Study Finds That Online Education Beats the Classroom
A recent 93-page report on online education, conducted by SRI International for the Department of Education, has a starchy academic title, but a most intriguing conclusion: “On average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction.”
Noah Berger for The New York Times Tyler Kennedy, 9, searches the Web at home in California.
The report examined the comparative research on online versus traditional classroom teaching from 1996 to 2008. Some of it was in K-12 settings, but most of the comparative studies were done in colleges and adult continuing-education programs of various kinds, from medical training to the military.
Over the 12-year span, the report found 99 studies in which there were quantitative comparisons of online and classroom performance for the same courses. The analysis for the Department of Education found that, on average, students doing some or all of the course online would rank in the 59th percentile in tested performance, compared with the average classroom student scoring in the 50th percentile. That is a modest but statistically meaningful difference.
“The study’s major significance lies in demonstrating that online learning today is not just better than nothing — it actually tends to be better than conventional instruction,” said Barbara Means, the study’s lead author and an educational psychologist at SRI International.
This hardly means that we’ll be saying good-bye to classrooms. But the report does suggest that online education could be set to expand sharply over the next few years, as evidence mounts of its value.
Until fairly recently, online education amounted to little more than electronic versions of the old-line correspondence courses. That has really changed with arrival of Web-based video, instant messaging and collaboration tools.
The real promise of online education, experts say, is providing learning experiences that are more tailored to individual students than is possible in classrooms. That enables more “learning by doing,” which many students find more engaging and useful.
“We are at an inflection point in online education,” said Philip R. Regier, the dean of Arizona State University’s Online and Extended Campus program.
The biggest near-term growth, Mr. Regier predicts, will be in continuing education programs. Today, Arizona State has 5,000 students in its continuing education programs, both through in-person classes and online. In three to five years, he estimates, that number could triple, with nearly all the growth coming online.
But Mr. Regier also thinks online education will continue to make further inroads in transforming college campuses as well. Universities — and many K-12 schools — now widely use online learning management systems, like Blackboard or the open-source Moodle. But that is mostly for posting assignments, reading lists, and class schedules and hosting some Web discussion boards.
Mr. Regier sees things evolving fairly rapidly, accelerated by the increasing use of social networking technology. More and more, students will help and teach each other, he said. For example, it will be assumed that college students know the basics of calculus, and the classroom time will focus on applying the math to real-world problems — perhaps in exploring the physics of climate change or modeling trends in stock prices, he said.
“The technology will be used to create learning communities among students in new ways,” Mr. Regier said. “People are correct when they say online education will take things out the classroom. But they are wrong, I think, when they assume it will make learning an independent, personal activity. Learning has to occur in a community.”
Steve Lohr, The New York Times
August 19, 2009
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/study-finds-that-online-education-beats-the-classroom/
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Using Technology as Our Teacher
Examining a new, dynamic way of teaching students.
Millions more for education! You've heard it before, and the results have disappointed. Now, the Obama administration has announced a $4.35 billion Race to the Top fund—and it could be different this time around. It's the largest pot ever in the history of discretionary funding for education reform for grades K through 12. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan calls it "a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" to address a fundamental problem: Just 71 percent of students graduate from high school within four years. And the numbers for minorities are worse: 58 percent for Hispanics and 55 percent for African-Americans.
This time around, can we restore the great American tradition of providing a good free education, as we did in the 19th and 20th centuries? And can we attune it to the need of our time for analytic thinking, problem solving, independence, and the ability to seek out and assimilate new knowledge? I believe we can if we focus on the right key.
There is unanimous agreement on what that key is: better teachers. On average, children with a very good teacher will learn 1 ½ years of material in a school year. Those with a bad teacher will learn only half a year's worth—a difference of a year's learning in a single year. There is more variation in student achievement between classrooms in the same school than there is between schools. In other words, it is better to have a good teacher in a bad school than a bad teacher in a good school. A teacher in the top quartile of effectiveness can raise a student from the lowest quartile of the national achievement distribution to the highest quartile, an increase of 50 percentiles, in just three years.
Force multiplier. Teacher effects dwarf school effects and are much stronger than class-size effects. We would have to cut the average class almost in half to pick up the same benefit that a student gets after switching from the average teacher to a teacher in the 85th percentile. Halving the class size would require that we build twice as many classrooms and have twice as many teachers, an impossible financial challenge.
But how can we identify a potentially good teacher? How can average teachers become better teachers? The secretary's special funding could make a crucial difference by financing a national program exploiting the electronic miracles of the Internet and video. We could escape geography by using the technology to have the best teachers appear in hundreds of thousands of disparate classrooms. This is a force multiplier. The classrooms would be equipped with a large, flat-screen monitor with whiteboards on either side; the monitor would be connected to a school server that contains virtually all of the lessons for every subject taught in the school, from kindergarten through 12th grade. The contents would use animation, video, dramatization, and presentation options to deliver complete lessons, to convey ideas in unique ways that are now unavailable in conventional classrooms. The classroom teachers would play the role of enhancers, answering questions and helping students better understand the material covered electronically; they'd pause the presentation to ask questions and to prompt critical thinking. The whiteboard would be the platform for student involvement.
Technology-teaching would relieve the burden on teachers to prepare content for every lesson each day. It would help to teach special skills, such as foreign languages, that many regular schools may not otherwise be able to afford. It could also provide sophisticated remedial programs, especially in the most common problem areas of math and reading. Failing to learn in the primary years how to decode letters and sounds quickly, automatically, and unconsciously into words, phrases, and sentences often becomes a lifetime handicap. These programs would benefit millions upon millions of American students.
What's more, technology-teaching would make it easier for students with special needs, as well as the early high achievers, to get the attention they deserve. It would also enable principals and administrators to identify their most effective teachers—and the duds.
All of the above is brilliantly outlined in a new book called Liberating Learning: Technology, Politics, and the Future of American Education by Terry M. Moe and John E. Chubb. It will take a major federal effort to accomplish this. Duncan should include such a program in his Race to the Top for K through 12. Schools throughout the country would then have access to best-teacher courses, a marvelous payoff for the educational achievements that gave America and the world the technology in the first place.
Mortimer B. Zuckerman, U.S. NEWS
August 19, 2009
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Boundless fun - a place where everyone plays
A snapshot came to mind as Cassy Pangaribuan sat in the shade of her backyard lanai, listening to the rain begin to drum outside, casting a temporary cool.
