EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY NEWS

From the New Hampshire Department of Education

Office of Educational Technology

August 31, 2005

IN THIS ISSUE

§       Status of Technology Plans

§       Important Survey for School E-Rate Contacts

§       NCLB Title IID - Enhancing Education Through Technology Round 4 Awards

§       Research: Online Assessment

§       Research: Teens and Technology

§       SchoolSpan Better Website Grants

Looking for other info? Check out previous issues online at www.nheon.org/oet/etnews

WELCOME BACK TO SCHOOL !!!

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Check the Status of Technology Plans

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http://nheon.org/oet/erate/TPStatus.htm

Many districts have technology plans which expired on 6/30/05. If your district sent an updated plan to the NHDOE for approval, you can check the status of your plan on the web. This list is updated regularly.

When plans are approved, a copy of the review rubric is sent to the district technology contact and a signed hard copy of the approval letter is mailed to the SAU office. There is a backlog of plans right now, so don’t panic if you haven’t received your approval letter yet. If your plan has expired and your district has not yet submitted an updated plan, is it critical that you do so in order to become eligible for federal E-Rate funding and NCLB Title IID funding. Visit the Tech Planning Guide at www.nheon.org/oet/tpguide for a copy of the review rubric and more information about updating your plan.

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IMPORTANT Survey for School E-Rate Contacts

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The following IMPORTANT message about the E-Rate program was just received from the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) and is directed at those who are responsible for submitting and tracking E-Rate applications at the school and district level.

“As you may know, the Administration, Congress and the FCC are taking a hard look at the E-rate program, actively debating whether the program has been a success or failure, and whether it should continue, be scaled back or altogether eliminated. And those of us actively involved with E-rate are being asked on a weekly basis for E-rate data beyond what is available on the SLD's website. 

The State E-rate Coordinators' Alliance (SECA) has just developed an online E-rate Survey of Schools, which asks questions we don't think have ever been included in any prior survey. The survey consists of 28 straightforward questions and they estimate that it should take between 10 - 15 minutes to complete. It's being asked of all schools in the country, with each state then analyzing their own schools' data.  The survey will close at 8:00 p.m. EST, Wednesday, September 7.

Will you please forward the link to the E-rate survey to your schools and encourage them to complete the survey in the next week before it closes?  We know your schools are bombarded with surveys, and we hope you know that we wouldn't ask you to complete this survey if it wasn't absolutely necessary. But if we are going to maintain the $2.25 billion E-rate program, we need to have clear data to present to the policymakers that are thinking that the program isn't successful and is not vitally needed.

Who Should Complete the Survey?
* All public and nonpublic schools (note: non-public schools are not required to answer the questions pertaining to No Child Left Behind).
* The survey is not designed to be completed by regional consortium entities or libraries.
* We ask that the survey be completed by the entity that completes the Form 471 (the billed entity), regardless of whether individual schools within that district apply separately. If the entity is a single school (such as a nonpublic school) that applies on its own, that school would complete the survey.
* If you have several individuals from your entity that are responsible for E-rate activities, please coordinate your response to reduce the chances of duplication.

What Will Happen to the Data:
All contact and identifying information will be kept confidential; it’s being collected in order for the State E-rate coordinators to contact the schools if they have any questions and to determine if duplicate responses were submitted. Please know that the individual responses will be kept confidential, except where indicated. The data will be compiled and analyzed to determine areas for program improvement, the ongoing need for E-rate, etc.  They also hope to compile the aggregated data which we'll make available for everyone to see.”

The survey is located at: http://www.zoomerang.com/survey.zgi?p=WEB224KB8TD3EW

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NCLB Title IID – E2T2 Round 4

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www.nheon.org/oet/nclb

This is a reminder to Tech Coordinators that the allocation guidance and application form for the 4th year of NCLB Title II-D (Enhancing Education Through Technology) allocation awards to districts has been released. Applications are now starting to arrive at the NHDOE. Formula fund applications from districts will be accepted from 8/1/05 through 1/1/06. When you prepare your application, be sure to check that your Tech Plan is updated and that you have submitted Tech Progress Reports for previous project awards for Round 1 (2002-03 and 2003-04 application years).

