Technology tools reinvent Catholic high school classrooms |
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Written by LAURIE STEVENS, Chronicle Writer
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Friday, 01 February 2008 09:30 |
Debra Streacker didn’t know exactly how teaching an online Spanish course would work when she agreed to try it this year, but the teacher and assistant principal at Fremont St. Joseph Central Catholic High School was eager to find out.
Two seniors from Tiffin Calvert High School “virtually” joined her fourth-year Spanish class of six students at St. Joseph, and she has since learned they have all the tools they need to bridge the miles between them.
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| From right, Toledo Central Catholic freshmen Trenton Robinson, Taylor Barber and Jeremy Drees use their laptops to go on a “Web quest” in teacher Connie Peebles’ religion class. While lecturing about Old Testament prophets, Ms. Peebles periodically asks the students to look up maps and other information using a Web search engine. (Chronicle photo by Laurie Stevens) |
Video and audio software allow teacher and students to see and hear one another, and they speak in real-time at the beginning of every class with an online chat application. E-mail keeps them in touch the rest of the week.
“It’s been really exciting. And I think we’ve only scratched the tip of the iceberg,” says Mrs. Streacker.
Technology is rapidly immersing students and teachers at Catholic high schools of the diocese into a new world of iChat, vodcats, podcasts, Smart Boards and other uniquely-named tools.
Connecting and delivering it all is a virtual classroom environment called Moodle, which is being integrated at varying degrees into classrooms across the diocese. Such virtual classrooms are widely used by colleges and universities.
Moodle, a free online course management system, is available from the diocesan schools office to any Catholic high school.
The first courses in the diocese to be taught entirely online by an out-of-town instructor using Moodle were offered last school year at Calvert High School.
This year, teachers and students at three Catholic high schools are collaborating with online distance learning, something Catholic schools technology consultant Shari Beier is particularly excited about. In addition to the St. Joseph-Calvert class, two students from Mansfield St. Peter are taking calculus with Calvert teacher Bob Stover.
“I think we’re kind of at the leading edge of moving this forward,” says Mrs. Beier. “It’s an exciting place to be, because you can collaborate with other schools and other dioceses and build a good foundation.”
Mrs. Beier says she is exploring the possibility of sharing resources with other Catholic schools beyond the Diocese of Toledo, and the diocesan schools office is also developing an online course catalog to be available to all local high schools through Moodle. Offerings for spring 2008 currently include a survey in Western music and a sociology class.
Becky Fabrizio and Katie Beidenbach, the Calvert seniors who are taking Spanish online, say they are happy with the arrangement, so far.
“There were some technical issues at the beginning but now we’ve got it all figured out,” says Katie.
“I like that it’s flexible and I can do the assignments in my own time,” Becky adds. “They do have deadlines, but I can work at my own pace.”
Students now are taking online courses because scheduling conflicts prevented them from taking on-site classes, but school officials can imagine a variety of other uses for the technology.
“I don’t think there’s any one cut-and-dry formula of how you use these tools,” says Mrs. Beier. “It’s dependent upon the need and what people are doing.”
If several schools wanted to offer a language like Latin or Mandarin Chinese and couldn’t afford a teacher individually, she suggests they might hire one online instructor and split the salary.
“If we can share teachers across the diocese, that’s going to be phenomenal,” says Mr. Stover.
Wild for Moodle
Only a handful of students in the diocese are taking online classes, but many more teachers are using Moodle to supplement their on-site classes.
Students can retrieve homework assignments and notes or even listen to lecture recordings on Moodle at any time of the day. Teachers can post interactive activities like review quizzes and crossword puzzles, and students can turn in homework assignments electronically.
Mr. Stover relies on Smart Board, an interactive whiteboard connected to computer, to record his math lectures so he can post them on Moodle. This allows students to go through the equations they worked out in class step-by-step again, if needed. If he knows he will be absent, Mr. Stover records his Smart Board lecture to an empty classroom in advance to play later, “so I’m teaching even when I’m not there.”
In her Spanish class, Mrs. Streacker says podcasts — free online audio programs — allow her students to hear the language spoken by native speakers in a variety of dialects. Her students also exchange videos online with students learning English in Spain to practice the language.
The teacher says such activities help her present the content in a richer way to her students at both St. Joseph and Calvert.
Providing the tools
As reliable computer access becomes increasingly crucial to academic success, Catholic high schools are working to give their students the equipment they need to take advantage of the technology.
Toledo Central Catholic High School rolled out its “1 to 1” initiative last fall to provide laptops to every incoming freshman until all students in the school have their own personal computers.
School officials say they have already seen dramatic results.
“It’s magical to see the change in the students, and how excited they are to be in some of the classes that are using the laptops,” says Chris Hamady, director of technology at CCHS. “They’re completely self-motivated.”
The built-in camera in each computer makes creating digital video projects as easy as writing papers, offering students new ways to explore concepts. A wireless network connects them to the Internet anywhere on campus, and students have access to class resources and grades online 24 hours a day.
Marie Arter, director of curriculum, says teachers have seen improvements in student writing, and also report students are researching and becoming more involved in their education.
Some used to struggle with basic software applications, but now Mr. Hamady observes most freshmen are coming to him for help using the technology in even more advanced ways.
“You can see a huge change in their technology literacy, because they have access to it 24 hours a day,” he explains.
With the laptop program, Ms. Arter says the school hopes to “level the playing field” by providing equal access to technology.
“We have to prepare these students for a world that we don’t even know about,” adds Mr. Hamady. “The one that we currently live in is changing so rapidly.”
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Last Updated on Monday, 28 July 2008 08:46 |
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