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SchoolKiT Case Study
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Monongalia County Public Schools: Making Great Learning Happen with Technology
SchoolKiT's technology integration tools are helping Monongalia County teachers
engage in relevant, job embedded professional development to improve student academic
achievement.
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| Customer Profile |
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| District: | Monongalia County Public Schools |
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| State: | West Virginia |
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| Schools: | 24 |
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| Students: | 24,000 |
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| Challenge |
Solution |
Results |
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Provide Monongalia teachers with relevant, job embedded professional development that will allow for
transformational learning experiences for students with the use of technology. |
The district is deploying the edClass curriculum resource library for student learning and technology
integration that allows for the development of 21st Century Skills within a contextual learning
experience. edClass provides teachers with immediate access to models of learning and provides
the guidance needed to increase their technology skill levels. |
- High quality resources for student learning that are exemplar activities for
meeting state content standards and objectives
- Embedded professional development for teachers
- ICT Literacy skills taught in a contextual learning experience
- Effective low cost professional development
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How can district level administrators ensure that teachers effectively integrate technology to transform
the teaching process while engaging their students in transformational learning experiences?
As research over many years has shown, leadership is a key factor when it comes to making
great learning happen with technology. Nancy Napolillo, the Technology Director for Monongalia
County Public Schools in West Virginia, understands this well. Her outstanding leadership and
commitment to successful technology integration for teachers and students in Monongalia County
earned her this year's prestigious Gaston Caperton Technology Award.
Nancy is a lifelong educator whose passion for teaching and learning is readily apparent.
"I'm just fortunate to be in a situation with our great teachers and wonderful support in Monongalia
County," Nancy said recently. "We are making significant progress in reaching our goals of improving
student learning with technology. We are very fortunate that teachers in our county have embraced
21st century learning skills early on, and have moved forward significantly."
An early advocate for technology integration, Nancy went on to say, "The West Virginia CSOs
(Content Standards and Objectives) drive our curricula and instruction and so we only choose
technology tools that can be seamlessly integrated to help students achieve the learning objectives
in our standards. The bottom line is that when used effectively, technology helps engage students
in the process of constructing knowledge and developing their higher order thinking skills. This
is an enjoyable process, and when kids enjoy learning you see a more productive classroom."
"We've been facilitating the change of instructional models from lecture, and reliance on
textbooks, to a more constructivist philosophy of learning. SchoolKiT's
edClass is helping us
make this transition because the activBooks stimulate students' higher order thinking and conceptual
understanding in core content areas, while enabling students to engage in the process of constructing
knowledge. edClass gives teachers exactly the right kinds of models to use with their students, while
helping them think differently about how they deliver instruction with technology."
| 'The bottom line is that, with
edClass, teachers get
ready-made high quality modules that engage students, and this has made it easy for them to be
successful integrating technology into their standards-driven lessons.' |
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| - Nancy Napolillo |
| Technology Director |
| Monongalia County Public Schools |
Helping teachers understand and develop 21st century learning skills themselves, is proving
effective in helping Monongalia students gain fluency with those skills. Nancy explained, "It's
extremely important that we teach 21st century information and communication technology literacies.
Many of our teachers have been teaching for 20 or more years, and yet they understand that they
need to acquire, and then model these skills, in order to elicit them from their students. Just as
our CSOs help teachers think differently about what they teach, the 21st century skills standards
help them think differently about how they teach with technology.
edClass is such a valuable tool
that helps them with this transformation."
"In the past, we wanted teachers to create their own technology integration lessons from scratch,
but this process proved to be too time-consuming. edClass gives our teachers a running start
because they see, and can work through, a finished project and then understand the carry-over to the
classroom. Teachers see the learning scaffolds in edClass, use them as a springboard for their own
creativity, then use the strategies of the activity to understand sound instructional design. The
bottom line is that, with edClass, teachers get ready-made high quality modules that engage students,
and this has made it easy for them to be successful integrating technology into their standards-driven
lessons."
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About SchoolKiT Solutions
edClass is a complete library of classroom-ready integration activities that improve student achievement.
edClass activities are presented as small, interactive electronic books - called activBooks - that open on
students' and teachers' computers to guide them successfully through effective curriculum-based lessons.
pd21 enables an enterprise-level approach to professional development by equipping administrators
with the online content and tools they need to provide for and manage the learning of many teachers across
multiple schools in a cohesive and systematic manner. With
pd21's ongoing professional development
resources and classroom-ready 'best-practice' curriculum activities, districts realize an immediate increase
in the amount and quality of technology infusion in their schools, while achieving continuous school improvement
and institutional change.
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For More Information
For more information about SchoolKiT products and services, call us at 425-454-3373,
toll free 800-979-0373 or contact us
at service@schoolkit.com.
For more information about Monongalia County Public Schools visit the Web site
at http://boe.mono.k12.wv.us.
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© 1997-2010 SchoolKiT. All Rights Reserved. |
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