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Membership » Long Island Region
Long Island Region
Look What Plainview-Old Bethpage Central School District is Doing With  Technology The Plainview-Old Bethpage Central School District continues to lead the way in integrating educational technology initiatives into its instructional, administrative, parent communication and community outreach initiatives. After connecting all eight of our schools through one of the first school district fiber-optic wide-area networks (WAN) in New York State, POB continues to build upon its state-of-the-art infrastructure to support 21st century educational needs and administrative functions throughout the district. Our Students Are Using Technology to Learn and Communicate in Exciting Ways... In the past several years, emerging technologies and the Web 2.0 environment have broken down old barriers and created new avenues for communication that once required costly equipment. Free videoconferencing applications, such as Skype, are providing our teachers and students with exciting new opportunities to experience virtual field trips and collaborate with other students around the world. “With the advent of Web 2.0, our schools are now able to cost effectively connect via Skype and optimized webcams to educational resources around the globe. What used to take an excessive amount of time to configure and implement, a video conference now is easily facilitated by an under-$100 webcam,” said Guy A. Lodico, director of technology for Plainview - Old Bethpage Central School District. At our middle schools, Project Challenge teachers Sherri Winick and Paula Engel have been enriching their students’ core academic, critical thinking and problem-solving skills through “e-mission” videoconferencing activities such as Operation Montserrat, an interactive simulation through which students serve as members of volcano and hurricane evacuation and communication teams while interacting live with a flight commander to analyze the information, assess risks and suggest courses of action for evacuation. Mattlin and Plainview-Old Bethpage Middle Schools set up a three-way international videoconference facilitated by Ms. Winick earlier this year with the Canadian organization Taking it Global . Founder Michael Furdyk provided an interactive learning experience designed to develop students’ global-awareness skills in citizenship, critical thinking and leadership. Also this year, Old Bethpage Elementary School collaborative teachers Jessica Maynard and Marcia Sterenbuch supported their second grade students’ social studies curriculum through videoconferencing by teaching a social studies unit on suburban, urban and rural communities with a teacher from P.S. 170 in Brooklyn, NY. At POBMS, Meryl Menashe’s eighth grade Pay It Forward Club students are taking part in an activity with the International Book Sharing Project. The project engages students in a cooperative learning experience to increase their knowledge of the Holocaust and its meaning for American and Israeli students today. POBMS students will engage in online dialogue to share their opinions and thoughts, and the project will culminate in a Skype videoconference with student counterparts from Israel. Skype is also being used by individual teachers in a variety of contexts. At POBJFKHS, for example, dedicated teacher Sandi Vanderpool frequently uses Skype to communicate with her health students while away on leave. …Technology Benefits Parents, Too! Technological advancements are expanding beyond the classroom to enhance the district’s ability to communicate with parents. We continue to use technology to provide free English-language development opportunities via the Rosetta Stone online language learning program, coordinated by ESL teacher Rochelle Verstandig. For the past three years, parents and guardians who have immigrated to POB from many different countries have taken advantage of this program to improve their ability to understand, speak, read and write in English. In the event of an emergency, we are able to contact every student’s household via telephone within 20 minutes through the ParentLink emergency notification system. Family Connection, a web-based resource by Naviance, allows students and parents to explore career opportunities and research colleges to prepare for the college admission process. Also, through the implementation of Infinite Campus, management of student data has been streamlined and is increasing avenues of communication with parents. The district is currently piloting the Infinite Campus Parent Portal, which, over the next year, will allow all parents and guardians to view student data online, anytime, via the internet. The POB Data Warehouse continues to provide administrators and teachers the means to analyze student assessment data to help inform classroom instruction POB Students Have Access to Interactive, Adaptive and Research Technology Tools In pursuit of the Board of Education’s goal to support learning environments via educational technology tools, the district has implemented 141 interactive whiteboards, 249 projectors and 115 specialized sound-reinforcement systems. “These instructional tools continue to transform the way our K-12 teachers are able to digitally prepare and engage our students in innovative and exciting multimedia enriched interactive activities,” said Guy Lodico, director of technology for Plainview-Old Bethpage CSD. To help support the development of student literacy skills, Response to Intervention and special education instruction, the district continues to implement adaptive technology tools such as Scholastic’s Read 180, System 44 and ReadAbout reading software to provide students with engaging interactive multimedia activities. Other instructional resources are available via the POB district website, www.pobschools.org. Resources include access to all district library media centers through Follett Destiny. Follett Destiny provides a state-of-the-art library automation system allowing our teachers and students to view library media resources from school and home. These resources include access to multiple online research databases such as World Book, EBCSO, GALE and BrainPop. District Provides Free English Language Technology-Based Program For Parents/Guardians Parents of the Plainview-Old Bethpage School District students will once again have the opportunity to sign up for a free online subscription or an advanced level CD-ROM of the Rosetta Stone® English language-learning software program. For the past three years, parents/guardians, who have immigrated to Plainview from many different countries and who speak numerous languages, have taken advantage of this technology-based program to improve their ability to understand, speak, read, and write English. The Rosetta Stone® Online Language Learning Program was developed in 1991 by Fairfield Language Technologies to teach language using the dynamic immersion method. The philosophy behind this interactive, multimedia-enriched software program is that people learn a new language best when there is no native language translation. Instead, vocabulary, syntax and grammar are taught by matching photographs to sentences, progressing from simple constructions to increasingly complex sentences. There is also an advanced level CD-ROM which will help program participants learn to negotiate complicated situations, debate political issues, and advocate for themselves using sophisticated vocabulary and grammar. In addition, lessons in reading and writing English help students achieve fluency in these areas. The Plainview-Old Bethpage school district has been offering this online subscription and use of the advanced level CD-ROM free of charge through a Title III/Immigrant grant. Most of the lessons are done at home at the individual’s convenience. Parents come to the computer lab only twice: once to sign up and a second time to receive additional instruction. Participants are able to monitor their own progress and choose which lessons they feel will be most beneficial to them.
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