It was a simple memory from five years before. She was picking up her son Nickolas, now 10 years old, from pre-K and found him playing happily with the other kids in the playground sandbox. For that moment, he looked just like any other kid.
But her son was different, she knew.
Nickolas was born premature on March 16, 1999, at a Miami hospital. He arrived weighing 2.5 pounds. Shortly after his birth, doctors told Cassy and husband Jerry that their son had cerebral palsy.
Their prognosis was bleak: Nickolas would likely remain in a permanent vegetative state, he would never walk and never talk.
“When we got home, we were like, ‘Forget that,’ Cassy recalls.
Today, Nick weighs 115 pounds and loves French fries, pizza and chocolate pudding. He’s lucky; many kids who have cerebral palsy require a feeding tube.
Nick needs assistance getting around – either with a wheelchair or walker – and as a result, exercise is difficult. He swims with his dad between two and four hours each day; he has a special tricycle he can use and until recently, these were his only outlets for physical activity.
When he was small, adults carried him around to put him on playground swings and sandboxes. As he grew, it became nearly impossible to wheel him through the sandy heaps of the playground floor, his mom says.
That exclusion is the most agonizing for his parents.
“I don’t want him to think he’s done something wrong, that he’s in trouble,” Jerry says.
“It’s heartbreaking, literally, to see him sit outside the fence literally watching the other kids his age running around and playing,” Cassy adds. “They’re saying ‘come on, come over here and play,’ because they don’t understand that he can’t.”
Thanks to a new playground at Corkscrew Elementary, the result of a three-year, $300,000 project, Nick will never be excluded from his school playground again.
The playground is one of five in Florida,;and one of about 160 nationwide, according to Boundless Playground, Inc., the company that designed it. It’s not built for kids with disabilities, says Barb Southwick, who spearheaded the project, but rather, it’s a playground for kids of all abilities.
The massive play land is a complex web of bright blues and greens, constructed on flat rubber surfacing – an upgrade from the heaping sand standard at most playgrounds; an inhospitable surface when it comes to wheelchairs and crutches, Southwick said. It has lower, wider steps and bigger, back-supportive swings – along with original features such as tucked-away coves and a built-in scavenger hunt.
Julia Epstein, founder of the Disability Education Rights and Defense Fund, said through play, children learn important social skills that are crucial to their success as an adult. On the playground is where they first assign status, establish themselves as contributing members of a group and learn conflict resolution.
“Being able to play, I mean, it’s huge,” she said. “If you have to sit on the side of the playground and watch your friends running around and you can’t participate, you can’t be a part of what all the other kids are doing, that definitely matters. It has a huge impact.”
Nick spent the rainy afternoon last week swimming in the family’s pool with his dad. Jerry stood wading with Nick, who he positioned so they both were facing Cassy. The older man ably supported his smiling boy, who was splashing with delight smacking open-handed against the water’s surface.
The Pangaribaun’s don’t know what the future will hold - what middle school he’ll attend or whether he’ll ever be able to live independently. They have a saying at their house that inspires them to keep hoping.
“We always say the limit is bar none, that’s what we say, no limits,” Cassy explains. “Instead of being disappointed when he didn’t hit the milestones, we were overjoyed each time there was a sign of progress, so our milestones were different.”
She sat back and smiled as she watched her husband and son in the pool. Then she told a story from a few weeks back when Nick was surrounded by a group of girls from his class who were fawning over him.
“I looked over at Jerry and said, ‘Could we even be any happier?’
Amy Hunter, Naples News
August 20, 2009
http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2009/aug/20/boundless-fun---place-where-everyone-plays/
'Boundless playground' goes together this week
Freshly certified, the Hoover Elementary structure will be a wheelchair-accessible space for play
A Parent-Teacher Organization has begun installing Medford's first completely wheelchair-accessible playground at Hoover Elementary School on Siskiyou Boulevard, the fruit of three years of planning and fundraising.
The $121,000 playground — with wheelchair ramps to all five levels of its main play structure, engineered wood-fiber bark and sensory activities for children with autism — will debut as soon as the start of school, Sept. 8.
The playground was designed to be a regional draw for the more than 1,600 children who are diagnosed with a disability in Jackson County.
"When we looked at how the PTO could help the school renovate its playground, one of the moms said, 'Don't forget about the disabled kids,' " said Pam Philips, head of the PTO playground campaign.
While there is a similar playground at Walker Elementary School in Ashland and at Garfield Elementary School in Corvallis, Hoover's new playground is the first in Oregon to be certified as a "Boundless Playground" by the nonprofit National Center for Boundless Playgrounds, out of Bloomfield, Conn.
All playgrounds are required by law to be accessible enough that a wheelchair can pull up to the play area. However, unlike the "Boundless Playground," the play equipment in most playgrounds is not wheelchair accessible.
Hoover's playground has padded-tile surfacing and bark dust over which a wheelchair can easily roll. Ramps on the main five-level play structure allow children in wheelchairs to roll up to the highest level along with other children.
The play structure contains sensory panels with different colors, textures and reflective materials, geared toward young children as well as children with autism.
"There are things you move and you twirl, some kind of hands-on components," Philips said.
The playground also includes two bucket-seat swings, six regular swings, three climbing walls, slides, monkey bars and a sidewalk with services that rock back and forth.
Philips said she thinks a playground that serves disabled students also will benefit non-disabled students beyond the playtime.
"I think it fosters acceptance of diversity and inclusiveness, and it's a huge social benefit for everyone," Philips said.
General contractor Dennis Bleser has begun installation of the playground, but the PTO will need volunteers Friday through Sunday to help, said Katie Tso, Hoover PTO member. Volunteers can call 608-6170.
A ribbon-cutting for the playground will be held in conjunction Hoover and Roosevelt Back To School Night Sept. 24.
Donations, grants and in-kind donations funded the project. The playground campaign received grants from CVS All Kids Can program, the West Family Foundation, Providence Medical Center and the Carpenter Foundation.
"I think one of the things this might do is change the way playgrounds are made, so that they are completely accessible," Philips said. "It can be more costly, but I think it's worth it."
