Oswego School District
HOMEPAGE

Short Description

The Oswego school district's technology program has accomplished what others have failed to do. It enhances teaching and learning through an enterprise-wide system that includes a reliable network, strong staff development, and web-enabled instructional materials, assessment, and training.

Long Description

Earlier this decade, school districts around the nation began hearing about the power and promise of using information technology to improve teaching and learning. Many went on a buying spree, cobbling together the public and private resources necessary to wire their schools for connectivity to the Internet and to equip classrooms with computer terminals.

Today, many of these districts have unprecedented access to technology. Most, however, have not demonstrated that they have the means to use the technology to improve learning. As a result, 95 percent of the instructional technology programs implemented in districts have not lasted more than three to five years, studies show.

Oswego, with 415 teachers and 5,600 students - nearly 40 percent of whom live in poverty - is different. Despite a shrinking property tax base, the district has been able to sustain and build an impressive enterprise-wide information delivery system that fully integrates a network, instructional and communication materials into teaching and learning. Further, the system is: 1) used and understood by teachers and students; 2) continually updated to avoid obsolescence; 3) driven by the needs of teachers and students, not by the needs and desires of outside vendors; and 4) fully integrates a network, instructional materials

The district owes much of its success to careful planning. Drawing on the recommendations of teachers, parents, school board members, business people and community leaders, Oswego has developed and implemented a five-year strategic plan that has helped turn skeptics and technophobes into technophiles. Following are the major features of the system:

To ensure that teachers understand how to use the technology, Oswego equips a classroom with computers only after the classroom's teacher participates in extensive training. The training includes 27 hours of instruction on Internet access and 30 hours on basic computer skills. Only a handful of the district's 415 teachers have not participated. The average teacher has taken more than 130 hours of instruction; in some schools teachers have taken as many as 250 hours. More than 50 courses are offered. And because most software manuals are written for business users, the district customizes and writes its own manuals so that examples are relevant to the classroom.

Oswego commits 2 percent of its budget to support technology each year. The investment allows Oswego schools to replace 15 to 20 percent of its equipment annually, thereby preventing obsolescence. In addition, the district has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from private sources and vendors through donations and in-kind services.

The district has two full-time technicians who staff a central help desk. In most cases they are able to diagnose and correct problems remotely over the network, obviating the need to travel to schools and interrupt classroom instruction, or the need to turn teachers into computer technicians, allowing teachers to focus on instructional integration. Redundant systems keep the system running, even when pieces of it shut down.

Oswego uses a district-wide area network (WAN) as a backbone for its technology infrastructure. The network links all district buildings to each other and to the Internet. Fiber-optics are used to distribute data to the buildings, guaranteeing high bandwidth and fast throughput and allowing rapid access to network applications, and internal and external information sources. Within the buildings, data is distributed to the classroom over category 5 cable at a rate of 100 megabits per second.

Each classroom is equipped with four student workstations, one teacher workstation, and printing and classroom-wide viewing capabilities. The configuration assures all students relatively easy access to the Web. In all, 2,000 Compaq PCs in eight separate school houses, a district office, a transportation center and a warehouse are linked by a high performance network of Compaq computer servers, supported by Windows NT server software.

Because a system is only as good as the information it carries, Oswego spent considerable time and effort surveying other model districts. The research helped the district select an extraordinary array of instructional resources that it delivers to every desktop of students, teachers, staff and the community.

At the click of a mouse, students can access local library collections, a huge volume of online resource materials and a number of different research and curriculum applications to support teaching and learning. Teachers can share information on student assignments, curriculum resources and professional enrichment activities. They can link to technology tools and manuals and use e-mail to communicate with their colleagues and students.

Many of the same resources are available to parents and community members. They also can review student performance data, lunch menus, calendars, news about the district and academic standards.

In sum, many districts aspire to build a global schoolhouse; Oswego has succeeded. It is no wonder then, why 67 school districts from around the U.S. and Asia visited the Oswego City School District Technology Program during the 1997-98 school year alone.

Benefits

Anyone who logs on to a personal computer in an Oswego classroom, kindergarten through 12the grade, cannot help but recognize how technology has fundamentally redefined the way students learn and teachers teach in the district.

