Cracking the code to student engagement

Classmates recently videotaped fifth-grader Ian McLellan articulately describing his problem-solving methods for coding, which schools try to develop through a program that uses popular games such as Minecraft as educational tools.

The effort is a reflection not only of how the Bristol Warren Regional School District has been integrating the use of technology in the classroom, but of how that district and 32 others in Rhode Island will use a new “Future Ready Dashboard” to develop a unified vision that enables not just delivery of technology tools and content but content creation.

Teacher/librarian Nicole Galipeau, McLellan’s instructor at Guiteras Elementary School in Bristol, says the progress of McLellan and others shows that technology is a learning tool that can be used actively, not just passively.

“A big part of learning is playing, but it’s still computational thinking,” said Galipeau. “When we’re using a computer it may look and feel like a game, but there are still a lot of higher-order skills [being used]. Future Ready shows there’s an academic rigor to computational-thinking skills which is often behind the Common Core standards but not explicit.”

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So what is the national program behind this dashboard tool, and how is it being used by educators in Rhode Island to facilitate technology use in the classroom?

Future Ready Schools, a national movement aimed at “accelerating the transformation of schools through the effective use of digital-learning strategies” launched in 2015, according to its website.

The dashboard is a sophisticated website tool that enables leadership teams to take customized assessments that thoroughly measure how educators are using technology. The dashboard process includes personalized recommendations and steps for improvement, while also enabling an entire school district to develop a “shared vision” and action plan.

Districts in all 50 states are participating but Rhode Island is one of only 16 states participating statewide, with 33 of its 36 districts actively engaged.

“Future Ready is meant to help districts systematically plan for a more personalized approach for kids,” said Tom Murray, state and district digital learning director for the Washington, D.C.-based Alliance for Excellent Education.

The five-step dashboard process involves setting up a leadership planning team, having them take a self-assessment, gathering feedback from stakeholders and analyzing gaps and strategies, creating an action plan and, finally, using the plan and repeating the entire process as needed.

In the Bristol Warren district, Superintendent Mario Andrade and Assistant Superintendent Diane Sanna say personalizing how technology is used by teachers and students enables effective use of Chromebooks and other tools.

“Now students are consuming information through technology,” said Sanna. “We want them to use technology so they’re producing and publishing information – and take learning to a higher level.”

Added Tom Driscoll, director of educational technology for the district: “Students should be engaging in technology more for collaborating and creating their own knowledge, not just receiving information through a digital device.”

In West Warwick, educators have been engaged in this type of process for some time, though the dashboard tool is relatively new, said Superintendent Karen Tarasevich and Jim Monti, director of technology, compliance and reform.

Monti called Future Ready “a common-sense tool. We’ve never talked about just acquiring technology. It’s about what we want kids and adults to do and how will technology support that.”

The West Warwick district took its first assessment this past spring. Monti noted the Future Ready framework enabled educators to look deeper “at places we might have glossed over,” including data privacy.

Another instructor eager to participate in the Future Ready process is Rachel Beagan, a first-grade teacher at the Hugh Cole Elementary School in Warren. She already is teaching with it in mind.

Using the Camera Roll photo-storage device on an iPad, her students create “wonder” projects as they try to answer a specific question and then add in facts they discovered along the way. They take photos, select them, annotate with text and record narration. “These kids are the digital natives,” Beagan said. “If they don’t have that creation piece they are not as invested in trying harder and being in control of their own learning.” •

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