Paris Achen, Mail Tribune
August 17, 2009
http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090817/NEWS/908170311/-1/NEWSMAP
On the Net: www.boundlessplaygrounds.org
Reach reporter Paris Achen at 776-4459 or pachen@mailtribune.com.
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Parent develops creative education for the autistic
When Anne Scroggs learned her son Mitchell Scroggs, 21, had autism in the early 1990s, there was little information and few opportunities for his education.
“When Mitchell was diagnosed, it was so bleak,” she said. “All the literature said people with autism should be institutionalized and that was unacceptable to me. My happy little boy wouldn’t be institutionalized. There was more for him. I knew it.”
Anne and Mitchell Scroggs’ perseverance not only led to Mitchell’s graduation from the Issaquah School District, but to the creation of a curriculum, called Creative Teaching CAP, that Scroggs said she hopes will help other special-needs children reach their graduations as well.
Meeting challenges
When Mitchell was born, Scroggs said she knew something was wrong early on.
“At 13 months, Mitchell seemed to lose his ability to hear me,” she said. “We’d call his name and he’d no longer respond by looking at us. He’d completely ignore us. His initial speech also disappeared.”
The change was even more noticeable to Scroggs, since the couple had a child 18 months older, named Matthew, who was developing typically.
After several tests, Mitchell was diagnosed with pervasive developmental disorder, Scroggs said. Doctors were almost sure he had autism but the diagnosis couldn’t be given until he was 6.
As a result, the Scroggs’ were referred to the University of Washington’s Educational Experimental Unit, which provided educational opportunities for typically developing and special-needs students in the same class.
During that time, Scroggs said she absorbed every piece of information she could get her hands on and began working with Mitchell at home by cutting magazine and newspaper photos out of items, like cars, toys, clothing and food items, so he could point to what he needed and communicate with his family.
When he turned 6, the family moved to Issaquah, where Scroggs said she saw progressive educational programs to help both children get an education.
Unlocking potential
During the first few years, Mitchell progressed, learning peer socialization, interaction and new skills, but by middle school, his progress had stalled.
“He was still nonverbal at 13. He wasn’t happy and didn’t want to go to school. That is when I decided to take him out and see what could be done at home,” Scroggs said. “But when I pulled him out and had him in front of me, I had to figure out what I was going to do. The amazing thing was, all my research and volunteering in his classrooms came flooding back.”
Again, she began clipping photos and laminating them. Using Mitchell as a guide, she formed groups of nouns and verbs that he seemed comfortable learning together. She created simple-sentence storybooks from those word groups and designed homework for him. She also developed tools to measure his progress.
Within the year, he’d improved from a 30-word vocabulary to having more than 1,200 words to speak to others with, she said.
“I know there is potential in there. We just had to find the key to unlock it,” she said.
Despite his growth, she said she re-enrolled him in Issaquah schools because she couldn’t provide the social development he needed.
“When I took him back to school, his teachers were amazed,” she said. “When they found out what I’d used to help him, they asked if they could use it for other kids.”
Immediately, she began laminating sets of her son’s materials, making them more student- and teacher-friendly, reusable and more cost-effective, because she was giving them away for free.
Eventually, teachers convinced her she needed to begin a company to sell her products and Creative Teaching CAP was born a year and a half ago.
“The materials are colorful and simple. CAP products also allow for any adult or volunteer to work with the students. I can easily train my staff and high school volunteers on how to use the products and then they can begin working one on one with students,” said Kalissa Hovey, a Tacoma School District special-needs teacher. “I have been using these materials for two years and I cannot imagine running my classroom without these materials. They are a very important part of the daily routine of my classroom.”
“Our first mission and goal is to have products that help develop language, because there is a range of things students can do with it,” Scroggs said.
A bright future
Today, the business is growing, thanks to the special-needs teaching community. It is used in districts like Issaquah, Mercer Island, Seattle, Tacoma, Sumner, Clover Park, Snoqualmie, Tumwater and Federal Way. Teachers in states like Illinois, Pennsylvania and California also have its products, as do some in Canada.
With its success, Scroggs and her son Mitchell have been developing prototypes for more products, in subjects like math, science and life skills.
“It was never meant to be a business, just a way to help my son,” Scroggs said.
But as a business, the message she wants to get across is, “Don’t sell these kids short,” she said, adding that there can be more successes like her son’s. “I want to be a voice for kids with special needs.”
Chantelle Lusebrink
August 18, 2009
http://www.issaquahpress.com/2009/08/18/parent-develops-creative-education-for-the-autistic/
On the Web
Reach Reporter Chantelle Lusebrink at 392-6434, ext. 241, or clusebrink@isspress.com.
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Autistic son was a trial until Detroit mom saved herself by loving him
There was a time when Claudreen Jackson wasn't sure she loved her son Pervis Jr.
He was driving her crazy. From the time he was about 2 years old, P.J., as they called him, screamed uncontrollably and ran around the house. He tore the drapes from the windows. He ran on top of furniture. He couldn't talk like most kids his age. He wouldn't let people hug him or hold him.
P.J., now 34, is autistic. And his behavior depressed Jackson, sometimes to the point of her spending days in bed, not bothering to wash up or comb her hair.
One day she was sure that she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. So she figured she'd better clean the house. She didn't want whoever came in to take her away to think she was a horrible housekeeper.
She also figured she should buy groceries and cook, so her three older children and P.J. would have something to eat while she was away. And she also figured she should do the laundry so they'd have clean clothes.
Jackson was so exhausted after getting ready for her breakdown, she slept peacefully and woke up refreshed the next day.
God had answered her prayers, sort of.
"He didn't cure Pervis, but he cured me," says Jackson, now 70.
"I had to ask myself, are children worth any less because they have a disability?"
Jackson grew into a loving caregiver, an ardent advocate for disabled children.
She took classes at what is now the University of Detroit Mercy simply because she wanted to be polished when speaking on behalf of disabled people.
Those classes led her to an education degree. At 50, she became a special education teacher and retired 14 years later.
Jackson tells her story in a book about her life raising Pervis Jr. and living as the wife and now widow of Pervis Jackson of the multi-Grammy winning R&B group, the Spinners.
Jackson says her late husband inspired her to write the book. He often encouraged her writing, and his dying wish was that she do something to help disabled children and their parents. In addition to her life's story, the book contains poems by her and her late husband.