For all K-12 students, the desktop allows access to the following:

• All the resources of their school and city libraries
• A periodical database that covers 800 online publications, including Congressional Quarterly, an on-line dictionary and thesaurus and six different encyclopedias -- World Book On-Line, Encarta 98, American, Grolier, Compton's Interactive and the Ultimate Children's Encyclopedia;
• Access to topic-related databases available through several commercial providers, including Electric Library, SIRS Researcher and ProQuest;
• Access to Web search engines, including Yahoo, AltaVista, Excite, HotBot, InfoSeek, Lycos, and N Light
• A number of newswires and network news services, including AP, Reuters, Bloomberg, ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox, MSNBC, NPR, ESPN and the Weather Channel
• Regional and national newspapers, domestic and international magazines arranged by subject or country of origin, and domestic and international trade publications

Students have at their fingertips such tools as Microsoft Office, Publisher, Adobe Photoshop, LogalMath Science and Computer Curriculum Corporation's Video intensive instructional Learning System.

In addition, students can access GaleNet, a comprehensive database that includes: 440,000 nonprofit membership associations, as well as brochures, and descriptive materials for 2,500 of these organizations; 282,000 consumer brands and 51,000 companies that manufacture them; complete biographical and references and information on 100,000 contemporary U.S. and international authors; critical essays on contemporary authors; student-focused materials on most studied authors, biographies, science and history topics and multicultural issues; student-focused materials on Shakespeare, poetry and world history; several of the most popular college guides; and a database of publications and broadcast media.

Beyond the rich list of library resources, students can take grade- and subject-specific practice quizzes and play educational games to improve their skills. In many cases, these quizzes and games are designed and posted by their teachers using off-site software developed at the University of Hawaii.

Students also can connect to a vast array of off-site programs designed to improve skills. For example, they can link to the Math Forum, an on-line tutorial service, located at Swarthmore College, for students in elementary, secondary and post-secondary schools. They also can link to National Geographic, Cyber Seuss, the Electric Zoo and other on-line services that educate and entertain at the same time.

Students can post and view PowerPoint projects developed by them and their classmates for classroom credit. The projects are posted by student name, grade and topic. Subjects covered in the presentations include everything from African art to movie reviews and Shaq O'Neill.

The district is currently developing a site that will offer students study guides and materials to prepare them for the New York State Board of Regents exam. As is the case with many locations on the Oswego desktop, this site will include material developed by teachers as well as students. For example, as part of a class project, students already have developed a site called "Great Cases of the Supreme Court," which will help prepare readers for the government section of the Regents exam. Another site developed by a technology consultant who works for the district includes a subject-specific bibliography of teacher resources, student activities and references that will help prepare students for the Regents exam in chemistry.

For students as well as teachers, a technology section of the desktop contains a variety of Web site development tools, including tips, tutorials and multimedia files. Examples of sites developed by students are also posted. The technology section gives teachers an up-to-date list of available in-service professional development courses to improve their technology skills.

Teachers can review curriculum materials posted on the site and, using a search engine, hunt for these materials by subject area, resource type and grade level.

It is clear from viewing the desktop that the level of teacher participation is deep. One page lists dozens of subject guides developed by Oswego teachers and posted for their colleagues and for students. They include a step-by-step guide for writing research papers, guides to literary terminology, roots and prefixes, parts of speech, composers, trinomial factors, Spanish and French vocabulary lessons.

Through an on-line service called CCCnet, teachers also can access outside resources for up-to-date curriculum materials, mentors and subject-specific topics. CCCnet also offers students study materials in math, science, social studies, reading and language arts.

These resources, and more, have changed how students work and demonstrate their competencies. In their subject areas they have ample opportunity to show what they know with games, quizzes and projects. In addition, students master the fundamentals of making presentations with PowerPoint, creating text documents with Word and building relational databases with Excel. They use such powerful desktop software as Microsoft Publisher, Adobie Illustrator, PageMaker, Photoshop and Acrobat. More than 65,000 clipart images are available to students through various databases.

Because students have high bandwith access from workstations, they essentially replace six- or seven-year-old textbooks with virtual textbooks that can be updated with a stroke of the keyboard.

For teachers, the technology solutions are changing not only how they teach, but the way they communicate with each other. Until recently, teachers in Oswego were no different from teachers anywhere else: They tended to be isolated from their peers. The new technology, however, gives them opportunities to share information and promising practices not only with other teachers in their building, but also with teachers elsewhere in the district, the state, the nation or the world. They can take ideas posted on their desktop and implement them as they are, or change them to suit their teaching style or their students' needs.

