Fabens School District
HOMEPAGE

eeZone TEXAS is an online community in which teachers collaborate with research organizations and the private sector to design and evaluate new best practices for using technology effectively in the classroom. Our participants, currently numbering nearly 50,000, represent 22 school districts, five regional education service centers, three universities, four research centers, and one private sector partner. Our mission is to serve as a cooperative of researchers, practitioners, and students, who together will help define, publish, and promote replicable strategies for improving education with effective technology practices in the nation's classrooms.

eeZone TEXAS uses a Web-based software application to deliver interactive content and technologies that help students develop critical thinking and analysis skills. Our cooperative uses the Internet to coordinate activities among participants, who are widely distributed across the state. The application runs on a central server, and participants access the content and interactive tools using networked computers. The server-side application manages user authentication, access, and data tracking, and the client applications run in a Web browser. The Texas Education Agency is evaluating this distributed client-server model for delivering electronic instructional materials as a more flexible and cost-effective alternative to traditional textbook publication and distribution.

Students collaborate in teams within their school and across the state as they work through interactive, inquiry-based projects, which are accessed online. The projects use environmental education as an integrating curricular context, as it naturally lends itself to interdisciplinary team teaching that supports the core subject areas. Existing and forthcoming projects include A Virtual Tour of the Edwards Aquifer; a Virtual Wildflower Collection; Using GIS Technology to Explore Earth Systems; A Sustainable System for Industrial Water Re-use; Designing Air Quality Improvement Strategies for Texas; An Investigation of Campus Littering Behavior; A Simulated Landfill Siting; and Perspectives on Graffiti.

Teachers join interdisciplinary teaching teams as part of the program's professional development activities. Curriculum and instruction specialists, assessment specialists, and teachers form working groups to propose new interactive project ideas and revise existing materials. The eeZone TEXAS Web site provides group support software to facilitate these online collaborations. As they work through the curriculum design process, teachers develop new skills, inform their teaching practices with new education research, and emerge as strong school leaders.

Scientists and researchers at the state's universities and agencies contribute expertise and the products of their research work, whether that be in the field of environmental science or in education. eeZone TEXAS provides a forum for these experts to share their extensive research and development, which has been funded through previous public expenditures. Working with the curriculum design teams, these experts assist in creating new inquiry-based educational projects. Modifying research products to be used in 6-12 grade classrooms can offer useful feedback from the field; it also encourages researchers to consider outreach and dissemination possibilities when designing their research projects.

Evaluators gather much of their data through online instruments that examine how the technologies are being integrated into the school curriculum. These online instruments provide rapid feedback so participants may refine their teaching strategies throughout the year.

In the coming year we intend to expand the eeZone program to additional states, expanding access to our interactive content and online professional development resources.