Jackson's ultimate goal is to raise money to help parents struggling with raising disabled children. The funds will help pay for respite, camp or other services.
"Those of us with money can afford to take a trip or have somebody come and sit with our children, but lower-income parents don't have that," she says.
Jackson knows what stress can do to a marriage. Her son's autism and her husband's singing career -- which kept him away from home and her alone a lot -- hurt their marriage. They were separated for several years, but never divorced, and reunited after years of separation.
These days P.J. is much calmer than he was as a child. Even though he can't work, he can care for his basic needs, including cooking and cleaning for himself.
P.J. also enjoys painting, and some of his colorful artwork adorns the cover of his mother's book.
"I was struggling so hard to make him into what I wanted," Jackson says. "I had to realize that all I can do is help develop whatever potential he has. And really that's all any parent can do with any child."
Jackson realizes that many parents cling to hope for a cure. While she doesn't discourage that, she wants parents to know that even if their child isn't cured, autism is survivable.
"Even if you can't cure them, you can still love them," she says.
Cassandra Spratling, Free Press Staff Writer
August 19, 2009
Contact Cassandra Spratling: 313-223-4580 or cspratling@freepress.com
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Leaps and Bounds
From Kindles to iPods, technology can help teach children with language-based learning disabilities
The silver-gray iPods stored in a small, crate-like box in Kate DeLong’s classroom are filled, not surprisingly, with audio files listened to by teenagers. But it’s Harper Lee, not the Black-Eyed Peas, you’ll find on the media players.
Ms. DeLong is a teacher at Newgrange School, a nonprofit educational institution in Hamilton for children with learning disabilities. The iPods are just one example of how the gadgets most of us perceive as being simply cool or convenient are being used in the education of students.
Ms. DeLong teaches a class of students who are on the autism spectrum. As she puts it, her pupils don’t necessarily have a reading disability, “it’s more about their social skills and the nature of being on the autistic spectrum.”
Students in Ms. DeLong’s and other classes use iPods to listen to books as they read along with a printed copy. Those books include Ms. Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Night by Elie Wiesel and Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick. Ms. DeLong says she listens to all of the books before sharing them with her class (of the multiple recordings of To Kill a Mockingbird, she chose the one read by actress Sissy Spacek).
Another gadget Ms. DeLong uses is the Kindle, Amazon’s electronic device that holds reading materials such as books, magazines and newspapers. The Kindle’s features allow users to look up word definitions and to underline passages. It also has a vocal reader, though the voice is somewhat robotic and misreads the occasional word, such as acronyms.
”It’s one more tool we have to keep the kids involved with stuff,” says Howard Kaplan, educational director at Newgrange, of the technology used in classrooms. “And they like it because it’s cool. Technology grabs everyone’s attention and so they’re focused where you want them to be focused.”
Other technologies available to Newgrange students include the use of Mac laptop computers and SMART Boards, a sort of techno chalkboard. Teachers can write on SMART Boards, of course, but students and teachers can also move elements drawn onto the board. Another handy feature lets teachers project their computer screen onto the board. Also, notes and diagrams can be drawn onto images in different colors — it looks similar to John Madden working a Telestrator during a football game.
Joan Grande, who teaches history at Newgrange, says the SMART Boards allow teachers to add more excitement to their lessons. If she were discussing ancient Rome, for example, she could pull up an image of the Colosseum off the Internet.
”As you’re talking or guiding them through something, you can pull the pictures up immediately, they can see it, they don’t have to just listen to you,” Ms. Grande says. “It’s there, they know what you’re talking about.” Teachers, of course, create lesson plans, but the technology also allows them to improvise.
Educators’ SMART Boards and laptops help keep students engaged. That’s likely because while the students have learning differences, Ms. Grande says their technological skills are very good. Newgrange has a ratio close to one laptop per student, according to Ms. Grande.
Still, in using all this technology in the classroom, Ms. DeLong says it’s important for teachers to remember that not all students are good with new technology.
”I think it’s really important to help the kids understand that the technology is there to help them and assist them, but we can’t assume that all kids are good at it,” she says. “Even though they’re more savvy and they might be open to techy things, because they have processing difficulties and delays we have to take a step back.”
Newgrange is approved to teach grades kindergarten through 12. Bob Hegedus, the school’s principal, says its youngest students are in second grade because public schools usually keep students through kindergarten and first grade before recommending them to a school specializing in teaching kids with learning differences. The school’s students come from 42 different districts. (The institution also operates an education center in Princeton, which offers services like tutoring, educational evaluations and reading screenings for people of all ages.)
Mr. Hegedus says most students at the school have language-based differences. It could mean they can read but have trouble comprehending, or they may be able to read and comprehend, but can’t express themselves in writing.
Technology, and ways to apply it to classroom settings, have coincided with changes in the way students, particularly those with learning differences, are taught.
”Taking a look at where it was 20 years ago and where it is now, it’s really grown leaps and bounds, for the better I have to say,” Mr. Hegedus says. “Especially with all the technological advances, I think that’s been a boom for our students. The technology gives them a step ahead in many respects.”
Laws governing special education and awareness of learning disabilities have contributed to improved education as well. Terms like “autism spectrum” have helped parents understand that not all autistic children have the same learning differences, for example.
”I think people are probably more aware that there are services for kids who are struggling in school,” Mr. Kaplan says. “So people will ask if a school takes care of their kid’s needs.”
Expectations are higher for these students than they were 20 years ago (many graduates go on to college) and so is the understanding of what they can accomplish. Mr. Hegedus says many of the students at Newgrange have “hidden talents” that often go unrecognized in traditional classrooms. These include artistic and musical abilities. Of how technologically savvy some students are, the principal says, “It’s just amazing.”
”We present our kids to the same kinds of academic rigors (as traditional schools),” Mr. Hegedus says. “But we do it in different kinds of ways so that we are preparing them to further their education if that’s what they want to do.”
Anthony Stoeckert
August 18, 2009
http://www.centraljersey.com/articles/2009/08/18/time_off/living/doc4a8b130995f31397182904.txt
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Cape couple develop practical applications for iPhone
MARSTONS MILLS — Around the time Graham Johnson turned 2, his parents Lisa and Jeff began to suspect that he was having developmental delays and anxiety problems.
The year that followed was full of appointments with specialists and conversations with the school district about appropriate placement for Graham.