Importance

Information technology has changed the business of education by placing entire libraries of material at students' fingertips. Students who otherwise might be turned off by material in a book eagerly follow leads and links that allow them to leap from one island of information to another, coupling the challenge of a puzzle with the joy of discovery.

Similarly, students who might be loath to pick up a pen to write an essay can become authors, artists, and animators using word processors, graphics software and presentation programs to do their projects. This can be demonstrated by a high school student who won the ESPY Writing Award in 1997 and attributed his success to the technology located in the high school writing center.

But just as the young seem naturally inclined to embrace the new technology, their teachers sometimes do not share this enthusiasm and lose interest in working with a tool for which they were not properly trained.

Oswego's goals were:

• Bring teachers up to speed on the new medium and keep them there
• Migrate learning from paper and blackboards to electronic media
• Develop a system that would serve as the students' guide to help them find what they seek

This last point is crucial because while students may initially enjoy working on a computer, it can become a frustrating experience if they are unable to find the material they need to do their work. That is why the school district's network is laden with pointers, tips, material, links, search engines, resource materials, and database access.

The network provides a similar range of resources to help supply teachers with the tools to do their work and to allow them to communicate with each other. The network's resources receive constant attention and updating. It is not treated as an afterthought.

Oswego recognizes this as the tool that it is, and everything about it is directed toward the purpose of education.

Originality

The Global Schoolhouse was conceived and built as an integrated system to serve the educational needs of its teachers and the learning styles of its students. It was not jury-rigged to fit around existing pieces. The network in Oswego is built to accommodate the needs of educators, and the pieces that rely on the network were designed to work with it. For example:

• The network hardware was designed to connect remote campuses with high-speed, redundant systems to ensure reliability and convenience.
• Teachers have strong incentive to train themselves The training teachers and staff receive assures that they will use the system wisely and efficiently.
• The manuals teachers and staff use in their training cite examples that resonate with educators. They describe what teachers will experience in the classroom and what they will experience on the network.
• The educational software delivered to students works well on the network, and serves the instructional needs of teachers as well as the educational needs of students.

The way students use the technology is different from the way it's used in many districts. Oswego has established what it calls "electronic learning environments" -- classrooms where every student is equipped with a desktop computer. The learning that occurs in these rooms is completely linked to instructional technology.

The manner in which Oswego uses its resources also is different. From the very beginning, the district recognized that it did not have money to burn, time to lose, or human resources to squander. Oswego bought what it had to, foraged for good ideas from other institutions, and scrounged for quality material that is available free over the Internet. The district established partnerships, benefited from corporate generosity, and did a lot of legwork on its own. It used others' partial solutions to create a whole system.

For example, teachers avail themselves of free online quiz makers so their students can take customized, electronic tests. Teachers put up their own Web pages to give students tips on topics, such as how to write a research paper. The district planned carefully, shopped wisely, and worked hard. Teachers were brought into the process early and continue to spearhead the effort.

The result, in the end, is one integrated system that helps the teacher provide enhanced learning opportunities for students.

Success

The Oswego district has met and exceeded its goals for professional development and use of the network by teachers, students and the Oswego community in general. Outside evaluators have concluded that the district has accomplished in one year what many expected would take three years.

The district set a first-year goal of reaching 35 percent of its faculty and staff in professional development programs for integrating technology into the classroom. Instead, 85 percent enrolled. As of today, 99.6 percent of teachers and staff have taken the requisite number of courses needed to qualify for technology access. Four staff development rooms, each seating 40 teachers and operating four nights a week, are filled to capacity.

High volume use of the system is evident. The T1 Internet connection is so saturated that the district is now evaluating the use of a segmented T3 connection. Put another way, the district currently has 1,200 of its 2,000 computers active during any given moment of the school day. Since June 1998, more than 36,500 have visited the district's Web site, which suggests heavy use by the district as well as people around the world.

Use of the system is expected to double each year over the next three to five years. In many districts, where small LANs and numerous administrators are the norm, such growth would be problematic. But Oswego, with its Windows NT network and centrally-located servers, is ready to support the expansion.

Elementary school students in Oswego are miles ahead of children their age group in technology skills. First and second grade students are using electronic resources to research thematic units and communicating what they've learned through a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation or the creation of a Web site.

