Alliance for Digital Equality Successfully Completes First Year of Learning Without Walls Program; Students Flourish

/PRNewswire/ -- The Alliance for Digital Equality (ADE), the leading voice for affordable broadband deployment in underserved communities, has successfully completed its first year in partnership with the Learning Without Walls program (LearningWOW), an initiative aimed at enhancing student performance, literacy, and self-esteem through the use of broadband technologies. As a result of this partnership, LearningWOW students flourished both inside and outside of the classroom, proving that access to mobile broadband services is critical for students to achieve their maximum potential.

One of ADE's implementations of LearningWOW is at North Clayton Middle School (Clayton County Public Schools) outside of Atlanta, GA. There were several notable impacts on students' achievement this past school year.

* LearningWOW Female Academy students had higher average Georgia CRCT scale scores than the district (reading, English Language Arts, mathematics, science, and social studies) and in the state (reading, English Language Arts, science, and social studies).
* LearningWOW Male Academy students surpassed the district in English Language Arts.
* LearningWOW students also had higher average scale scores than a comparison group of male and female academy students (no laptops) on all five content area tests.
* LearningWOW students' 9-weeks grades for all content areas were also collected and compared with the 9-weeks grades for the Non-LearningWOW Male and Female Academy students. The LearningWOW Female Academy students had consistently higher averages in ELA, social studies, and science; and the LearningWOW Male Academy students had higher averages in mathematics.
* The LearningWOW male students had the best attendance rate in the school, 98%!


"The ADE is grateful for the participation and support of AT&T and Qualcomm's Wireless Reach initiative. The success we have achieved through this partnership clearly demonstrates what can happen when we deliver real-time solutions to communities who have far less than adequate access to mainstream broadband technology — in this case, public school students and their families based in one of the nation's most academically challenged school districts," said Alliance for Digital Equality Chairman Julius H. Hollis. "We believe that providing access to broadband technology will enhance the ability of these students to meet the challenges of the 21st Century, and we couldn't be more proud of the results that we are seeing in these truly talented students."

"Qualcomm is very proud to collaborate with AT&T and the ADE through our Wireless Reach initiative to help end digital illiteracy," said Dr. Paul E. Jacobs, chairman and CEO of Qualcomm. "To see these exceptional students thrive as a result of this project reinforces our view that mobile broadband can aid in improving academic achievement."

The LearningWOW initiative in Clayton County, GA provided students with laptop computers enabled with Internet connectivity to extend access to the home. Teachers received formal coaching to incorporate technology into lesson plans. This one-to-one initiative focused on project based learning. Students were able to collaborate online with each other and with their teachers. Imagine students blogging daily about math. The blog became a tool for the teacher to know what to do the next day (review the lesson, move to the next lesson, or repeat the lesson).

"The entire North Clayton Middle School community is thrilled to be part of this innovative program to bring students the one-to-one instructional support they need to achieve their academic goals and lay the foundation for a successful learning experience," said Monika Wiley, principal of North Clayton Middle School. "We look forward to continuing to work with ADE and continued success through the LearningWOW program."

The LearningWOW program made tremendous accomplishments in its first year with positive data based research from an independent report, great student performance on Georgia's CRCT and positive student satisfaction and engagement. ADE is moving forward to secure public and private funding to expand the program. Additionally, a second school will participate this school year and experiment at a lower grade (4th) level. This first year has encouraged the ADE to continue to replicate this program in more schools in the state of Georgia and nationally.

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GaDOE and GPB Partnership Wins National Award

The Georgia Department of Education (GaDOE), in partnership with Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB), received a My Source Education Innovation Award recently from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in Washington, D.C. The award recognizes the use of pioneering methods and emerging digital technologies to serve the educational needs of communities. The $3,000 grant award was presented to State Superintendent of Schools Kathy Cox and GPB President Teya Ryan at the Council of Chief State School Officers/Public Media Executive Summit.

The GaDOE and GPB received the award for incorporating digital media to illustrate learning objectives for Project ExPreSS (Exam Preparation for Science and Social Studies). The ExPreSS program was offered last summer throughout the state to any high school students that were interested in receiving remediation for the science and social studies sections of the Georgia High School Graduation Test (GHSGT). Students in the program had an overall retest pass rate of 68 percent; more than double the previous year’s pass rate on GHSGT retests in science and social studies.

“The partnership we have with GPB truly helped make Project ExPreSS a tremendous success,” said Superintendent Cox. “The digital resources they provided us helped bring the performance standards to life for all of the students and teachers involved in the program.”

“Project ExPreSS is a great example of how GPB is using its resources to help improve student achievement in Georgia,” said Ryan. “We’re proud to partner with the GaDOE and look forward to finding more ways to enrich the classroom learning environment through the development of high-quality digital resources.”

The success with the summer ExPreSS program showed that there was a greater need to offer it again and make an online version available to reach even more students.

FreeOnline ExPreSS creates an online opportunity designed to help students prepare for the science and social studies GHSGT. Science and social studies are the two sections of the GHSGT that Georgia students fail most often. The program offers self-paced units based on the instructional plans created for the summer Project ExPreSS.

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NASA and Texas Instruments Use Human Spaceflight to Bring Math and Science Topics Into High School Classrooms

/PRNewswire/ -- NASA and Texas Instruments are using the theme of human space exploration to develop digital libraries of math and science problems for high school students. The goal is to bring real-world topics in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, into classrooms to spark students' excitement and interest in these critical career fields.