But now, the Johnsons have turned their yearlong struggle into a budding business, developing and selling iPhone applications intended to help autistic and developmentally delayed children.
"We thought, 'We know it can help, and we can do it. So let's do it,'" Lisa Johnson said.
Lisa, a physical therapist, and Jeff, a software developer and iPhone enthusiast, sat down at their kitchen table and brainstormed.
One of the communication tools they had found most useful in working with their son was storyboards — using a series of pictures to explain plans or ask questions.
The technique is often used with children who have trouble either speaking or understanding verbal language. Storyboards typically use drawings, or a series of printed pictures that can be attached to pages with Velcro and carried in a binder.
A drive to school, for example, could be represented by a picture of the child, followed by an image of the car and then a picture of a school.
"When (Graham) could see a picture and know what was going to happen, he was much less anxious and better behaved," his mother said.
So the Johnsons founded Grembe iPhone Apps — the company is named for Graham and his siblings, Emma and Ben — and created iCommunicate, an application that allows parents to create and store storyboards on their iPhone or iPod Touch.
"We focused on what we used it for," Jeff Johnson said.
The program can also be used to set up choices for children; rather than having to say out loud what he or she would like for a snack, the child can select from a picture of pretzels and one of an apple.
The application provides the same benefits as traditional storyboards, but is far more compact and discreet, which means an already self-conscious child won't need to call attention to himself by toting around a bulky binder or sheaf of papers, Lisa Johnson said.
"I use it all them time," said Regina McClellan, a Scituate mother with a two year old autistic child. "I love it."
When she is preparing her son, Andrew, for their regular weekend trips to her parents' house in Chatham, she show him a storyboard that includes his own picture, a shot of the car and an image of his grandparents.
"So the whole way down he knows where we're going and he's excited," she said.
Shortly after iCommunicate was released in early July, the Johnsons also launched iReward, which tracks how many positive actions a child must perform before earning a reward.
The screen shows images of the desired reward, along with outlined stars (smiley faces and checkmarks are also options). The exact image and number of stars are set by the user. As the child completes tasks, the stars are filled in; when they are completed, the reward is achieved.
Both programs come with hundreds of stock pictures representing common actions, objects and places. But users can also add their own pictures using the device's camera, which makes the storyboards even more effective, said Melanie Johnson, director of speech services at South Shore Therapies in Weymouth, who is just beginning to use iCommunicate in her practice.
"You have pictures of their house and their car and their school," she said. "It makes it much more functional for a child, less abstract."
The use of technology could have other advantages too.
Many children on the autistic spectrum are uncomfortable with interpersonal interactions and have trouble making eye contact.
"If the children have difficulty understanding social cues and context and feel uncomfortable with it, the delivery of a star or token on a electronic device may in fact produce better learning in some circumstances," said Dr. Dennis Russo, chief clinical officer with the May Institute in Randolph.
In fact, the use of iPods and similar technology to work with children on the autistic spectrum is increasing in popularity, he said.
"The opportunity to use technology to help teach is something that is widely being done in the field," Russo said.
Though it was their son's special needs that encouraged them, the Johnsons emphasized that the two applications can be useful tools for all children. They use them with Graham, as well as with Emma, 5, and Ben, 1.
"We just added some features that make it more useful for kids with special needs," Lisa Johnson said.
To market the applications, the couple has depended largely on Twitter and Facebook, where they have gotten "amazing" response, Lisa Johnson said.
And early satisfied customers are starting to spread the word.
Austin lets the families she works with know about iCommunicate, and they, in turn, pass the information on.
"I tell everybody about it," said McClellan, who originally heard of the program from Austin.
Looking ahead, the Johnsons plan to refine and upgrade the two applications.
Based on feedback from customers, Jeff Johnson has already started working on elements that would make iCommunicate more useful for teachers or others using the program with multiple children.
And his wife is thinking about pursuing grant opportunities that would allow them to distribute iPhones or iPod Touches to special needs classrooms.
But given how unpredictable the process has been thus far, they are hesitant to say with any certainty what will come next.
"It's already gone in directions I didn't know it would go," said Lisa Johnson.
Added her husband, "It's been a pretty crazy month."
Sarah Shemkus
sshemkus@capecodonline.com
August 18, 2009
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Blind Students Confront the Chemistry Lab
SAN DIEGO — Theoretical science is a field that's open and accessible to all. But lab work poses some real challenges to blind students interested in becoming chemists. A dozen blind San Diego teenagers visited a UC San Diego lab to feel and hear the results of some basic chemical experiments.
High-pitched tones in this chemistry lab are coming from small devices called a SALS sensors. They're electronic boxes attached to thin glass probes which measure ambient light when dipped in a liquid. The tone changes pitch as the liquid changes color, allowing these blind teenagers to know whether their chemistry test worked. The man running this workshop, in UCSD's York Hall, is a Penn State Ph.D student named Cary Supalo, who is blind himself. He demonstrates a voiced computer system hooked up to some other sensors.
"So when you hit Control-Shift-S, listen to what it's going to tell us: 'Not collecting. Two sensors found. Temperature. Relative humility.' Did everybody hear that?" he said.
Supalo got his master's degree in inorganic chemistry. But he's made science education his specialty, with a focus on using technology to bring the blind into the lab. Lab work is a fundamental task all chemists need to do. But observing the results of tests has required the ability to see. Lab managers also fear that blind people could be harmed by the many toxic materials that can't safely be touched. Supalo says today blind people can work in laboratories, even without the help of a sighted assistant. In addition to adaptive technical tools, it requires certain skills.
"Organization is key," said Supalo. "It can be as simple as knowing where you place it on your bench top, you know, 'Here's where this is and here's where that is,' to being familiar with what that chemical can do to you and to others."
Another blind chemist is Dennis Fantin, a research professor at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. Every summer he also teaches blind high school students how to perform lab work.
"My reason for doing that is not because I want to train a bunch of blind bench chemists," said Fantin. "My reason for doing it is that chemistry really is a gateway course to all of the sciences, the whole natural world."
Fantin said the key technical challenges for blind chemistry students are data collection and analysis. Talking computers and audible sensors are among the things that make lab work accessible. One common task for chemistry students is learning how to make a battery. For the sighted, a light goes on when the circuit is closed. Fantin said in his class an electrical buzzer goes off.
