The Yellow Brick Road to Technology Integration.

A school district's quest for magical answers to its technology woes leads to a homegrown potion 

When Dorothy begins her adventures in Oz, she quickly realizes she's not in Kansas anymore. When it comes to technology, many superintendents are feeling a little like Dorothy did. Clearly, we're not in Kansas anymore. This realization comes as we recognize the growing importance of using technology for instruction rather than for purposes of drill and practice or student enrichment.

Computer technology is an increasingly essential component of daily life. Many students have access to state-of-the-art technology in their homes. And parent and community expectations are changing. With technology, the demand is for more and faster. We're in the midst of a technological tornado in which technology's impact on communicating and thinking is not unlike what the printing press brought to humankind in the Middle Ages.

We realize that simply providing computer labs in schools doesn't meet the demand of expectations nor match the possibilities. However, determining how to integrate technology into the curriculum and instructional program remains elusive. Somehow there is the sense that someone, somewhere has the wizardry to transform classroom instruction with technology. Certainly many companies promise "the answer" if we just follow their lead and purchase their product at the end of the road.

Stormy Conditions

Like Dorothy and her friends following the Yellow Brick Road in search of the Wizard of Oz, the Glen Ellyn, Ill., schools found themselves searching for a little magic four years ago. Our district historically has enjoyed a reputation for quality instruction and educationally sound innovations. Then, as in Dorothy's story, the tornado swept through our village. We weren't in Kansas anymore!

Our tornado came in the form of an insistent demand from parents, staff and community for up-to-date technology and for its use in everyday instruction. In a communitywide survey that examined school district programs, our instruction was rated as technologically inadequate. Indeed, each school had a 20-year-old Apple IIE computer lab, but not much else was happening in the way of teaching with technology.

We knew what we wanted--quality instructional programs that integrated technology into our curriculum. We had limited financial resources, and our economic demographics disqualified us for many sources of outside funding. We weren't sure where to begin so we simply began.

* Our advice: Begin your journey whatever your resources.

Solicit Your Munchkins

And so we began. We found friends. Dorothy found the Munchkins, who were initially wary of her and then helped her get on her way on the Yellow Brick Road. Our board and administration also found friends willing to journey with us. Our critics, parents, staff and community became our first Munchkins. In our case we began, not with computers and financial resources but with people, possibilities and a pinch of faith.

The board of education established a committee composed of community members, parents and staff who studied where we were and where we ought to be. The committee's study showed a stark contrast between the technological inadequacy of our district with that of surrounding districts.

The committee recommendations called for networking computers in classrooms and across the community to integrate technology into the curriculum. The committee recommended purchase of computer labs or resource clusters and automated services for the school libraries. Finally, the committee recognized the need for intensive professional development. These recommendations set the vision.

The board of education adopted the committee recommendations and made an annual financial commitment of $250,000 for technology purchases and intensive professional development. The board's action was courageous as the district was just recovering from a deficit budget that involved severe cuts in programs. While the review committee conducted its study, some small purchases of technology for student use were begun with site and PTA budgets.

* Our advice: Find your own munchkins within the community, parent groups, staff and the schools and act courageously.

Wicked Spells

Along the Yellow Brick Road, we met initial obstacles. As Dorothy's adventures began she killed one bad witch and soon had another vowing to get her. Out to get us were the Wicked Witches of Disbelief and Poor State Funding. Like Dorothy, our board and administration faced these obstacles and overcame them with steadfast determination to move forward.

Staff and community morale were low. Few believed in the possibility of technology for any purpose--administrative or instructional. Two years before, just as a committee of teachers and administrators presented a technology plan for adoption to the board of education, a state tax cap became law--this at a time when the board was not accessing its full tax rate. (The district's baseline funding was set at a level lower than full tax rate.) Suddenly, the board found itself without money for technology.

Subsequently, an anti-tax coalition successfully opposed a referendum that would have provided funds for instructional technology and other programs. Forced budget cuts resulted in the elimination of a technology coordinator and seemingly dashed any hope of a future with technology in Glen Ellyn schools. Yet the board and administration continued on their journey to provide quality technology instruction while they helped restore the district's financial well-being.