A note about Tech Progress Reports: These should not be lengthy. Keep them brief and describe the data you used to evaluate whether progress was made on project funded activities. The report form is available on the above mentioned website.

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Levels of Technology Implementation (LoTI)

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www.lotilounge.com

District and school LoTI Reports for the 2004-05 year have been compiled and will be made available this fall to districts for their analysis and use in professional development planning. The 2005-06 LoTI Survey is available for your use as well. Visit the LoTI Lounge to access the survey and other materials.

Tech coordinators, please note that Dan Cherry, our in-house resident “LoTi Guy” has moved on from the NHDOE as an independent consultant, due to the completion of the Gates Leadership grant which funded his position. We are delighted that Dan will still be available for LoTI and other technology implementation and leadership work in and around the northeast (since he lives here in New Hampshire). Therefore, questions about obtaining your LoTI reports and/or survey access questions may be referred to yours truly until further notice.

The Local Educational Support Center Network is sponsoring a Certified LoTI Mentor Training Program this fall, which will be attended by over 30 New Hampshire educators! If your school is interested in having a LoTI Mentor visit to work with your teachers, contact your nearest Center (see www.nheon.org/centers) to discuss the possibilities.

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RESEARCH: Online Assessment

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http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2005457

NCES has just released 'Online Assessment in Mathematics and Writing: Reports From the NAEP Technology-Based Assessment Project, Research and Development Series.' This document contains reports from the 2001 Math Online (MOL) study and the 2002 Writing Online (WOL) study, both field investigations in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Technology-Based Assessment Project, which explored the use of new technology in NAEP.

In the MOL study, nationally representative samples of fourth- and eighth-grade students were administered a computer-based mathematics test and a test of computer facility, among other measures. In addition, at the eighth- grade level, a randomly selected control group of students was administered a paper-based test containing the same items as the computer-based test.  Results showed that the computer-based mathematics test was significantly harder than the paper-based test for eighth-grade students. At both grade levels, computer facility predicted online mathematics test performance after controlling for performance on a paper-based mathematics test, suggesting that degree of familiarity with computers may matter when taking a computer-based mathematics test in NAEP. In the WOL study, a nationally representative sample of eighth-grade students was administered a computer-based writing test and a test of computer facility, among other measures. The performance of this sample was compared to a second nationally representative group taking the same writing test in main NAEP.  Results showed that average scores on the computer-based writing test were generally not significantly different from average scores on the paper-based writing test.  However, as in the Math Online study, computer familiarity was associated with online test performance (after controlling for performance on a paper-based writing test), suggesting that the student’s computer skill level may affect online writing test performance in NAEP.

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RESEARCH: Teens and Technology

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http://www.pewinternet.org/report_display.asp?r=162

A new report, “Teens and Technology,” was recently issued by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, based on a November 2004 survey of 1,100 youth between the ages of 12 and 17 and their parents.

This survey indicates that, compared to four years ago, teens’ use of the internet has intensified and broadened as they log on more often and do more things when they are online. Among other things, there has been significant growth over the past four years in the number of teens who play games on the internet, get news, shop online, and get health information. In short, today’s American teens live in a world enveloped by communications technologies; the internet and cell phones have become a central force that fuels the rhythm of daily life.

Read the report summary or the full report on the Pew Internet and American Life Project website.

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SchoolSpan Better Website Grants

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www.schoolspan.com

SchoolSpan’s second annual Better Web Site Grants will be providing up to $1 million in technology applications to improve district web sites in the U.S. and Canada. Starting September 1, districts may visit the SchoolSpan web site to apply. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, but are due no later than December 15, 2005.

Regards,

Cathy Higgins

Visit us on NH Educators Online at http://nheon.org/oet