"Chemistry occurs all around us with or without human beings being able to see," he said. "The question is how do you take measurements, how do you take data, how do you make observations."
Back in the York Hall lab, a ninth-grader named Harrison reflects on his limited scientific education.
"I was just saying I haven't taken chem yet except for the time I had to drill 50 elements into the periodic table," he said.
Blind, like the others, Harrison probes a liquid with a SALS sensor to hear its color change. He feels an airtight plastic bag expand, which tells him carbon dioxide is being produced inside. Another blind teenage student, Erica, who attends San Diego's Preuss School, says this is the first time she's actually worked in a science lab.
"To get hands on, in an experiment, yea," she said. "Usually I just sit around and watch. Listen."
The technology that's available in this workshop is still unknown in most high school science classes. John Miller is an electrical engineer who's president of the science division of the National Federation of the Blind. He said today blind chemistry students who want to work in a lab still typically need sighted assistants. Miller says that's a problem because it means you're only as good as your assistant's observations, and it's very hard to understand the process of discovery. But he says things are already changing, and in a few years Miller expects the blind to see science as a field that will include and welcome them.
Tom Fudge
August 18, 2009
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2009/aug/18/blind-students-confront-chemistry-lab/
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Sophisticated bionic devices are helping to shape the future for those with prosthetics, orthotics
Allentown woman is one of first 10 people to try new leg brace
Gail Gamez's new leg brace looks much like her old metal-framed contraption except for the small black box near her hip.
The box, which sits underneath her shorts, is actually a computer that gauges her walking pattern, locking and unlocking the joint at her knee to imitate her natural movements.
Gamez isn't exactly the bionic woman, and her new battery-operated, computer-controlled brace certainly can't give her superhuman strength. What it can give her is almost as miraculous: a few more hours of activity each day before her own internal battery is depleted.
Having lived with multiple sclerosis, a disease that causes muscle weakness and fatigue, for more than a decade, Gamez, of Allentown, has learned to ration her daily supply of energy. So a device that can help her reserve some energy by moving for her is tremendously valuable.
''It feels like my leg is a feather,'' said Gamez as she tried the device for the first time recently at Valley Prosthetics and Orthotics in Allentown. ''It feels like I don't even have a leg.''
Marketed as the E-Mag Active, the leg brace is one of several new bionic devices, the latest frontier for prosthetics and orthotics. The field is reaping the benefits of rapidly evolving technology that is reshaping the future for the disabled, in some cases, getting them out of wheelchairs and walking on their own.
So fantastic is some of the technology that it could almost be ripped from the pages of a science-fiction novel.
''It's getting more and more like 'Star Wars,' where Luke got his arm cut off and he got a new robotic arm,'' said John Grencer, Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network's technology program administrative manager.
Grencer, whose unofficial title at Good Shepherd is ''futurist,'' is excited by the new technologies, those that are available and those that are still being developed.
Among the advancing technology that Grencer has his eye on are brain-controlled electronic systems and exoskeleton devices. Earlier this year, Good Shepherd hosted a Japanese scientist who developed an exoskeleton known as the Hybrid Assistive Limb. The battery operated device, which is not yet available in the United States, intercepts and interprets bioelectric signals from the brain to robotically move muscles in the arms and legs.
''This is an amazing time in prosthetics and orthotics,'' said Jeffrey M. Brandt, owner of Ability Prosthetics & Orthotics, which has an office in Allentown. ''For the longest time, prosthetics and orthotics has played catch-up with respect to technology, and now it's leading the technology development.''
Developments in robotics and microprocessor technology, along with increased funding for new research, are driving the rapid advances. Some of the funding has come from the military, which has turned its eye to prosthetics as an increasing number of veterans return from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan without limbs.
''What I'm seeing is money being put into product development like never before,'' Brandt said.
The military's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, whose funding also led to such historic developments as the Internet, stealth bomber and GPS, has pumped millions of dollars into research aiding military amputees. Among the devices being developed by the agency is a robotic arm that moves like a real human arm with sensors on the chest that allow the elbow to bend and the fist to open and close when the patient thinks about it, Grencer said.
''When you look back in history, so many of our technologies have come from the space and military programs,'' he said. ''Now, that technology allows someone who is disabled to control their environment.''
Among the devices currently being marketed is the i-Limb Hand, which uses muscle signals to move the prosthetic hand's life-like fingers, and the Bioness 300, a system that includes a leg cuff with electrodes that stimulate the leg muscles to lift the foot.
The Bioness also has a rehabilitative component, said Sue Golden, director of neurological rehabilitation therapies at Good Shepherd. The computer that controls the device also helps rewire the brain to regain movement.
''The more you repeat a movement and fire those muscles in the nerve, you can make some changes in the brain,'' Golden said.
Brandt acknowledges the devices are expensive –– about $10,000 for an E-Mag Active brace and as much as $60,000 for an i-Limb Hand–– but he predicts that as technology continues to grow, such devices will become more common and cheaper to manufacture.
Some devices are covered in part by Medicare. That's the case for Gamez, who has Medicare and a supplemental insurance plan that will cover all but a couple of hundred dollars for the brace, said her orthotist, Steven Chu. If she only had Medicare, her out-of-pocket cost could be as high as $2,000. What private insurance companies cover varies widely, Chu said.
Gamez was the first person Chu had fitted with the E-Mag Active. It was a learning experience for them both, as they tried to make sense of the various beeps and video-game sounds the device made when adjusted and turned on and off.
''We've got to reprogram you there,'' he said, as he fiddled with settings on the brace, referencing his hand-written notes. ''With every new technology there are quirks.''
Taking another, more confident step, Gamez said, ''I have faith in it.''
Veronica Torrejón, The Morning Call
veronica.torrejon@mcall.com
610-820-6583
August 17, 2009
http://www.mcall.com/news/all-a1_5bionic.6983839aug17,0,4606882.story
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Vision, learning woes go together Nearly 1 in 4 have vision trouble
When detection lags, some children slip through cracks
If Junior is coming home with poor grades, it might be worth checking how well he can see.
With nearly one in four children having vision problems, experts say many children with academic issues actually could be having trouble because they can't see up close to read or can't see far enough to make out what's on the board.
