United States Department of Education
May 1997
Section One: U.S. Department of Education Cover Sheet
Section Two: Project Summary of Generation www.Y
The primary goal of the Generation www.Y project is the same as all other Technology Innovation Challenge Grants - the formation of a community dedicated to the improvement of student learning through the use of educational technologies. What makes Generation www.Y unique is that students are included as the centerpiece of this community. The Generation www.Y model trains students to act as mentors and research assistants to teachers, administrators, classified personnel, parents, community members, and college students studying to become teachers. This training is accomplished by an 18-week Generation www.Y course for middle and high school students. In this course, students spend seven weeks learning the technical and lesson planning skills necessary to help one of their teachers integrate technology into their curriculum. The remaining 11 weeks of the course have the students mentoring their teacher with the help of the class, 14 consulting districts located in 14 states, and other members of the Generation www.Y community. The goal of this mentoring is to change one of the teacher's existing lessons to reflect a strong use of technology.
Generation www.Y class graduates then work with colleges of education to provide training to preservice teachers, provide elementary students and teachers technology curriculum integration expertise and work in district computer laboratories to keep the facilities available after hours for students and community members. Another major component of the project is an aggressive dissemination model. Each semester Generation www.Y class prepares another school to implement the course the following semester. This is accomplished by teams from other schools and districts visiting the class to learn about the course and how to implement it in their district.
Section Three: Project Status
During the seven month period since the Generation www.Y Technology Innovation Challenge Grant Project was awarded in October 1996 we have made significant movement toward achievement of the stated goals. The following are all the project goals (in bold print) as stated on our Grant Application submitted last June and awarded last October.
1. To enable students to learn telecommunications skills
The student develops the skills necessary to access information.
The student improves oral and written communications skills.
The student develop cross-cultural communications skills.
The student analyzes, synthesizes, and evaluates information.
These skills are taught as part of the 18-week Generation www.Y semester course which began in late January in all six of the district's secondary schools. One-hundred-sixty grade 6-12 students were enrolled in these classes. The Generation www.Y class has two components: (1) students spend seven weeks learning technology and lesson planning skills and (2) students spend the remaining eleven weeks mentoring one of their teachers and developing at least one project in the teacher's class that incorporates what they learned in the first (skills) section of the class into a lesson plan.
The six Generation www.Y teachers, chosen in November, developed the skills section of the class to ensure students were meeting these objectives. The detailed twenty lesson plans of the initial skills section can be seen in Appendix A or downloaded from our the Generation www.Y web site (https://kids.osd.wednet.edu). Generation www.Y teachers will meet on June 2 to revise the lessons based on what was learned during the initial Generation www.Y classes.
The multicultural component was evidenced in the project phase of the class when many students linked their classes to other schools on the network. In addition, Generation www.Y students visited Washington D.C. and worked with students in the District of Columbia schools (see enclosed video tape news report).
2. To expand the core number of OSD student network leaders to team with and train district teachers to incorporate telecommunications in all schools.
One hundred and sixty students entered the Generation www.Y course whose major purpose was to meet this project goal. (More than 500 district students applied to take the course. ) The 160 students were chosen at random with a gender balance in mind. Appendix B shows a list of the students involved, the teacher they are mentoring, the subject area, and the name of the project they are doing with the teacher.
3. To expand the number of OSD teachers who regularly use telecommunications as a tool for the development and delivery of integrated curriculum.
The same Appendix B shows 160 teachers who are now incorporating technology into their lessons. Many of these projects involve integrating more than one subject area. The list of all projects, objectives, implementation plans, and evaluations of each project can be found on the Generation www.Y projects web page (https://genwhy.wednet.edu/projects.html). As the semester does not end until June 13, all the projects have not been designed and evaluated at this time.
4. To expand the number of OSD teachers who use telecommunications as an instructional tool to increase students' understanding of cultural diversity.
With the help of our consulting districts located in 14 different states (Appendix C), projects the teachers are doing in their classes have had feedback provided from around the country. In addition, many projects involve keypal, data collection, and writing projects with other students and classes around the world. Once again, see our projects web page to see details on each project. In addition, you can view the consulting district responses on our Generation www.Y web forum. Go to the Olympia School District home page (https://kids.osd.wednet.edu) and click on the web forum. Then link to the Gen www.Y forum and read the threaded discussions about the projects.
5. To develop materials which will provide a set of sequential guidelines for expansion.
The original plan was to expand to two additional school districts in the fall of 1997 (Centralia and Shelton). Many school districts would like to offer the Generation www.Y course and it was decided to expand the course and model into two additional districts in the fall (Lake Washington and Federal Way). Each of these four districts will send one teacher and four students to an existing Olympia school for three days to be trained to deliver the course in their school in the fall. The expansion teams will be supplied a notebook containing the 20 lessons (Appendix A), all support material, and tutorials on how to use project software and forums. Appendix D shows an agenda for the expansion districts' three-day visit.