* Our advice: You're sure to face obstacles from the very beginning. And step by step, you can overcome them.

Partners for the Journey

Just as Dorothy found three companions to accompany her to Oz, we found traveling companions. We found such help by creating and enhancing our partnerships and hiring administrative staff who were just as committed to integrating technology into the curriculum as we were.

In terms of partnerships, a longstanding partnership with Northern Illinois University proved to be of as much benefit to us as any magic wand from a Good Witch like Glenda. The NIU partnership historically evolved around placement of student teachers. With expansion of this partnership to include technology, our quest for quality instructional technology became a possibility.

From NIU we gained the expertise and commitment of a professor of instructional technology. Under her direction, the university assigned a graduate student in instructional technology to us as a student intern. With the assistance of this newly added staff, we developed an instructionally focused technology plan.

We experienced our first successes in the form of excited teachers actively participating in and informing their own professional development. Teacher expertise was recognized as the key to integrating technology into the curriculum from the beginning.

Joining the partnership also were staff members of the North Central Regional Education Laboratory. NCREL is one of 10 labs funded by the U.S. Department of Education. In addition, NCREL is recognized nationally as a leader in instructional technology. Our partnership with NIU interested NCREL because of our determination to move forward with technology, to focus first on curriculum integration and teacher development--and then on equipment purchases. The board and administration were determined that instructional priorities should drive equipment purchases.

From NCREL, we gained support, encouragement and vision of what we might accomplish. Teachers and administrative staff visited NCREL to learn what could be achieved in instruction with technology. Additionally, NCREL provided leadership training, technical assistance and help in professional development. Leadership training included professional development for all administrators. Administrative professional development focused on continuous improvement of teaching and learning through building effective, efficient organizations. The technology component of the training provided strategies to assist teachers in effectively integrating technology into the instructional program.

NCREL also assisted us in early efforts to access the Internet, develop Web pages and identify useful strategies for integrating technology into instruction. Perhaps, most of all, NCREL confirmed and encouraged our efforts toward technology integration into our curriculum.

In terms of administrative staffing, a retirement allowed us to hire an outstanding assistant superintendent who shared our vision for technology integration. This traveling companion was committed to learn and grow on our journey. She helped expand the vision to realize our goal.

* Our advice: Choose your traveling companions wisely.

Staring Down Danger

We follow the Yellow Brick Road. Dorothy and her friends, the Tin Woodman, the Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion, traveled great distances together, even though they feared the dangers of lions, tigers and bears. We, like Dorothy and her friends, traveled well together although the rain showers, fireballs and poppies Dorothy and her troupe encountered were nothing compared to the dangers we faced of limited funding and impatient parents and staff.

Our staff, along with the many supporters from NCREL and NIU, helped each other and tried to encourage strength from within. Teachers were offered technology for their classrooms and training to go with it, based upon curricular frameworks they selected themselves. The first pilot projects dealt with curriculum-technology integration and were voluntary. They also were based upon a district mini-grant competition and were limited to one project per building.

NCREL helped teachers learn to formulate engaged learning lessons using the multimedia technology the district was pilot-testing in their classrooms. Projects were kept small and achievable; teachers experienced successes and shared them with each other. Some became teacher trainers for other staff members. Ownership of learning was encouraged among teachers. These teachers were proud of their accomplishments.

Students gained invaluable new skills and knowledge from their teachers' incorporation of technology into their teaching and learning in the classrooms of Glen Ellyn. Teachers and students used multimedia programs like HyperStudio, KidPix and Claris Works as well as the Internet to introduce weather units, to follow the Iditarod, to motivate students to read and discuss novels, to learn class rules and behaviors and to research and report on states, countries and animals.

Teachers helped each other, shared ideas and continued to grow. Partners from Northern Illinois University and the North Central Regional Education Laboratory continued to help guide and advise, and teachers took on an increasingly greater share of curricular planning with technology.

As the first year's learning projects were completed, the real changes began. Students were excited to share their work with their parents and the community, and the skepticism and disbelief began to dissipate. Seeing equipment in classrooms and the resource centers and projects being completed helped the community and school board understand the importance of the increased expenditures for technology and integration.

