What did they try?

The College of Education at Bowie State University has three major goals for this project:

• To prepare the University reading/language arts methods faculty, methods students, and mentor teachers to interpret and analyze PDS student data using handheld technology;
• To prepare mentor teachers and methods students to design, deliver, and assess reading/language arts learning experiences that are data-driven, integrate technology, and are designed to improve student achievement in reading.
• To increase reading levels of 80% of K-6 PDS students selected for this study.
The project was able to purchase PDA's with funds from this grant and their own PT3 grant. These were distributed to interns (yearlong interns were a priority) and to mentor teachers, when possible. As part of the reading/language arts methods courses, teacher candidates were to identify one student in the school whose reading progress they would assess through a "running record" using handheld technology. They were then to design two technology interventions and then reassess the student.

What worked and why?

• The formation of a Literacy Tech Team, consisting of University faculty and staff, yearlong interns, mentor teachers, PDS tech coordinators, and reading specialist, was a successful approach.
• Requiring students to do a technology inventory in conjunction with the mentor teachers in their school enabled both to become more knowledgeable about what technologies were available in their schools and how they would access them.
• The PDA software from e*Assessment worked well because it came with a special kit of books for pre-post testing and a web site where data is uploaded, calculations done, and data displayed for each student.
• Integrating the approach into a methods course was very effective.
• Out of a wide range of training opportunities, which included on-site at PDS meetings and in large training sessions at Bowie, the best training occurred in the methods classes themselves.
• Interns were eager and willing to learn the technology. Some purchased PDAs for themselves because of their experiences with this project.
• Teacher candidates produced several creative products, including listening centers with books on cd's, mini-lessons built with PowerPoint, web quests for author study and content instruction.
• Based on results from a literacy survey of mentor teachers and preservice candidates, the majority perceived that they were able to have an impact on the literacy of their targeted students.
• Couching all of these activities in action research was a very effective approach.
• Several publications and presentations have been spawned from this project.

What didn't work and why?

What they learned related to
the software vendor:
• Software and training came at a high cost.
• Tech support from the company tended to be unreliable.
• There was limited use from the software outside of available texts.
• Syncing with the web site was inconsistent at times.
• Data could not be downloaded for additional analysis and use.

the PDAs:

• Two different models of PDAs doubled the training efforts.
• They were unable to support non-Palm products.
• High wear and tear due to frequent use and multiple users limited the life of the PDAs.
• Additional staff support was needed for technical issues, software installation, etc.

the PDS:

• The comfort level, knowledge, and use of technology between the yearlong interns and mentor teachers are very different. Special programs are needed for mentor teachers to encourage technology integration.
• Availability of technology differed from school to school.
• Yearlong internship approach is bifurcated. Project would have been richer if action research begun in Methods in phase 1 could have been carried over to Internship in phase 2.

What will they do next?

• The integration of PDAs for reading assessment in elementary education reading/language arts methods courses will continue.
• Some onsite training with mentor teachers will be developed
• A summer institute for PDS planning will include technology integration and the use of handheld technology for reading assessment.