6. To establish the school librarian as a key player for access to telecommunications information as well as published information.
The school librarian has played an important role in helping teachers and students find resources, both print and electronic, for the Generation www.Y student projects. Unfortunately, the teacher we wanted to hire as library coordinator for the project had to tend to a very sick spouse, and we were not able to have as many workshops, to bring librarians up to speed, as we had planned for. This should not be a problem next year.
7. To train preservice teachers in basic telecommunications skills.
Our model is based on training a cadre of students in the Generation www.Y class who then go out and work with preservice teachers (as well as administrators, classified personnel, elementary schools and the community). In June, the first 160 Generation www.Y students will graduate. We will select the best from among these students and pay them to work with the two teacher training institutes that are partners in the Generation www.Y model.
As a result of numerous meetings with faculty members from the two colleges, a plan has been devised where all 120 students college students studying to become teachers will attend ten hours of educational technology classes in an Olympia school taught by Generation www.Y class graduates. Meetings in May will formalize this curriculum. Both colleges remain very excited about this collaboration and feel it will be a model to replicate throughout the teacher training institutions.
8. To utilize preservice teachers to assist secondary school students in developing training modules for delivering pedagogically sound lessons to teachers.
As preservice teachers are learning to write lesson plans in the winter quarter, they will be given accounts to enter the Generation www.Y web forum. This forum allows members to discuss and provide feedback for Generation www.Y projects (lessons). Next winter there will be 250 students mentoring 250 teachers to implement 250 technology-infused lessons. Preservice teachers will monitor these lessons to learn how technology is being used in the curriculum and provide feedback for Generation www.Y students that they can use to improve their lesson plans.
9. To utilize preservice teachers to monitor non-school hour access to telecommunications labs for those students and parents who lack home connectivity.
During the winter and spring college quarters, preservice teachers wishing to further study educational technology (or do a project in this area) will be hired by the project to work with Generation www.Y graduates to keep district computer laboratories open after school and on weekends. Preservice teachers and their teachers have been very keen on this idea.
10. To expand the preservice training model to teachers of Native American learners.
The Evergreen State College will have a cohort of 60 preservice teachers entering their school in the fall of 1998. The entire cohort will be teachers preparing to teach in schools for Native Americans. Directors of this special program have met with Generation www.Y staff and are beginning to integrate Generation www.Y principles into the program. It is anticipated that final details will be worked out next winter.
11. To replicate the Student Network Leader model into a higher education setting.
This will take place at the St. Martins College. We have not discussed the goal to any great extent at this point.
12. To train Expansion District teams of teachers and student network leaders to implement the Generation www.Y model into their schools.
See goal 5 above for initial discussion on expansion teams. In addition to the four districts the Generation www.Y course will expand to in September 1997, four schools in the United States Virgin Islands are preparing to offer the course in the Spring of 1998. A team of three Virgin Islands' educators came to Olympia in March to see how the Olympia network is put together, how students maintain the network, and how the Generation www.Y model works in action. The three spent three days in Olympia and one in the Issaquah School District (one of our consulting districts).
During their visit we ordered 20,000 feet of wire along with other networking necessities. These have been shipped to the Islands and the wiring is in place in all four schools as part of a net day activity there. Nearly $40,000 of grant money has been spent as part of the effort to prepare the four Virgin Islands schools for the Generation www.Y model. Corporate sponsors, JDL, TCI and Microsoft, will also be helping the Virgin Islands ready themselves.
Four expansion teams composed of students and teachers will come to Olympia in December to learn the details of the Generation www.Y class and model. In addition to the Virgin Islands schools, six other schools will visit either Olympia or one of the original four expansion sites to take their courses back to a new school. Spring of 1998 should see 20 schools using the Generation www.Y model.
In May 1998, these 20 schools expand to 40 and it is anticipated that this is when Generation www.Y will expand into the District of Columbia School District, a Chicago school, and a school in the Mississippi delta. Generation www.Y students visited schools in Washington D.C. during May to introduce the model to district administrators and students. This was accomplished with the help of Research for Better Schools, Inc. A video tape showing a news clip of the D.C. visit is attached along with a newspaper front page story on the visit.
The major problem we have is that too many districts across the nation want to replicate the model before we have fully developed and evaluated our initial efforts.
13. To field-test training materials following sequential guidelines.
Training materials (see Appendix A) were developed during December and January and tested in six Generation www.Y classes with 160 students. The Northwest Regional Laboratory and the participants in the projects are evaluating these materials (see evaluation plan below). The materials will be modified and tested in the same six schools, plus an additional four schools in four other districts next fall.
