Technology Innovative Programs Awards - 2006

Organization: La France Elementary School , Anderson Four School District

Category: Elementary
Program Title:T.A.P. into Student Learning with Technology
Art Portfolios

Description: The goal of T.A.P. is to create inclusive electronic portfolios that illustrate the visual art and writing progression of students over their careers at La France Elementary School. Fifth grade students create digital visual art and literacy portfolios that address South Carolina art and English/Language Arts state standards as well as ISTE national technology standards.

The student electronic portfolios blend a variety of writing, art, and audio samples. Key components include digital pictures and scans of student work, writing samples, and audio interviews which are evaluated using South Carolina visual arts standards and criteria. Because students are given the responsibility of creating their own portfolios, their technology skills grow tremendously in the creation process.

Organization: Dutch Fork Middle School , Lexington School District Five

Category: Middle School
Program Title: Electronic Poetry Portfolio

Description: The Electronic Poetry Portfolio project was created for eighth grade language arts students at Dutch Fork Middle School. The project was designed by the classroom teacher who recruited assistance from the school’s E2T2 Coordinator, Media Specialist, Webmaster and Technology Support Technician as well as several parents, making the project truly a collaborative one.
As a culminating activity for a poetry unit, small groups of students were instructed in the use of digital cameras and then used the images they gathered to create poems which were shared on the school’s website.

First, groups of three or four students strolled school grounds on “poetry walks”, snapping pictures and discussing possibilities for poetry themes. Next the thumbnails of the images were uploaded to a computer and used as an inspiration for the writing process. Once the poems were written, edited, and illustrated with the appropriate images, they were beamed to a master document used by the school Webmaster to create a PowerPoint for the school website. In a later session, the PowerPoint presentation of the class poetry portfolio was used as a tool to review and share the process with the classes involved in the assignment.

Organization: Hillcrest High School, Greenville County School District

Category: High School
Program Title: “Meiosing” with Technology

Description: “Meiosing” with Technology is a project that came to fruition through a $4000 in-district grant awarded to encourage effective and innovative use of technology. Students in Hillcrest High School biology classes used digital cameras, computers, and PowerPoint software to create clever animated models of dividing cells. Working in groups of four, students used beads to create chromosome models. The models were arranged and rearranged to represent each stage of meiosis and digital pictures were made of each stage. The images were uploaded and inserted into PowerPoint presentations, which were then run at a fast speed to create the animations.

Organization: Chesterfield School District

Category: District
Program Title: Expanding Our World – Virtually

Description: Chesterfield County School district was awarded an Enhancing Education Through Technology grant to improve technology integration and student achievement. The district plan provides a wide range of resources to teachers and students, including dedicated technology support staff, high-quality professional development, and curriculum-based digital content. The district utilizes community partnerships and conducts outreach programs to increase access to technology to area families, with the ultimate goal of improved student achievement across the curriculum.

The centerpiece of the initiative is the “Literacy Through High-Tech Cultural Exchange” program, where Chesterfield County students collaborate with students at other schools nationwide and internationally to create technology-rich projects and engage in age-appropriate online cultural exchange activities. The year-long project was chronicled in a digital documentary produced by a middle school student film crew for teachers interested in replicating the concept. More than 200 students at four schools spanning grades two through eight participated in the project.

Gilbert Elementary School,
Lexington School District One

Good Afternoon Gilbert

Pendleton Elementary School,
Anderson School District Four

Tech T.I.M.E

Broome High School,
Spartanburg School District Three 

Lexington School District Five