IMMEX/TK-12 CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

A Partnership for Technology Integration...
     ...Recent Collaboration with Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District

View attached news archive file.

The collaboration between the UCLA IMMEX Project and the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District has used, and will continue to use an established situated learning model where teams of teachers, students and university faculty collaborate to review, create and then implement software-learning environments for student learning and assessment.

The training for 2000 summer workshop was conducted at Esperanza High School where the computer/technology infrastructure is substantial. The teachers at Esperanza, led by Marcia Sprang, Ph.D. and Elise Simpson, have shown unusual capacity for changing the way that teaching is delivered in their science program which has allowed the IMMEX faculty and staff to research the school-based issues of technology integration more extensively. Their professional development program focused on 20, K-12 schools from the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District and 4 schools from nearby districts. 87 teachers from all major disciplines and 62 students were involved in designing over 72 problems sets to be used for the 2000 - 2001 school year. Each of the problem sets rigorously align with the academic content standards and in creating these problems for web-based use, teachers gained proficiency in multiple hardware and software technologies congruous to the Teacher Credentialing Standard 24.5 (Use of Computer-based Technology in the Classroom).

Delivery of the training consisted of 80 hours of site-based, hands-on activities to be followed by 40 hours of field-based, assessment training. One of the most significant and unique aspects of the technology-training design is the incorporation of students as team members and coaches. The inclusion of students in the technology teams developed unusually productive partnerships and reversed traditional roles of teacher and student. The students have a unique perspective and valuable contribution: they have used IMMEX problems in the classroom and are familiar with online problem solving and they are more familiar with technology than many teachers.

The IMMEX Project at UCLA and the Placentia-Yorba Linda School Districts have actively collaborated since 1997 and both groups have been enriched by these partnerships. Through multiple outreach programs IMMEX has supplied personnel, software, access to the IMMEX Web Server, and professional development opportunities and will continue to do so for this program.