The collaboration will produce two digital libraries. One, called Exploring Space Through Math: Applications in High School Mathematics, will provide problems based on NASA data that are set in the context of space exploration. The project material will cover almost the entire high school math curriculum, with applications in Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra 2, and Pre-Calculus.

The other digital library, named Science at Work: Exploring Space with NASA-AP, will contain questions for Advanced Placement classes. This program seeks to develop and test problems in calculus, statistics, physics, chemistry and biology.

"As students solve real problems NASA faces in space exploration, they will practice during high school and college the skills necessary to pursue a career in a STEM field," said Charles Lloyd, NASA's lead for the effort and program manager for Human Research Program Education and Outreach at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. "NASA and Texas Instruments are passionate about motivating the next generation's interest in science and math subjects and equipping these students to take us farther into space and improve our lives here on Earth."

The libraries of questions will use NASA applications and data while incorporating Texas Instruments' math learning technology. Each problem includes student and teacher editions to help the teacher link content to higher concepts.

"Our goal is to make STEM subjects more fun and interactive," said Werner Garciano, director of Professional Development for Texas Instruments' Education Technology. "Working with NASA is a great opportunity to bring exciting, real-world math experiences into the classroom. Our collaboration will expand the digital content and professional development that Texas Instruments provides teachers, and will help engage students more deeply in math. Together, we believe these activities will break through to students who have never considered a STEM career path."

Both projects will be available in the fall of 2010 on NASA's Web site. With this program, NASA continues its investment in engaging and retaining students in STEM disciplines critical to the agency's future engineering, scientific, and technical missions. For more information about NASA's education programs, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/education

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Fayette County Ranked Top Ten of Tech-Savvy School Boards

The Fayette County Public School System placed eighth in the nation among large-sized school districts in the sixth annual Digital School Districts Survey, sponsored by the Center for Digital Education, National School Boards Association and “Converge Online” magazine.

The purpose of the survey is to showcase exemplary school boards and districts’ use of technology to govern the district, communicate with students, parents and the community and to improve district operations.

"We are honored to receive this award. It is a team effort on the part of our technology department, the staff at the schools, county level and our students and parents," says Superintendent John DeCotis.

All U.S. public school boards/districts were invited to participate in the survey. Schools were placed in three categories based on size of enrollment.

The study examined and documented school boards and districts’ online presence; technology applications that allow the public to interact with school board members, administrators and teachers; as well as their access to information such as school board calendars, district policies, and technology use in the district and classrooms.

Winners reflected those school districts with the fullest implementation of technology standards in the evolution of digital education. A full list of winners can be viewed at www.centerdigitaled.com.

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Gwinnett County Public Schools Connects Homebound Students with Alcatel-Lucent Unified Communications and Collaboration Solution

/PRNewswire/ -- In an effort to better educate the greatest number of the county's pupils, Gwinnett County Public Schools (GCPS), has extended the classroom beyond its campuses to reach homebound students through state-of-the-art collaboration technology provided by Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU). With its new capabilities, the Gwinnett district, the largest school district in the state of Georgia, is embracing the digital age and creating a more interactive learning environment for homebound students, while dramatically reducing costs across its campuses.

The new Alcatel-Lucent Voice over IP (VoIP) solution will link 114 schools in Gwinnett, providing a major reduction in telephony charges for a district that serves more than 157,600 students and employees a staff of approximately 22,000. Gwinnett is also using the Alcatel-Lucent OmniTouch My Teamwork Unified Conferencing and Collaboration solution to better connect teachers and homebound students reducing the need for travel. The county hosts approximately 60 audio-visual calls per week serving 600 to 700 students who need to be educated at home.

"Previously, our teachers would either travel to each homebound student to provide a few hours of daily instruction or use an audio bridge to conduct group lessons. Voice-only instruction lacks the graphics and visual aids that help keep young, inquisitive students engaged," said Rick Overton, Director of Telecommunications & Network Services, Information Management Division, Gwinnett County Public Schools. "Alcatel-Lucent's VoIP network and the My Teamwork solution help teachers provide a richer learning experience -- they can use video clips for a history lesson, interactive graphing for science or white-board instruction for math."

The Gwinnett County Public Schools IP network already used a range of Alcatel-Lucent OmniSwitch Ethernet switches to provide the bandwidth and security needed by students and faculty for on campus communications. The more recent deployment of the Alcatel-Lucent OmniPCX Enterprise provides a new VoIP solution and allows the district to centralize its main voice switches at the district headquarters, extending remote call servers with back up circuits at each school building when fully complete.

Morse Communications, Inc., an Alcatel-Lucent business partner, worked as project leader to gather requirements, customize and install the VoIP equipment, manage service cutover and train the school district staff. Morse currently is providing full-time, on-site backup support for the school system as well as ongoing service, maintenance and consultation.

"Effective and efficient communications technology is critical when creating a dynamic learning environment that makes it possible for students to connect with teachers, fellow students and other knowledge resources safely and securely -- anytime, anywhere," said Tom Burns, who heads Alcatel-Lucent enterprise activities. "My Teamwork will help Gwinnett County Public Schools expand access to education beyond the four walls of the classroom. Our solution helps school districts reduce travel requirements and transportation costs with a virtual infrastructure that brings students and teachers together when they can't reach the brick and mortar classroom."

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