A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

IBM Corporation: Wired for Learning—Reinventing Education Projects

Through Reinventing Education partnerships with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools and the Durham Public Schools in North Carolina and the Detroit Public Schools in Michigan, IBM is implementing Wired for Learning as a means of fostering better communication among parents, teachers, community members, and students. Wired for Learning enables delivery of information through the World Wide Web, while ensuring that confidential data is maintained with the highest degree of security (especially critical in the K-12 environment, where information on students, conferences between parents and teachers, and discussions among teachers must be kept private).

Wired for Learning provides registered users—parents, teachers, community members, and students—with a customized, online setting from which they can obtain information on a range of student learning experiences, with a special focus on student work. The software enables them to take a more active and supportive role in children's education without ever stepping foot in the classroom.

From their Wired for Learning desktop, parents have access to applications that provide virtual entree into their children's classrooms and schools. By using the "private conferencing" application, they can communicate with their child's teachers at night or on weekends—times that until now were considered off-hours. Wired for Learning encourages conversations to focus on student work; from the same desktop, parents can examine their children's completed and evaluated assignments. They can also gauge how their children are performing in relation to specific criteria by viewing a special databank that contains district and state academic standards. To enable participation in all aspects of children's learning, parents can access a school calendar that details classroom activities, upcoming field trips and school events, and lunch menus.

Teachers logging onto Wired for Learning have access to a range of applications that help them manage their classrooms for greater efficiency and effectiveness. In addition to being able to communicate with parents, teachers can use the "instructional planner" application to develop unit and lesson plans online. This application incorporates both the standards database to help teachers ensure that their lessons meet performance standards, and a resources databank through which teachers can use stored information or search the Internet for information that will enhance their lessons. The instructional planner also allows teachers to develop units or lessons with teachers working in other classrooms or schools, thus increasing productivity and maximizing time, while raising the quality of the lesson. When assessing student work, a "mark-up" feature allows teachers to link student performance directly to the districts' academic standards.

Once teachers have developed lessons online, students are able to use Wired for Learning to access and work on their assignments both in and outside the classroom, thus effectively lengthening the school day and the school year and giving students additional time and activities to help them reach academic standards. Wired for Learning also allows students working from different locations to collaborate on the same project; students in different grades, as well as in different classrooms, can learn to work in a team and share and present information.

Wired for Learning also enables interested community members to contribute their expertise and support to their local schools. Teachers can identify university professors, museum historians, and other concerned citizens from a database of registered and approved mentors to serve as resources for specific instructional units or as online tutors. They are able to work from their homes, offices, or other networked locations at their convenience, thus eliminating time and distance constraints that act as barriers to volunteerism.

While parents, teachers, community members, and students who own an Internet-connected computer can access Wired for Learning from their home, workplace, or school, the project has taken into account that not everyone has such easy access. In Charlotte, users can access Wired for Learning from the Double Oaks Community Center, located in the inner city; Discovery Place, the science museum located downtown; or at school buildings within the Governor's Village—the district's new complex of revolutionary schools, which are open until 9 pm. In Detroit, users can access the technology at both the Parkside and Jeffries housing developments. In Durham, users have access to Wired for Learning through a number of campus sites at Duke University.

Contact:

Robin Willner
Director of Corporate Social Policy and Programs
IBM Corporation
New Orchard Road
Armonk, NY 10504
914-499-5619
willner@us.ibm.com
http://www.ibm.com/ibm/ibmgives

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