Project Child supports teachers with technology integration model.

Publishers and hardware vendors looking for a way to help teachers use their products more effectively for a greater impact on student performance may want to take a closer look at Project Child. Started in 1988 as a part of the Institute for School Innovation at Florida State University (Tallahassee,

FL), Project Child is a computer-integrated instructional program that helps schools use technology more effectively to maximize their return on investment while facilitating student learning. The largest concentration of project schools is in Florida, but there are also participating schools in Indiana, Kentucky and Georgia. This year, 35 new schools joined the project, due in part to adopter grant funding from the Florida Legislature.

An underlying assumption of Project Child is that computers can provide motivation, involvement, and feedback, all factors that are positively associated with learning. Focusing on school improvement strategies, Project Child transforms the classroom environment to better facilitate integration of technology into the curriculum. The transformed environment uses subject specialty teaming, activity based learning stations and multi-year/multi-grade instruction.

The Project Child instructional model for grades K-5 is organized around a "cluster design" where teams of three teachers work with students across three grade levels for three years. Each teacher specializes in one of three focus areas, reading, writing/language arts or math. By focusing on one subject area and working with children for three years, teachers are able to integrate effective software in their area of expertise. The Learning Activity Guides from Project Child include suggested software for each topic, overall goals referenced to state standards and standardized tests, skills checklists, and station activity pages.

Each classroom in the cluster has learning stations equipped with computers, software and other learning materials appropriate for reading, language arts or math. Students spend one hour in each of the subject classrooms in their cluster every day.

Technology Integration

Project Child is not a static model. It provides a framework within which to adopt new technologies. The list of software already correlated and incorporated into Project Child materials is extensive and each year 25-30 new titles are added. Teachers can suggest software for review and each year the Project Child staff sends requests to publishers for copies of new software in the target areas. The software is screened for six factors determined to be important, then reviewed and ranked on a five-point scale. The factors are:

-- Interactivity

-- Engaging

-- Multiple level

-- Requires thought

-- Provides benchmark features

-- Affordable

If the software ranks high enough, the Project Child staff then identifies the correlations, publishes the rankings, and incorporates the software into their comprehensive listing. Dr. Sarah Butzin, executive director of the project says, "eighty percent of the software reviewed is incorporated into the program."

Dr. Butzin says that "the biggest inhibitor to getting started with effective use of technology in the classroom is the time it takes for individual teachers to prepare classroom management materials, research resources and correlate the resources to standards." The Project Child model helps overcome these barriers and provides extensive initial training and ongoing support for teachers.

Evaluation results are positive. In one study conducted in Dade County, standardized test scores in reading and mathematics for students who had completed a full three-year cycle of the program were higher on all test comparisons. Significant differences were obtained in mathematics applications (grade 2), reading comprehension (grade 5), mathematics computation (grade 5) and mathematics application (grade 5).

Dr. Butzin is pleased with the results of the evaluations. She is also pleased that the program is engaging, allows children to take the initiative, make decisions and have fun.

This research-based model with a history of success for all types of students has been expanded to middle schools, incorporating science and social studies into the program. The middle school program is called TEAMS -- Technology Enhancing Achievement in Middle School.