The Outreach of Reach for the Sky Teachers during 1995/96

J.M.Rogan May 1996

Introduction

One of the perceived roles of the Reach for the Sky teachers is to act as advocates and spokespersons for the project. The role, broadly defined, may be seen as that of educating others about the possibilities that access to telecommunications brings to improving the teaching of math and science. This role may be played out locally or nationally, and in small or large settings.

Locally it may involve helping one other teacher use the Internet. On the large end of the spectrum, it may entail a presentation at the regional or national level.

The purpose of this report is to describe the outreach role assumed by Reachers during the second year of the project. The term Reachers, when used in the context of the paper, refers to all teachers associated with the project, both first and second year participants.

The outreach will be examined in six different categories:
Workshops and/or training sessions
Presentations at educational conventions
Presentations to policy makers and administrators
Advocacy at the community level
Mentoring and advising other teachers in the same district
Mentoring and advising other teachers in other districts

Method

Reachers were provided with an electronic form and requested to fill it out for each outreach activity that they undertook. The form is included as Appendix I. These forms were then submitted online and the data entered under the categories described above.

The data are self reported, and only data submitted are included in this report. It is likely that outreach activities did occur that were not reported. Also, for many it was difficult to distinguish what counted as outreach and what was just part of their normal job. The raw data may be found in Appendix II.

The Outreach of Reach for the Sky Teachers during 1995/96

A total of 150 reports were received representing in excess of 160 workshops. (One report detailed five separate workshops.) Considering that not all outreach activities were reported, this figure alone indicates the enormous impact Reach of the Sky teachers are making, both locally and nationally.

Reports were received from 42 of the 84 Reach for the Sky teachers. The Reachers who are in the second year of the project tended to be the more prolific. Carol Skiles submitted 21 reports, Suzy Flentie 12 and Bill Lee 11. The two most prolific among the new Reachers were Tita Mallory with 13 reports and Don Story with 7.

Workshops and/or training sessions

Fifty six workshops were fully or partly taught by Reachers in either their own or in other school districts. The categories covered by these workshops are given below. Note that a workshop could cover more than one category.

35 Provide resources for classroom use
41 Share educational ideas and information
11 Provide specific information about RFTS
36 Provide technical help or information
5 Refer someone to an "expert" or other source of information
1 Other - Beginning Internet class

The way in which the workshops were offered is given below.
7 offline
14 online
35 both

The largest reported workshop had 100 teachers in it. An average size appears to be around 20 to 30. Hence the total impact, in terms of numbers, is enormous.

Most of the workshops dealt with topics such as the Internet in general, Netscape, and email. Many workshops were part of the inservice program of the Reach for the Sky teacher's own school district. Some were formal University or Community College courses.

A sampling of some of the reports is given below:

Myself and another presenter provided 9+ hours over two days of in-lab instruction on teaching Math and Science using the Internet.

Math Problem Solving workshop in which I shared sources for good materials including sources on the net. Approx. 50 elementary, middle, and high school teachers.

Co-taught a course on "Introduction to Internet" at ESD 113 in Olympia, Washington. There were 12 participants in the class.

Teach creating www pages using html language. Includes text, graphics, sound, movies, tables, links, etc. 20 hour, 2 credit course.

Advanced Internet class for teachers and support staff from many districts in the area. Many different topics including signature files, downloading, bookmarks, and forwarding files.

I did a three hour in-service with the 100 teachers in my building during one of the in-service days this Fall.

I taught two workshops on using the web - both for teachers (30 at one, 20 at the other.)

Invited to participate in a workshop at Montana Tech. titled Building your Home Page. There were over 40 participants throughout the state of Montana who attended.

I teach summer classes for Eastern Washington University. This summer's classes are:

- the www for elementary teachers
- the www for secondary teachers
- project based learning through telecommunications

Presentations at educational conventions

Presentations at educational conventions on the role of telecommunications in the reform of math and science education are described in this section. Nineteen conference presentations were made by Reach for the Sky teachers. The categories covered by these presentations are given below.

9 Provide resources for classroom use
16 Share educational ideas and information
13 Provide specific information about RFTS
6 Provide technical help or information
2 Refer someone to an "expert" or other source of information
1 Other - Demonstration of software

The way in which the presentations were offered is given below.
12 offline
1 online
6 both

Presentations were made at five national/international conferences - TelEd 95 in Fort Lauderdale, Supercomputing Conference 95 in San Diego, ICTE in New Orleans, AERA in New York and NECC in Minneapolis.

In Montana, presentations were made at Montana Education Association, Education East, Montana Council of Teachers of Mathematics, and the Montana Indian Education Association.

In Washington, presentations were given at ESD 113's Internet Fair.

In Oregon, a presentation was made at the Oregon Datafication Conference.

Presentations to policy makers and administrators

The support of administrators and policy makers, both local and at the Sate level, is essential to the introduction and sustaining of telecommunications in the classroom. Activities that help to generate such support will be discussed in this section. Fifteen presentations of this nature were made by Reach for the Sky teachers. The categories covered by these presentations are given below.

1 Provide resources for classroom use
8 Share educational ideas and information
7 Provide specific information about RFTS
3 Provide technical help or information
3 Refer someone to an "expert" or other source of information
2 Other

The way in which the presentations were offered is given below.
8 offline
3 online
3 both

Five of the presentations were to school boards and/or district technology committees, mostly about telecommunications and the work of Reach for the Sky. Two presentations were to building administrators.