Other project developments during reporting period
(October 1, 1997- April 30, 1997)
Some quick comments on other Generation www.Y developments
A Generation www.Y logo was designed. Project stationary and business cards were produced using the logo (see attached examples).
A letter was created to recruit students into the Generation www.Y course (see Appendix E). This letter is being modified and used by the expansion districts.
Two middle school students have designed and placed on the WWW the Generation www.Y web page (https://kids.osd.wednet.edu). This page has four major components: (1) a description of the project along with a downloadable version of our grant application, (2) the Generation www.Y class lesson plans, (3) a list of all Generation www.Y class projects, and (4) links to Generation www.Y corporate partners.
A two-hour workshop for teachers, who were to be mentored by Generation www.Y students, was held in all six participating schools. Appendix F gives the agenda for that meeting.
Three additional corporate sponsors have been added: Claris Corporation, Allied Telesyn, and Cisco Systems. Each company has already made substantial in-kind donations with promises of more to come.
Microsoft has delivered more than $500,000 in software. See picture of kids in one of our schools opening the software (part of enlclosures). They later installed the software on school computers.
Apple Computer Inc. supplied each of the Generation www.Y teachers with a new PowerBook 1400. They also gave the project a $7,000 color printer, a scanner, 6 computers for Generation www.Y staff, and additional equipment and technical support.
Dissemination efforts have been extensive. A Generation www.Y multimedia presentation was developed and has been shown at conferences and meetings in (1) TelEd in Tampa, Florida, (2) the Virgin Islands Department of Education, (3) The Milken Award presentations in Springfield, Illinois, (4) the Chicago Area One Center, (5) the Kern County Schools in Bakersfield, California, (6) the Central Coast County Schools in San Luis Obispo, California, (7) the Santa Barbara County Office of Education in Santa Barbara, California, (8) the Southern California Computer Using Educators Conference in Palm Springs, California, (9) the Northern California Computer Using Educators Conference in San Jose, California, (10) the Washington Association of School Administrators Conference in Yakima, Washington, and (11) the National Association of School Administrators Conference in Anaheim, California. At many of these events, students gave the presentations.
The project has received much positive publicity. A front page article on the Generation www.Y is included in the Appendices. The enclosed video tape contains clips showing a recent TV production along with other video segments on the project.
Generation www.Y staff has met with Washington State Superintendent of Public Instruction Office to inform them about the project status and ways the model can be used throughout the state. Many districts applying for Technology Learning Challenge Grants will be trying to replicate parts of the Generation www.Y model.
Generation www.Y staff and students have met with government officials both at the state and national level. This includes Senator Patty Murray and her aides. Senator Murray featured our grant on her monthly TV show. Dr. Linda Roberts often shows off our grant in a video she displays when she talks. Our grant was one featured at an event on Capital Hill in May.
The Generation www.Y will be hosting the Western Cluster meeting of Technology Innovation Challenge Grant Recipients on June 29 in Olympia. Planning has taken place and the district looks forward to hosting this event. Our students will describing the projects they have done and the model in general.
We have had inquiries from several districts who are submitting a grant application this year. We have helped them by answering questions and providing materials.
Problems Encountered
The project has gone surprisingly smooth. Considering we had the project up and running with 160 students and 160 teachers within two months after receiving the grant, we are basically pleased with our first seven months work.
Of course, there are areas we need to improve on and as the project expands to other districts and higher education, next year will find us learning even more. One area of concern is the participation of the consulting districts. These districts in fourteen states were supposed to monitor the projects the students and teachers were doing in Olympia. However, only a few of the districts ended up participating. Confusion about who was responsible in each district, what the duties entailed, and problems with contracts (example in Appendix G) were most of the problem. All seems to be worked out now but some districts were too late to be of much value this semester. They should hit the ground running during the next class period (Fall 1997). In addition, the grant budget provides for a consulting district coordinator which will be hired in the fall to help rectify this problem.
Another problem was that some of the teachers being mentored were unable to attend the two hour workshop that explained the program - many were coaching, some were sick, some had other obligations. It was harder for these teachers to "get with the program." Eventually, with hard work, all teachers knew the objectives of the program and benefited. This should not be a problem in our district next year as all the teachers know the goals of the model, but we will have to be careful that all teachers in the expansion districts attend the general informational workshop.
As expected, the most difficult aspect of the Generation www.Y course for the students was working with the teachers to write their lesson or project plan. Being difficult is not necessarily bad. The students had to really think about what they were trying to do and how the students in the teachers' classes would react and what they would learn. Also, how would they know what the students learned? Keeping the projects aligned to our district and state essential learnings was also a struggle that was worth the effort. Although the final results are not in, the students are coming away with a new appreciation of how hard it is to integrate technology into the curriculum. As we suspected before the grant (we have been using a smaller scale model of this project for three years), students really can contribute greatly in helping to reform education. Bringing the student in as a change agent rather than being an object of change has certainly excited many educators in the country.