Cheryl Schmitt, an optometrist at Hodges Eye Care and Surgical Center, recalled one high school-aged student who was incredibly relieved to be diagnosed with farsightedness, which makes doing up-close work extremely difficult.
"She and her mom were taken aback. All these years, they just thought she was a bad student," Schmidt said, adding the girl's studies since have improved and the frequency of her headaches has diminished.
Schmidt said children with undiagnosed vision problems often have problems following what the rest of the class is doing or get to a point that they just don't want to read at all. In extreme cases, it can be mistaken for a learning disability, she said.
Many school districts do perform vision screening. In the Tucson Unified School District, for example, vision is tested in kindergarten and the first, second, fourth and sixth grades.
Sandra Valenzuela discovered her daughter, Clarisa, needed glasses when she failed the first-grade eye test offered in the Sunnyside Unified School District.
It wasn't noticeable in kindergarten, Valenzuela said, because the class didn't do as much work on the board. "I was surprised. She had never complained about not being able to see anything," the stay-at-home mom recalled.
Valenzuela said she was struck that once her daughter had glasses, she noticed the popcorn ceilings in the family home for the first time.
A number of students still slip through the cracks, however, in part because some simple vision screenings offered at schools often don't provide the comprehensive workups that catch more complex sight issues.
A recent American Optometric Association survey of 1,001 respondents found that adults far underestimate how frequently children have vision problems, with nearly 90 percent unaware that a quarter of children have some sight issues.
According to the association, studies indicate that as many as 60 percent of children identified as "problem learners" actually have undetected vision problems that may be stunting their academic development.
Schmitt said there are a number of reasons vision problems go unnoticed. Children don't know what's normal, she said, so they don't know how to explain why they're struggling. And, she said, "when most people think of vision, they're thinking about distance vision and that's easily picked up. "They're less inclined to think of learning issues connected to near-vision issues.
Frances Banales, a 15-year teacher at Lineweaver Elementary School, said she's not surprised at the statistics.
She's worn glasses since fifth grade, so she's sensitive to vision issues — she always leaves a space in front so kids can move there if they're not able to see the board. Still, she said, many children don't want to move because they don't want to bring attention to themselves.
Banales, 52, said she has her class read a book on eyeglasses to increase awareness and has a discussion with students about how sometimes, kids need tools to help their eyes. Although she has contacts, she makes a point to wear glasses in the classroom.
And she also brings the possibility up at parent conferences. "It may not be the reason they're having difficulty, but it is an indicator. And if we rule one thing out or get one thing to help, it makes a difference."
Banales said she shares with parents the story of one boy who was getting marginal grades in a gifted education class. He had a quick wit, but he was quiet and reluctant to participate. She encouraged him to be screened.
"From the beginning, his confidence had turned around," she said. "His grades improved overwhelmingly. Kids started asking him questions and wanted him to be in their group."
She tells of another boy with a similar story. Quiet. Not participating. Straining to see the whiteboard. After a screening and glasses, she recalled, "he said, 'Wow. I can really see better.' From then on, he wanted to be at the front table all the time and the kids saw him as a contributor and valued his input. His scores improved dramatically.
"I don't think I've ever had a child who hasn't had some improvement."
Rhonda Bodfield, Arizona Daily Star
Contact reporter Rhonda Bodfield at rbodfield@azstarnet.com or at 806-7754.
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/education/306005
Warning Signs
Although studies indicate nearly 60 percent of children don't receive their first eye exam until age 5 or older, optometrists recommend that a child's first eye exam take place at six months of age. Unless problems are detected, the next exam should be at age 3, and then every two years once a child begins school.
Some indications that a child may have undetected vision problems:
• Loses his or her place while reading
• Avoids close work
• Holds reading material closer than normal
• Tends to rub his or her eyes
• Has headaches
• Turns or tilts head to use one eye only
• Makes frequent reversals when reading or writing
• Uses finger to maintain place when reading
• Omits or confuses small words when reading
• Consistently performs below potential.
SOURCE: American Optometric Assoc.
For Help
There are several programs locally that help needy students afford vision assistance.
They include:
• Vision USA, a program established in 1991 by the American Optometric Association, has so far provided free eye exams to more than 340,000 low-income residents who have no vision insurance and have a demonstrated financial need. Assistance for eyewear varies by state. Go to www.aoa.org/visionusa.xml for more information.
• The Educational Enrichment Foundation, which provides resources to the Tucson Unified School District, runs Focus on Vision, which provides funds for eye exams and eyeglasses for students whose families qualify for the free or reduced-fee lunch program.
During the 2007-08 school year, the program provided 445 eye exams and 427 eyeglasses for 872 students. Last year, the foundation was able to help 230 students. With a per-student cost of roughly $125, the program is funded through donations and grants. For more information or to donate, call 325-8688.
All Passage Middle School classes will blog this year
NEWPORT NEWS — Every classroom in Passage Middle School will have a new feature this year: a class-related blog.
Principal Kipp Rogers asked his teachers to develop the interactive Internet sites for student writing assignments.
Rogers envisions using the sites as diagnostic and teaching tools to help students improve writing skills. Teachers will post writing prompts, or assignments, at least once each quarter, and student responses will be posted to the blog. Rogers said the process also creates a running record of students' work, allowing them to see improvement.
But teachers and writing specialists will use the work to figure out where students need help improving their skills. Lessons will then be designed to address those needs.
"One of our goals is to move from 90 percent to 100 percent passing the writing SOL test," Rogers said.
A blog, a contraction of Web log, is an ongoing journal-like Web site on which people post their thoughts, news, photos, links to other sites and other information to share with blog readers.
Rogers said the Passage blogs will be created with Edublog software, which has filtering tools, and managed by the teachers. Only teachers and students will be able to post to them, and the teachers will screen every posting before it goes up. Teachers also can control who sees the blogs, which generally will not be available to the public.
Passage teacher Paige Barfield said Rogers has encouraged teachers to create blogs for the past two years. About 10 teachers used them last year, and Rogers created one for his math class. Barfield also uses a blog with her students.
"Initially, they were just to keep our students up-to-date on what's going on in the classroom, homework, supplemental class materials, etc.," she said. "Dr. Rogers is very focused on using technology to reach our students."
Teachers in every subject, from physical education to math to English, will have student writing blogs. Rogers said the prompts will be related to the subject.
