Teaching with technology

Marisa O’Neil

When Lim Bee Kim, educational technology officer for Singapore’s

Ministry of Education, wanted to see how American schools use

technology, she took a look at two Newport-Mesa schools.

Newport Coast Elementary and Costa Mesa High schools served as

models of technology Monday when Kim toured them with Orange County

Department of Education Instructional Technology Program Specialist

Kristina Ho-Ruan.

Kim came to town last week to attend the Assn. for Educational

Communications and Technology convention in Anaheim. Before she left

Singapore, she contacted Ho-Ruan through the department’s Web site to

request a look at how local schools are teaching in the information

age.

Ho-Ruan set up the visit through Steven Glyer, director of

educational technology for the Newport-Mesa Unified School District.

At Costa Mesa High School, Principal John Garcia took them to see

a class using Read 180, a new reading program that uses special

computer software.

“They come in on their breaks and want to use the software,”

seventh-grade teacher JoMarie Hayes said of the program. “They would

stay on it forever if I let them.”

Students using Read 180, which is designed to bring them to

grade-level proficiency, rotate between stations working with Hayes,

listening to books and study questions on tape and working on one of

10 computers. Each computer has a headset and makes use of voice

recognition technology to evaluate students’ reading, spelling,

comprehension and proofreading skills.

Hayes said the computers allow her to hear each student read on a

one-on-one basis and to track their performance from her desktop.

Kim and Ho-Ruan also went into Mark Smith’s eighth-grade math

class. Smith, a former computer programmer who started teaching this

year, uses technology widely in his class.

Instead of a chalkboard or overhead projector, students watch a

projection of a computer screen that shows math problems. At his

desk, Smith has a tablet that allows him to draw on the screen the

students see, helping them work out algebra problems.

When students have their answers, they write them on small

whiteboards and hold them up for Smith to evaluate. Eventually, he

hopes to get personal digital assistants -- Palm-type computers --

for students to beam their answers to his computer for instant

feedback.

Kim said that schools in Singapore rely heavily on e-mail to

communicate with teachers and staff but don’t use it in the classroom

to the extent she saw at the schools she visited here.