La Crosse Integrates Technology

By Joanne M. Haas

Thanks to an innovative technology training program for teachers, some La Crosse parents receive daily computer-generated reports – complete with photographs – documenting their children’s classwork.

"Everyone in this group is committed to making technology a tool in their teaching" --Catherine Beyers Library Media Center Director

“Incredible things have happened,” said Catherine Beyers, library media center director at La Crosse’s Southern Bluffs Elementary School. She is also the driving force behind the district’s 2-year-old annual course aimed at showing teachers how technology can be a valuable instructional aid. The course was developed and is taught by district staff.

And so far, the course, which doubled in enrollment this past August, has succeeded in providing educators with meaningful and doable ways to change their methods to include more technology.

“Everyone in this group is committed to making technology a tool in their teaching,” Beyers said. “So it’s not just for technology’s sake.”

Rather, Beyers said, it’s technology to enhance teaching.
For example, kindergarten and elementary children take digital photographs of their class activities. Those photos are then downloaded into computers, which are used by the children and teachers to write about what was accomplished that day.

“The teachers are sending that home so parents have immediate information about what their children did that day,” Beyers said of the daily printouts, which are especially appreciated by parents of special education students. “So many kids lack language. They just do not talk. So now parents are able to see what their child did.”

This type of activity is what Beyers had in mind when she first suggested the district add the course to the menu of staff development choices. Beyers has not only witnessed an increase in teachers’ use of technology since the district started offering the late summer course, but she has also observed teachers helping teachers or teaming with each other on joint projects.

“We wanted people to work together and to create something that they could use with their children in the fall sometime,” Beyers said of the course’s goals. “I was so frustrated with the way we were offering staff development.”

So Beyers, with the help and support of some of her colleagues in the district and at Viterbo University, set out to bring the district’s teachers into the current technological age while offering affordable college credits at the same time.

Tom Ward, the district’s supervisor of information technology, described his role in this course as “to provide the resources and reap all the benefits.”

Ward credits Beyers and her colleagues with the success of the 25-hour course, taught for one week in August just prior to the start of the school year. The course is funded through Ward’s department for a total cost of $3,500. Thanks to an agreement with Viterbo, teachers also can earn two graduate credits for a total cost of $150.

“I think it is really good for our teachers ... and our kids,” Ward said. “It is well thought of, and enrollment has been growing in leaps and bounds.”

The first year, 24 enrolled in the course taught by Beyers and other media specialists, district technology integrators, teacher assistants and classroom teachers. This past August, 61 enrolled.

Most of those who enrolled were elementary teachers and nearly all were La Crosse district teachers.

The La Crosse district has about 7,500 students and 650 teachers.

“What I wanted to provide was just-in-time instruction with a really good teacher-to-student ratio,” Beyers said. The course offered a ratio of 6-to-1 the first summer and 10-to1 this past summer. “And I wanted it to be a cheap (college) credit.”

Teachers were told to bring two units they hoped to teach in the fall. A variety of mini-workshops were offered as part of the weeklong course, but Beyers said mostly it was instruction upon demand. Teachers received a best-practices notebook, detailing already-developed successful projects.

“They don’t want to re-create the wheel here,” Beyers said, adding the course participants were grouped by grade and subject area. The first day of the week was spent on standards and copyright before participants moved into use of the technology.

“We planned to do it right before the school year begins when people are anxious to come back to school,” Beyers said of scheduling the course. “So when they (teachers) did come back to school, they were really chomping to get going.”

Beyers, a former teacher who joined the district as a media specialist in 1983, also has been on the district’s staff development council for 12 years. “So I’ve had an opportunity to talk about how we do staff development, what works and what doesn’t.”

"I'm a classroom teacher, and things were bounced off me -- what do classroom tecahers really need?" --Sue Kuhn Teacher

One of the people who has been in some of those discussions with Beyers is 3rd-grade teacher Sue Kuhn, who helped teach the course this past August.

“I’m a classroom teacher, and things were bounced off me — what do classroom teachers really need?” Kuhn said. “The use of technology in the classroom is pretty much limited to what you know about it.”

Kuhn uses the Internet in her classrom, as well as in the school’s computer lab. But not all the La Crosse teachers use technology.

“We have one teacher who will not have a computer in her classroom. She is a fantastic teacher. ... That’s why the kids change teachers every year,” Kuhn said. “Some teachers just don’t want to do it.”

Kuhn said part of the problem is teachers must respond to constantly changing curriculums and therefore are left with only so much time and energy to devote to learning more skills. Plus, sometimes teachers plan to use the digital cameras or computers only to encounter equipment problems. Still, Kuhn has witnessed more teachers using technology and teaming on projects after taking the class.

Instructional designer Lisa Altreuter, in her second year with the district, also helped teach the August course. “I worked with them on Kid Pix, Studio Deluxe, the Internet and Claris Works,” Altreuter said. “We had teachers from all levels.”

Like her colleagues, Altreuter also has witnessed and helped teachers who have completed the technology course use their new-found skills in the classroom.

“We encourage collaboration,” Altreuter said of teacher teamwork on integrating technology.

Altreuter said the course was changed last summer since there were so many repeaters from the first year, looking to add even more skills.

Beyers echoed Altreuter’s comments and said if the popularity of the course continues to grow, they may have to offer it for two weeks and change the content even more.

The La Crosse program, from the outside looking in, appears to do what the state’s TEACH program has struggled to accomplish – train a lot of teachers to integrate technology. The state’s Technology for Educational Achievement in Wisconsin program, known as TEACH, has come under some criticism by professionals and state officials.

Most agree the 4-year-old TEACH program has had its share of success – ensuring high-speed Internet access statewide while providing more class choices and distance learning sessions.

Others, however, contend TEACH has yet to adequately train teachers in the use of technology in the classroom. Beyers is among those who question the effectiveness of an ongoing TEACH program, which seeks to train teachers by showing videotapes of other classrooms.

While quick to commend the La Crosse teachers involved in the project, Beyers said the La Crosse district opted to try a different approach – the August technology class.

Meanwhile, the state is auditing the TEACH program, which was initiated by former Governor Tommy Thompson. His overall goal was to put all students on a level playing field when it comes to the always-changing world of technology. As state auditors complete their check of TEACH, due sometime in the coming weeks or months, some school districts may be interested in trying La Crosse’s successful model.

Altreuter helped deliver a presentation on the district’s course at the Wisconsin Educational Media Association conference.

“We had quite a few questions about the summer classes,” she said, adding outside interest may grow as more people seek to hone their technology skills.

“I’m going to work myself right out of a job,” Altreuter said with a smile.

Posted December 5, 2001