Within these first three years, teacher advisory groups played an important role in setting the pace and the direction of the trip. The district's technology literacy committee redefined the district's definition of technology literacy and designed the staff development plan for all teachers to receive required computer literacy training. Teachers and volunteers were trained to teach all the staff in each building during the school day.

The district curriculum committees in language arts and social studies identified curricular areas and specific concepts and objectives that could best be learned by using technology. Curricular material adoptions were finalized that fully integrated technology into the teaching of reading Social studies materials are still being reviewed for new adoptions.

* Our advice: Companions can ease your journey and help you fight off attacks.

Documenting Progress

We continue our travels. Since we began our journey, we have passed a referendum that has allowed us to install a state-of-the-art technology infrastructure throughout all our buildings. By starting small and showing success, the school district convinced the Wizard of Oz--the staff and community--that the referendum for improved infrastructure was vital. Like the Wizard of Oz, who demanded to see the broom of the wicked witch, the staff and community had to see for themselves how teachers and students would benefit from the partnerships, the networking and classroom technology.

Classrooms have been redesigned for a teacher workstation plus four student workstations. We've built partnerships with a cable company and our village's other governmental entities, such as the village library and the park district, to establish a villagewide connection.

We also have built a partnership with 3Com for purchase of highly sophisticated routers and switches. Our infrastructure provides a local area network and wide area network connection operating at 622 megabytes per second, the fastest connection available. It carries voice, video and data and encourages inter-and intrabuilding communication throughout the community. Our students and teachers can connect to all that our village offers, to each other and to the world.

We're providing technical support to maintain the network and we've made a major commitment to professional development. A new, full-time instructional technology specialist supports teachers in the classroom and a new assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction is making technology integration an integral component of our curriculum reviews and textbook adoptions. Our partnerships with NIU and NCREL continue to flourish.

* Our advice: Creating relationships with community, businesses and others, while difficult, is vital for success.

Internal Answers

Despite the progress we had made, we continued to look for the wizard. We researched commercial products. We visited schools in our area as well as other states to see how they really worked with technology. We met with consultants and we reviewed proposals. None of these products met our expectations nor in our view did they measure up to their own claims.

The answers come from within. Finally, like Dorothy and her friends, we recognized there is no wizard. But the secret of convincing the Wizard of Oz was, like Dorothy's discovery of her red shoes, realizing that we do have the power within ourselves. We persuaded our partners that having teachers work together toward common goals, having partners to solve problems jointly and provide resources and having the vision always in our minds help make us successful.

The answers lie within each of as we search for best practices, refine what we learn and use this powerful form of communication and engagement to improve teaching and learning.

* Our advice: The answer to successful technology and curriculum integration lies within you as well. There really is no place like home; your journey starts and ends within.

Pi Irwin is superintendent of Glen Ellyn School District 41, 793 N. Main St., Glen Ellyn, Ill. 60137.

Tech Partners Build Own Brick Roads

Our parents in Glen Ellyn, Ill., walked along the brick toad with us--and they brought their own bricks and mortar!

While our district was renovating its buildings to install the infrastructure to support our technology network, the five PTAs created a fundraising project called Mission: Technology. It was set up as a separate fund-raising entity within the Partners for Educational Progress, an educational foundation that supports special projects in seven contiguous school districts.

The foundation funded initiatives that benefited all seven districts, and each district also operated an individual account to support its own needs through tax-deductible contributions.

Using the theme "Bricks for a Strong Foundation," the Mission: Technology folks sold commemorative bricks to individuals and groups. The bricks then were engraved with names or messages and became part of the courtyard, walkway or decorative wall at each of our schools.

People purchased bricks to celebrate special occasions such as graduations, birthdays or anniversaries or to honor special people such as grandparents or teachers. Bricks were on sale at the district's annual art fair and at every parent or community event at the five schools.

The project raised a whopping $60,000 to purchase technology and install a courtyard, walkway or decorative wall at each school. According to one of the PTA and Mission: Technology leaders, Mary Lou Skalkos, "People who missed their chance the first time around want to contribute. I think we'll do an interior wall at the junior high."