AUSSIE

Blog entry posted June 10th, 2009 by Jeff Vohden

Yesterday I attended IS 339’s Dot-to-Dot conference.  IS 339 it is a New York City public school located in the Claremont section of the Bronx. They run a 1:1 laptop program and use Google applications in all aspects of their instruction and operations. They were once on the New York State “failing school” list, but with Principal Jason Levy’s leadership they have moved their math scores from 9% on-grade performance to 60% and their literacy scores from 12% on-grade performance to 40%.

AUSSIE has supported 339 for several years, particularly over the past two school years by providing educational technology consultancy services through one of our consultants, Patrick Wagner. Patrick was one of the Coordinators for the Dot-to-Dot conference, working alongside IS 339’s Jason Levy, Christina Jenkins, and Dan Ackerman as well as the school’s tech staff, faculty, and 840 students.

I first visited 339 about a year ago at one of their open houses when they gave visitors a chance to observe a wide variety of lessons that were enhanced by technology. At the time I saw the power of using technology to differentiate instruction and make classes more relevant to students. I remember being amazed to see how extensively the school had integrated technology and to hear about how economically they did it. Keep in mind that this school is not an affluent school and had to creatively support their budget. It was also amazing to hear about how most of what they accomplished was done in a relatively short time—since the Fall of 2007 when AUSSIE consultant Patrick Wagner began his work there.

The Dot-to-Dot conference had two tracks—one live and on-site and the other via the internet. A crowd of people from around the region were at the school while other people from around the world logged in to participate. Throughout the afternoon students presented projects that linked education and technology with social responsibility. There were about 65 different projects presented, each one investigating an Essential Question such as “How do we connect with different people from around the world through the food we eat?”,“How can technology connect drama to our lives?”, and “What is the connection between civil rights and democratic law?”. Student oral presentations were supported by videos and PowerPoint. The conference also featured panel discussions with prominent speakers, like Will Richardson, and representatives from organizations like Google and PBS.

While watching the presentations I was struck by how much effort went into the projects and by how clearly motivated the students were. Most of all, it was obvious how proud the students were of what they had accomplished. The projects were all about the learning, not about the technology. But technology became a tool that enhance the learning. Pretty powerful stuff. I am really proud that AUSSIE was able to play a role in this.

If you didn’t get a chance to see it live, you can still go onto their site to see some of the featured projects and the panel discussion  If you did get a chance to log-in to Dot-to-Dot let me know what you thought about it… or what would you think about having a global Dot-to-Dot day that connected schools around the world?