Students interested in drafting or engineering careers are becoming adept at AutoDesk computer-assisted design, drafting and manufacturing. Those who take three sequences of AudoDesk courses are qualified to take the AudoDesk licensing exam. If they pass, they can compete for jobs earning $35,000 a year. Similarly, the exposure of high school students to the Microsoft Office suite is helping some pass the performance exams for Microsoft certification.

The district's digitally equipped television studio is giving students hands-on training in communications fields. William Bellow, an instructor in the communications studio, says 22 students who graduated from his course last year were accepted into college communication programs. "Ninety percent of these kids ultimately are graduating from the college communication programs they enter," he says. Bellow says some of the more competent graduates are anchoring local television news shows or are working in the Learning Company and The Children's Television Workshop. Oswego Communication students leave competent in industry standard equipment and software such as: 3D-Max, Alladin, Character Studio, Inscriber CG, non-linear editing, digital cameras/decks and telescript. Oswego also boast the only Regents approved Communications Major in new York State with all of its college-bound students entering communications programs in some form of advanced standing.

Examples abound of teachers who are personally benefiting from the technology focus. Thomas Caswell, a third-year social studies teacher at Oswego's high school, came to the district with no special skills in technology - he didn't acquire his own personal computer until 1997. Today, using distance learning, he is earning a master's degree in instructional technology. He is one of 25 educators in the country nominated and recognized for his exemplary integration of technology into the curriculum.

Julie Burger, a second grade school teacher, has completed nearly 200 hours of inservice technology courses. Her students create reports using Microsoft Word, digital cameras and the Internet. "Students in my class have typically been successful," she says. "I never realized though how much deeper their understanding and knowledge could be until I started using technology in my class. There has been a dramatic change in how much better and faster my students learn with our technology."

Outside organizations have recognized Oswego's progress. Microsoft cited Oswego in 1997 as a creative and innovative school. Digital Equipment Corporation gave the district its Master of Innovation award this year. And Compaq Computers says Oswego is in the top 5 percent of districts in the country that have integrated technology into the curriculum.

"Our close association with the Oswego School District has provided us with a solid example of how leading-edge technology, backed by vision and drive, can produce compelling results," says Susan Twombly. "By augmenting traditional teaching methods with the practical application of the latest technology, they are truly innovators in education."

The district plans within the next two years to add five more elements to the technology mix: 1) access to curriculum servers from teachers' and students' homes and remote locations either by cable television or modem dialup; 2) a video distribution system; 3) video on demand to support instruction; 4) electronic lesson plan files; and 5) a Windows-based student accounting and record-keeping system.

Difficulty

School districts typically encounter the following problems: they put computers into classrooms without showing teachers how to use them to improve learning; they plan for today, rather than the future; and they rush to judgment on technology solutions to satisfy the political demands of policymakers who need to assure the public that the district is doing something.

Kenneth W. Eastwood, Oswego's assistant superintendent for secondary education and technology, says his district initially fell into the same traps as other school systems. In 1991, after substantial investment, its teachers and students had little access to computer labs, teachers had little or no training in how to use the equipment, and few had figured out how to make computers relevant to their classrooms. As much as 85 percent of the technology was already obsolete, and no long-range plan existed for sustaining the technology effort.

Oswego began reversing its course when it decided to commit to a strategic plan that would make technology the slave to instruction, and not the other way around. "Schools typically get the boxes, then do the planning," Eastwood says. "We identified the needs, solutions and then talked about the technology before we spent a nickel on it."

The strategic planning process, which began in 1994, identified the expectations of parents, teachers students and the local business community. Further, to assure that its technology plans truly suited teachers' instructional needs, the district took information it gathered from interviews and used it to develop a survey instrument to poll teachers on classroom needs. Responses were received from 95 percent of them.

The planning process helped create a critical mass of support for technology in the classroom. It also helped define the infrastructure the school would use. And because so many people were consulted, the process helped create buy-in for funding from critical stakeholders.

Nevertheless, in some school buildings principals emerged as obstacles to technology because of a combination of their age and lack of exposure. The district opted to go directly to the customer -- the teachers. It told teachers they could act on their own to acquire instructional technology in their classrooms; all they had to do was take the requisite number of professional development courses.

As a result of these strategies, the district was able to overcome resistance and obstacles. Today most residents of Oswego are proud of their schools' technology system and are users of it.