"In math you might ask a seventh-grader to explain addition and subtraction to a fifth-grader in narrative form," he said.
Rogers said teachers can take the idea beyond the writing assignments and use the blog for projects, slide shows and other assignments.
Barfield began blogging with her students a year and a half ago as part of a master's degree project. She said it was a good tool for keeping her students and parents informed about what was happening in class. She updated the site daily, including a summary of the day's class lessons, copies of notes and the homework assignment.
Barfield said she and the students loved it.
"Even if Dr. Rogers had never mentioned the word 'blog,' I still would be maintaining one for my own sanity," she said.
To get teachers who have not used blogs used to the idea of posting information online, Rogers is devoting the first teacher training session to the concept, but in a novel way.
Passage teachers have been encouraged to create an account on Twitter, an online social networking site that limits each posting to 140 characters. Teachers will attend a morning screening of the movie "Julie & Julia" and "live blog" the experience with their Twitter accounts. Rogers chose the movie, based on the experiences of two real people, because one character uses a blog as an education and communication tool.
Rogers said the class blog is one of many high- and low-technology tools teachers can use to help students improve writing and other skills.
"I don't want the blog to be the center of attention," he said. "It's a medium to assess writing."
On Twitter
Anyone can create a Twitter social networking account at www.twitter.com. Users update their status as often as they like, but are limited to 140 characters per posting. You can follow Twitter users, which means you will see their status updates as they post them. Twitter users can prevent unwanted followers with the network's "block" function.
• Passage Middle School is one of several district schools with a Twitter account, @PassageMS.
• The school district also tweets: @nnschools
• The Daily Press tweets: @Daily_Press
• Education reporter Cathy Grimes tweets: @cathgrimes
Cathy Grimes, Daily Press
August 24, 2009
http://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-local_passagetweets_0822aug24,0,1313238.story
Educators tell what qualities make a good teacher
Summer is fading quickly, and soon families will settle back into the familiar school-day routines of morning school buses, packed lunches and homework.
Teachers, too, are heading back to their schools about now, if they haven't already.
They're going to orientations and planning collaborative lessons with other teachers, and overall, they're taking time to redecorate classrooms and prepare themselves mentally for the new faces they'll see Sept. 8.
In the spirit of back-to-school readinesss, we asked four local Teachers of the Year -- George Herring, Frenishee B. Smith, Carolyn Wilkerson and Harvey Stone -- to talk about what makes a good teacher and what the classroom of the future looks like.
A good teacher is . . .
One who deals with the child holistically, said Smith, who attended J.E.B. Stuart Elementary School as a child and now teaches there.
"The things that turned me around and turned my life around were the influences of my teachers," she said. "They took the time to care, to get to know me and my needs personally, and dealt with me as an individual."
A good teacher "is someone who can be themselves from the first day in the classroom," Stone said, "and set high expectations."
"I would be doing a disservice to my students if I didn't smile and have inquisitive moments myself," he said.
Being a good teacher also means being enthusiastic about what you teach.
"You're just so passionate about what you're teaching that they just come along for the ride," Herring said. "They're a lot more willing to buy in" to learning if he's excited, too.
How do you engage students in a standards-based environment?
"I become a master at my curriculum," Smith said. "I learn it, then I tailor it to meet my style," which involves teaching a lesson in a variety of ways to meet all her students' needs.
Stone said: "No student has ever come up to me and said, 'Thank you for helping me pass my world history SOL.' That's not what they want from me. They're going to be appreciative of the life lessons I've taught them [and] the way I taught them to think critically. Every job has a set of criteria . . . [but] at the end of the day, it's about 'Did I care for these kids today?'"
Herring said teaching is about relating lessons to the students' lives.
He once assigned a project called "Pimp My Poe," in which Edgar Allan Poe comes back from the dead and sues the government for putting all of his works into society for free. He wins a lot of money and wants to become a prominent author again, so he goes on the television shows "Pimp My Ride" and "Cribs."
The students had to design his modern-day home or car, but they had to work with real companies to do so, and at the same time, connect Poe's work to society today.
"It was just a fun way to get at research," he said.
Smith organized a Go Green campaign to teach her students about natural resources. They became environmentalists and learned about recycling and energy conservation.
"That was much more than what the [Standards of Learning] required," she said. "We would talk about what they did at home and they will tell all their parents' secrets."
"It was something to help develop them to become better citizens [and] better take care Mother Earth," she said.
For Wilkerson, it's all about being hands-on, whether she's teaching about the laws of motion or electricity.
"Even just giving them a box of things that you think aren't even related and trying to have them make a little car or a little contraption that's going to put a golf ball into a cup -- I like to see what my kids can do," she said.
Have students' attitudes toward education changed in the past decade?
Stone said today's students expect more from their teachers than they did when he started teaching 10 years ago.
"They come in as ninth-graders much more aware of the fact that this is the step right before work, or right before college, or . . . the armed services," he said. "They expect you to deliver from the first day. If you can't deliver, you may have a negative experience."
Young students haven't changed, but their backgrounds have.
"If their parents had a bad educational experience, they usually have a bad attitude toward school," Smith said. "It's a home thing. It trickles down."
When it comes to the first day, Stone said he doesn't know too many who aren't excited for the first day because they get to see their friends.
"They may not want to wake up at 6:30 in the morning, but by lunch they're going to be glad that they're there," he said.
What does the classroom of the future look like?
"Everything seems to be pointing toward digital alternatives to school," Herring said. "The kids are so savvy, and as good as you think you are, these kids are just much savvier."
Educators need to use what the kids are using -- Blackberries, audio recorders, cell phones -- in a way that provides opportunities to tailor education to individual students.
Students "want more value," he said. "When you have a savvier crew, they're not going to want to waste their time on classes they don't need."
Stone echoed Herring's thoughts and said "if the economy will allow it, classes will become both smaller and larger."
He said high schools might offer more distance-learning opportunities, or night school, or establish partnerships with businesses so students can work with mentors in specific career fields.
"I could be teaching 25 extra students that I don't see on a regular basis," he said.
Smith said even at the elementary level, "whenever [students] can go to the computer and see streaming lessons, it's always better."
Holly Prestidge
Contact Holly Prestidge at (804) 649-6945 or hprestidge@timesdispatch.com .
August 24, 2009
http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/local/education/article/TEAC24_20090823-214203/287922/
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