In Montana, presentations were made to the Montana Association of Elementary and Middle School Principals and to the MSTA/MCTM Leadership conference.

In Idaho, a presentation was made to the Idaho State Science Teachers Association Board of Directors.

In Oregon, contacts were made with the International Society for Technology in Education, the Department of Education, and with the Oregon Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

Advocacy at the community level

It has become increasing clear that the incorporation of telecommunications into schools will require significant community support. Activities that help to generate such support will be discussed in this section. Sixteen activities that fall within this definition were reported. The categories covered by these activities are given below.

0 Provide resources for classroom use
10 Share educational ideas and information
6 Provide specific information about RFTS
10 Provide technical help or information
3 Refer someone to an "expert" or other source of information
3 Other Online demonstration
Adult education lesson
Community awareness

The way in which the activities were conducted is given below.
3 offline
3 online
10 both

One direction that this effort has taken is to work with parents and other adults in the community. In most cases, short classes were held for the adults to introduce them to the world of the Internet. Nine of the activities fall into this category. One of the meetings was for State Museum directors. The largest of these meetings consisted of 104 parents.

The other main direction of this outreach activity has been to work with individual or small groups of community members on a need-to-know basis. Seven of the outreach activities fall in this category.

Of the sixteen reports, all but one were from Reachers who had been with the project for two years. It is possible that the new Reachers have not yet become aware of the need to work with community members.

Mentoring and advising other teachers in the same district

The kind of activities considered in this section will include teaching telecommunication skills and information on the Internet. Twenty eight activities that fall within this definition were reported. The categories covered by these activities are given below.

20 Provide resources for classroom use
19 Share educational ideas and information
7 Provide specific information about RFTS
21 Provide technical help or information
5 Refer someone to an "expert" or other source of information
1 Other

The way in which the activities were conducted is given below.
4 offline
8 online
16 both

The outreach activities reported in this section ranged from "mini-workshops" held in one building to working one-on-one with teachers on a need-to-know basis. Ten "mini-workshop" type sessions were reported. The rest consisted of advising an individual or small group. These were usually initiated when one teacher or more teachers asked a Reacher to show them how to use telecommunications or the Internet. For some Reachers, especially technical directors, working with fellow teachers is part of their job, and so it was difficult to know whether to count this as Reach for the Sky outreach.

Descriptions of some of these activities are given below.

I did a teacher inservice Oct 18 for the teachers in the Junior High. It was basically a brief demo of the capabilities of our Internet tools. Lasted about 1.5 hours.

Instructing fellow teachers in e-mail through the school's Internet account. I have been working with some of the teachers in my building by going into their classrooms and demonstrating Microsoft programs and activities for them and their students by connecting my laptop to the TV monitors using an averkey III. I am spending about 2 hours a week working with the teachers in this manner.

I am sending this one form, though the mentoring has occurred over the past 6 months and has been frequent. Essentially the activity has been for me to assist as questions arise on how to use our Internet connection, both technical questions and curriculum/format questions.

Helped the drama teacher surf the Internet for articles on King Author to be used with his drama class. Found tons of information.

Mentoring and advising other teachers in other districts

Activities considered in the section include providing advice and help to other teachers who are not in the same school district as the Reacher concerned, or other persons in general. Assistance to other Reachers in not counted here. Eighteen activities that fall within this definition were reported. The categories covered by these activities are given below.

11 Provide resources for classroom use
9 Share educational ideas and information
0 Provide specific information about RFTS
12 Provide technical help or information
0 Refer someone to an "expert" or other source of information
1 Other

The way in which the activities were conducted is given below.
0 offline
8 online
10 both

The kinds of activities reported included "mini-workshops" in other schools, online assistance in general such as setting up a listserv, online help to other teachers, and assistance to graduate students.

Descriptions of some of these activities are given below.

Set up a home page for Oak Harbor Middle School.
Three hour presentation to teachers in the Winston-Dillard School district.
I served as an online mentor for Jan Wee in Wisconsin. She was teaching a group on how to use Netscape.
I sent Holly DeMuth, a Georgia State University grad student, a list of URLs. I also sent her information on how to subscribe to Middle-L and the Jupiter Project from NASA.

Conclusion

The overall impression created by this report is one of tremendous energy and dedication. Despite full and busy lives, most of the Reachers have made time to help their colleagues, to run workshops and to attend conferences. Skills that have been acquired have been willingly shared. Taken as a whole, the outreach has been truly impressive. Thousands upon thousands of people have been affected by it.

Appendix I

The form used to collect the data is given below.

Your Name:
Date of activity:
Check the ONE activity which best describes the activity:
__ Mentoring and advising other teachers in the your district
__ Mentoring and advising other teachers in other districts
__ Workshops and/or training sessions in yours or other districts
__ Presentations at educational conventions
__ Presentations to policy makers and administrators
__ Advocacy at the community level

Check ALL that apply to this activity:
__ Provide resources for classroom use
__ Share educational ideas and information
__ Provide specific information about RFTS
__ Provide technical help or information
__ Refer someone to an "expert" or other source of information
__ Other (specify)

Was the activity:
__ offline
__ online
__ both

Please provide a brief description of the activity and "audience".