.
1:10:28 PM
There being no further business to come before the committee,
Representative Seaton adjourned the meeting at 1:10 p.m.
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