Project Evaluation Plan
The project evaluation is being conducted both externally (Northwest Regional Education Laboratory) and internally within the district. Mr. Jim Pollard is the NWREL employee that is involved in the evaluation of Generation www.Y. Mr. Pollard attended both Washington D.C. meetings. During this reporting period he has come to Olympia twice and there was a meeting in Portland as well.
Instruments developed, given, and/or analyzed are listed below. These instruments were developed to address the evaluation plan detailed in the grant proposal.
Generation www.Y student prequestionnaire (Appendix I) - This questionnaire was given to each of the 160 Generation www.Y class students the first day of class. Results are still forthcoming.
Generation www.Y student post-questionnaire - This questionnaire has not been completely developed at this time but will be given to the students on June 13. It contains many of the same questions on the prequestionnaire along with following questions:
What skills would you have liked to learn that weren't taught in this class?
What skills did you find most beneficial?
How much time did you spend on Generation Compared to other classes?
What is your opinion of the 7 AM to 8 AM time period this class was offered?
Did you enjoy working with the teacher?
What did you like most about working with your teacher?
What did you like least?
What would you change about the course?
How much help were the consulting districts?
Generation www.Y class 20 skills lessons - Mr. Pollard will attend and record the all day work session that will be held on June 2 in Olympia. At this session the Generation www.Y teachers will assess the strong and weak points of these lessons and modify them so they can more fully meet the needs of teachers and students.
Generation www.Y projects (teachers)- Jim Pollard will be sending a questionnaire to all 160 participating teachers in June asking them to answer the following questions and mail back the questionnaire in a stamped envelope. The questions will be:
How much time did you spend working on the project?
Would you use this lesson again?
Would you like to have another Generation www.Y mentor?
What did you like most and least about the projects?
What would you change about this experience?
How did the mentor deal with the lesson plan, curriculum, and essential learnings?
Generation www.Y projects (Gen www.Y teachers) - The teachers that were teaching the Generation www.Y (not the teachers who were mentored as above) will be asked as a group to comment on the following issues. These comments will be recorded on audio tape. This will happen on June 3. This will provide tremendous feedback for future classes as well as the expansion districts.
Time to teach skills and develop the 25 projects
Pacing of the course
How much time should a Gen www.Y Teacher expect or spend per week during skills and during project phase?
Planning Session (scheduling, length of time)
Use of the forum
Dry runs
Feedback on lesson plan
Expansion district concerns
Mentee teachers (mentored teachers) expectations
Mentee teacher training
Number of kids in class
Skills vs. lesson integration
Age level vs. quality of project
Web page project descriptions
Generation www.Y Evaluation meeting - Students will meet with the teachers they helped mentor in a one hour meeting. They will complete the evaluation form together. The form can be found in Appendix J.
Generation www.Y Case Studies (Internal) - Three students from each of the six schools were chosen at random for a detailed case study of their experience of having a student help them integrate technology into one of their lessons. Each of these teachers were sent an audio cassette and a list of questions to answer on that tape. The questions can be found in Appendix K. These internal case studies will be due on June 13.
Generation www.Y Case Studies (External) - Mr. Pollard will randomly choose one or two teachers from each school and come to Olympia and conduct a detailed case study with them.
Generation www.Y Expansion District Questionnaire - After the four expansion districts attend their three-day on-site visit to an Olympia school, they will be given a questionnaire asking them about their experience. These districts may not know what kind of information might have been missing until after they teach the course in their own district (Gee, I wish I would have known that before I started teaching the course...).
Section IV: Budget
The current (as of April 30) status of our budget expenditures can be found in detail in Appendix H. There have been no significant changes in the budget that was approved in October of 1996. No funds have been reprogrammed thus far. We are unable at this time (with five months remaining in the budget period) to determine whether we will want to request any of the budget be carried over into the next budget period. We understand, from a letter received from Thomas Carroll dated April 11, that we can apply for this request for carry over at a later time.
Section V: Supplemental Information/Changes
There have been no changes in project activities, objectives, or strategies this year. Next year, the only change we foresee is that we may be expanding the model nationwide faster than we first anticipated. This may require some of our budgeted money to be reprogrammed next year, or some of this year's budget carried over to next. This will be discussed further when and if we submit a carryover proposal later in this budget period.
In general, we are overwhelmed by how fast and well the project has progressed during our first seven months. The attention it is receiving in the district, state, and nation has been encouraging. We look forward to four more years to refine and assess the model. Thank you for all your cooperation.
Dennis Harper, Ph.D.
Director, Generation www.Y project
This will be discussed further when and if we submit a carryover proposal later in this
