Activity: Capturing the Vision What is your vision? Can you put it into words? For this activity, read the scenario of Northside School. The scenario is written from the perspective of supporting teaching and learning. While technology is important to this scenario, goals related to teaching and learning come first. Technology supports these activities. Write a one-paragraph vision statement for Northside School that is based on the scenario. Click the "Discussion" button on the top menu bar to view your response and the responses from other participants to this activity. Northside School It's 7:00 a.m. at Northside School. Ms. Fordham arrives and logs in to the school's network information system to prepare for the day's activities. She checks her e-mail, responds to some parent inquiries, and marks a few of the messages for a more detailed follow-up later. In her responses to parents she reminds them about the school's virtual bulletin board and round-the-clock access to the online grade book through which they can monitor their child's progress. Ms. Fordham also offers to meet with parents in an upcoming planning period—either in person or through the teleconferencing system. Her e-mail contains links to the school Web page, which contains information about classes for parents on how to make the best use of the school's technology to keep abreast of student activities and progress. Ms. Fordham prepares for an online conference with an engineer from VastCo, an oil company in a neighboring city. She intends to take her students on a virtual fieldtrip to an offshore oil-drilling rig as part of a unit on energy sources. She quickly reviews an article she requested about new virtual reality technology available in the engineering field that has arrived in her e-mailbox from an online research service. She also plans to use a simulation software package for engineering and construction as a follow-up activity to the fieldtrip. The learning experiences will address state science learning standards (energy sources) and also reinforce math and English standards. The culminating activity will include designing solutions to various simulated problems Ms. Fordham will pose related to identification and development of energy sources. The simulation software will help students investigate possibilities and the students will demonstrate their learning in presentations that will be presented to class, mounted on the school Web page, and stored in their electronic portfolios. Students begin to come into the classroom. They log in to the online attendance system and start on their projects, some working in pairs or small groups. Some students review articles about wind power from a research service—an online database—as follow-up to the virtual fieldtrip the class took to a windmill farm. Their task is to prepare for a debate on federal funding for the use of renewable energy sources. One group enters data from budget allocations over the past 50 years into a spreadsheet and plans to turn this information into a graph for its presentation. Other students write and prepare the layout for an article in the school newspaper about an energy-efficient house being designed and built by a local architect. They work to incorporate the digital images sent by the architect into a 3-D model to display in their electronic portfolio. A few students download their homework to their online folders, checking mail from international e-pen pals, or socialize until class activities officially start. Ms. Fordham calls the students to a group assembly area where they watch a short schoolwide broadcast over the school's media retrieval system, which presents school announcements and calendar events. This student-managed morning television presentation starts the formal school day. The students' first lesson is about designing research questions, using their recent study of energy sources as the topic. After generating a list of questions, students learn how to apply the data they have collected on energy sources to propose answers. Using a large-screen monitor, Ms. Fordham demonstrates how to generate different data displays from spreadsheets the students developed over the course of their energy studies. The students then break into groups to develop short research briefs using the research questions developed and data collected. Each brief must incorporate at least one data display. As this project progresses, the completed research briefs will be posted on the energy resources Web site being developed by the district science teachers. Throughout the day students move between teacher-directed large-group activities, individual study, and small-group activities. Various forms of technology facilitate teaching and learning based on established content standards.